Nine

We as fans just have to accept that under our current circumstances it’s highly likely at some point we do trade our most valuable assets, it’s how it has to be.

Murphy’s shoulder popped again his first appearance back off the bench iirc

You think we’d have cut our limit that close? I’m not convinced, however I’d doubt there’s a substantial amount there. We’ll have kept something back for absolute emergencies at the minimum

The right deal doesn’t necessarily have to be as much as £40m though

I don’t expect will we divert far from the course we had outlined even for a injury crisis, navigating FFP for the mid/long term will be a bigger priority than short term adjustments for short term gain. Having said that, if the right deal is there for the right player we will go for it like the Gordon transfer last winter.

Can anyone give a bit of a run down on the Werner transfer? I havnt seen much of him this season, a brief look at his data suggests he’s underperformed recently after being consistently fit and putting up decent numbers last season.

Just to make the point, Bowen didn’t leave Hull til he was 23/24. It’s not that uncommon to see players move up a level at that sort of age and then increase their potential. Not saying this Clarke is or isn’t that good, I’ve seen him play once.

That’ll be Barca and/or Madrid, the two clubs that no player says no to.

He has far too much upside to sell imo, for the type of fee we’d get anyway.

Chelsea will grow into the second half of the season if they can keep their core fit, top 6 would be a great finish for us (and still would have been at the start of the season). We just need to focus on our own run of form and keep everyone as fit as possible.

We’ll avoid the sharpest version of De Bruyne thankfully, he’ll come off the bench for sure.

Alexander Iceak

Sunderland fans have probably the worst misplaced ego besides maybe Everton? Getting truly humbled by their clubs owners and local rivals, pretty funny really.

His physical ability is utilised very effectively in our system against any side, obviously against championship opposition it will come across better than we’ve been used to seeing against other sides lately. Physically he just delivers massively in our system vs whoever we play against, his lack of clinical quality brings out a lot of frustration in fans especially when things are going against us but he’s a perfect wide player to have as an option and I’m pretty sure we’ll keep hold of him for a while yet.

Has started what? The last 12 or so games in a row? And is making the difference using his physical attributes still, you can question him technically but for as long as he is able to stay this fit and put in shifts like he does we won’t sell. Hes this seasons most under appreciated player so far.

Sunderland were absolutely awful, a total mismatch in style. They had to try and play out because a small team of youngsters isn’t equipped for good old long ball, they just couldn’t cope with the press from a side that is physically and technically levels above.

Routine

They are still trying to play it out..

Taken off right after 2-0, precautionary I reckon.

He’s farming impressions by being controversial, but at the same time saying things that a minority will agree with. Hes essentially attempting to be a Z list version of Andrew Tate.. if you don’t like what he’s doing the best way to is to block/ignore/hide him and never mention or repost his stuff again.

And his fitness record, a few games of Howe ball would have his legs fall off.

I wouldn’t call it an assumption, we don’t even know if Bruno will be sold yet My point is if Bruno is sold it could be an opportunity to shift our midfield away from a technical 6 like Bruno, and signing a ready made plug and play replacement for him just isn’t realistic.

Why does any club buy any player?

Selling him could be seen as an opportunity to transition our midfield and/or formation towards an out and out DM at 6 rather than try and replace Bruno’s attributes like for like. I’d expect that would be the route we’d go down if he was sold, we’d reinvest heavily across the midfield.

He is the most indispensable out of him, Botman or Isak but more to the point he’d also bring in the biggest fee. We will have to trade some of our more valuable assets to navigate FFP and reinvest for the mid-long term or until we are an established CL club, it’s just the way it has to go. Most fans will hate it if we sell him, but if the trend continues in terms of how well we’ve spent money so far it will be exciting to see how £100m of FFP freedom is reinvested.