sushimonster85

Haha just the extra odd 20m.

Aye, if you take a look on the main West Ham forum they all seem to take his word as gospel.

This Aguerd talk is start to pick up steam with West Ham ITK accounts as well. Likely they're about as informed as Burnsie/Casey is, but does at least seem to be something going on.

See some Spanish outlets linking us to Kounde through the night. Feels like a link based purely on 'Newcastle clearly want a CB and can afford him.'

I think that position isn't seen as the giant priority others (striker, RW, CB) are. Therefore they'd be happy to bring Eriksen in on a free, but don't want to commit the huge chunk of budget it would cost for Paqueta just yet.

Didn't fancy her anyway....

I actually think in terms of sources inside the consortium it's actually Caulkin who has the best links. Problem being he likely doesn't want to lose those sources, so tends to only tweet on transfer stuff when its all but done. Or passes stuff along to Waugh.

I miss being a kid in the 90's. Lack of proper internet and, y'kna, being 9-12 meant that one day I just woke up and we had signed Ginola or Ferdinand. Lived in blissful ignorance till it was actually done. Feel like the first transfer 'saga' I vaguely remember being aware of was Shearer.

I do think it's been eye-opening seeing how Italian (but especially Milan based) media essentially acts as propaganda for it's clubs when it comes to transfer battles like these.

I'm sure they will brute force the CL eventually, but they're the perfect example of how not to do it.

To be fair to City, if you discount those early days when they went a bit mental (comparatively), they have been pretty shrewd in recent times. Before Grelish their transfer record was the £68m they spend on De Bruyne back in 2015. Grelish aside, they have always tended to operate in the £50-£70m range for players, and usually for players on the up, rather than at the top ready to start declining. It's PSG that pull the truly mental shit.

It may inadvertently buy Milan a little more time.

I mean, that would £100m+ on two players. We aren't there just yet.

He does look a little like hippy Darlow, aye. Hope there's something in that link, he is massively underrated and likely wouldn't break the bank given his age.

I don't think you will see us make a signing exactly like that. At least not for a few years. Instead they're likely going to look to bring in players like Bruno. Not already established, but technically very sound, with a huge amount of potential to become that next level superstar while they're here. Hence chasing the likes of Ekitike and Botman.

Professor or Logan Roy??

Yeah. Have the same feelings towards Botman and Ekitike. They need to take time to do whatever is best for them. That being said, if I don't see them both down in Pop World necking on with 46 year old housewives at 1am on Saturday I am going to FUCKING LIVID.

Yeah, but the striker is Haaland from the most recent FM game and he is basically a cheat code anyway.

He will likely not be involved in direct negotiations, but there won't be anything in his contract saying we can't sign players from Brighton or vise versa.

Yeah, think this is a negotiating position for Milan as much as anything now that Botman has tipped his hand that they're his preferred destination. And if anything it only seems to have woken up Spurs and Man U to the situation. You have to imagine (that for this window at least) they'd both be ahead of us in his thinking. Especially Spurs.

I still think these early couple seasons will see Ekitike get more time out wide, and that we will be looking to sign an out and out upper table level striker this summer.

Agreed, although there is a case to be made for him not needing to be great going forward when he is on the same side as ASM. Far more important to be solid defensively, which he absolutely is.

Got a DHgate special for last season

Not only do they still have him, they still all remained absolutely convinced he is the greatest manager in the history of football, despite scant evidence to show he is more than just a guy who did well in a 2 team league and has just lost the guy who does all his tactical work for him.

Just pre-ordered. First (non-dodgy) Newcastle kit I have bought in years. Want to say the last official one I have has Virgin Money on it. Regardless of the sponsor, figure this will be a top that carries good memories.