Odear

It’s an ideal deal for us. His stock has gone way up since his loan stint so it’s good for Chelsea too. He’s only ever going to get a random sub appearance for them anyway. Another good season will ensure we pay somewhere between 18-25m which is unreal given that he’s never done anything much for his parent club. Plus if it turns out his first stint was a one off, we’re not under an obligation to purchase. But for this window it means Rafa will have more cash to spend on a striker, whoever it may be. Smart business by the club this summer so far. Wee bit ruthless if they let Ritchie go but Rafa knows what he’s doing. We still need some cover at the back too. Clark has done his bit for us but not good enough to stand in for Lascelles of Lejeune if they get injured or suspended. If Mbemba does leave we’re way too light at the back.

€15 quid a ticket for the St Pats game is fairly reasonable. Just booked a few. They’ll be training at Carton House again that week too.. does anyone know what dates they’ll be there?

That’s the price if you wanna stay in Rafas squad. Stroke the shaft and swallow the gravy ? Ritchie knows how to play the game.. maybe Andros was the one that got away

I’d tend to believe it more so than us paying Chelsea something ridiculous for a permanent signing this summer. Chelsea might get him to agree an extension to his contract before they let him out on loan, that would protect the fee they want for him next summer. Or.. it gives Kenedy the option to back to Chelsea if the club fuck Rafa over and he walks at the end of his contract. It makes perfect sense all round

And am sure the loan will cost us at least a few million. But look on that as a deposit..

It’s on a few newsnow articles. Nothing official as yet but they seem to think it’s all agreed. Am delighted if we got him back. Makes total sense the deal, plus he’d have less time left on his Chelsea contract so maybe the fee won’t be totally over the top.

Going to be announced as a season long loan with a permanent deal to follow after the season. Excellent piece of business if true. Rafa obviously is keeping all of his major funds available for a forward or two this summer.

I think if stoke offered us £15m for atsu we’d sell him. Why would they though? Not saying they are interested, but surely some club would take him for 7 or 8 million. I’d rather put that towards any move for another player rather than lose such a reliable player like Ritchie. Murphy on the other hand was starting to show signs of things clicking, he could well go on to have a good season. I see him playing as a forward though. The lad can finish, has the pace to play off the shoulder of defenders. Rafa will figure out what to do with him hopefully. I think he has more potential than all of our current or linked with wingers with the exception of Kenedy. Having a decent striker if we ever get one will take the pressure off our existing players. I’m hoping Rafa is trying to do things on the cheap now so that we can bid big for one proper striker.

Could we not just sell Atsu instead. He’s a waste of space in comparison to Ritchie. Although if he does leave I wish him the very best. He did well for us.

The shoes look photoshopped in.

Just calling it as I see it. I don’t want Ritchie sold on at the expense of bringing a mercenary in. No matter how much better he may seem on paper. I think Ritchie can make a difference this season and improve. He’ll never walk out on us for bloody Pardew, that’s for sure.

He's 6'2 But still I'm very curious about the circumstances. If he doesn't think he's capable of competing with or ousting Diame from the starting XI I'm not sure he's up to it at all. Crying shame as he could develop into a monster of a midfielder. He’s 5’10 maybe 5’11 if exaggerating.

Correct. As he already has a contract with the club, as the club have repeatedly pointed out.

Would you take an ex girlfriend back after she’d been passed around a bit? ? You might be getting back an older, out of her prime version of what you knew. But you can be safely reassured that she’s way more experienced now. Ritchie is a loyal servant to the club. We should give him the chance to play in a better side than what we gave him in the first 6 months of the season. He has more potential to reach. The club in this case should repay back that loyalty. Part of a squad that got us 10th. Andros, you chose Pardew over Rafa. You obviously thick mercenary cunt. No thanks. Go try and get back in the England squad with one of the small London clubs.

Seems to be the case. Rafa has replaced him for free and brought in 10-12m. That’s the Sturaro fee or the guts of it sorted out. Btw, I’m not sure this lad would be suited to PL either. Has a tendency to lose the ball due to his lack of size, then goes jumping in. Refs here won’t stand for that. He’ll find this league tough. Playing for Juve doesn’t mean shite any more. He came on as a sub a lot in this years CL. Kept an eye out but didn’t seem to make much impact.

If he had any backbone at all he’d be making every effort to play and adjust his game to what Rafa needs and to keep his place in the side. Once Shelvey nailed his place, he threw in he towel. Didn’t even attempt to change the coaches mind. How would that be useful to us this season to have someone very happy not to be starting games. My words are out of disappointment. He has bundles of potential if he had the right mindset.

Hugo Viana 2. He’ll go on to have a good career in Spain or maybe even Portugal. Won’t play in this league again if he wants away so soon. Wish the snowflake all the best!

He’ll do whatever Rafa tells him him to or he won’t be played ? he’s most likely never had a manager of this caliber. Even at 29 you can improve. He will. Milan were reportedly interested in him. That’s where he was supposed to go. He must have a reason if he decided not to take up on that. I guess he wants to stick to what he knows now and have a few good seasons here before going back to play in the Korean leagues. And when the fuck did Lee Ryder last have a scoop on transfers at NUFC?! ?

I’m also of this mindset. I think he has different qualities than the others we have, he’s more reliable though and works his bollocks off for the team. I wouldn’t like to see Townsend back. He made his bed when he left. He saw Crystal Palace a better opportunity than being here. It would have been one season sacrifice for the greater good. We might have made 2 or 3 million on selling him but that’s because he asked to leave. Oh was there a tournament on that year? Euros? Still, he’s no more than a mercenary.

Ki is 29. On Diame, as good as he was.. who knows which form of him turns up in pre-season He was class for West Ham one season then shipped off to Hull the next. s**** or Hull first season then amazing the next I don’t think any ever used him as a ball winning defensive midfielder though. He was seen as an attacking midfielder which he’s done well although inconsistently. Think Rafa realised this or maybe just lucked into it.. He doesn’t need the same sort of pace as he used before. Just little bursts of power, disrupt and move the ball on.. that he can do. Maybe they’ll bring on Ki for him after 70 mins. If games are going well. Protect his legs etc. We need some young legs in attack too. Townsend must be about 30 at this stage so this rumoured switch between him and selling on Ritchie sounds like a temporary fix. I quite like Ritchie actually, would prefer if we kept him. And does that mean Hayden keeps his place. Has he done enough to stay?

If we’re creating chances he will score goals for us. Seem to remember some long range screamers for Celtic as well. He had a bit of pace for carrying the ball. What age is he now? Nowhere near the wrecking ball that Diame turned into last season. Can’t see anyone taking his place in the starting 11, including that Juventus chap.

Tidy player. Good with Celtic. Did his best for Swansea. Can’t see him starting ahead of either Diame or Shelvey so a weird one. Good squad cover I suppose.

Prepare to be underwhelmed.... Yeah it’ll be a youth team deal. There was a forward who was supposedly a done deal a month ago.

So it’s a case of scrambling around for deadline day loan deals again being best case scenario. My guess is that Ashley is hoping any club sale by next summer would absolve all the messing about so that Rafa would commit to staying with a new owner and sign a brand new contract. He wouldn’t dare facing the wrath of the fans when he walks away after serving his contract. Surely not??!?!

I’d say if you looked into the accounts deeply. Club through Sports shop etc or warehousing. If you really investigated the money trail. You’d find that the club have been indirectly propping up house of Fraser or some other bullshit. They can show Rafa a spreadsheet and say here’s your lot. But you can be guaranteed it’s not the real picture. Why the club don’t just pay on deferred structures like other clubs is daft. Especially in our situation. Ashley likes it whatever way it’s set up and he doesn’t want anyone wrecking his perfect little advertising machine.