sushimonster85

Lewie Miley as well.

I think these two playing in the wide roles was Howes intention this season anyway. With them swapping sides throughout games. Think our plan before the crazy injuries was to have a very fluid front 3 of Gordon, Isak, and Barnes.

I honestly don't think we will see a replacement till the Summer. By all accounts Murphy is back in training and may even make the Villa game, and Barnes is only 2-3 weeks away. Think the money goes towards a CM in this window.

Really does seem to be moving week.

Think it's pretty clear that there are some in here (not necessarily yourself) who like to portray Howe as someone who turns his nose up at foreign signings, and had nothing to do with the Bruno, Botman, Isak deals. Can't wait for this window to be over, this place is super touchy at the moment.

I feel like Howe gets beaten with the 'British' stick more than he should. I think he places a premium on league experience. As most managers tend to. I think if he went to manage a side in Spain or Italy he would want a strong core of players with experience in those leagues as well.

Aye, pizza Rob is talking out his arse there.

Think you're going fishing with that post. Save it for Twitter. 0 chance that's actually true.

I think saying "we're interested in Sesko" is a no lose situation for ITKs. History of previous interest. Will be interested again but sheer volume of teams (probably including some elite clubs) will likely mean it won't be us.

To be fair it was likely done on the assumption we'd be doing no business in Jan anyway. Which we still may not. If we had Tonali and even just one extra player not injured I don't think we'd be looking to do anything.

As a player I think Tino would be ready to step up. It's more the leadership we'd lose if Trippier left. I know he has had a dodgy couple months, but he is still one of the most important players on the pitch for us even when he himself isn't playing well.

I guarantee you Longstaff will be here for at least another 2 seasons. There's no quick fix to sort out more young players coming through. Either the talent pool is there or it's not. We have bought in a few since the new ownership, and there's loads more investment going into the youth setup, but I honestly think we're still 4/5 seasons away from consistently producing first team level talent.

Season after that? After Miley does it feel like any of the other kids will be ready to.be included in UEFA squads?

It was an issue this year. We couldn't name a full CL squad because we were short of HG players. If Longstaff went and was only replaced with Miley and Ederson, as it currently stands we wouldn't be able to register Ederson for UEFA competitions.

But introduces the problem of who we play on the right? At least till Jacob Murphy is fit.

Oscar is a massive waste of talent, but seems to genuinely like it in China. Every other star player from the boom period left when the bottom fell out, but he's still out there.

To be honest Gordon is getting close to knocking on the door of that elite tier we have of Bruno, Botman, & Isak. If he can end the season with 10-12 goals I'd put him easily at the same value as Botman.

It would be a lot more than 50m, but say it is. You sell Bruno for 50, then subtract whatever amount of his original fee was still left to amortised, to keep it simple let's say that's 10m. So you have 40m plus on the book. Anyone you buy you amortise their fee over the length of their 5 year contracts. You could in theory buy 4 50m players, and the cost on the books for that year would only be 40m. 10m for each player, with the rest being amortised over the course of their 5 year contracts (10m per year per player).

If there are still people ignoring the fact that the ownership have been signalling all season that we're going to need to sell one of the big boys, likely Bruno, to help advance to the next stage of the project then I worry for them come the Summer. Someone is going to go, it's that or the Summer window won't be as big as people are expecting/hoping.

Aye, Dan Ashworth isn't a scout. There's a few interviews with him where he describes his job as sitting in the middle of the wheel, each department (scouting, data, first team, womens team etc) being spokes that all report to him.

Doesn't that Falk guy have a track record of being a bullshit merchant?

Yep, the first PL shirts with Asics (both home and away) are only beaten by 95/96 Adidas for me. Would love to see a reimagined version of the paint brush blue Asics strip.

I personally feel like clubs should be allowed to go over the allowed loss limit, with the proviso that however far past it they go, they have to put that same amount of money aside. The club only getting access to it either when the club changes ownership, or after a set period of time. Essentially you can go say 20m over the limit, but you have to then put a further 20m aside. If FFP were really about ensuring clubs can't spend beyond their means or get left high and dry then that covers it. Obviously we all know what FFP is actually about.

I do think Sky will start to get restless if there are further Jan windows like this. Viewing figures/general engagement will be way down. Between commercial partners, and FFP starting to bite even for top 6 sides (Man U and Chelsea both apparently limited this window) I can see a re-jig of the rules in the next couple years. I mean, even just adjusting the losses allowed to account for inflation would be a start. It hasn't changed since it was implemented.