Stottie

We are one injury away from playing Osula in every game.

Toney too Saudi bound if no-one comes in at the last minute. If we've ended up with money sitting there, we could do a lot worse. 35M isn't much for an England striker.

Then Palace have to be stupid for knocking back 65M for him now. He's not worth 25M for one season. Thumbing your nose at NUFC is not worth 25M either. Personally, I would have spent big on the assumption that a star player would be sold next summer if there were PSR issues. Just like Villa sold Douglas Luiz. If we don't do well, and not spending increases the likelihood, Isak and Bruno will be off anyway.

I'd like another attacker to come in, but just posting here to say that we finished the game yesterday with Harvey Barnes looking lively and linking well with Tino on the right. This is the opposite to when we scored against Bournemouth, when Barnes and Gordon were the other way around. They are both quite two footed, Barnes has scored something like 25% of his goals with his weaker foot.

Sean Longstaff - never in doubt!

I think we'll get one or two players in, but stuff about needing to do so as a "statement" is bollocks. Last year, we signed a midfielder from a CL semifinalist. That is a bigger "statement" than Marc Guehi. So was Bruno the year before, given that he was supposed to be an Arsenal or Liverpool player. Its frustrating not getting the players we want and our owners can afford, but this is how FFP/PSR works. Sky's coverage of the Liverpool game the other day should tell you how they feel about football being a closed shop. The City trial could blow a big hole in the associated party transactions thing and in FFP also, so we'll just have to wait and see. This summer might be as bad as it gets for clubs like us wanting to spend out of ambition.

I've just looked at Whoscored and Bournemouth led the league last season for fouls committed. About thirty more than the next worst team. Despite our rep for "shithousing", we were fourth fewest. We came away with a point and its a good point, but I don't think we set up properly for this. In a niggly game, I would play Trippier, our most experienced player. We ended up with 10 men last week due to dark arts by Southampton too.

Fair result for me. We did well to get back into it. Its a handball, so it doesn't count. I don't think Bournemouth deserved any kind of favourable decision because they commited eighteen fouls, most of them whenever we had a semi-promising position or any kind of momentum. Five by Kluivert, four by Cook, neither of whom got a card. I thought we were soft to not pick up on the mood of the ref and start doing it back to them. Bruno needs to be in the ref's face about it. I bet Trippier would be. Crappy little niggly fouls fall more under shithousery than actual cheating, but they still kill the game as a spectacle.

C'mon lads! Still in this!

It also helps when they get to commit twelve fouls but only get one yellow.

Isak close. Looks onside. Need to press their keeper. Gordon nearly tackled him for a goal at SJP.

DCL strikes me as very similar to the Callum Wilson we bought, who has since improved. With Trippier the other way, yeah, could be very good business. As for Chelsea, the presence of so many unsellable players may mean they don't get to keep to some of the others they actually want.

Palace's still current main owner, an American called John Textor with 45%, also owns Lyon and apparently "the majority of their squad" is up for sale. Parish himself only has a 10% stake. Textor couldn't buy out Palace's other owners and is now looking at buying Everton. His stake is 45% but with only 25% of voting rights. https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cgm7zxg2y2yo I don't have a scooby what is going on at Palace, but it doesn't sound like stability is the word. Brilliant goal from Bowen to make it 2-0.

I would expect Southgate to sort out their defence, if nothing else.

He's probably class but that last ball he hit was full turbo ROFLCopter.

Everton must be poor to be hammered at home by this Brighton. They've lost it in their own third about five times. A better team than Man U would punish it.

If you look at the last 28 games of last season, Bournemouth got one fewer point than us and more points than Spurs. The 28 game thing comes from me looking at the table after the first 10 games. That's six months of better form than Tottenham. During that time, they got 11 more points than Brighton, who many will fear on their own park. I suppose the biggest question will be how much of it was Solanke powered. Did Solanke make Bournemouth/Ireola look good or was it vice versa? Anyway, not a must-win for me. Not at this stage.

Anyone reckon he'll end up on Bein with hairy hands? We might see him again depending on your choice of dodgy river.

I like Burn. He gets comically skinned for pace from time to time, but its generally only once or twice a game and very rarely leads to us conceding. The valid criticism of him would be his attacking contribution. This has not mattered that much when we've had a lopsided formation with Trippier in the opposition half and essentially three at the back, but will matter more if Trippier is being moved on and LB is going to have to contribute. Gordon's first move so far has often been inside before playing a throughball, but this might change if we see Hall up there overlapping.

This has been exhausting. Six days to go for Palace to sell to maximise the fee. Unless Guehi is dedicated to them, he won't sign a new deal without a cheap release clause that they will not want to provide. Both Lloyd Kelly and Tosin, lesser CBs, are on well over 100k a week by moving for free. Guehi's agent will know this and many more examples. As things stand, Guehi is supposedly on 50k, so any move will at least double his money. And put him in a better team. And offer the chance to play in Europe and maybe win something. Good lad or not, the player will be 100% up for leaving. The main way Parish can "win" is by flushing out more bids for the player. This has not happened so far and is unlikely to happen now. There has been too much noise from Ornstein etc. about it being "close" for others to have remained this passive. I think a deal will be done and then presented as Parish having done us over. I also suspect we are only this deep into this because Howe wants Guehi and this is an internal olive branch to make up for the boardroom changes and appointment of Mitchell which have upset Howe. The club has had to placate Howe because the England job is there if Howe wants it. Like PSR hitting hard just as we get a wealthy owner, this is again an unfortunate factor that is not of our own making. In case you think I'm being soft on the club, the offering of Gordon to LFC was PSR amateur hour, completely embarrassing (=Minteh x100), and may have permanently soured our relationship with a very very good player who's been great for us.

Wharton is on a long deal but Anderson or Mateta also have two years left and would have to be mad to extend after seeing this. The reason Brighton get to sign young players with high ceilings is that they are given a career progression. Bruno extending with us because we gave him a clause. This saga is a flashing red light to any young player or their agent about Crystal Palace.

65M would have already made him 7th most expensive defender of all time. For someone who's never played in Europe. https://www.football365.com/news/most-expensive-defenders-ever-maguire-man-utd-manchester-city

It probably makes sense to buy English defenders as the cheapest way to get your homegrown contingent. A high level homegrown front line would cost a fortune. No-one is paying that for Madueke.

Chelsea and Liverpool have just missed targets after talks, so there is no shame in the current state of play and "it looks bad/wasted energy" should not be a motivation to change our approach. This is also not an indication of poor target selection or poor negotiating skills. I would also stress that what we are after is not Marc Guehi but a Marc Guehi who has been trained to play in our system. This may be superior to any Marc Guehi anyone has ever seen so far on a football pitch. We are paying for the player as is and for what our folks think is his potential as an NUFC player. Most people coming up with valuations are doing so on the value they've seen in Guehi so far as a Palace and England player.

Not 40M? We can't change the song!