Nine

Agree, people have said on here that Paqueta can play wide positions but his natural position defo looks like a #10 to me. We should prioritise a CM over an AM, along with RW and ST.

I think wages would prove an issue with him as he’s already on £50k a week at Lyon, if he’s happy with us doubling that then it’s possible but generally I think his agent would be haggling for more.

Yeah expected, a good servant to the club and will remember him fondly just because he was signed by Rafa and played pretty consistently in his team. He’d do well at a top end championship club I think, with a view of getting back in the prem and showing again that he can cut it in this league.

I mean that’s going to be at least an £80-100m spend on two players that play the same position, nice thought but won’t happen this summer.

He’s been as good as anyone could have expected him to be, so consistently solid. Will be invaluable for our side for the next 2/3 seasons if Villa sell.

What a shit game I’ll take it though, BRUNO

That’s pathetic from Burn

Did Wood take a knock? Didn’t notice anything like

What is this formation?? Almost back to our team vs Cambridge

Absolutely no movement for Joe then when we pushed forward, the fact we’ve managed to scrape as many goals as we have since January is surprising

Aye, we should be playing ASM up top instead right?

Why is Ayoze being booed?? Strange behaviour

A bit like Chris Wood then? Does a lot of hard work down his side, makes good runs and shows flashes of quality at times. That move early this half summed him up perfectly for me, great run and movement to get into a good position but just hits the potentially killer pass to ASM a bit behind him, he’s not consistent in the final third but that doesn’t make him useless.

He’s had a good half, lacks quality at times but he’s not a bad player at all

That should stand

I think we really miss Willock today, we miss his runs and are just lacking that energy in the press from the get go. I've said before I cant see how Bruno and Shelvey fit in the same 11.

Caught out easily there, shite

Wait. Arnt you the person who disagreed with me yesterday when I said 150m and then you told me it will be 'a fuck ton more'? So if 150 is massive what would you call what you are expecting?

Some people have been saying it will be much more than 150ish , and yes 150m is a massive spend but not compared to January, our wealth and more importantly it still leaves us with alot of wiggle room with FFP going forward. For what I think we need to prioritise this summer 150 will be about right. The key positions for me are CB, CM, RW and ST. Those are the 4 that should take up the biggest chunk of our spending, priority being the attacking positions. If you look at the goals during our good run alot of them had some fortune about them or were out and out set pieces or both, a couple deflected FKs, a couple of own goals etc. We really lack fluid attacking movement on the right side, and the left only looks good when ASM is playing and in some good form.. how different would we have looked with Wilson instead of Wood? Defo better but as we know hes not to be relied on because of his fitness issues. Frasers a good workhorse and has been playing out of his skin for us under Howe but the quality just isnt there most of the time, this position could be massively upgraded for no transfer spend in Lingaard (would be big on wages but not out of our range).

I was saying yesterday it will be over 100m but no more than 150m, anyone whos expecting a massive spend of a few hundred million will be disappointed.

I know questions have been asked over their new ownership but I wouldnt expect them to sack him now. Who are they going to get? Allardyce?

Might be a tad early to be calling Bruno elite but I know you mean.

We need to remember that January was also a very desperate situation at the time but I know the summer window is generally more easy going so it might balance that out a bit.

Yeah this is pretty much how I see it, and our squad is massively stronger just off of those players you listed. It would be epic to see us splash 250/300m but its just not realistic at all.

I hope you are right but there simply has to be a balance to it, we cant go and sign 4/5 top players this summer on bigger wages than our current core of players - it just doesnt work that way.