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Caulkin: Ideally, Howe wants one more player in – another defender, most likely a left-back – before the window closes. This is his take after an interview with Eales and Ashworth

Was just thinking the same, Euros next summer too and Scotland are a virtual certainty to qualify.

40 million is about the same as Trippiers cumulative transfer fees for his career.

Sounds like West Ham might be walking away from a deal for Ward Prowse, with nobody else linked him staying put would surely help our pursuit of Livaremento.

Such a ManU transfer, overpaying for a knock off Haaland. The lad could be good though looks pretty raw to me. Very one sided. No doubt the comparison to Haaland is inflating the fee though.

Will hinge on how much he wants the move and whether he'll force the issue, can understand Southampton not been keen to sell, he wouldn't be a high earner, will be one of the best players in the championship and will likely be worth more this time next year if injury concerns are put to bed.

Mudryk, Shakhtar still laughing.

Nice stockpile of players with their peak years ahead of them we're building up. If he lives up to his early promise I can see them shoehorning him in at LB after a settling period. Too talented to play understudy and looks very comfortable slotting into midfield so maybe we'll be following the trend of the other top clubs.

Can't see another wide player coming in myself barring further sales or a long term injury. We'll have Barnes, Gordon, Miggy, Murphy, Anderson and Willock/Joelinton capable of playing there. Another player leaves us with too much invested in the position IMO. Considering the investment in Gordon they'll want to see his gametime maximised as well and it's unlikely to come up front barring injury. I could see a scenario where we move towards Gordon and Barnes starting on either side and interchanging frequently, given how much Howe seems to prize tactical flexibility.

Plenty of reasons why he might have struggled other than he's shit. Our recruitment has been spot on so far barring doubts over Gordon and has been given deserved credit for it. Ekiteke was their primary target since day one of the new regime. I'd still trust there's a player there somewhere especially at that money.

Perhaps keeps lads ticking over in the off-season when it's a slow time for putting up games of FIFA on YouTube masquerading as highlights.

Feels like I'm always expecting ASM to explode and have a spectacular season but it doesn't happen. If you took him out of the equation last season I'm not sure it looks that different. Barnes on the other hand guarantees you goals and goals translate to points. I see people refer to needing ASM's dribbling skills against a low block but the evidence from last season doesn't bear that out for me. Thought some of his worst performances were in those types of games where teams had numbers back and funnelled him down dead ends. Even in games where we struggled to score we still got into promising positions inside the box but lacked the quality to take advantage of them. Barnes has made a career out of getting himself into those positions and making it count. If you look at other top teams you don't see many examples of enigmatic maverick players like ASM, top coaches favour percentage players that they can rely upon.

Think Anderson will be kept until January and revisit it then. They'll be hopeful and expectant of a big improvement from him this season. His versatility makes him an attractive bench option.

Can't see Liverpool being consistent enough defensively to mount a serious challenge. It was their Achilles heel last season and all that will have changed is that an already ageing Van Dijk and Fabinho are a year older, Robertson has run the bollix out of himself for another 40+ games and Alexander Arnold thinks he's a midfielder now.

Definitely pickings to be had off Barca though; Dembele, Raphinha, Guler will be vying for the same spot.

Might be worth holding off on a RW for now and sign Guler next season.

Sancho be worth a punt?

What are the realistic targets for RW if we're going for an elite signing. Diaby, Chiesa, Raphinha. Many others?

It could be a case of there's just nobody available that fits the bill at a reasonable price. We've shown we're not the type to spend on a position for the sake of it. If it came down to signing a RW that they don't fancy or signing someone like Livaremento who they'd view as a long term successor to Trippier I think they'd plump for the latter.

A developmental midfielder would be ideal I think. We're fairly well covered in midfield now. Watched the Norway France u21 match last weekend and the Norwegian holding midfielder looked a nice prospect in the Kante mould, plays for Sparta Rotterdam iirc. Should be the profile of player we're after I think.

The interplay down the left between Joelinton and Willock was one of the most satisfying aspects of last season for me. Unless someone like Leao was available and we'd a clear run at him it shouldn't be a priority. Be really excited to see what an attacking left back might add to the mix there.

Keep Miggy, what we'll likely get for him won't offset what he offers us even as a bench option. He'd be great against tiring defences or even if we're looking to defend a lead with his work rate, not to mention there's very little chance of him dropping his standards or being a disruptive influence if he's not starting. He's a perfect squad player and good sides need them too. The RW spot could use an upgrade but a signing there would leave us overloaded too. I reckon Murphy would be an attractive prospect for one of the promoted sides and possibly bring in around 15 million but dammit there's just something romantic about the idea of him playing in the CL. He epitomises the improvement in the side in the last 18 months. Not an easy one to solve.

Thought once we moved for Tonali Szoboshite(from henceforth) was never realistic, maybe it's telling that Liverpool only went in afterwards... Think we're better served with an upgrade to the right side with someone who does a lot of good work off the ball helping to stretch defences with ball players like Trippier and likely Tonali operating down that side. Not to mention Isaks potential as a foil for others.

Think with Tonali and Bruno in midfield we are better served with another quality option that will threaten defences off the ball as well as with it. An upgrade on Miggy who we can't really expect the same output from next season, but would be an excellent bench option and wouldn't be the sort to kick up a fuss if he's not starting every week, similar to Longstaff

I'd say they were very hopeful but not certain. He came from a lesser league, going to the quickest in the world and wasn't renowned for his pace. Think we can all agree he's exceeded expectations.