Nine

To be fair he does seem like he could be a Chelsea signing on the surface, a devalued ‘name’ type signing. Think Joao Felix.

Rice was homegrown and gave them massive PSR room to play with, although yeah after this window you’d expect them to be cutting it close by now

Rice

That’ll stem the flow of anxiety on here

Yeah that’s fair, but styles fit systems and it was clear that although he functioned okay in terms of his overall output with us we didn’t necessarily get the best out of him goal wise.. imo he also struggled with the pressure and expectation here. I think Forest suit him a lot more than we did and that’s why they paid up, his goal return for them proves it. Fair play to them as most of us on here thought we robbed them at the time.

Just to make the point I’m not sure we conned Forest out of anything, Wood bagged 15 PL goals for them last season which kept them in the league and Anderson could well turn out to be a solid player at this level

Hes had one season in the Dutch league? How have you come to the conclusion he’d be better than both of them?

Mbeumo would be my pick of the bunch, he’s a near perfect fit for our RW spot in terms of how he would be able to contribute to the system overall as well as offering a genuine threat. Im not sure how realistic he’d be though, as I doubt Brentford let both him and Toney leave in the same window. I get the feeling we may end up with an out of the blue signing for this position, someone we have seen no link to yet.

There’s a whole lot of assumption going on in here at the moment We need a solid link, half of you lot will be crawling up the walls soon

Only they could manage to sign a Colombian called Ian

I think he needed a move to a side that has less emphasis on physical output than the top 7 or 8 sides in the league, could be a decent move for him in that regard.

Hes 19 and has started how many games there? Howe hasn’t felt like he’s ready to earn than spot yet, I think that’s fair.. he’s seen far more of this lad than we have. He did look good at the end of the last season but he was played there more of a needs must due to the injuries across the back line, he has some work to do on his defensive side of the game for me. We all want him to succeed and with time he likely will, let’s not try and force it though.

Kelly will be starting most of our games as LB this season imo, he has all the attributes that Howe likes in Burn there and more.

Don’t rule out Chelsea or a move outside the PL

There are teams who would be considered a step that he’d start for, it’s a case of who seriously wants him.

Toney won’t go anywhere that he won’t start

It’s not a case of can’t or won’t, personally I think he tries to play to his own strengths because he is aware he has his limitations.. however his track record has proved that his style is effective at national level. A better manager of course could squeeze a lot more out of that level of attacking talent, hopefully we get to see that before long.

I’ll say it again, the limited time he would have with a national team is so far away from this guys style and ethos that on the surface it just would not make sense. You can’t drill a team to play his football when only seeing the players twice every couple of months.. to make the point I think it’s a big reason why Southgate is so passive in his style, although he has his limitations as a manger it also suits tournament football because it’s much easier to drill a team to a simplistic style when you don’t have the time available.

Credit to everyone that we made another final, how do we always find a way to lose it in the most agonising way

Subsgate

Cold

Hes been playing in a mostly awful Everton side that don’t play to his strengths, he’ll do well at Villa imo. I think he’s pretty underrated..

Onana would have flourished in our system, Villa will have signed a physical monster there.. good luck to him

The system has started to click just in time tbh, Sunday will be massive For me, Mainoo has made the most difference.. we were so off it in the central areas with TAA and Gallagher.

That finish gets better and better everytime you see it