Hughesy

Sure someone will pick me up on this, but I seem to remember Bramble having an absolutely brilliant game against Juventus in the CL. I remember thinking that if only he could play like that on a regular basis, he'd be a great defender. Just a shame he could never cut out the errors.

Wonder if Imbula would be worth a cheeky bid. Not sure his lack of game time is necessarily down to a lack of ability.

Not sure if this is the first time I've agreed with you (there must have been other occasions) - but Peacock was hugely underrated for us. In that era, he was a very very good defender.

I'll be interested to see how Lacazette gets on. Read enough about him that's made me have my doubts about how good he'll really be.

Just like he did last summer and then farmed the f***er out. Didn't even have him in mind for the Championship. Or Rafa could quite easily have thought that he wasn't suited to the Championship? Hardly a massive stretch to decide he was best suited to a season on loan.

Don't know how anyone can really have formed a meaningful opinion on him, given he has played 147 minutes for us. Might be a player in there somewhere and I trust Rafa to make a judgment on him after a full pre season.

Think we could do a lot better than Clucas.

Fuller report here - https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jul/03/sports-direct-founder-pubs-mike-ashley Including this bit: "Speaking in court, Blue claimed drinking copious amounts of alcohol during business meetings was not unusual for Ashley, and that the tycoon often conducts meetings “in various unusual venues” and agrees deals orally while under the influence. He said that during the same meeting Ashley was also on his phone finalising player transfers at his football club. “Notwithstanding the venue and the consumption of alcohol, I note that Mr Ashley was able during the evening to conduct other business, including making decisions in regards to player transfers on behalf of Newcastle United,” Blue said."

Really think people on here downplay the London factor to be honest. Not saying it's right, but a massive factor for foreign players.

Not to go full media paranoid like but that Graeme Bailey seems to have a weird vendetta against us Constant digs at us Was just going to post the same thing. I've noticed his sniping for several months now. Always seem very pro-Ashley though. Has been for ages.

He did perform that amazing tackle on Joe Cole. For that alone, he needs to be appreciated.

Scott Parker really wasn't shit. Absolute nonsense. In other news, I saw him on a plane going to Athens last week.

Interesting mention of him in this article from the guy who was in charge of transfers at Brentford - http://statsbomb.com/2017/06/more-statistical-transfer-shopping-wide-forwards-for-the-champions-league/ Article discusses who Arsenal should be looking at and mentions him.

20m seems expensive for Lopez if they 'only' got 30m for Lindelof.

Is Samaris any good? Not seen him play.

I don't have a list of names for you - although I could give it a try later on - but with the money in the PL, Rafa's name etc, I thought we'd be setting our sights a bit higher than Tom Lawrence and Tammy Abraham on loan.

Something a bit weird about the 'lawyer' - not listed on the law society website (that I can see) so can't have a current licence to practise. Not that that makes a huge amount of difference but makes you wonder what his actual role is.

Still waiting to be excited by transfer links - think Gray would be a good signing, but have to confess that I thought we might be linked to players with a slightly higher reputation.

When you see the price for a PL player (and being a PL player is in no way at all any guarantee of success in any event), buying abroad is entirely logical. No problems at all with this approach. Seems to be this slightly odd view that we must buy PL players and I don't really get it. 17m for Maguire after 1 season? Delphi for 15m after not playing for a couple of seasons? 15m for Rodriguez after 2 serious injuries? Absolutely ridiculous to go near those

I'd always got the impression that Aboubakar was pretty highly rated when younger but hadn't quite hit the heights expected at Porto. Could be wrong though.

Gonalons would be a pretty good signing at that price - although a decent article as to why he might be available here - https://www.getfootballnewsfrance.com/2017/feature-maxime-gonalons-an-unhappy-decline/

It definitely was an odd statement to make.

£20m on Cairney would be ridiculous. He's 26 and hasn't proved himself to be anything more than a good/very good Championship midfielder.

Be interested to see how good Tierney is - would be a decent option at left back.

Probably would have kept him - versatile, decent on the ball, good enough back up in the PL. In today's market, will cost a fair bit to replace.