Nine

Obviously but you're missing the point, you've got Paqueta and Brunos positions backwards on that. So if we sign Paqeuta that still means that Shelvey is second choice to Bruno.. so again - how does signing Paqueta upgrade the position that Shelvey plays in? The clamour for Paqueta has gone into overdrive just lately.

?? So you identified that Shelvey is a weak link then suggested that we sign Paqueta to fix that which does nothing to strengthen the position that Shelvey plays in? Im lost

Well I dont see you're point then? We sign Paqueta and Shelvey remains in the same position, second choice to Bruno or starting if Bruno is pushed up.

Paqueta wouldnt be playing in Shelveys position.

Notice how a pre season training exercise has ending up in a Shelvey debate Says all you need to know really.

Post Bruce? Thats not surprising and doesnt mean he was bad.. Bruno/Joe/Willock stats will be much better regardless. Stats dont tell the whole story with the position that he plays.

I mean, its a pre season game where we changed the entire starting 11. We arnt going to learn much at all other than seeing who gets up to speed fitness wise.

With the effort hes put into getting in the best shape we've seen him in this summer I think he will be able to adapt his game a bit more now to cover those weaknesses, the lack of chasing always seemed like a bit physical limitation for me. I think this will be his best season for us.

Hes showing alot of promise although it is only against pre season sides and he will be pushing himself hard to impress, perhaps with the 5 sub rule he might be a option to keep on this season. He certainly wont be kept in the squad to start games though (other than cups), he will be eased in carefully over the season as Howe likes to do.

Shelvey was consistently good post Bruce last season, clueless to suggest otherwise

Anderson clearly eager to impress

Plenty of [nope] on twitter raging at our players in a pre season match

People shitting themselves over a pre season result

https://www.readytogo.net/smb/threads/an-all-time-hard-men-eleven.1583827/ What is their obsession with being hard? That whole fan base has the mentality of 15 year olds.

Who knows really how much wiggle room we have within FFP. The journos were reporting massive amounts of 500m or whatever which doesn’t seem likely to me, even so it doesn’t mean we would be spending 60/70m individuals at this stage. We have a squad that contains the likes of Murphy, Fraser, Fede, Lascelles, Dummet, Longstaff etc. I think the play we are going to make is that we make the steps up gradually. Rather than going all in on huge fees of 50/60m for one player we are looking at getting 2 or 3 for that same amount while also rounding off the nastier edges of our squad and giving us the strength in depth that a club that’s says it’s going to be breaking into Europe consistently needs. I know some will make the quality>quantity argument but I am of the belief that at this very early stage in our development buying 2 players of 30m instead of one for 60m is absolutely both the quality AND quantity that we need, players who come in and upgrade their respective positions strength in this squad massively. I won’t even go into the wage structure argument again as I’ve hammered that home enough at this point, I’ll just say that not many players you can sign for north of 50m will come in and fit inside our wage structure which we need to build up just as carefully and any other financial aspect of the club. In short we are a few windows away from seeing real the fireworks as per fees/wages which is why Diaby and Isak might be unlikely this summer.

Well, kind of. Depends on what your definition of a stepping stone player is and how much one of them cost in 2005 compared to now. Also how much they cost to replace, since FFP wasn’t in existence back then. It’s a really far off comparison when you get down to the nitty gritty of finances.

Can we cut the City/Chelsea comparisons now Utterly pointless to compare to what they spent and how they did it, our strategy is entirely different and has to be with the way the landscape of football has changed.

Very simplistic way of looking at it here, the situation of signing ‘mid table’ players runs a lot deeper than this.

Harrison would be a great addition for where we at currently, I’m not expecting us to be able to consistently pull off signing players that would hopefully be mainstays in the starting 11 for the next 5 years to come (Diaby, Isak). Harrison would be a step below those two but the bonus is he is a known quantity in the prem and we might expect to get a bit more out of him yet, the type of player that starts for the next 2/3 seasons and becomes a key member of the squad even if he ends up being replaced in the starting 11 by then.. he’s also seems the likely option not just because the fee/wage for him should be reasonably lower than the other two mentioned players but he fits the bill of exactly what Howe seems to like (British, prem experience and a good personality that will fit in around here).

Just like big poppa pump Scott Steiner, he’s a genetic freak baby and it’s all natural

Yeah, would come down to if he’d be prepared to not be a first choice which you’d assume he wouldn’t. Just think he would be a very good stop gap option if needs must and we fail with our main (younger) targets there.

Not sure if anyones seen this but the express reporting today that Zapata might be available for £15m and we play Atalanta in a couple of weeks time.. he was the one I really wanted in Jan before we signed Wood. Age not on his side and he could be quicker but attribute wise he is made for the prem, depending on who we get at RW he might seriously be an option.

A lot of our fans have a shock to the system coming up, far to much talk of just splashing £50m on a player because we ‘can’ and if we don’t bring in another CM it’s a disappointing window. I’ll say it again the run since Jan skewed a lot of fans expectations towards being unreasonable, people saying that based off the form of the last few months we are basically already a top 6 side so let’s just add to our squad to make sure we maintain that.. crazy stuff. Just a few months ago we still had Ashley and Bruce in charge, there was no Bruno, Joelinton was still a massive failure and a waste of money. People underestimate the amount of work that we need to do to even get close to being a regular European side, alot of bumps in the road up ahead. We could be sat here next summer discussing how the season went wrong, Howe isn’t here anymore and Botman isn’t good enough - obviously I’m not saying any of these will happen but we need to be prepared for it to not be anywhere near as straightforward as some make out. Slow steady growth as a team but also as a club, a lot of damage of the last 15 years will be undone along the way. 2 more signings (RW, ST) will be a very good window for us, look at our squad at the end of last summers window and compare.. speaks volumes for me.

It’s only going to get worse as time goes on to, logic will go out the window and people will just want and expect more, more, more..

Ooof