Emotic

Both Eales and Ashworth were at WBA. WBA is now sticking with PFM Steve Bruce as their manager. What the hell happened along the way?

Also not forgetting this Ben Arfa-esque dribble against Slovakia at the Euros, only to be denied by none other than wor Dubs.

Throughout the spring, the young forwards linked with top clubs were - Vlahovic, Nunez, Isak, and Jonathan David. Isak had a stellar Euro 2020 campaign for Sweden and was linked to Barcelona, Manchester United and Liverpool on the back of that. Vlahovic moved to Juve, Nunez to Liverpool. Arsenal were strongly linked with Isak, but most likely was concerned about value for money given his release clause and his dismal return of six goals all of last season.

Yeah let’s forget about the 90 million Euro release clause and the fact that he’s amongst Europes most highly regarded young forwards, then.

I might well do, come to think about it. It’s these sudden transfers that take everyone by surprise that gets me thinking about how traumatic the move can be. He’s probably been bundled into a plane with a few hours notice.

I’ve always wondered what the ins and outs of “player admin” looks like. Poor fella has an entire life, personal belongings etc in San Sebastián- he flies over to sign for an English club, and two days later is supposed to feature in an away game. Who sorts out the move in the meantime?

Signing him on top of Isak would make sense now, given that Wilson has just broken down within his first three games. I'd be looking to transition Wilson out as a primary striker starting this season.

Yeah his release clause is 90 million euros, and the general consensus is that Real is cashing out for less when it was clear that nobody was biting.

We all know that Howe doesn't throw new players into the mix immediately. By the time Isak is ready to take on a full game, it'd probably be after Wilson recovers. I'd be surprised if Isak starts at Wolves.

19 signings for Nottingham Forest this summer. NINETEEN. Who are they letting go to register all these new players? https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-11141667/Former-Tottenham-defender-Serge-Aurier-set-Nottingham-Forests-19th-signing-summer.html

It always amazes me how people can be so mature and articulate at the age of 22, man. Uprooting yourself to play in two different foreign countries when you're a teenager and speaking like a veteran of the game when you're not more than a bairn. I reckon I could hardly find my arse with both my hands at that age.

There's a canny video short on this...

Triplets and quads aren’t made by fucking a lot, you know?

If we get Isak and Pedro, I'd imagine the final piece of the puzzle would be a defensive midfielder that would allow Bruno to play further forward. Bruno would be the De Bruyne to Isak's Haaland in that scenario - one to unlock defenses, the other to put away the chances.

1) Mackems are cunts; 2) He did only score six goals last season. The twitter thread from July posted on the previous page explains quite a bit of it.

Lots of creeps do, for lots of players. Just a tiny bit of a downer after the exhilaration of the Isak news, I suppose. Hope we swoop in.

Someone's already posted a "Welcome to West Ham" video for Paqueta

Wasn't the rumour that we were after Paqueta in January, but ended up signing Bruno instead? Paqueta, Isak and Diaby have been consistently linked by journos as players we've been monitoring for a long time.

Given that Hudson-Odoi is going to Leverkusen, I predict that Moussa Diaby will rock up at St James by next week, completely out of the blue...

Handy at free kicks as well. Solid signing. Now just need some service from the right-hand side to take pressure off Maxi, and we're golden.

I suspect the foundations of the Ashworth model are already evident in the names we have been linked with thus far - young(ish); often unheralded players with a high ceiling. Imagine the number of times we had to rush off to Youtube to watch videos of potential targets that we had hitherto no clue existed. Apart from a top-notch scouting network, you'd require a top-notch sports scientist and statistician too - Moneyball but targetting undervalued youth with great prospects. For that reason, we have been looking at names like Ekitike and Pedro, when everyone would have been over the moon with obvious big names like Bellotti (not least me), and Icardi (who PSG are actively touting around). I also suspect that our rivals have also cottoned on to our scouting system, hence the likes of Everton trying to gazump our targets.

I'm sure PL experience would be preferred, sure - but I'm also quite certain that Eddie Howe appreciates that our best player also came from Paqueta's current club, without the benefit of "PL experience". Our club hierarchy isn't run by idiots any more, they just want the best, for the system, for the money.

Imagine the craic if we sign Pedro, Terrier and Ramos in the next week, man. And turn Chris Wood into Joelinton Mk2 as midfield backup.

Is he still driving 500 miles to the south these days?

Smells like agent bait, the Terrier "bid" - coincidentally as he's negotiating for a new contract.