Viana

Finneran seems the most likely to make a first team impact soon. Sahar looked like a kid when he played against Qarabag.

He definitely looks like he's lost a bit of speed and agility from his last season with us.

Yes and no. It's probably above what we should consider average for the club right now, but not quite touching the top tier (circa 160k per week). For that reason we can't just throw 100k at him without figuring out where that money is coming from, be it the wages saved on departed players, or from moving on Wissa and whoever we can. Putting all of that carry on to one side for a moment, I do like David as a player. I think he's far more in line with what we were looking for when we signed Wissa. This is why I never liked Wissa. So many of his goal were him pouncing on chaos that we just don't create. We needed someone with a bit of guile and subtlety to their play and Wissa has never been that. Even his first league goal for us was basically carnage in the six-yard box. It was peak Brentford.

Been learning Spanish all year. They've been done again. To lose him and Trent for £10m is honking.

I would, because in reality owners are only ever temporary. I can get on board with the idea of financial limitations on clubs, but right now it's not creating parity it's creating stasis. The top block buy players from the ones just below them who aspire to be in the top block. That same group below the top block then have to go and find more talent and hope it clicks in the same way. At the risk of rehashing our last chat (which I enjoyed so thank you), selling Garnacho and Hojlund is not the same as us selling Gordon and Isak. The top clubs can get away by selling outcasts to keep them on the right side of accounting, knowing their revenue streams far out strip others. The problem is you unlock those streams by performing. Look at the reports saying our Sela replacement has been hampered by poor performance. You may say Man Utd earned that status as a legacy brand, which is fair, but a big part of that journey was investment to keep momentum going. We won the cup and finished 4th, only to then lose our star striker and key targets ultimately settling for Woltemade and Wissa, one of whom is a huge bust. Clubs in our position struggle to convince the talent to stay, and that's in no small part because we can't match their ambition as quickly as rivals like Chelsea and Man City could at similar stages. As I say, pop a cap on spending by all means, but the cap in terms of an actual number has to apply to all clubs. If you can spend 200m, we can spend 200m. If your wage bill can hit 50m a week, ours can hit 50m a week. That's when you get competition.

I was in love with Smit in January. He looked like the second coming of De Bruyne, but my excitement has dimmed since. EDIT: Jonathan David would be good fun, but at 100k a week (rough maths) that's a big investment. I'd be up for trying it if we can find Wissa a new home.

But I believe Bird wrote it, no? I'll take your word on Hope, I've not had a bad experience with him.

Someone (who I presume is his dad) posted a compilation of his performance against Espanyol. Lots of energy, but his touch was like a trampoline.

This is spot on. One of my favorite players is Carlos Valderrama. To his credit, he was said to be incredibly strong but he wasn't known for long dribbles or ball carrying (especially when he got older). The idea we'd lose someone with his intelligence and vision just for another Jordan Henderson makes me sad. I always loved what Johan Cruyff had to say about Guardiola the player. "I told Guardiola: You need to always take care of one thing. You need to have two midfielders close to you, and defend only your area in the field. You’ll be the best defender there is. Prevention is better than cure. If you don’t watch where they are, and they leave you alone, you are the one getting the punishment."

In time I may look very stupid here; but this reads like Lille desperately trying to drive the price up. I don't see a £60m player in him right now. He has some nice attributes but he still looks incredibly raw. There's not a great deal of subtly in his dribbling. It's a lot of kick and rush and he appears very one footed. In numbers terms, he got 8 goals in 41 games last season. For comparison, Gordon was bettering that for about £20 million quid less in his first full season here at a similar age. If you're adamant he's a £60m player then he needs to be surpassing Gordon at his best (10 and 10 in the league) and I don't think he'll do that anytime soon. They're demanding a 'what he could be' fee instead of a 'where he's at + bonuses'.

From what I'd read he can be an absolute menace at times, but has a tendency to do little off the ball with a general inconsistency to his performances.

Ghastly stuff, but I'd expect nothing less from Simon Bird.

Can you elaborate?

He reminds me ever so slightly of Bernardo Silva in so much as he was such a good footballer that he comfortably played across midfield, including long stretches in central midfield. I remember walking behind him once when I was much younger and he swore like a trooper mind.

Shame to see him released, but academy recruitment like this has always felt like a numbers game. He likely earned more attention when he joined because there weren't many publicized seven-figure academy signings under Ashley.

The TV station for people who just aren't getting enough boat action from Canal 1, Canal 2, and Canal 3.

Good on them I say. Enjoy it now, you don't know if it'll turn to shit in 12 months. I don't think they'll slide back down to League One anytime soon, but I think if nothing else it should light a fire up the club's arse to do more and be better. Post takeover we've dominated the region from a media and visibility standpoint.

His last game was mid-April against Palace. After that he was said to have an injury. He missed six games, but by the time Palace was done I don't think anyone expected us to do anything. Perhaps the stories came earlier and I don't remember, but the first one I remember was in the wake of Palace. It said he was 'keen to explore his options' and I think that was around the time his agent was spotted in Barcelona. To be fair, that agent will have many clients so it feels like hindsight analysis to say he was clearly there for Gordon and undermining the club. I think if you look at Isak last summer, the briefings were constant. I think we avoided a similar situation with it dragging on because we let things happen in the background. Again, I'm never delighted when players stop playing for us—it's why (barring something mental) I will always hold Bruno above most of the star turns we've had under Eddie—but I can accept worse outcomes were a possibility.

His profile picture is giving more Pulp Fiction than Batman.

So disappointing when those stories came out.

Can I shock you? I have a very poor mentality I'm also just a tad accepting of what can be controlled and what can't be. If we speculate that Gordon downed tools behind the scenes and said he wanted to explore his options, making that public only weakens our position when Barca come calling. I agree that I can think of a few others who want out, and for the same reason I'd rather we kept that discourse in house. We saw what allowing an agent to run his mouth can do with Isak. Yes, we got the mega fee at the end of it, but not before losing touching a month of the window and being forced into a deal right before the deadline that turned out pretty shit.

That's why I say 'too mad'. I'm not delighted by it, but if I'm honest, the season was done after we lost to the Mackems. We weren't getting Europe in my opinion after that result.

Iraola took a real risk leaving Bournemouth without having something lined up. If he ends up at Liverpool he can argue it's worked out just fine, but it does still surprise me.

Who fancies a bit of optimism on this Sunday? Newcastle once signed a lanky young striker from abroad who recorded 10 goals and one assist in his first season, despite making just 22 starts. His name was Alexander Isak. They've now signed another lanky young striker from abroad who produced eight goals and three assists from 24 starts in his first season. His name is Nick Woltemade. It's also worth noting that Isak took penalties, while Woltemade missed out on at least three spot-kick opportunities because Anthony Gordon was the designated taker. Give him those, and he's potentially looking at an 11-goal, three-assist season from 24 starts. That's not to say Woltemade is the finished article. There are clear areas for improvement. For me, two stand out: his physicality and his shooting from distance. At times he almost looks too controlled when striking the ball, sacrificing power for placement. None of that guarantees he'll reach Isak's level. But if we're looking for reasons to be encouraged, his first-season output compares more favorably than many seem willing to acknowledge. We just need to get wingers who sync with him better and identify what chances are going to best fit him.

Given the World Cup is on the horizon I won't be too mad at Gordon for sitting out a few weeks. At the end of the day, we saw how a star player can really fuck you around. Gordon didn't do that.