Tiresias

Is it worth noting that Louise Taylor in the guardian is still reporting that the release clause ends at the end of June?

Look the club could decide to sell for a lower figure. The release clause was clearly a calculated risk because they knew that a) Bruno doesn't really want to go but could be tempted by a move to Real Madrid or so b) Bruno didn't want to sign a contract that would prevent him making that move The club made him available to clubs at that level at a price that is completely reasonable for a player of his talent (see fee for Grealish lol). The club can now turn to Bruno when Man City come in with an £80m bid and say if they really wanted you they could have signed you start of window, we're not entertaining it as preseason has started, we're running out of time to find replacements and we want you in the team. Bruno genuinely loves the club and if he went wouldn't want to go screwing us with a lower price than his release clause. The only nagging thing is the reports that we did need to sell by end of june to meet FFP. I wonder if clubs are refusing to buy off us before July to screw us on FFP, but the club hasn't given off any vibes of desperation to sell anyone.

Fucking hell I thought i had clicked on the Bruno thread and briefly thought what the fuck happened in the 30 minutes since i last clicked on it

Look Yasir, when I said 'wouldn't it be a shame if st james burnt down so we could build a new one elsewhere and no-one could be angry about it', I didn't mean while everyone was in it! What are you like?

Look we could sign 3 very promising midfielders for the price, and they'd still be very unlikely to adequately replace him. I am realistic, there are going to be some difficult sales over the next few years but we want to get back in top 4, we need to keep Bruno, Isak and Gordon.

The Line was absolutely never going to happen man, this is comparatively cheap

Don't worry not sure anything will more effectively kill off US interest in 'soccer' than watching Birmingham City

I still have enough trust in club that if they think he'll work as backup he will work, the injury record is...

Everton mate is fairly sure the stuff about Gordon being a wrong-un was briefed by the club (Everton that is) so they could excuse selling him to the fans knowing they had to sell their most promising talent, so smear him publically (though through intermediaries) so fans happy to see back of him

Anderson has had flashes but tbh probably hasn't shown enough, not sure he's going to be an elite premier league midfielder i wouldn't be terribly upset with him off, but i have also been wrong before.

I don't have any problem with the clubs doing this it makes perfect sense, however even if there werent any other issues FFP encouraging academy products to be traded around for the sake of balancing books, and even just being sold for profit having broken into first team is absolutely ridiculous and should be cause enough for it to be completely rethought to achieve what they said it was meant to do. Clubs should be actively encouraged to bring through and play their youth products. Is there anything sadder than like Connor Gallagher being lined up to be sold by Chelsea, he's a chelsea fan who came through system and has captained them. How can it be right that the club benefits way more selling him than keeping him?

I still can't get over the annoyance at the gardening leave thing as if that isn't common practice and offering less than we paid... I get negotiating down our high price totally but to less than we paid what did he think would happen?

Mad how ref missed that was a corner what on earth!

Oh and Bellingham is unbelievable.

I am not going to overreact, it's a win, we didn't concede and plenty of good tournament teams grind them out. But there is some muddy thinking going on. I do not blame Southgate too much for Foden having a poor game, I think he would be entitled to expect Foden to be more effective than he was. But I do not understand why we are having TAA learn to be a midfielder at a tournament...Also when Gallagher comes on for him looks like he is the backup, now I do rate Gallagher but again he is a bustling risk taking player. England does not produce players who try and keep posession unfortunately. Lewis Cook from Bournemouth is the only one but he seems to have been nowhere near. Wharton may be that, but you can tell he hasn't been in the set up long enough for Southgate to trust too much. Again however, digging in and grinding out a 1-0 is very much a good quality for a tournament team. I hope Gordon gets a shout, he would be so much better on that left side than Foden was. Foden is a genius player though but coming on for a tired Saka on his preferred side at 60 minutes could be just as helpful.

get a proper fucking midfielder on and gordon on

im sorry being able to do accurate long balls does not mean you can be an engine room midfielder, that error was exactly the error you expect from someone being asked to do midfield who isnt used to it. Keeping the ball so important.

Looked back and just hand on back with no force clear dive. Terrible reffing yes if was foul should be red but was no more a foul than it was a unicorn.

I didn't see any contact from rhodri at all tho... Am i going mad???

There was no contact I'm so confused why was ever awarded or an i confused need to see it again could bit see any contact at all hilarious stuff

John Carver lol

Fair enough. I agree with all that, I do think making it a bit public maybe didn't help. I think i have got the impression from the man management from all the constant stories but thinking it over may just be the mad media around the club blowing everything out of proportion. I retract my argument

Ronaldo looked spot on, the Sancho thing looked like Sancho was being unprofessional but also like it got blown up into a massive standoff that i think a better manager would have found a way to defuse and got some performance out of him who may need different management to get back to his best. It's difficult to know if there is a lot of drama because of the manager or just because of the clown show behind the scenes where everything gets leaked. So will retract partially.

Ten Hag has to be a better manager than he has shown, but he has made some outrageous man management blunders it seems, and his transfers havent inspired, but there generally is a lot of positives to keeping managers in situ, I think there definitely has been a move away from the culture of sacking managers so quickly almost everywhere but Chelsea just out of seeing how well the likes of Arteta have done once they are stable and got everything how they want, it takes time.