Keegans Export

According to Edwards (I know...) Isak was after about £200k/week so it wasn't just agreeing the fee that was the problem...

10 months ago our squad looked like certs for relegation. Our focus is (and should be) on improving the starting XI first and foremost. I've got no doubt that if you asked Nickson & Ashworth to bring in a "squad filler" CM and RW they'd find someone, but why throw money at the bench when the first team needs to improve so much? Clearly we're working with a fairly strict budget, we don't have the luxury of spending chunks of it on players who might become good players.

Nah, if that was Almiron he would have cut back onto his left foot by which point the move has completely broken down

I think the plan is for Botman to be that calibre. Obviously we'll have to wait and see on that one.

Regardless of whether you rate him or not it's good to see another one come out of absolutely nowhere (like Maddison). We are clearly keeping our list of targets very close to our chests.

Take out that middle sentence and you could be talking about Almiron.

True, but we also scored with an absolute twatting from 25 yards and a deft finish from Wilson. These things work both ways. I'm in no way an xG truther but it can give a reasonable indication and ours was pretty much bang on 2 for the Forest game.

Nah, you solve one problem (RW) but create another (LW). Net gain would be pretty minimal unless we brought in a decent replacement for ASM.

He's got 19 goals and 9 assists in 75 games - that's about 10 goals/5 assists per 38 games. Plus he only starts about 2/3 of the time. edit - he's averaging about one attacking return every other game.

I think of all the players we've been linked with recently that I'd consider realistic or doable, Pulisic would be pretty much top of my list.

Unless they have come down considerably from their £50-60m valuation of Isak there's no chance of either of those moves happening.

GIMMIE A P.... GIMMIE AN A.... GIMMIE A Q....

Gordon is one of those where his value to Everton is probably quite a bit higher than his value to anyone else. If they sell him towards the end of the window for £35-40m I don't think that's a good deal for seller or buyer.

I hope Margot Robbie is going to turn up to my house and give me a night of unbridled passion. About as much chance of that happening as those "ITK" accounts having any inside info whatsoever.

£25m + £8.5m add-ons is within our sort of price range, judging by what we were offering for Harrison. I wonder if this means we either think he can play on the right, or we're getting a RW on loan (Pulisic please...)

This is exactly it. Our entire squad needed a revamp, not just CL-level starters. Burn will go from 1st/2nd choice CB (last season) to 2nd/3rd choice (this season) and quite possibly 4th choice at some point in the future. We obviously want to sign those top-quality players but there is still value in players like Burn & Targett who are relatively inexpensive and can transition from "do a job" 7th/8th level (ie. where we are aiming for now) to backups at some point in the future.

Well yeah but surely we're better aiming to get our primary targets, even if that means waiting, rather than either over-paying for them or just bringing in whoever we can now because ohmygodtheresonlyjustovertwoweeksleftandwedesperatelyneedsomebodyANYBODY The rest of that post is just you getting worried by stuff you don't actually know - "From the information available..." and "It looks like we will..." As I said, compare our transfer business to those around us (or those we expect to finish around us). Apart from West Ham who I think have recruited very well, I don't think we're being left behind by any of them. Do you?

I think the first time I really believed the takeover was "on" was that leaked list of names on a flight. Obviously Staveley was on there but when you looked up the other names it was all associates etc. I remember thinking either it's real and something is happening or someone has gone to extreme lengths to fake it. Edit - the plane stuff is generally bollocks though. I mean, Sesko's agent was literally in Newcastle and he ended up at Leipzig so

Why? Any players signed on deadline day (for example) will have missed five games. We've won one of them already. The teams around us have either made minimal improvements (Leicester, Palace) or similar improvements to us (Wolves). Others are barely replacing players they've lost (Brighton). West Ham have bought well, Villa seemed to but are still struggling. It's not as if these other clubs are leaving us in the dust with regards to transfer activity.

Pulisic was mentioned (briefly) on the Transfer mailbag as someone we would be interested in should he become available on loan.

Always want Sheff Wed. Best mate is a fan so always try to go to Hillsborough if we're playing down there (and vice versa). Seems they're playing our friends down the A19 tonight so an extra reason to cheer for them...

If we sign him and he does the business I'll be first in line to buy all the NUFC-branded merch. The cowboy hat, the flag, presumably some sort of semi-automatic assault rifle

Pulisic would be class for us. He's on about £150k/week so there might have to be a bit of negotiation there but I reckon if we had him start 30-odd games he could be relied on for 7-8 goals no problem.

The problem we've got now is other journalists jumping on the next name (or names in this case) which in some people's eyes gives greater credibility to the original story. I still don't think there's anything in the Paqueta rumours but I really, really hope I'm wrong.