sushimonster85

Believe that was also Babayaro's debut as well. Campbell likely owes the career he had after that to those two.

To be fair, this isn't just a pre-season improvement. He was looking much improved towards the end of last season when Fraser went out injured, then had a few good appearances for Paraguay. Goals have only just started to come now, and are likely not super indicative of a PL goal return, but he has certainly earned the spot, at least against Forest.

Yep, this feels like the most realistic outcome. Which I also think puts us in a good position for the season ahead. Not as flashy as some people may like, but I would say it makes a top half finish achievable. Obviously would prefer Barnes to Harrison, but I just can't see us being willing to part with the £50m+ it would take. Don't think we will break the £50m on one player barrier till next Summer.

It's been this way since Ashworth came in. Hopefully a good sign he has tightened the ship in terms of negotiation leaks. Either that or the lad is on a massive skive.

Pretty sure they're in a position where they have to raise funds through player sales before they can buy, and so far no one seems to bidding for Tielemans

Barnes would be amazing. If (huge if given it only has one source) their opening bid was already at £30m suggests they may mean business.

I tend to think more along the lines of this being their plan all along, and they have now decided which deal they're going to pursue/close.

Aye. This could be the best way to get (non-owner) cash into the club, with the idea being that our commercial revenue will be increasing (hopefully drastically) over the coming season.

I'm not at all au fait in complex financial shit, but seems like a way of advancing themselves the TV money and ticket sales money they would be making for the season ahead?

Not sure where this belonged, seems a little odd?

I'm not going to talk about it anymore unless it looks like we are actually about to sign him. I just think anyone who actually thinks we are going to sign, or even make an attempt to sign, Paqueta this Summer are setting themselves up to be disappointed.

If you go back to late December/early Jan you can likely find that same type of article linking us to every player in Europe.

These stories from way before Jan likely all come from the same one source/original story. Probably either from Lyon themselves, or agent chat. Back in December/Jan one of the main things we heard about was how they're casting their net wide. Maybe there was an initial enquiry, who knows. But since then (and especially this Summer) all the links have been fan driven. Don't get me wrong, I'd love it if he signed. It's just not going to happen. At least not in this window.

Ah yes, Marca. Right up there with Sean Casey in their reliability!

We're not signing Paqueta. I imagine he's never even been seriously considered. It's a link that's been entirely generated online by people who see how close he and Bruno is and assume he must be signing because of that alone.

Giving me Wimbledon in the 90's vibes.

Think that's a little harsh. Bad timing with the injury towards the end of the season, but before that he was running himself into the ground every game under Howe. Looked way fitter as well.

Aye, the dude says as much in his next tweet.

There is absolutely 0% chance that is even remotely accurate. The fee and the wages would be beyond anything we have seemingly been willing to go to so far.

Get the feeling you may be disappointed. Not saying things aren't happening, more that it's a much tighter ship now. Don't think we will hear about the next deal till it's almost done and the player is on their way up for a medical.

Not sure it's the best thing keeping him here this season. At this point in his development he needs games. Full, regular games. Not the odd 10/15 minute cameos from the bench.

Bored and this thread got me thinking. Anyone think of any other sides that have a 'traditional' away colour scheme. Perhaps they don't use it every season, but they always come back to it. WBA above made think of this. More often or not they go green and yellow stripes for away. Man City keep returning to red and black stripes. Any others? Don't really feel like we have one? Always felt like blue was our unofficial third colour, but that's probably because that blue Asics away shirt is the first away shirt I properly remember/had.

Harsh on Morata. Werner's goal return in the PL makes Morata look like Haaland.

This. People tend to get blinded by how successful Bayern have been in the CL, but outside of Bayern, Dortmund and Leipzig, the Bundesliga is super weak at the moment.

Isn't that the guy who's notorious for not getting anything right?!