BennyBlanco

Sorry to be a miserable twat but let’s try and remember that all this has been fired up again because of a Graeme Bailey tweet. has Paqueta ever been mentioned by a semi reliable journo?

I thought Willock was very very good on Saturday. Never stopped running, and looked really really comfortable in that midfield. Keep him there for Brighton.

In terms of competition for Paqueta, I think he chooses us over West Ham for the Bruno factor plus high wages and ambition etc. If city want him though they get him unfortunately. Everything in place, legendary manager and again, astronomical wages.

“Eddies flithy rich mags” fuck me our fan base is thick as whale spunk at times??

Still holding out hope for a pretty big name deal on the last day of the window ala Bruno. We deffo need another striker, if Forest can park the bus pretty effectively then we don’t have a chance when a much better team decide to do it.

For me he looks like Olympiakos Yaya Toure - the year before he joined Monaco. Powerful, direct and accomplished on the ball but yet to really find his “killer ball” or “shooting boots”. If anything though that makes me all the more excited. I’d say wor Joe has a much better attitude and similar potential to Yaya Toure - he can only get better.

Imho this one’s dead in the water. They ain’t selling to a potential rival.

That midfield of Joelinton, Bruno and Maddison is definitely top 8 level. Maddison takes us to the next level. My god this is all very very exciting.

I’m still in utter disbelief that we are actually in a position to be bidding £40m for a player of Maddison’s calibre. What an exciting time to be a toon fan lads.

Maddison would be an absolute dream of a signing. Sub-question - do any of you think we are purposely targeting English talent over foreign imports or is it just coincidence that the lions share of the signings have all been English?

Im suprised that you think this will have come as a shock to the hedge fund that provided them the funds. I’d imagine that there are break clauses and all sorts written into the deal. In fact it probably, if anything, has done more to kill off their ESL dreams. If they suddenly crash out of La Liga I’d imagine that they’d owe a significant amount of money to the hedge fund that’s given em the dosh for the rights.

Not having that at all

Aaron Ramsey has just had his contract mutually terminated. He’d still do a job for us.

I’ve a sneaking suspicion that he might be a tad guilty of telling a pork pie there. . . .

I don’t agree with the whole “we aren’t attractive” narrative. We can clearly sell them a bright future now whereas before we couldn’t, we’ve got a huge stadium and also a a passionate fan base unlike any other in the league. I’d argue that we are a more attractive option than say Aston Villa and they’ve done alright with the calibre of play they are signing.

Always bought him on FM expecting big things. Always ended up selling him to Villa or Fulham??‍♂️

I prefer Costello?

Any man who’s chief representative is called Elvis is not the one for me. Move on.

Someone will eventually cough up the price though and that’s the problem. We ain’t the only rich ticket in town.

Also guilty of this. First thing I check on break before Twitter etc.

I can’t help but think we’ve boxed ourselves into a bit of a corner with the old “we’re not THAT rich” schtick. The moment they decide that a player eg Paqueta is worth the going rate and to buy before anyone else does - the flood gates are open and the prices all shoot up. On the other hand we can’t just keep fucking clubs off after they’ve given their initial price which is always bound to be fucking daft.

Who?

Traore is just Ryan Fraser with a better gym membership. No thanks.

I honestly don’t think there is a “budget” per se. I think there’s a rational approach that this team needs to get better and there’s the facilities in place to make this happen where players can be convinced to make the jump. Edwards has already made a few spectacularly wrong calls when it comes to the finance side of how the owners are going to operate.

We’ve already had a great window in comparison to the last 13 years! If we don’t get a striker this year we’ll get one next year. Personally I think we need another wide man first. Let Wilson see what he can do with a manager who actually seems to understand what a proper pre-season/fitness regime should look like!