Lush Vlad

Sorry. I thought you were setting up an Anti Niemi bit. If you don't know. Look it up

…….. Luka Jovic?! He’s not finished. He’s only 26.

I mean, he offers us something different to the backline with his pace and power and he would be an upgrade on Schar. Not that we’re even linked with him but at this point. I don’t think it would he uninspiring in the slightest. We need players and seems like we have already had to lower our sights and look elsewhere for other positions.

Exactly. I don’t see it as an uninspiring signing and would love it if we were in for him. Only to not sign him after a month long saga and then end up signing nobody

Wasn’t he their best CB once they called him back from his loan at Palace?

Well TBF. I think you can agree the window has been underwhelming so far. Whilst also pointing out it is naive in the extreme to be thinking the sky is the limit or tongue in cheek comments about the likes of Saka and expecting big names like that. We could and should have done more and shown a bit more urgency. I think we can all agree there.

No. I thought it would be better for sure. Still, we know about all the restrictions and our glass ceiling is a lot lower than the sky. Also, Saka……. really?!

Analytics route and not over-paying for Prem players. That’s good. Rasmus Hojlund. That’s bad

Their yardstick is Ederson, though. The man that supposedly joins in at training playing out on pitch in the small sided games and doesn’t look out of place in the middle of the park Compare and contrast to our keeper. Who looks like my 14 month old trying to kick a ball and has a similar first touch to Andy Carroll after an all nighter down the Diamond Strip. I think Trafford will look like prime Riquelme on the ball compared to Pope

If the club don’t want to spend £30m plus (allegedly) for him. Then good. That’s too much money for him, especially when we have other positions that need sorting. We don’t seem to have a bottomless pit of cash like the big boys. But apparently everyone’s negotiating tactic on here is just ‘pay them what they want’ If we could actually sort said other positions. That would be ideal

Amazing with his feet. I don’t think he has ever been a world class ‘keeper’. Ederson, I mean.

I don’t think he is at that price, TBH. But that’s kind of irrelevant. I suppose City always had that buy back clause and again, all speculation. But you’d imagine agents and players talk in football. So surely we wouldn’t be massively blindsided by it and have no clue whatsoever that they ‘might’ be interested.

Spot on this. Must have known for a while we weren’t going to pay what Burnley wanted. Plus the fact City could get involved at any moment. You’d like to think there are other keepers out there that won’t cost so much and would still improve us in possession. Without losing quite a few of Pope’s strengths at the same time. Which I feel we would have with Trafford.

Ok. Unproven at this level/proved his worth in the Prem. He’s had one season in the prem where he was rubbish (age played a massive factor of course). Then he has had a great season in the Championship. But playing behind the most negative and defensive team I can remember watching at the top end of a league. He isn’t worth £30m IMO. Never mind £40m. Not convinced he’s going to be this home run signing and England’s number one for a decade. Not that it would even mean much. England hardly have a selection of great keepers to choose from.

I mean. The drop off to Dubravka is certainly noticeable IMO. I think Pope is much the better keeper. But not as much as say Schar to Krafth, Joelinton to Miley or Isak to Osula/Gordon. EDIT - I’m also not against signing a keeper. Just not one that I think is over-priced and relatively unproven at £30-40m.

But how do we know its bollocks? I’m sure there were articles saying Howe was offered other CB’s and he declined them. Which is fair enough if he didn’t think they were any good. But like the Trafford thread. People seem to be talking like they know the inner workings of the club and how the negotiations are going. The one thing I will agree on is that the club seem very sloooowwww to do anything. Transfers or otherwise. But then again, if Chelsea and City didn’t get involved with 2 of the last 3 sagas. We could have quite possibly had two shiny new signings in the squad at Celtic Park yesterday.

Weren’t the rumours last year around Howe being very rigid with who he wanted and only having a select shortlist of players? ‘Guehi or nobody’ or whatever the narrative was from journos. So are the players we are missing out on or supposedly wasting our time pursuing. Because he still has a small shopping list of players and no plan B or C? I can’t keep up with whose ‘fault’ it is that we keep missing out on players to cartel clubs. Who are a more attractive proposition and pay more money.

How are people so sure one way or the other? If you want to bash the club, use your way of thinking. If you want to defend the club. Always blame the other club for changing the parameters or hoping for a bidding war. It’s all incomplete information. Based off dodgy journos and leaks that could be planted by either club or an agent etc. Yet everyone speaks with such authority on the matter I’m glad we’re not spunking £30m plus on Trafford, personally. When it seems like we are still strapped for cash somehow and we have 3 more glaring weaknesses out on pitch.

Which price? The one we supposedly could have got him at last season. But couldn’t because of PSR. The price we thought we had agreed before they moved the goalposts due to being promoted. Which is up to them and understandable. Or the latest one. Which is supposedly £40m?! So what you’re saying is. Basically pay Burnley what they want? Regardless of if we think it’s far above our valuation of the player or that we’re being taken for a ride and possibly used to flush out other bidders? Obviously the above is all conjecture. But then so is “this one is our doing”

Yeah, that’s fair. It certainly does seem like we are missing out on our first, second and third choice targets. So understand the frustration up to a point. But the market we have been shopping in. I’m sure we have contingency plans for when we lose out on our targets. It’s almost a positive that the top clubs are looking at the same players. But sooner or later. We do need to start getting players through the door. So you have a back up plan for each position. Right……

Worked for us plenty of times over the years. We should go back to what we know