Stottie

I think I heard him say that on one of the podcasts. Whoever it was I heard said that the domestic deal wouldn't significantly increase, which suggests the big boost in tv money is partly based on speculation over overseas interest in the PL. I reckon this makes it more likely that the big increases in tv money are unsustainable.

I don't know if that is "new info" but the "to Fenerbahce" rumour from NUFC 360 yesterday looks like it was them putting the wind up everyone by rehashing old info. The impression I get is that Perez wants to go to Spain but Deportivo aren't in any hurry to pay Arsenal's price. I've only see that tweet with the stats and another of him leathering one in during training, but that's good enough for me!

What's happened so far this summer has been far from ideal, but is not the disaster some are hyping it to be. Benitez is a football nerd with a system that stands way above any individual players, exceptional talents aside. So I doubt he's that bothered about Tammy Abraham or Caballero, because he'll know a number of other players who could do a similar job or how to tweak the system to work with the other targets' talents. If the window closes with no new striker in and no new keeper, that will be a problem, but there are three weeks of brinksmanship to come and we'll just have to wait and see. The window should shut before the season starts, but it doesn't, so we end up with this situation where only certain teams get their new signings in early and give them a preseason. A club far more cashed up than us is going to buy Barkley and another Van Dijk, but those players are yet to move. I think the money for Sigurdsson is crazy, but if his job is to put a free kick on someone's head or in the top corner, he'll be more likely to come in cold and do that than Van Dijk is to excel straight away in a new partnership or defensive three in competitive matches.

They've spent a s*** ton of money to little avail in recent years. They did under Rodgers. Klopp's net spent is £25m including this season. For a CL team, that's not much. 30M in for Allen and Ibe helps the net figure, but yeah, he's not spent much.

I don't do twitter, but when I searched the club name, some people on it seem to think Fenerbahce are about to sign Soldado.

I nearly got in with facebook but the email account it uses has already been registered with a password I can't remember, and more trips to error 502 when I go to reset it.

When Bellamy signed, I remember Coventry fans coming on the old forum with a photoshop of Bellamy as a Barbie Ken doll with a tagline of "He gets in the box! He falls over!" or something similar. I don't know how representative they were, but they seemed well glad to see the back of him.

Some keeper stats here. No save percentage, but you can calculate it from shots on goal and goals conceded. It looks like Adrian had some dropoff from his previous high level in the past season, but still saved a higher percentage than Randolph, so Bilic must have gone off him for some reason. Even if it was high profile howlers, Randolph didn't do better on average in the same team. In 14/15 Adrian conceded two more goals than Rob Eliot, despite facing 44 more shots on target, nearly 50% more. Even allowing for differences in shot quality, that's a huge difference. Some people praised Eliot for not being as bad as expected that season, but I reckon a better keeper would have kept us up. http://www.foxsports.com/soccer/stats?competition=1&season=20150&category=GOALKEEPING&pos=Goalie&team=0&isOpp=0&sort=6&sortOrder=1

Transfermarkt shows him having 50 games of playing time in Serie A over two seasons, the first with his club (featuring Dybala) comfortably mid-table. You would think the typical player from there would get playing time in the Championship. Benitez will remember him because he scored a 40-yarder against Napoli in 14/15. The shot was hit centrally though and the keeper comically lost the bounce.

If we don't have the cash now, we could of course just buy players on installments like many other clubs. You don't have to buy absolutely everyone with cash up front. fwiw, if Haidara on 22k a week is typical of the deadwood, 6M a year from Spurs would cover five of them's wages. Or quite possibly the percentage of all of the deadwood wages we'd have to cover to get someone else to take them off us.

Has all the parachute payment been spent already?

As the squad stands, relegation battle. I expect us to get a keeper in, and if he does well, that should keep us above the scrap. A striker, preferably one who can also play#10, and fairly comfortably mid table. Based more on Rafa than analyzing the individual parts. The quandary is what to do with Ayoze. I don't think Mitro is trustworthy and should be replaced.

Maybe Citeh think there is a good chance of him not quite hitting their level, so having a below-market-value option and cash in hand now is better than hanging onto him. A loan will expose him to playing in a poorer side. The buyback means limited reward for the buyer for a lot of risk, changing the whole deal. For the player, he gets to play CF (presumably) and develop further. Rashford won't be playing CF at Man U. Based on this and the talk of a fee for the Tammy Abraham loan, it's hard to see us buying or loaning anyone from the PL.

Which one? How many Lomana Lualua's do you know? Kazenga? Lomana? (spelling?) Come on pretty mama Key Largo, Montego... ;D

Great business for Leicester. Pity we couldn't get in there.

Olive in hope that we get him in. Finally, a replacement for Moussaka Sissoko!

Maybe it was just the Rocky connection making for an easy chant, but I thought the fans there liked him in a folk hero way.

A DM who can pass, dribble and do dragbacks in tight spaces?

I think Bellamy was more of a good spot by SBR than us buying a widely regarded talent, so perhaps the fee wouldn't be that crazy. Bellamy had lost a full season to injury at Norwich and then struggled in his first season in the PL at relegated Coventry. His earlier success at Norwich had been in the second tier, so again, credit to SBR for knowing what he could do. Robert would be frighteningly expensive.

Well I'm off to Youtube for some Demis Wise scouting.

Reminds me of the photo the Chron posted on their website that showed Anal sat in front of a computer with the browser open at nufc.com.

It is certainly economical and may even be noble to not be part of the crazy fee and wage inflation going on, but there's only so much magic Rafa can work with the players he has available. Some time in the next 30 days or so, we are going to have to bite the bullet and spend the money. AM (I still like Cairney who could also cover for Shelvey), DM, upgrade on Mitro up front, and keeper as a minimum. I trust we have options sounded out and lined up already for at least some of those positions. With all the mad money swimming about, it's easy to forget that Leicester won the league just over a year ago without big wages or big money buys. There may be a vast gulf in spending power between clubs, but the difference on the pitch is far smaller.

I don't watch it, but MLS to introduce video review in all games for goals, penalties, straight reds, and mistaken identity. https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2017/07/20/major-league-soccer-implement-video-review-league-wide-beginning-aug-5

ponsaelius said the other day that we shouldn't sign anyone West Ham are supposed to be after. This makes it sound like good advice.

Not many people watch it, but in Japan, the conventional satellite broadcaster who covered the PL has been down to two live and three delayed matches since last season. They used to have five live games. The new broadcaster of the five live games is a mobile app (!) that is much cheaper to use if you have a contract with one of the three big mobile phone networks. So PL is basically being used to get folks to switch their mobile over to that company.