Dr Jinx

Vlahovic ain't comin here in January, wouldn't rule it out in the summer if we stay up but not now. Chris Wood for the short term isn't that bad an idea, as long as he knows what he's getting himself into.

I had a look on the Derby forum and they are eyes open happily accepting of him if he comes in. Madness. I’ve absolutely nothing against them as fans but honestly think any warning against it will just fall on deaf ears.

His team are one of if not the youngest squads in all of Europes main leagues, to score 8 is an achievement. He does look rough around the edges though, definitely a case of buying potential

Lille were always going to fuck us for payback over the Cabaye transfer. His release clause was not common knowledge and Carr was definitely up to shenanigans there. 4.5m? We should take our medicine and pay a bit more than we would have been willing to spend. Make the figure undisclosed etc. Don't think this one is over. No way the Saudis will appear like they couldn’t afford something

I think after x amount of years of these stupid transfer windows, it's just shown not to work. Clubs, even the top ones make terrible mistakes in the judgement of how players will fit into a side. Negotiations are rushed, smaller clubs don't have the capacity to operate multiple deals at the same time. The whole thing is unnecessary.

All quiet on the western front compared to last week. I hope that’s a good thing. I think an issue that won’t be lost on the new owners is that our manager may not be a big enough draw to land certain players. This is why we’re being linked to players with clubs he’s had history with. Hopefully just a fall back option but..

I'm not sure it is, our first bid was around £25m or €30m, the way it's being quoted in euro and then pounds is muddying the waters. I think a fee of £35m plus some add-ons get's this done. (€40m) seems to be the magic number for them.

If you were buying a house and the sellers kept upping the number by 5 grand every time you’d offered what they initially wanted, you’d tell them to get fucked.

It’s exactly the sort of signing that will leave Villa in Everton’s position in 2/3 years from now, if they don’t make that breakthrough to being a top 4 club with CL money. They simply are not a club that can carry a few players on wages that high. Nor are we (right now) so it’s a good thing we’re not following that plan. It’s also entirely likely we’ll see a wage cap introduced at some point soon also.

Firstly, we have to understand it’s not going to be a case of putting together a team of names and just hope it works. Eddie Howe has a system he likes using, the players coming in have to suit that. They need to be ready for that from the get go. Also if history has taught us anything is that wholesale changes never work. We need to keep the best of the current squad and the quote that Craig Hope had about keeping the incoming players on a similar wage structure is important. It’s all ego pissing contest bullshit with these cunts, one in on 70k a week more than the next highest earner will cause all sorts of tension and ultimately poor results. The more worrying thing for me is that not one of our current squad has been linked with going anywhere. Not one.

If he’s off to Villa, why do we have a thread about the cunt? Let’s move on

That’s not true though, he’s scored plenty of goals running onto through balls. He’s just not a signing you’d get excited about as he is a known quantity but he’s something we don’t have in this squad. The objective is clear, stay in this division. Will he contribute? Yes he will. So it’s a no brainer. Whatever the fee is (17m?) will be worth it if we stay up.

Burnley

If it’s true I think it’s an astute signing. The guy has about 50 goals for a poor Burnley team, about a 1 every 3 games return which is miles better than anything we currently have. Hes big, strong and imposing and would be a nuisance to play against as we’ve seen first hand a few times. We also sign another forward to either play left or right off him and move ASM accordingly.

Bit of Daryl Murphy deja vu. But that didn’t end up too bad iirc

I agree fully, I wanted him signed. Most of us did but also, none of us could foresee the insane decline that’s happened. Not sure where he goes from here to be honest.

He came into a well drilled Rafa defence. Now it’s like the 3,4,5 stooges at the back, he’s not helping himself either but he’s got zero confidence in those around him. Put a few competent players into the side and others will improve, or at least that’s how it should work.

Eerily similar to how Kenedy was in his second stint here. Maybe it’s the money, maybe he is partying with his pals at home, he looks out of shape and clunky. Or maybe he’s had Covid, long covid effects or some shit like that. Or could it be how poorly Steve Bruce prepared the squad over the summer? They say once you get it wrong at that stage, it can effect the players for a whole season.

Saw it on twitter but apparently after the match half of the players who were in the team ran down the tunnel afterwards and he was shouting at them to come back and applaud the supporters (which fell on deaf ears..)

I don’t think we’ll go down based on how shit the teams around us are doing. Bit this window needs to be absolute carnage, ruthless in terms of shifting players out. It’s like muscle memory of being shit.. they simply can’t adjust to wanting to be better. For me it starts with the captain, he’s been a mute ever since the backlash he got for defending Ashley a few years ago.

I feel sorry for the manager in many ways because look what he inherited. Something went absolutely rotten at the club from the end of last season. Eddie Howe needs to identify what or who it is and cut it out before it’s too late.

Honestly think there’s a core of players who wouldn’t mind being relegated as it might mean they get to stick around longer.

Totally left footed except runs about like he’s right footed and he’s being made to play with the wrong one. It’s so weird watching him.

He’s going to have to gut this squad. Would not surprise me if there was some sort of players committee, the dregs worried about being replaced and they are sticking together to try and keep standards low.

He looked like he was completely stoned when he came on. Kenedy mkII