Keegans Export

That's how I imagine things will pan out. We're seeking a loan, ideally without an obligation. If we end up selling someone then it'll be someone on loan plus a transfer. I think we'd be open to offers (eg. £25m+ for Miggy, £15-20m for Wilson) but I don't think we're actively trying to offload them in a desperate attempt to raise some cash.

I can see the logic in selling Wilson but we'd then need a CM and a replacement forward, so how much better off are we going to be financially? My prediction is that no first team players leave during this window and we bring in a CM on loan - someone we haven't been linked to previously that none of us have heard of (except Kaka of course who will provide a detailed breakdown of his strengths & weaknesses)

£5m per major knee surgery

I think that £47m fee is going to look like a bargain within a couple of years

How much we are actually entertaining these offers I don't know but I think if we didn't have so many players out through injury (plus Tonali) we wouldn't be looking to do any business this month, unless a Gordon-style deal dropped into our lap. Now Joelinton and Tonali are both out for the rest of the season, Anderson long-term, Willock still recovering and Bruno on the brink of a two-game suspension, our hand is being forced somewhat and we probably need another midfielder. I don't think we've fucked up, it's just that injuries have decimated the midfield and moves we probably had planned for >30th June may have to be looked at now.

Depends on the three tbf If we added quality at CM, RW and forward, plus Tonali coming back, we could have a stronger squad overall - plus whatever we could afford to spend without selling Bruno.

Seems our summer plan will be to sell Bruno for a substantial amount then reinvest.

Like a right-sided Joelinton/Willock arrangement?

That is from the Athletic regarding Berrada

I'm sure he is aware but he isn't going to have the time mid-season to do a load of scouting, he'll (quite rightly) rely on the scouts to add to any shortlists we have.

If you asked Eddie Howe for three CM targets, of course he's going to name three PL players. He watches the league week in, week out and will have analysed each of those three thoroughly & be well aware of their strengths, weaknesses, areas of potential improvement. He's not going to name some unpolished diamond from Ligue 2. What he has shown is that he will listen to the likes of Steve Nickson and will certainly welcome signings from anywhere provided he thinks they can play.

Yeah it's their equivalent of Darren Eales

I think you can register a certain number of players who have played CL for other clubs that season.

We've been linked with him before I'm sure

2024 FA Cup it is then

Depends on which reporters you decide to believe I guess. I can only see Craig Hope going with the "not for sale" line so far although I don't really keep up with Twitter!

We have to start believing what the club tell us - this isn't about the 23/24 season. If this really is a ten-year project and we have an opportunity to boost the coffers by selling a 33-year-old, clearly we're willing to do it, even if it has a detrimental effect in the short term (which I believe it will). It's the same reason we spent so much on a "back-up" RB - because he wasn't bought to be our back-up RB in the long term...

I like Phillips but swapping Trippier for him (essentially what that would be) is an awful deal imo

Where did you hear that? Him leaving on loan would be a mad move really. Unless we were getting a hefty fee or a big obligation, although even then it just seems like a really odd thing for us to authorise.

I think you have to look at why they backfired though. We can go back and forth over whether we should have known about Tonali and his gambling but the ban is why that move hasn't worked out (yet). Barnes picked up an injury after a handful of games. So the "lesson" we can learn from two of the three is what? Avoid gambling addicts and don't let them get injured? I do see what you're saying, the choice was quantity or quality, we went for the latter and we are seeing the negatives of that approach. However, I don't think you can say we got three transfers "wrong" within six months of them signing, when two of them have hardly played through no fault of the club or it's recruitment strategy. We have to take them at their word when they said this has to be a project - we aren't looking just at the season ahead, we're trying to build a squad of top quality and we aren't going to do that in one or two windows.

I suppose it was different because he was so much richer than anyone else but I can't say it had any emotional affect on me. I was only 15 at the time like so I didn't have a huge amount of experience to draw upon. We've gone from the local-rich (Moores, SJH, Walker) to the national-rich (Abramovic) to the global-rich (PIF), but the principle hasn't changed - some teams have more money than others. Some have a lot more. They might spend it well, they might not.

Hindsight doing some heavy lifting there. Before the summer the consensus was that we needed a quality CM. There was some disquiet last January when we let Shelvey go and didn't replace him. You can't turn round now and say "Oh well we shouldn't have bought a CM" when the main debate in the summer was whether we should have signed two rather than one.

Signing a 23-year-old with 100+ appearances in Serie A and 25+ in the CL wasn't a bit mad tbf. It was widely reported that he was our #1 target for CM - an area most of us felt needed at least a couple of additions.