WilliamPS

Prefer not to add average players to the squad on 5 year contracts. short termism

Free money is free money but feels more likely to be at 50m, so 4.5m, not bad but won’t change the overall picture

For 6 months. Krafth, Lascelles, Schar and Burn are all in their final year. IMO probably only 2 of Krafth, Lascelles, Burn and Schar will end up staying. Only have Botman and Kelly on long term deals. So there might be a glut for a few months, but then a problem next summer. May as well fix now.

Sterling left Man City to get more game time as Pep dropped him for the biggest games, so the claim he wouldn’t want to leave Chelsea to play seems a bit daft. However it will be on loan abroad. Nobody will pay a fee to Chelsea or give him a 5 year contract after the last 2 years. If Chelsea want rid they’ll have to loan him and hope he has a good year and then sell. I think Sterling will want out if he’s not even making squads, although I guess he’ll want his full Chelsea salary. Id say it was a terrible transfer for Chelsea but they still have Lukaku on the books

Chelsea have fucked it with Sterling, ruined his career AND given him an enormous long term contract. Loan to Italy or Spain is Chelsea and Sterling’s best case. Makes Fraser Hayden and Lewis combined look like peanuts in comparison

Last season he stayed higher up and the LM covered. It’s a way of providing an outlet and stretching opponents but I think also using Joelintons / BDBs strengths (appreciate it was Hall yesterday but it’s a longstanding tactic) Howe used this even before Gordon, e.g. watch the 22/23 season 3-3 with Man City where ASM always stays high, and exploited the gaps left when Walker tried to go forward

Presume the club have at least asked for an indication on Chelsea’s price expectations

Whilst I think the fee palace want is outrageous this does put it into context. If Gomez is 45m then Guehi is up toward 60m, in the market.

Tbh the last 200 pages are pretty much all the same

Is it a concern? We already know they can play well together. What extra information is there from the first game of this season versus 40 odd games last season?

Last game he was preparing for was the final of the euros, and that whole experience would have been bitterly disappointing for him. He’s then barely had a pre season. In a few games he’ll be back to himself

First game of the season can be an oddity, players haven’t got the competitive eye in yet. Main outcome is all 3 points. Some of the players will get their edge back next week. Very soft red but foolish to give the ref a decision to make there.

I am all for him pulling a Gordon now and feeling a bit ill over the weekend…

I wouldn’t worry about PSR sales, as before claiming a sale is needed you need to know the revenue and costs. On the revenue side it would be pretty dumb to do a sale they don’t want to do now, then find at the end of the year by finishing 3rd in the league and having great cup runs has generated more TV money and prize money and the sale was never needed. Or they get another commercial deal done.

I put him in my FF team on the basis he moves and becomes part of an elite 22/23 style NUFC defence so he better get it done. He’s a bit less than 65m at only 4.5m on that!

Can the thread be renamed transfer meltdowns since there are f-all rumours? A reminder that this squad is easily the strongest for 20 years. And is genuinely better than last year as Tonali hopefully has stayed out of Ladbrokes and a load of players have improved in the last 12 months, plus some squad defects have been sorted.

23/24 and 21/22 were won on the final day by very tight margins, one and two points, they were definitely competitive between the top two teams for the title. I don’t think the competition for the title is less now than it was in the Man Utd then Chelsea eras (and I guess the Liverpool era before that)

There was quite a bit on Maguire, while nobody thought it was a bad transfer to do or that he’d fail, at the time the fee was considered massively inflated. Had they paid 50m it would probably have been seen as reasonable, in hindsight that would still have been terrible value

Parish’s words were designed to get a bigger bid, otherwise he’d have said ‘we aren’t selling’. However I think the 3rd bid was the max, so Palace are going to have to move, or it’s dead. Q is whether to move on to someone else or see if Palace move. Maybe right now they reckon Palace will come back, and that interview was just to try and ring out a few more quid

I agree it would be a massive risk, Liverpool had that year without CBs and it was a disaster for them. But it might be ran.

IMO the squad is much stronger than the end of the season. Strengthened in defence, striker and GK, which were key gaps. IMO this is the best squad going into a season in 20+ years. From last year Hall and Tino are now integrated. Gordon is better. Tonali and Willock due to return. (Clearly I also hope they add at least one CL level talent to the first team but the squad is getting better)

Return in June with a £25m bid! It’s a shame as he’s a CL ready player but as others have said you can’t force Palace to sell. They cashed in on Olise already so it’s hard to negotiate with a side already sitting on big money. Difficult decision now whether to risk going into season a CB short or whether another top level CB can be sourced. Important not to dilute quality

Next move might be up to the player. Is he prepared to come out and say he wants to leave.

No idea what that last sentence is about, if that’s what you think fine but I don’t agree. On the stadium size, Spurs only built 60,000, Arsenal the same, Liverpool now have 62,000, Man City have 54,000 and attendance issues. Once you have European football regularly and good cup campaigns regularly the opportunities to go get much wider and ultimately the cost caps how often people can afford to go. Only Man Utd are substantially larger than 60,000 and they have the biggest fan base in world football. IMO a 70,000+ would end up with empty seats. It’s why nobody else has gone to that size.

My own guess is staying, but with an extra tier on the gallowgate and two rows of boxes added to the east stand. As boxes can be built up instead of back that might be possible without impacting the street behind. Capacity up to 60,000 but corporate revenue through the roof