Nine

I think its likely we get him at this point purely because we can probably make Lille a better offer than Milan can, they will surely hold out for the most money.

Today is a good day, bet he’s over the moon that’s here permanently now.

It’s gonna be interesting to see where Howe sees Ekitike, I’m sure he will get a good chunk of minutes at RW but I personally think his biggest part to play next season will be as 2nd choice behind Wilson. If we sign an out and out RW like we’ve been linked with it would suggest that Howes sees him centrally. 3 central strikers is plenty of competition for that spot for us imo, when you start talking 4 the position gets overly congested and players might start to think they won’t get a chance and kick up a bit. Wood must be kind of sick that he signed, started for the vast period post Jan and 6 months later is down a 3rd choice.. down to his lack of goals of course.

I’d agree on the CM as we currently have 5, if we persist with 4-3-3 then 6 in total would make sense. Striker I think we are covered with Ekitike in, I know Wilson and his fitness issues but assuming he can play at least 20-25 games then Ekitike and Wood behind him should be fine. If you look at Wilson’s fitness record at Bournemouth besides 2 freak season ending injuries in his early years there was pretty consistent for 3/4 years after until he moved to us. I have faith that Eddie can get more out of him fitness wise than Bruce did.

Targett, Ekitike, Botman, Sarr, Henderson Would that please the fan base? I get the feeling quite a few of us were expecting a bit more quality on a couple of those, maybe rightfully so. I’d personally be pleased with those 5.

Thought we might be looking at at a more forward thinking LB but that might be a step to far for now. More than happy to see this lad back next season, solid as a rock and his character fits in perfectly with Howes dressing room. This might also indicate that ASM is staying.

That Barca kit is gross

Will be a loan but a good move for everyone involved

Good luck to him, done well for us overall. Perfect move for him to.

If Ake is available for £35-40m I’d say he’s one of our best options, £50m is getting a little steep.

Well that’s exactly what are we doing, it’s just that we won’t sign Botman for £40m or whatever to sit on the bench as he would come in and be a starter. Burn would be providing the cover for his position.

We were bidding for Botman before we settled for Burn and if links are to believed we are still trying to sign Botman now, so we are almost certainly looking to upgrade Burn first instead of Schar.

Or more specifically - signed by Howe before.

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/eddie-howe/spielertransfers/trainer/10976

Ahh yes, people are getting emotional over transfer links already. This summer will be a long one

Or Ake

Hes always implying that we have a hate obsession with him yet hes still talking about us negatively when hes currently manager of another club, get some self awareness and respect you gross fuck. Doesnt he have current issues to address like how he took them from 6th to 11th or whatever it was, hes literally a meme of a football manager..

Always liked him as a player but age and the fact he only likes to play RW might count against him, has a very good fitness record mind.. think hes played 40+ games every season since coming to the PL.

Flicking through those early pages is amusing. First few pages there are calls of Conte and Jose, then Bruce is gone and eventually for a few days everyone knows it will be Emery, then quite a bit of disappointment and writing off of Howe. It’s a mad old game like

They did spend £50m (£100m the summer before that) but most importantly they didnt sell their key players either, if you'd have told a Leeds fan last summer that they would sack Bielsa and be the skin of their teeth away from being relegated they would have laughed at you. All im saying is its never that easy, a club trying to crack top 6 can chuck money at it coming off a good season all they like but alot more has to go right before they make it (Everton). It will be a gradual evolution of not just our squad but our entire club over the next 5 years before we really are talking imo, lets not forget only 6 months ago we still had Ashley and Bruce in charge. We could obviously get lucky and hit the ground running to break top 6 before that but staying there consistently is another thing entirely.

But its never that straightforward, no matter how much money you can (or do) throw around - Leeds finished 6 points off of the top 6 last season. We will be building a squad in Howes vision over the next year or two for a real established team of players that are equipped to make a push for where the owners want us to be, evolving that much in one summer window is a huge ask. If we manage to finish top 6 next season? Us, Howe, the owners and the team will all be very happy no doubt but I highly doubt that is the target they have set internally.

We will make signings that the club think will make us a better side and see us progress up the league towards the top 6 over the next few seasons, no way a club in our position would be saying in meetings - 'Right we will sign him, him and him so we can finish top 6 without question next season'. All you are guaranteed to achieve with that approach is placing unwarranted pressure on Howe, the rest of the coaches and the players. Also it might not even be true.

Nah this is it for this summer I think, Wilson, Ekitike, Wood in that order.

Hes defo at least had a word like