Vaj

In: Trafford Scalvini Gallagher Elanga Ekitike Out: Dubravka Longstaff Yes I know we can't afford that and it won't happen, but we can dream!

Gallagher would be a brilliant signing. Different players but I would put him as an 'equal' to Joelinton in the pecking order so would get plenty of minutes, especially with the amount of injuries Joelinton is starting to pick up.

Probably deserves it but Elanga is built for games like Villa away so if he settles well in pre-season I would want the front three of Gordon, Isak and Elanga for games like that where the counter against a high line could well be on

Was going to say something similar. Lovely football, a top bloke as a manger and some really likeable attacking players (mainly Kvaratskheila and Doue)

Not a chance we are in for Ekitike at the price quoted or that he would come here over the other options he will have. Can see him at Liverpool once they sell Nunez

This will be a bad move if we don’t shift him. Hopefully this is because we are confident we can get more, because we need to get better at selling players and this could be huge for PSR

Thanks for all the goals but it was time to go!

Surely Vlach could go out on loan to a Greek team or something. At least give us a small loan fee and/or cover at least some of his wages.

Pedro may have been keen until Chelsea entered the race and then the talk of him only wanting Chelsea came out once he saw the pound signs and the 30 year contract

Surely he would start ahead of Martinelli who is a bit of a one trick pony. A front three of Eze - Sesko/Gyokeres - Saka with the rest of the team could win the league. If Arteta spends this much and fails to win anything (again!) then they would surely have to get rid. He has spent a fortune since he took over!

I get what you are saying but if the owners wanted to push some Saudi sponsors through you could easily put £10m through on a one or two year contract now and then up it to £20m once that brand has grown in the future. Better than nothing and just shows that they don't have the desire to fully maximise their revenues for whatever reason.

Was he that bad? Genuinely can't remember but I just saw him as a bit of a nothing player who seemed to lack any sort of belief and got injured a lot as opposed to being absolutely terrible.

Or four weeks later if you are Delap!

Tottenham and Chelsea both heavily linked with Kudus, need to forget about him as an option. Dibling or go abroad.

From what I have seen of him I would agree. However, I just can't see it happening. He is surely going to be out of our budget for transfer fee/wages combined and one of the big boys would jump in if we were able to get it to be affordable.

I would say there is a 5% chance at best that Pedro ends up here.

I really hope we go in for him

Hypothetical question, what would people rather: Joao Pedro for £60m Ederson (Atalanta) and DCL for £50m

The meltdown will be on another level when we miss out on Delap, Cunha, Mbeumo and Joao Pedro and end up paying a fortune for Elanga and getting DCL on a free instead

Is it the going rate? £60m+ is a huge fee and that is what it looks like it is going to. Yes there is no catalogue with prices in it, there is a price the selling club want which can be inflated and a price that a buying club is bidding which might be too low. Without Chelsea getting involved I think the deal would get done for less than it now will with their being two bidding teams. We have correctly gambled on that because if we just gave them the £60m they want we would then not be able to do other deals that want to do. There are a lot of holes in this squad to fill and we can't blow massive amounts on one position. If we bended over to Burnley, Brighton and Forest for what they "want" we would end up paying an extra £25m to our initial offers and then we would have to potentially wave goodbye to signing a centre back as a result. Therefore, we have to negotiate or move on to get everything we need.

Can't have a go at the club for not overpaying. Overpay for Joao Pedro would then mean that we have less money, or no money, for the other important positions in the side. On top of that it won't be as simple as if we agreed a fee weeks ago we would have got him. Chelsea would have been kept informed on any deal and would have probably just come in earlier and we would have been in this exact same boat but a few weeks earlier. As others have mentioned, this is PSR, and with PSR as it is we will probably never be able to fully compete and establish at the top on a consistent basis. Or at the very least we have to do everything perfectly to do so. It is a shame because it sucks the joy out of football a bit.

Get what you’re saying but he’s obviously important to Howe and that means more. We have already said we only have a small pool of players we are going from, that list keeps getting smaller and we know that they won’t panic and buy someone that they don’t fully believe in

Yeah I really want him but I will be very surprised if he doesn’t end up at Chelsea now. As mentioned, concerned that we will now panic and overpay on Elanga. Looks like we have wanted Delap, Cunha, Mbeumo and Joao Pedro, so to get none of them is gutting but can’t be helped when they sky six have so much financial power. Who’s next?

Would make sense with how much he has dropped off to be fair

Is he one that is potentially older than they think he is? Hence why he was so good at junior level because he was actually a few years older