Casey

He rejected 200k/wk if those same reports are accurate. He'll get 300k easy elsewhere, and is likely worth it. That's £5.2m a year difference. It could well be the money, along with the higher likelihood to win things.

Aye. Sadly this is our reality currently. We can't offer the wages or fame that the majority of top end players want. That's why we signed Isak when we did in the first place. At the time, a cheaper option that had the ability with some question marks. Need a good year to keep our current purples and help entice more down the line.

He's perma-crocked mate don't worry, next one will be fit as a fiddle.

£250mil Saudi-Only specific clause, yeah? What do ya speculate is realistic for Isak currently?

Must've missed it. You don't happen to remember where/when that was put out? Tried looking.

Leave him at home, for his own good. On a serious note, rumoured Isak wants £300k/wk to extend. Loathe to post Talkshite or the crock that is Alex Crook, but that wage valuation is not unreasonable. Question is, what do we do? Isak is currently on £120,000pw. If we accepted, that's £9,300,000 additional yearly. It is also thought Bruno has a highest learner clause. Bruno is currently on £160,000pw (+£40k bonuses). That means another £5,200,000m (+£2m bonuses). Total increase of £14,500,000 per annum (+2m of bonuses). Current wage for both is £14,560,000 (excl. bonuses), so we'd effectively double our wage outlay for both. Might explain why there's no mentions of even an extension, just vague platitudes of him liking being here, confident he'll stay, yadda yadda. Is it worth it? Can we even afford it?

I'm not sure where this attitude stems from. Realistically £40m is the top end, but it's not unreasonable. If Wilson were 28 with 2 years left and had bagged 23 G/A, we'd expect that level of money, especially in this market. Let's say for arguments sake Wissa performs at half the output of last year, we'd be looking at 11~ G/A. He is currently on £25,000pw with essentially 2 years remaining (club option). What forward out there is attainable for £40m on modest wages where you'd expect minimum 10+ G/A? Yeah the market is fucked but this signing is likely the right level of business for us, even if not glamorous. Decent PL-calibre player, can play across the front 3, good output, acceptable wages & fee.

Nah my nipples are poppin' mate. Granted, I rate Wissa, but I'm never one to be a pessimistic fanny about transfers in general. I'm ready.

Rumoured that Brentford have a clause to activate 1-year extension. Feels mostly irrelevant though, you don't leave Portugal to return to London for discussions for no reason. No smoke without fire and all that shite.

To you pal, I'll be anything you want. Totally agreed. This could be a blessing in disguise frankly. Wissa for 35-40m vs Ekiteke at approaching 80m, with Wissa more of a sure thing presently. We'd also have more money leftover as feel we need CB/CM.

Doubtful this saga ends at 30m. The resale value thing is a little overblown. Not every player you're gonna get is 23 on the come up and on the cheap. It's unrealistic to expect huge profits, but you can break even including the value someone like Wissa can contribute to the squad. Hoping this gets done.

Totally agree. I often wonder if the people talking down have watched Wissa. He's a fantastic little player and passes the eye test for me. I really value components of his game; he's very composed in the box, often in the right places for 2nd balls, decent defensively/on-the-press and surprisingly decent with his big shiny dome. Hoping we can get him in for ±40m, bump him to a 4-5year and I think he'll still have value in 2-3 if we need to offload.

Always injured mate, good on his day that's all.

Aye this should be our primary strategy and clearly at one point NUFC agreed, at least when Mitchell was brought in as he's touted for finding diamonds amongst the rough. I think it's natural we always skew back towards this transfer strategy. Financially, we just can't compete for the premo signings that want big wages and what have ya.

Spunking 30-40m on this shagger was never something I considered reasonable tbh, so if he ends up elsewhere so be it. Do think we need another keeper, though it's less urgent and could wait til January frankly.

Liverpool get Ekiteke then swap us for Isak + some millis. Sorry

Not only didn't feature, but travelled with the team and then was sent home. I think we come out good either way as we'd be getting a fat stack but something is definitely awry.

Aye. It means despite prior plans to play Isak in the Celtic game, either Howe noticed in Isak that he was unsettled and sent him home OR Isak approached Eddie to discuss he'd rather not play and thus went home.

Aye, it is properly strange. Specifically Howe sent Isak home because of the media attention. At a loss to understand how that does Isak or teammates any good. Seems like it would only alienate and make things even more tense.

The result is practically meaningless. You can see we miss match fitness and overall we're not sharp. That's the point of these matches. Contrary to others, I thought there were a couple positives. Bruno first half looked sharpest for us and was not dithering too long on the ball (something he was guilty of last season). Whether this is planned remains to be seen. C. Murphy looked bright at left back and I'd like to see him get minutes. With Hall rehabbing injury, Tino/Trips can't play every minute at fullback and Burn at LB is a no-go IMO. Targett has little to prove and his ceiling is his floor, I think Murphy could rotate and has room to grow. Anyone else agree?