Stottie

For Gibson, I hope there is a sell-on clause. It sounds a bit crap that other clubs are free to tap up schoolboys, but that must be the way it is. I wonder what will happen when the next obvious starlet like Wayne Rooney comes along. The tap-up schoolboys rule and loans system in combination mean that larger clubs can hoover up all the promising kids, give them golden hellos when they are old enough to sign pro forms, and then just loan em out so that they end up playing at the level they should be at anyway. Everton are way ahead of us as a club, loaning and signing Lukaku for 28M should have shown that, but even they haven't stopped Ross Barkley engineering a situation entirely to his own benefit. So it can happen to the best of them. Imagine if we had a new star and he got himself down to a year on his deal. People would be calling the club all sorts.

If they are offering him a two-year deal that he's happy with, it would be nice for the club to let him go without trying to hang on for an extra 0.5M from somewhere else. The lad came in and did what we wanted. Good luck to him.

As for Mitro, yeah sell. I quite like him, but he wastes too much time trying to score points against opponents rather than trying to score goals.

Well-spoken managers like Martinez are always likely to overhyped by open-shirts, presentation-over-content type coverage like MOTD when things are going well. This kind of excessive build-em-up sets things up for a stronger knock-em-down when the pendulum swings the other way. Managers don't get long these days to begin with. Martinez inherited a brilliant back four from Moyes, with the only issue being Distin's age. They shouldn't have ended up with the problems they did, even with allowances for Europa League fatigue.

I think McCarthy is a good player but they upgraded to Schneiderlin, making McCarthy an unaffordable and cash-inable backup. I reckon he'll be sold as the deadline approaches but not for 25M. I think he'll be on wages that the clubs most likely to buy him are unable to pay. There appears to be some fracas about him getting injured or something on international duty, and that seems to have turned lots of people against him.

Clucas looks like a good lad to have around. An upgrade on both Gouff and Colback in the positions they played. For the big picture, the hope has to be that we are presently filling out the squad but are holding funds back to break our transfer record at least once closer to the transfer deadline when selling clubs become more willing to negotiate. There are players out there who will almost certainly change clubs, it's only a matter of the fee and/or player demands falling to more realistic levels. The fear is that we the fans are just being strung along again.

Good to hear.

Quality

Aye, this one is sounding increasingly like a competency test.

Haven't they missed the boat with the big bids from China with that new tax being introduced? Rondon may still go for more than we're prepared to pay, but it won't be that China price.

Great article. It makes him look like Charlie "his corners are worth 10M" Adams. fwiw, I think that a decent chunk of the credit for success at set plays should go to the coaches. Our prolonged blank from using the set penis under Pardew shows that the opposite also applies.

I've not seen him play but to those who have, is he better than Atsu?

50M!! Christ on a bike! Great stat about Sigurdsson by the way, the chances from set pieces one. Knocking a dead ball in for Llorente is going to be much easier than trying to hit Rooney (or Jamie Vardy).

When we reportedly refused to pay the sweeteners to the assorted family and hangers-on Tammy Abraham wanted, there wasn't much disagreement on here with the club's decision. However, it was "only" a million and maybe clubs just have to suck that up now. Presumably Swansea went and paid it, and I guess we'll have to put up with similar demands if we want to get other deals done. Look at the huge fees that accompanied the Pogba and Lukaku transfers.

Reina seems like an experienced leader and we definitely need experience and leadership. Our "buy young and cheap" policy means like we are unlikely to stumble upon them. This cranks up the value of getting Reina in. It would be worth paying more than we want to for Samaris and arguably even McCarthy for the same reason. We'll have to have some players out there prepared to dig in and motivate others to deal with all the circumstances and momentum shifts you get in games. Against much stronger teams we'll face this season, the lack of experience and leadership in our squad could cost us much more this time.

With the Rooney bit factored in and add-ons, apparently Lukaku is over 100M. He's a great striker for sure, the real deal, but that's just so much money.

When are tickets for the first games likely to start going on sale?

We need a DM like McCarthy regardless of whether we get Cairney.

Really sad to hear this. RIP big Cheick. He did score another screamer, I reckon a better one, but the Man City players moaned enough for it to be disallowed.

Of the players who've been linked, Josh King could play #10. I suspect Cairney would be played there too, if the idea is to play Shelvey because we'd definitely need a DM on the pitch. With Perez and Diame, Rafa has already spent a season alternating the #10 between a second striker and a midfielder.

Probably worth mentioning they scored the same number of league goals despite Gayle not having pens and playing 1300 fewer minutes. I do hope we sign him as our backup but if you're expecting him to be a more physical upgrade on Gayle as our main striker you'll be disappointed. In time he'll be an absolute f***ing beast of player, mind. Gayle also did well in the chances he got in the Prem, especially under Pulis, and there is a big "what if" around what would have happened had the next two Palace managers not been Holloway and Pardew.

I never knew Eric Dier had been on loan at Everton when Moyes was there. Dier was U18 at the time. That scouting report and Bruno's comments sound all right. CH who can play DM, get him in.

Rossi had not banged in a ton of goals over a full season at the next-lower level of English football. Some loans of strikers with English football experience between PL clubs have been very successful. See Sturridge at Bolton, Lukaku at West Brom, and Welbeck at the mackems. We need so many players that getting a potentially very good striker who can play (for the time being) in Rafa's system for nothing is a clever move. We cannot fill every position we need with Prem-proven starters in one window. The main thing is to get the improvements in (i.e., spend the money) at the positions where we are most lacking.

I didn't see Hull play much, but Grosicki is down as having played left wing most of the time.

I've only seen the 26 goals video but he looks like a ball magnet in the box and is a cool finisher. 190cm tall but slim and clearly hasn't had a PFM in his ear telling him to bulk up, so he is lithe and fast. This could be very good indeed.