Thumbheed

Souness was a visionary

From Youtube scouting, of all the players we've been linked with to replace Gordon, it's Tzolis that interests me the most. Apparently didn't do much when he was at Norwich but he just looks like he has extra time in front of the goal. That kind of composure is hard to find.

Summerville looks a top player. Been linked with him before.

Paid to tweet. Someone's paid that invoice.

I never understood why we never tried Elanga on the left.

Pleasantly surprised to see that about Murphy. Every indicator has been we wouldnt be going for a RW, but seems we might be after all. Going into a season with a new LW, Barnes, Murphy and gambling on Elanga to come good would have been the end of the season before it even began.

We experienced 2 different summer transfers windows. I feel like you missed most of it re: Isak.

What choice did he have? What were his other options?

He was forced to sign him because 4-5 of his preferred options signed elsewhere. I don't know another scenario where you'd hold anyone else to full account when they only had the 6th best option at their disposal.

Have to bear in mind Liverpool will have had us over the barrell as did Forest with the Greek chap

I don't think we're going to fully pivot away from signing Premier league players and do all our business exclusively outside of it, so expense will always be a factor they'll account for. Are we saying we'll never sign a prem league player again? Because outside free transfers, the standard we're requiring will always come with a significant premium.

Strange commentary on Kroupi here. There aren't too many big clubs who are after a striker and from what I've read these clubs were already after him before he chose Bournemouth to further his development. By all accounts he's very pragmatic and still young enough to want a step up before seeking out a major club - he's still only 19. Regardless of whether you think he's realistic, the likelihood is we'll still be shopping in the same pool as these clubs anyway.

Eli Junior Kroupi looks interesting.

I just dont see it. He's really struggling with the pace and physicality of the game.

Just dont think we're that good and keeping the pressure on. Our intensity has significantly dropped from when he first came in and we lose a lot more duals than we did in the past, particularly our defenders. As for our forwards, they just aren't able to absorb a press as well as the players of better teams do and our overall movement is very static, 1 dimensional and pedestrian at times. Alot to fix here.

Good player, helps us break the press and transition better, still need more output from the front line though.

Guess the question going into the transfer window is does Howe recognise that and maybe thinks we need something different or does he think he can get 50-60 goals out of them next season? Personally, I dont see +30 goals from our wide areas and that's a problem.

Said this before, it's not necessarily our defending that's been poor and cost us games, it's the fact we haven't carved out the psychological advantage of a 2 goal lead from our misfiring forwards. 22 premier league goals all season from a front 6 that cost £250m is pitiful.

The 'I've got a winners mentality' types are the biggest melts in football. There's certainly a question mark on Howe's future on current form, but that should be answered next season. He's has earned the right to have a bad season.

We're a stakeholder in arguably the the biggest commercial brand in the entire world. Our value goes beyond what someone might want to pay for us.

Would take the money. There is literally no point scoring in the CL if you can't score the goals the help you re-qualify the year after.

Massive yes!

I still dont think we're good enough technically to control games and that's costing us. Our secondary movement is non existent and because of that the players can't play out of a press. Not sure where I stand on Howe at the moment. I've been a stalwart since he proved me wrong in 21/22 and I always thought SBR deserved one more year to turn things round, so I think Howe deserves that as well, but I'm finding it hard to answer whether he can. I dont blame him for the striker situation, they clearly had better targets but not identifying a better winger than Elanga after 4 years of needing 1 seems negligent at best.

PIF saw our balance sheet before buying us, they saw our revenue and will have undoubtedly seen the revenues of the club's they eventually hope they eclipse. They'll have been fully aware of the risks and challenges that that gap in wealth would pose us and would have undoubtedly factored that into their calculations, and yet they still saw enough potential in us to hang around for 2 years whilst they were being publicly humilatiated before eventually being allowed to buy us. At the first opportunity they publically stating their aim to be "Number 1", so I'm under no doubt that they were fully on board with what it would take to achieve that ambition. Their £1bn total investment to turn us into a £1bn club is ample evidence of that. I think people often forget the fact they stood by us for 2 years before owning us. Things take time. A bad summer transfer window is not indicative of an owners failing ambitions and interests, it's indicstive of someone willing to take the risks required to get us to where we want to be.

I meant possession retention but also our inability so score goals and change the dynamics of the game from a psychological point of view. I do think we've been less dominant in the press, but you put the defensive side under far more pressure when your not converting your chances and the opposition still feel theyre in the game.