TheBrownBottle

It’s not difficult, though - it’s easier to act fast when you’ve got a willing buyer and a player who’d jump at the move. Signing players is far harder - and if Gordon’s move is to go through before 1st July then I’m not at all convinced that this is a good thing; all of the transfer profit will drop into this financial year, so unless we’ve made an absolute arse of the books again, then it isn’t a good thing.

Spurs are wealthier than some of those clubs - NUFC and Villa are miles behind them financially

Yep - it’s pretty pathetic in all honesty. The commercial side of the club post-takeover has been really unimpressive (cue folks telling me what % it’s gone up by, as if Ashley hadn’t compressed it to a ridiculous degree).

Honestly, I thought the RWs before him and after him (Fox & Solano) were better. Fox was definitely more effective.

I’m perfectly fine with it not being a PIF-related company, but it all adds to the question marks over our gobshite-in-chief CEO, who has spent the best part of a year talking big but delivering little

I haven’t seen Vlachodimos play, but there’s been positive reports of his performances in Spain

Agreed on all points - which is why it’s still ‘jury out’ for me. Hopefully with a full season and another summer under the belt (and better support around him) he’ll be a massive hit.

One of the tiny, irrelevant bug bears of modern football for me is ‘when did midfielders start wearing the no.6 shirt’?

It definitely hasn’t helped - nor have the keepers this season. That is why it is ‘jury’s out’ for me. There is talent there, I’m not yet convinced he’s the long term answer - but I’d like to see what he’s like with a better keeper and a holding midfielder in front of him

Just my opinion, others exist. I don’t think a back line that’s as shaky as ours can describe its new CB as being a hit.

The Targett permanent signing is the only one I’d class as a failure. Wood didn’t fit us at all, but he ended up costing us almost nowt and helped push Burnley down under us (as well as covering for the injury-prone Wilson). Kelly looked shite when he played but within six months was a nice PSR boost. Targett was a bit of an eye-raising permanent signing; he’d done well on loan, but it looked unnecessary to make the move permanent. For me, the following would be ‘hits’: Trippier Burn Bruno Targett (loan) Isak Botman Pope Gordon Tonali Barnes Livramento Hall The following ‘qualified successes’: Wood Minteh (PSR success) Osula (cheap fee) Kelly (PSR success) The following ‘jury out’: That Greek keeper Woltemade Ramsay Thiaw Elanga (borderline - I’d be inclined to move to ‘failure’ And finally, ‘failures’ Targett (permanent) Ramsdale Wissa (even if he bangs goals in next season) It doesn’t look too bad, but it’s heavily front-loaded in terms of timescales

I think he’s said in the past that they’re the club he’d love to play for. Hard to see that happening at the minute. He was always a cold one, but he’s been hilariously badly advised by that absolute crook of an agent he has.

Likewise - we don’t have a stellar record; and I’d bet my house that our forecasts weren’t allowing for the reduced prize money from a bottom-half finish

FFS - that’s not what I meant. Our hit rate was close to 100% in terms of transfers until last summer; I’ve never said anything except that. What I was saying is that selling is much, much easier than buying. So selling a player isn’t ’acting fast’. If anything with the way football’s finances work selling before 1st July isn’t smart, unless of course our finances this season are much worse than we currently understand.

It’s usually buying where the issues start, not selling

Yep - we’ve stocked up on the sort of wingers who thrive playing counter-attacking football, when most PL sides are now sitting back against us

This is the hope tbh - if we start seeing ‘under the radar’ technical talent showing up during the window then it’ll give someone like myself (a sceptical miserablist) a lot more hope re the club under the current manager.

Makes perfect sense that tbh

What struck me about last summer was that we were chasing players we’d been linked to for years (Ekitike, Joao Pedro, Trafford, Elanga etc). Most of them weren’t on the big boys’ radar when we were first linked to them - but it doesn’t look like we moved on re the targets list for years (arguably we also didn’t grow tactically either). Hopefully some lessons have finally been learned.

He’s only worth that to an English club - I’d rather lose the English premium than sell him to another English club

The passport alone is worth £20m

Agreed - I’ve not seen a player come through like Miley, I held back on getting overexcited until I saw him being shuffled into other positions and he just looked like he’d played there forever - completely agree that this is the sign of a talented and intelligent footballer

Amortisation is capped at five years, so it could be that. Too many people seem to think that a really bad summer recruitment can be corrected the following season, but the impact can rumble on for years with the way football finances work Five years is an overstatement, but we’ve likely fucked ourselves for at least another season, maybe two.

I think you meant to reply to me There are zero similarities between them other than the location of their birth. They aren’t remotely similar in terms of talent, and again the circumstances of their leaving the club was completely different. For a start, Gascoigne was a first team player I stand uncorrected on the use of the term ‘water carrier’. That’s what the position is - short passes to better players. If he heads to a Man City his career is pretty likely to follow the route taken by Calvin Phillips, who was also an England regular at Leeds. The fees being quoted are hilarious and 100% down to the English premium rather than talent I’d take him back, but I wouldn’t for a fee above £50m. That we’re talking double that is crackers Miley is a far, far better talent than Anderson was - if the lad can stay injury-free for a bit, he’ll be knocking on the England door next season

Needs ‘Lord Nelson … Clement Attlee … Maggie Thatcher … Maggie Thatcher can you hear me?’ on the soundtrack