Thiago

Bailey knows nowt.

Must be nice to have such a good squad that a £50m player can only got 300 minutes.

The only thing I'd say is - it's interesting to me how many of these deals have seen us reach agreements on personal terms while the fee is ongoing. That makes me wonder if the owners approach will see us haggle as much as we can regarding the structure of the deal before caving if necessary knowing full well the rest of it is sorted.

If this lad joins you have to think Jonjo is heading to the bench.

Yes.

And yet, folk want to slate the owners for leaks. They're learning.

Hope you little tart, love it. Bakker's more physical than anything, but it would be great to add a bit more presence at the back.

De acuerdo amigo. I think we should look at Everton as a great way to avoid obvious traps. They went out and paid some huge fees for players that looked like something on paper or were 'Premier League proven' without considering what the long-term viability of each player was or how they connected. It's still very early, and we've certainly had some knockbacks, but I'm pleased the two we've signed have been clear upgrades and fit into what our manager wants in one form or another. We've not, for example, gone and signed Sigurdsson, Klassen, and Rooney only to question how they fit together.

Sensational footballer. Always sad his life turned out the way it did.

Blergh. Happy to be proved wrong but I've seen Burn since his days at Darlington. He's done well to engineer this level for himself, but I just don't see a drastic improvement. IF we're feeling ambitious, I'd love us to go for the lad at Torino.

Ah, Jean-Michele, how I've missed you. As you can see there are stock exchange concerns with this deal, but their owner is notorious for playing 'funny buggers' with transfers. He did this days before they sold Ferland Mendy, Ndombele, Lacazette. It's a sort of 'time gentlemen please' for bidders. He knows he has to do this deal. I'm a touch concerned about no medical until Friday, but apart from that I think we can feel confident this won't be a Diego Carlos situation.

They're Sunderland fans not the IRA

Minor setback.

It takes time for a shelter dog to trust again.

Absolutely, but if we're buying Brighton defenders I'd want a good one. Burn is a consequence of a good system, and even then he's only really looked ok in a back three.

Dan Burn would be a bad signing. Webster would not.

Give it full context though. Yes, Aulas can be a nightmare, but Lyon (like with most of Ligue 1) are not in a position to turn down good money. The only reason Reims turned our bid down was because a lot of the reported fee was only guaranteed on the back end. It sounds like we're offering a more front loaded deal which for someone like him will be hard to turn down. Lyon didn't spend a huge amount this summer, but of the €50m they recouped, how much do you think was up front? I'd wager not a lot, and they're swimming in mid-table right now so very little chance of Champions League money coming in next year unless they go on a big run in the Europa League, which I don't think they will. There's a deal to be done here for sure, and he won't play silly buggers like Sevilla.

Bless him, that goal against West Ham was a bright start, but I just can't see what he does at Premier League level. Probably a decent option in the Championship but one that has absolutely no future here, even in the short term.

If he's indicated he wants to come I'm happy to take that on face value. I can't see him being a regular contributor for them, and he clearly wants to be in the best position possible this summer with the World Cup and his last big contract coming up. As much as Man Utd might think he's contracted to them, they get final say, they'd be wise to consider the optics of this. For a club with a strong reputation of developing academy players they haven't exactly done well by them lately. Greenwood was set for a big season only for them to sign Ronaldo. Rashford's form has dipped and hasn't had much protection, now Lingard is trying to leave and they're making it incredibly hard. He's been happy to be a bit part player and served them fairly well, doing everything possible to have a career there. Between that and Pogba likely leaving under a cloud, it could easily convince more of the current academy crop that it's not worth hanging about. Especially as they're stopping him joining a team that will in no way rival them.

The problem is they're sat between two very different but equally important ambitions. This might be their best chance at a title. They sit four points behind a Real Madrid side preparing for a Champions League push next month. It's not unthinkable that a Sevilla side without that could overtake them. When you consider that it's hard to justify them taking anything under the clause because that 70m figure is a game changing sum. That said, they are a club run on selling players. This is the biggest offer they're ever likely to receive for Diego Carlos because he's almost 29-year-old and is just now getting major attention. The business textbook would say sell him, especially given how little difference there is in prize money for those top spots. That does remove the point of football, however - winning trophies - but as custodians of the club they have to think short and long term. All told, I think they've been unwilling sellers from minute one. If this offer had come in the summer it's different, but they're half way up the mountain now and things have changed. What felt acceptable in the summer now feels like the gambler wishing he'd put more on that horse. He's worth more to them than we feel comfortable paying because there's no promise he would secure us safety.

As I said previously, this much money for a 29-year-old that hasn't ever been considered elite is fucking nuts. He'd improve us, undoubtedly, but he's not worth paying over the odds for either. 5-10m I can get, but we're talking a mad amount.

Excellently timed given reports out of Spain say they've rejected our final offer

Just curious, if you were to stick 5 euros on it, does Carlos move?

This is the worst window we'll have in terms of trying to do deals. Our need as buyers far outstrips that of the clubs we are buying from and unsurprisingly it's seeing teams try to take the piss and move goalposts because they know even if 'we walk away' there's a chance of resurrecting a deal closer to the end of the window. In many instances it wouldn't shock me if they're desperately trying to recover pandemic based losses. Ideally, I'd have liked our DOF in place to give us some experience in this ream - both in doing deals and managing the media side of things - but this is the boat we're in.

Claudio and Roy have a similar identity. He's certainly shown previously with Fulham and West Brom that he can turn things around midseason (granted that was 10 years ago). I also think that Watford squad definitely has some counter attacking quality just like his Palace side did. Where I question them is defensively. That Palace defence was a very domestic, known-quantity, type of group. Watford have defenders with PL experience, but they also have a group of players from abroad that they've clearly taken a punt on.