Emotic

I had said before that Ter Stegen was attainable. I wonder if Al Rumayyan would've sanctioned a bid for a top goalie after yesterday's show by Dubravka.

Maybe it's mind games or us trying to unsettle relegation rivals players? First Cantwell, now Wood. Any rumours about Watford players? The advantage here is that no one would try the same shit with our players - we'd snap their hands off

There's been a change in the style of play too, which the squad was and is clearly finding it hard to adapt to, or has terrible players for some key positions. *In before "what? From shit 11-behind-the-ball to actually trying to attack?"

Barbosa, Azmoun, Morelos are motivated characters who've won things where they're from; won't cost much; want to prove something; and importantly, cannot be worse than what we've got. Those in a front 3 will have an instant impact.

Ironically, his skill on the ball might just be the problem. Far too often he'd eat up so much time with the dribbles, that it allows opposing midfielders and defenders to organise themselves for the eventual final ball. You'd get away with it in slower leagues, but the recovery rate in the PL is seconds faster. You'd need a winger who can beat a man, and then have the intelligence to look up and transition play into the box. Top players do that.

Love to have Costa just for the radge, but only as cover after we sign a prolific, younger striker.

Maybe Howe's comments that a few links are "in the hands of agents now" refers to situations like this. No point both clubs agreeing (even informally) on a deal if the player and his agent are greedy cunts who want a 60 percent pay raise. I won't want mercenaries either. Which makes Trippier wanting to come here on reduced wages all the more astounding

If we've not even bid for him, I'd doubt if we were that interested in the first place. Seems like we're placing a much higher priority in sorting out centre backs first.

That automatically rules out 90 percent of all the linked players that I’d have loved to see here lol. We’re talking maybe South American leagues and mid table European players who aren’t household names now. Forget about Ramsey, Umtiti, and attracting any star forwards.

Liking a tweet pointing to your own exit Lille would NOT like that. He's as good as ours now.

Thank fuck we won't be considering Djokovic then.

If he's asked for a transfer, Everton want to recoup money, Newcastle haven't bid, and Chelsea only want a loan - what happens next?

This is like the time all the French lads piled in after Ben Arfa signed.

He's playing 4D chess you see - he doesn't give a shit about who goes, you just can't field who comes in. So if we sell off every single one of the 2021 first team and replace all of them, what then?

If (and that's a big if) he agrees to come, I'd hope he would play out of his skin, just to stick it to Rafa by excelling at his former club. Wishful thinking though.

Yeah, I edited my post. Apologies, it's freakin' mental in the forum at the mo. And I'm loving every minute of it!

Why would Atletico get money for a Lille player? Edit: Think I got confused by the sudden shift from Botman bid to Trippier playing or not against Cambridge.

There's all that guff and hassle of uprooting yourself to settle in a new country too, for a foreign league player. No matter how good Tagliafico is (and I prefer him to Digne), Digne would be "plug n play" for us.

The one advantage of Digne is that he won't need extensive bedding in, I suppose. Couple of sessions to rehearse tactics and he can feature immediately against Watford.

If he's handed in a transfer request and needs to be sold on, we're in with a shout, IMHO. Not sure if Chelsea will splash out 20 mil plus for what would essentially be a covering LB.

Ramsey, Kamara, Veretout, Bruno Guimares, Cantwell have been linked for midfield. Upfront has had a few too, including Vlahovic (I know), both Ousmane and Moussa Dembele, even Julian Alvarez and Darwin Nunez (latter two extremely tenuous, similar to the Vlahovic links). No bids reported, as far as we know, though.

Love to see the precedent it sets for postponements of games where star players are known to be injured/away just before the kick-off. Salah off to the ACON and a Liverpool match is postponed in that period? "Sorry mate, he wasn't supposed to be around when you were supposed to play us, so he can't play for the rescheduled match". Fuck off Ralph.

Well, that at least gives us the impetus to sell on our entire December first-team squad ASAP then. Utterly mental "request".

De Jong has been linked too, albeit in that silly tenuous manner of "Barcelona wishes that Newcastle could help them out by taking Frenkie De Jong off their hands" just the other day. I'd be amazed if it would happen, but I'm betting the PIF would be looking for a Robinho-style statement of their own. De Jong or Vlahovic would definitely make everyone sit up and take notice.

With Barcelona needing to fund Ferran Torres, we should also make a cheeky bid for Ter Stegen. Andre Onana's contract running out too. Two world-class goalies within reach, with all due respect to Dubs.