Dr Jinx

Don’t buy this whole not interested in coming thing. Transfers nowadays begin with informal discussions with players agents, they indicate if their client would be interested or not, if yes the club then has to make an offer that’s acceptable to progress things.

The nature of player contracts now lets them leave as soon as a better offer comes in, there’s zero loyalty. It works both ways, we’re not talking about players that have been here for their whole career, they should be well prepared to move on once they are not needed

Got annoyed listening to that, sounds like the perfect man to carry a defeatist attitude like the one Steve Bruce had onto the pitch. I'm paraphrasing here but "oh yeah, the rumours we're going to sign 5 or 6 players.. but what if they don't want to come here, and what about the players who are already here with kids in school, are you just going to pay them to be in the reserves?" Yes Isaak, that's exactly what will happen. This isn't a public servants job, it's not secure. The club is not going to decide to remain uncompetitive to keep a few players happy. You're either good enough to keep up or be left out of it.

And Mehrdad as Virgil? ?

Everyone has a price Luke

Apparently having a board meeting tomorrow to see if they are still all on the same page after backing him before. If he’s still in favour they will approve a transfer strategy, if not then he’ll be gone before end of month.

Thats a fair point but also was that when he was playing for us before his injury? Was never the same once he returned. Gayle was never a smash them in from all areas type of striker, more of a poacher. This guy has a shot on him as well.

Seen some American bird on Twitter referring to the “hall of cost” after visiting Auschwitz

Smashing them in for Blackburn. Can he make the leap? But looks to have all the tools, strong, reasonably fast, makes intelligent runs, can pass and most importantly can really finish. I’d rather we looked at someone like that than an out of form troublemaker to be honest.

Lukaku dropped from their squad today to face the dippers. Have to respect Tuchel for setting an example.

I hope not, players aren’t stupid. He’ll know he was only thought of because of an injury on their end. We’ll be able to match wages and have more sure plying time. But, they are a team that just won the champions league. We’re miles off them currently.

Wilson out for a month or more. There’s no way they sign a forward who won’t be available until mid February or whenever. Survival might be out of reach by that point. We’re within clawing distance of the others above us, we need wins and need them straight away.

So much wishful thinking by agents and cash strapped clubs. Doesn’t look like we’re biting

At least Coutinho had somewhat of a good season with Bayern last year, but the way he’s carrying on at Barca, for whatever reason, we should be avoiding players like that. I suspect Ramsey is less of an ego but he still misses too much playing time, would he even cope with the effort of a high press? Although signing better players at the back and in midfield, we’re going to have more of the ball so it won’t be as much of a requirement as it is right now.

He’s obviously a man of integrity

? can ya imagine Howe meeting some dodgy covid swab dealer in an underground car park in the dead of night. ”Have ya got the stuff?”

Buying from abroad always carries a risk of them not settling, but then I’ve also seen many domestic based players who just haven’t settled into a new club either for whatever reason. We need to be signing players high on confidence, we need that lift.

This thread was like tumbleweed during the Ashley years

We’re going to get bummed by Lille if we want any of their players after what happened with the Cabaye transfer.

Well, if he starts hobbling, leaving him on the pitch for an extra 10 minutes probably isn’t the thing to do. But yeah, obviously trying to protect him as much as possible. Ideally I’d like us to be signing players who have no history of injuries but making an exception for someone with that level of experience could be really good for us. He’s a class act as a player.

I think Ramsey has been mostly available this season, just hasn’t played much. Saw him for Wales recently and he was very good. If managed properly injury wise he could be excellent for us. 150k a week is a huge drop from what he’s on right now.

It’s reciprocal isn’t it.

Part of growing the clubs revenue has to be signing a marquee player, worldwide shirt sales and generally raising the clubs profile, for the sort of money that would need to be spent, the only ones that currently make sense age wise are MBappe or Haaland.

There was always a player in there, even his most ardent supporters were beginning to give up hope we’d ever see him do it for us. But what a turnaround. It’s not just down to being played deeper, it’s about confidence too. The kid was hung out to dry repeatedly by Bruce, asked to do something that’s not his thing and he got plenty of stick from the home support. No matter how much you earn a week that must be absolutely shite to endure week in week out. He’s enjoying it now, I think his grasp of the language is helping too and he’s found his voice on the pitch, actually looks like future captain material. We haven’t seen the best of him yet which is a scary prospect.

Awful news but the timing isn’t as bad as it could have been. Might be harsh but if he’s going to miss the majority of the second half of the season, he’s basically using up a squad place. Can we sign players and not name him in the squad after the window shuts? We need to be ruthless when it comes to getting out of the relegation places.