Keegans Export

What sort of moves are you thinking of there? Genuine question, I haven't paid much attention beyond our own business

That stood out to me too. An article full of positives and that's the bit I latched on to

How do we (you?) know this?

Have we been linked in the past or am I imagining that?

We finished 28, 8 and 12 points above those three last season, with the injuries we had and Tonali missing almost the entire season. Considering we haven't lost any of our key players, how much are you expecting us to drop off and/or those three teams to make up?

I honestly can't understand some of the relentless negativity here. Must be exhausting getting so agitated over a transfer window that hasn't closed, rumours about our budget that have never been confirmed either way, reports of "unrest" behind the scenes that nobody had any actual evidence of. At the very least can we assume they're doing what they believe is in the best interest of the club and that they have considerably more information about our financial situation, players we may or may not be targeting and how best to organise things both on and off the field? Can the talk of "a 4/10 window" wait until our business is actually done?

It's definitely frustrating, he seems confident with both feet so why can't he play on either side?

We could just about get away without a RW if Howe can get Barnes-Isak-Gordon working as a front three. I was against it initially because I didn't want to take Gordon out of the position he was so good in last season but he's had two poor games so I'm open to it now.

That's considerably better with the white shorts. I can't think of when we'd ever actually wear it with blue shorts, what would clash with the home kit but not that combination?

I think the most frustrating thing about today was the lack of intensity. Obviously we struggled to do that last season due to the quantity of injuries and fixtures and we couldn't have got away with it after going down to 10 men last weekend but what happened today? We've had over a week off to rest and prepare and multiple options on the bench but we were so passive. A well organised press and winning the ball high up the field was a hallmark of the 4th place season, we looked impossible to handle on multiple occasions. What has happened to that?

We've got two good wingers. One is playing up front and the other one's on the bench We do need another addition on the right though.

Absolutely honking, bar the first 15mins. Not sure why we've gone 4-4-2, no width on the left. Gordon looks uninterested but he's hardly the only one not putting a shift in.

We'll have to wait and see obviously but in his first full season he didn't need to rotate (although he did balance Wilson & Isak's minutes very well during the run-in) and in his second he couldn't even if he wanted to.

Agreed 👍🏻 Presume we'll revert to three at the back when out of possession, Livramento given licence to get forward. Kelly seems much more comfortable on the ball than Burn and definitely a better range of passing so hopefully he can offer a bit more than BDB does from LB.

Was it the game Tripper approached that guy in the crowd?

Home kit with white shorts and socks maybe? Third kit most likely though I agree.

Well that's kind of the point isn't it? You, just like the rest of us, don't know what we're doing. We don't know what the budget is. We don't know how the negotiations with Palace have gone. We don't know how far along we are with other targets and how quickly we can bring them in if needed. What we do know is that our transfer strategy so far has seen us go from nailed-on relegation to challenging for Europe for the last two seasons. So perhaps we give them the benefit of the doubt, at least until the transfer window is over? Or does that qualify as "happy clap opinion"? As far as our business so far goes, here's a line from the Athletic about last week;

Based on what?

Three weeks?

That's fair enough but from a squad building perspective we loan out a first-team ready player and either don't replace him or we have to spend more than the loan brings in on a replacement? First option undoubtedly weakens the squad, the second potentially eats into our budget for CB/RW. It's poor business if we can't even get a loan fee or obligation at the end of it in my opinion.

A loan just seems like such a nothing move for us. Yes, it'd save £4.5m or so in wages but are we then just going to be happy with Tino and Krafth as backup?

Signed for £40m last summer so they could sell him for £35m and still make a "profit" in PSR terms. Know little about Tapsoba but he seems a very attack-minded CB, arguably a more like-for-like Schar replacement than Guehi.

He's on the bench according to the BBC

Personally what I'm expecting soon is the result of the feasibility study rather than an actual detailed plan. So it'd be more like "The best option is to build a new stadium elsewhere so we're going to start the process of looking at options" rather than "Look at this fancy new stadium we're going to build on Leazes Park!"

But the point is, that's the same for any player we might dump a load of cash on, not just Guehi. Anyone we spend upwards of £40m on we really need to be a success, avoid injury etc. So do we just bottle it, stick with what we've got and hang around that 7th to 10th area or do we take the risk, spend money on a player we have extensively scouted, is our top target and hope Eddie can coach an extra 25-50% out of them?