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I don't think enough is made of how this guy was basically our best attacking player but Ruud didn't like his boots so wouldn't play him

Not especially, no, but I don't think I'd be much/any happier with Bamford. I think it would be making a signing for the sake of making a signing and I'm working under the assumption that we still have very little room for manoeuvre financially - a fourth striker for our one striker system, particularly one as unreliable as he has been recently, would not be high on my list of priorities

I would rather just sign one good striker than one good striker and Patrick Bamford

Chancers like this really have got baseless rumours down to a science. You can immediately discount about 99% of any links you see because they're always non-commital bet-hedging like "exploring", "working on", "make contact", "eyeing"

I've been told that's a big if

What if nobody wants to pay that much?

Still very much this, please make it stop

Which is completely understandable and the right approach but also sets the bar very low. Improving the starting XI in this case means buying a striker who's better than Ayew, a left back who's better than Thomas or a midfielder who's better than Skipp or Soumare. If we're unable to do that after making about £50m from sales then I think that's enormously concerning.

Don't think either played a game for us but Tyrese Shade and Callum Wright are both in League One, Burton and Wigan on loan from Plymouth respectively

I'm a little surprised too although we don't really know what his expectations are with regards to wages and playing time. I thought he'd be ideal as an impact option off the bench for a Premier League team like the ones you mention but I'm not sure whether he's the sort of person who'd be happy not starting games regularly even at his age. It might be that after a summer where he's perhaps been able to relax a bit more and not have to think about returning to training, preparing for another season etc. he's less bothered about getting a move unless it perfectly suits him and his family.

I was really hoping Onana would

I don't really get why they didn't bin him in the summer. It would have been embarrassing yeah but no less embarrassing than spending ****loads again only to still be crap because most of their players patently aren't comfortable in this system he has no interest in deviating from. They still only ever look threatening when they chuck Maguire up front and their first-choice midfield two is a no.10 and Casemiro who can't run - it's insane.

Well the metrics on height are that they are the same height and Thomas wins more aerial duels

Here. If that link or Spotify on the whole don't work for you then there's Apple Podcasts if you have one of their devices, or lots of other free apps (I use Pocket Casts). I didn't mean to be rude but given the subject matter I think hearing it in Lee's own words will make more sense and be far more impactful than having someone paraphrase it

If you want to know exactly what he said then I think your best option is probably listening to the podcast

Clanger against Preston aside I think he's been pretty good, certainly nowhere near poor enough for us to be prioritising a replacement for him

Quite a few yes, most notably Franco Farrell who was from Spain

Good stuff that. Not at all convinced Liverpool are a better team for the business they've done but you can't say it's not entertaining

I think they'll find it extremely difficult to resist the allure of reuniting Daka and Hwang, the Salzburg dream team

Reach and ODST were my favourites largely by virtue of not featuring the Flood, I found most of their levels a right chore. Keep meaning to get around to 4 and Infinite, maybe if they ever end up porting 5 it'll be a nice little trilogy to play through even though I know they're not hugely well regarded compared to the Bungie games

There's another £10m on the Strand Larsen asking price then. Properly thick behaviour from Gordon

Strike

It's been eye-opening if nothing else

Probably not much point. Unless something is imminent, in which case we'll probably know about it already, the answer they get will likely boil down to yes we're working to get players in, there's time left in the window but if we can't then we'll work with what we've got.

I'd have thought the last part would have been a big enough clue that it wasn't a statement to be taken seriously but seemingly not, somehow. Next time I'll attach a gif of me doing air quotes and a theatrical wink and see if that clinches it