Shadow Puppets

As he has been for about 2.5 weeks.

As I said yesterday, everything I’ve heard from behind the scenes suggest that Eddie and Mitchell’s relationship is good… it’s good to hear Eddie publicly saying that today, and saying that the backing from above has been good.

Not convinced being cup tied would make any particular difference to the deal to be honest. We’ll be thinking long term, not just about a potential 5 games missed.

I never said that at all like. That’s been fabricated from the snippet of info I shared from an agent that said we had financial reasons to get the deal done before the start of the season, and said it had something to do with “a Chelsea clause”. No idea on details further than that.

Feel like most clubs (including us) say this every year.

Done

That part isn’t a problem, don’t worry.

Eh?

The only one who will start with everyone fit is Murphy.

I know some of the chatter in this thread is tongue in cheek, but my god some of it is absolutely ridiculous and not based in any form of reality. Why are some of you so eager to essentially craft a destabilising narrative, imagining huge rifts between players and managers and the board. Do you not remember what THAT version of NUFC was like, years ago? The transfer window has been frustrating, I get that, but there’s also some massively overblown / pathetic opinions on some of our own players. Murphy, Miggy, Burn, Krath etc might not be world beaters, but they’ve all played a significant part in helping to turn this club around. I have no issue whatsoever with any of them remaining squad players. There is zero evidence of anything “wrong” behind the scenes between Howe and Mitchell (as I said yesterday, everything certainly seems to be pulling in the same direction behind the scenes). We all want a couple of shiny new players, I get that, but we have to remember that we have a very talented squad of players here already, one which can only be stronger than last season (without the injuries and with Tonali returning). One or two good players would be welcome, of course. I genuinely think some people just love to be miserable and find issue where there isn’t necessarily one. It must be exhausting to have that mindset. Anyway, I still think this whole debate will be irrelevant in 4 days time anyway, because I believe we’ll make at least one significant signing, but my god this place can be depressing.

Gordon’s going nowhere.

Precisely

Makes a lot of sense to get an actually capable number 2. We all know the Forest lad was a PSR favour signing… he’ll head out on loan.

Understand your frustration re: Barnes, but Howe has repeatedly said that Willock isn’t quite ready to be starting. They’re purposefully taking it easy with him.

My first feeling yesterday was, can Willock not play RW? He has pretty much all the attributes to, and would give him more opportunities for goals. 🤷‍♂️

That remains to be seen really. Historically loans tend to happen in the final week, so we’ll see. Anyway, I don’t disagree that the window has been poor, but there’s still a chance they can salvage it with Guehi or Guehi + another.

It’s not rocket science. We’re not looking for squad players for £10m-15m (and I’d argue that, no, you wouldn’t get better players than those you mentioned for that money). We’re looking for players who can significantly improve the starting 11. They cost £50m+ in most cases. And there’s not many in that bracket who could improve our first 11 AND cost the right amount of money AND not have better options with European football etc.

I really think people are reading far too much into it. Looking for issues to explain away what is likely pretty innocent. Its not unusual for deals to go down to the last week of a transfer window, and it’s also not unusual for teams to hold out for players they really want over knee-jerk purchases to fill a void. I’m no expert, but everything I’ve heard behind the scenes about Eddie’s relationship with Mitchell so far has sounded pretty positive, albeit my info tends to come from the playing side rather than management side. And also a couple of agents I’ve got to know pretty well recently. I think there’s a genuine understanding across the whole club of the difficult position we’re in with restrictions, and I think they’re working from a really small list of agreed targets, as small as 2-3 players for each needed position. If we can’t get those players I don’t think you’ll see us buy for the sake of it. Regarding any specific info I’ve heard these last couple of days, obviously everyone is still expecting this Guehi deal to happen (as they have been for the last few weeks), so I’m still expecting it to happen. All I know is that Guehi himself has been essentially just waiting for the green light, and communicating that to some of his friends up here. According to one of the agents I’m friendly with, he thinks a lot of this week’s activity is going to hinge on Chelsea, and the domino effect of their dealings. He also thinks we will try for Madueke (but this was before his hat trick today). Also, he reckons that we have been scouting Gianluca Prestianni (18 year old winger / forward) from Benfica. No idea whether that’s for now or the future, but he seems a live wire from his highlight reel. My gut feeling is Guehi will sign and we’ll push for a loan with option to buy RW, but either way I can’t fucking wait for the window to close.

Give over man… Dan Burn is a perfectly capable PL squad player (and in my opinion will go down as one of our shrewdest ever buys). Murphy also decent squad player. Longstaff has his plus points too. I agree they’re not players who should be starting week in week out, but the point I’m making is you’re suggesting that we need to replace them in the starting lineup when in reality we already have (they’re just not fit), apart from Murphy.

Agree to disagree on that one, but even then, there’s still Tonali.

I’m confused by this post, because, with everyone fit and available the only player of the 3 you mention that’s likely to start still is Murphy. We already have Willock and Tonali who will start ahead of Longstaff once everyone’s firing, and Botman and Schar will start at CB long term (and Guehi assuming that still happens). CB and RW are absolutely the priorities for the window, but it’s odd to choose 3 players to improve upon out of a team clearly not our strongest.

The goal was quite rightly ruled out for handball like. It goes directly in off his arm. It’s not rocket science. Joe should probably have been sent off. Not convinced he was intending to clothesline him as such, but it was dangerous for sure. The rest of the game was an odd one. Started well, then they dominated (which a team will always do at some point). Overall, poor first half. Started second half well, and then they grew into it again. After the subs though (around 55 mins ish), I thought we played some good stuff… certainly enough chances to deserve something from the game. And altogether we just looked far more commanding with Willock and Trippier on the pitch. Overall, a fair result, unbeaten, and a result we wouldn’t have ground out last season. Much to improve, but I’d prefer to look at the positives.

Well not really. He had a good few months on loan, and has looked lively in his first outings as a Brighton player. That’s very different to being better than either Miggy or Murphy. (Not saying he won’t become better, but we just don’t know)

There’s literally no evidence to suggest, as yet, that Minteh is better than either Miggy or Murphy.

It is definitely from their programme notes. It’s up on Twitter. So it’s not really news.