Jaqen

For a premier League team badly needing more attacking threat Almiron is never the answer.

I think he's by far and away the best player we could realistically sign this window. Like everything about the transfer seems to make perfect sense. Amazingly there doesn't even seem to be any real competition from other clubs for him right now either, which I think there will be after the World Cup.

And Perisic.

People not happy with Harrison would be buzzing if we were linked with a foreign player with the same sort of number in an inferior league.

Amir is a DJ IIRC.

Loved that pink kit. I'm a bit of a sucker for 90s Italian kits though.

https://www.coachesvoice.com/cv/bruno-guimaraes-newcastle-lyon-scout-report/#:~:text=Guimarães is right-footed%2C and,in a variety of ways. Probably been posted in the Bruno thread before but seems like he did play double pivot, single pivot and as an 8 for Lyon. Says a lot of his good form came as an 8.

Was Bruno not more of a double pivot at Lyon? Unless we bring in a really good CM I feel he's a bit wasted as the single pivot in a three.

Reckon we'll see the current 5 midfielders rotated quite a bit this season if we don't bring anyone in. Think Bruno will pay both roles depending on who else is starting.

It's basically a pre season training excercise in ridiculous heat with a lineup that would never be fielded in the league. Sometime I wish pre season friendlies just weren't televised, people always read too much into them.

People are talking about loaning out Maxi and getting rid of Shelvey again today. Like imagine looking at our squad and thinking that's the solution

Must have the best looking CB partnership in the league now?

Loaning ASM out would be the daftest thing we could possibly do.

Regardless of how the transfer window goes we are going to be heading into the new season in great shape. Tripper and Wilson both back fit and a proper pre season building on from the last campaign is really exciting.

Harrison would be a decent option, like. Could actually see him being more productive than Diaby initially who I don't think is a guaranteed success over here. Think there's always more clamour for players people have seen less of and will come at a higher price. People acted like Southgate was dropping Messi when Sancho never started in the Euro's depsite showing nothing for England, now he's had a season in the league most don't want him in the squad.

We've probably been abit spoilt with the Bruno and Trippier signings, especially to bring those in during a relegation fight. Can understand how people might feel underwhelmed if we now start bringing in a lower quality of player in a stronger position. Ultimately our squad at the start of this season will looks miles better than the one we started with last campaign.

Surely nobody believes Adama doesn't work out and it's genetic?

From what I've been reading Chelsea fans seem to want Gallagher playing ahead of Kante for them. Don't think we'd have any chance getting him.

Think we are in a tough position in the market. With FFP, wage structure and no European football it's going to be hard to compete with other clubs for certain players even if do have the money. The likes of Jesus, Raphinha type transfers we don't have a chance with. Operating in the bracket below is full of pitfalls as Everton found out. If you're not careful it's easy to blow 30/40m a signing and 100k+ p/w contracts and be left with an average squad.

People just want to hear what they want to believe. We probaby thought we'd get Hugo and the other options we like are deemed too expensive when we enquired. More than likely we are taking a step back seeing how the market progresses and if we can do a deal for one of those at a lower price and if not deciding if it's better to pay more than we wanted and maybe sacrifice another positions budget. Its wishful thinking people claiming we have a bottomless pile of cash to spend but we just don't want clubs to know about and Ashworth is secretly doing deals that none of the journalists know about. We could end up having a good window but with a lot feeling deflated with the expectations they've set based on nothing.

Shelvey was pretty good in most games under Howe. His reputation of being shite, lazy and not being able to maintain form probably meant he didn't get as much credit as he probably deserved. Definitely a position that needs upgraded but if they think they can get another season out of him like that again it's probably not viewed as a priority.

I think because he was out top target and Ashworth wasn't in place sooner we probaby let him and his agent string us along and take the piss a bit too much. I reckon a lot of the frustration is how much time we've wasted on this one and that's just being directed towards the player.

We already have a a load of players we can't shift..we'll be wary about bringing in many more slight upgrades that probably won't be good enough in a season or two. In insolation it's not a bad deal I don't think but these 15-20m signings can soon add up and often you're just better off paying the extra for a higher quality player. You'd rather have a Diaby than a Cornet and Sarr.

Botman is absolutely going to clean up on a night out in town.

I think most the strikers in the 30m price range are going to be a big gamble.