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If we're desperate for cover for a month give an academy lad a go. That's why we keep signing them all.

JUST SELL EVERYONE! Then no more injuries finally.

Need some more exciting accounting deadlines to liven things up a bit.

Let's say we can sell him for, say 7.5 mil and save £5.5 million on salary. That's a decent chunk saved for one year. On the other hand we also lose significant depth at RB and lose one of our team leaders. The guy in our squad who's actually won a major European trophy. Unless we plan on buying another RB to replace him I'm pretty confident having Trips next year would be worth a few points at least which could well be the difference between getting a european competition or not, or even which european competition.

My prediction is we'll try to spend big (40 - 60million) on a top quality RW and possibly on a CB as well, or maybe spend reasonably on a slightly less established young CB, like that dutch spanish Juventus lad at Roma. Maybe 20-40 million range on a CB. I reckon we'll have budget for that, hell the club had a go at Olise. I don't think we need to do much more without Europe - we'd basically have 2 players for every position and that's probably enough. Obviously if, say, Wilson goes then he'd be replaced. Then maybe try and pick up a couple of cheap young talents Minteh stylee and trim the fat from the squad if possible (Dubs, Almiron, Hayden, Lewis, Targett, Fraser etc.). If we got a couple of gooduns in at RW and CB, a prospect or two, didn't lose any of our stars, and got a few of the 3rd stringers who aren't going to play off the books it would be a pretty good window.

I'd say what we've done with Anderson is basically what we should be doing with our good youth players: 1. He goes out for a loan, gets a bit of experience (probably needed another one at a higher level tbf). 2. He provides cheap cover in the first team squad and gets a chance to show whether he's good enough. 3. By the age of 21/22 where a player really needs to be playing to develop and before he signs a bigger contract - if he's not looking to be regular starter quality then sell him if there's a good offer. We get a good fee as he's a decent young player with top flight experience. He gets a chance to be a starter and develop more. Squad spot opens up for the next talented youngster to see if he'll be good enough. Certainly wouldn't have been opposed to him staying as a squad player, but I'm taking £35 million - a crap goalie for a guy who was probably our 3rd/4th choice LW and 3rd choice LCM.

I'm pretty sure I thought Milner was a quality young player. Remember him putting some great crosses in from the right that never came to anything because Martins never attacked the ball! Mind you it's entirely possible he never played in the same team as Martins, it's quite a while ago now!

Yeah, Adidas shoes and Nike trousers from Slot not a good look. Gotta stay consistent.

It's been a lot more exciting than watching England at the Euros mind!

Every club wants and has always wanted more money and will put ticket prices up as much as they can get away with.

Perhaps you should DM him to enquire. He'll probably be delighted to hear from someone.

I do think Gordon can do a job as 3rd choice striker when needed. With Barnes then on LW. Gordon's lightning with great movement and has a poacher's instincts to get into dangerous positions. Barnes' injury last year kind of put paid to that when we really needed it.

Would be the right time if he goes, but like Jonas, whether you think he's a good enough player or not, don't think there should be a bad word to say about him personally or as a professional.

C'mon Comic Sans, let's get those mid 90's vibes back!

Yeah someone was going to have to be sold. Hopefully, as our revenues have increased a fair bit compared to the first couple of years of PIF, and a year or two of heavy net spending drops off he books, we'll be a bit more comfortable going forward.

If we can't get a real top draw goalie I'd rather go with the greek and Ruddy for a year than get someone who isn't really good. People here who've met him say he's a nice funny guy and he has been playing regularly in the Championship so it's not like he hasn't played for 5 years. Perfectly fine as a 3rd choice. Alternatively if we do get Trafford he'd improve more out on loan than sitting on the bench, so it would give us enough goalies to do that.

Saw a post on a Brighton forum about Ashworth where they said he described his speciality as kind of setting up structures within an organisation, and once he'd done that there wasn't that much for him to do. Hopefully we've taken his ideas, the most useful element of his expertise, to get our organisation up and running properly from the Ashley shitshow and we now just need to find the next chappie/chapette to take us forward. Also, he left in February. We were already in the PSR shitter with him as director.

Yeah think the only way a signed player's book value ever gets to 0 is if their contract expires and then they sign a new one after.

Wilson was £20million on a four year contract, in 2020/21. Then three years later extened by a further year. So if I understand amoritisation correctly: £20 million over 4 years means £5 million per year. 3 years (£15 million off) then contract extension. So £5 million remaining when he signed a contract extension. 2 years contract at that point so £2.5 million per year. One year later (now) £2.5 million left on the books. Everything over that is PSR profit. By the same method I reckon maybe about 3.5 million for Miggy. [* Note: Approx figure as the exact amount will depend on exact timing of contracts. Also, it's perfectly possible I don't understand it at all ].

I think historically Southgate gets too much criticism for being conservative - you do need to be more conservative in knockout football. In the league, 1 win and 1 loss gets you more points than 2 draws. That won't cut it in a tournament. Also, as international managers get less time with their squads, I think he gets too much flak for sticking with some of the same players who he knows work well together. I remember though in his first tournament, after one match where we hadn't played well and he was questioned about the team struggling a bit he said something like 'well we didn't really have any way of changing it'. And I remember clearly being so irritated by that: an international manager who had a choice of every player in the nation to make a squad, basically admitting he had no plan B. You manage, like, 10 games a year. What are you fucking doing with your time? It was the tournament where we played 532 with Walker RCB, Trips RWB and Sterling up front. I remember thinking, just go to a back 4 with Walker RB Trips RW and Sterling LW and there you go, 451. There's a way you could change it without even making a sub. It feels like this has never changed. He has plan A and if plan A doesn't work he'll stick to plan A. Perhaps we'll nick something from a set piece. That's what I find quite irritating.

Mind you I'm going to predict 8 million. Based on absolutely nothing whatsoever.

We allegedly want 20 They want 2 Split the difference: 11 Add a million for Ratcliffe being a whingebag 12 million final and you can have him now. Jobs a good'n.

New financial year. A year where we had a hefty net spend and low income compared to now drops off the books. Should have some money for at least one really good signing. Tbh a really good RW and replacements for any players like Wilson sold and I'd probably be happy with the window. We have 2 players for every position. Cracking young CB would be nice as well. Would like to avoid more PSR nightmares though, and feel like there's value to be had if we have some financial leeway at the end of June, so wouldn't be against a relatively quiet window.

It does make the public moaning even more irritating though. Paying more now (assuming you have) is basically an acknowledgement that you were lowballing before. And lowballing is fine, but if you're gonna lowball, don't publicly moan when the other party doesn't accept it. That's the part of this whole saga that's a bit annoying really. It's not very respectful of the other club.

Hearing Gordon on the overlap he seems absolutely bloody-minded in his determination to get to the top. If it doesn't look we're going to be able to get there in the near future I suspect he wouldn't hesitate if he got the chance to move to one of the very big boys.