Viana

Thread inbound. Now a few more are confirming it I'm mildly excited. Eddie Howe turned Jacob Murphy into a functional Premier League winger with a goal involvement every six games. Throw in someone more talented and who knows what comes out of the other side.

It's almost like Luke has built a career from being a contrarian hack.

I don't want to disrespect Saint-Maximin at all, he's a wonderfully talented player that came up big when we were shit. I do also feel like the team becoming more structured - along with injury issues - have killed his career here. He's not able to play the same way.

I'm hesitant to jump on Telegraph stories given their recent record.

Respectfully, no. There was a time I thought we'd make a healthy profit on him, but he's simply not cut out for a team above 15th. He's a good athlete that can keep it somewhat simple, but overall he's a touch too injury prone and doesn't really fit into a specific role at the top level. He's Jeff Hendrick with a better engine.

I'm inclined to agree. Wout Weghorst was basically the Batistuta of that league and Sancho hasn't been able to repeat his numbers either. There's nuance to apply to Sancho, but I'm not buying he repeats double figures in the Premier League.

It's worth noting Diaby's goal involvements in the league dropped by 28% this season and it's not like he massively underperformed his expected goals and assists either. From an attacking perspective I think he's a slightly more refined version of Almiron. I think if FFP didn't exist we'd have done the deal, but right now, it feels like bigger priorities require sorting.

"DIVINE INTERVENTION" Toon secure midfield starlet.

I used to think this guy was genuinely connected but a few of his tweets this summer have me questioning that theory.

This is what makes Klopp’s ceiling remarks laughable.

I know people are saying it's weird, but I think it speaks to the way the club is now. This is a big moment and you need to give it that treatment. Chances are they've finished ideating on how they want to do it, now it's a case of pushing it through.

I think there's no denying Cucurella is good player. That said, I have a hard time deciding whether he'd be worth what Chelsea would want. I think he was a beneficiary of the Brighton system in the sense it was highly structured and allowed him to be on the ball a lot. Chelsea's system last year was the opposite of that, hence why I struggle to decide where the truth sits. Personally, if we're going hard for a left-back, be it to replace Burn or compete with him, I'd prefer them to either be a Trippier type who can create chances from deep and essentially operate as a wide playmaker, or someone with genuine speed and agility to stretch the pitch.

I had a good chuckle at this. Luke giving it the big un, when his exclusive turned out to be a smokescreen.

I still don't understand how Chelsea are able to drop these bids in. I thought much of the selling this summer was about them balancing the books of their January spending?

That's a great point. You could absolutely start by making it so clubs can only include one in a deal.

Easy way to boost followers and engagement doing crossover posts like this.

I think it's a difficult situation because of football being a contradiction. Every team has the same chance of winning the league (statistically) on the first day of the season. We both know the reality of the situation is that there's only three or four teams that feel viable as candidates to win the league. After that you do have a decent amount of chopping and changing among the teams. Leicester going down showed that. The reason I say all of this is because it makes governance difficult. Ideally you'd want the laws to help the smaller clubs and impede the bigger clubs to boost competition - a bit like the NBA draft lottery - but you can't because every team is supposed to be treat equally. Even my sliding scale has some issues because if you buy a player from the lower leagues and develop him then you're cheating that team out of vital money. Caps would have the same issue sadly.

There's a pretty fatal flaw in that system though. Say, for example, Everton sign Brennan Johnson. They couldn't include a sell on because Everton just finished below Forest. I can already see the lawyers lining up to argue it's anti-competition to remove clauses like this and limit teams' ability to generate revenue through player trading. You'd be better off saying that players under 23 see their sell on % decrease year on year they stay at the buying club. It wouldn't help Lavia, but it would help others.

I wonder if Southampton have a similar crap deal with Lavia whereby they need a fat fee to offset a sell on clause.

Joelinton comparisons feel spot on to me. Gordon has shown he's quite versatile and adaptable. Now it's about that skillset being applied to a particular role. Lee Carsley - England U21s manager - seems to have figured out what that role is. I think after watching him for six months, his upsides are that he can press quite relentlessly, carries it well, and can take up good positions. He's not blessed with a variety of tricks, but he's direct and that fits our system quite well. He'll be challenged when we come up against deep blocks, but even saying that he always looks keen to play quick combinations.

I'm a tad skeptical about the Kalvin Phillips and Conor Gallagher talk to be honest. Whether it was a bad headline writer or not, Luke Edwards went big on Barella and then it went dead. The same was true of Felix Nmecha and now Tino Livramento. Signing Gallagher would feel like spending big money on a player that's a lesser version of Sandro Tonali. We already have players in that mold with Joe Willock and Joelinton. As for Phillips, I can't see Man City doing us any favors on a fee, and I think if we're going for a player in that age bracket if they're available for a lesser fee (he's not) or they're truly elite and will move the needle (he won't).

I sometimes wonder if RTG is a circle of folk who are all so terrified of being deemed a 'mag' that they feel a need to prove how pro-Sunderland they are. The club isn't a mess anymore which is good for the region. At the same time, they have a lot of young, largely untested players. I think they could ask 25m for Clarke if he hadn't already had one go at the Premier League.

Credit to Klopp, he's somehow managed to raise that ceiling.

Ludwig Francillette.

I wouldn't herald the end of Ashby just yet. He needs football and so I think he'll be loaned and Livramento will be added into the rotation of league and cup.