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Worth a gamble at a certain price, yes. They supposedly want about £20m for him which is very questionable value for a 28-year-old with one good season above League One level and not a lot else. Look at the list of Championship top scorers over the past decade or so and then look at how many have come anywhere near replicating that form in the Premier League. Anyway, since this isn't the Szmodics thread - Carvalho would be good but surely a loan would be more likely? Wonder how much Southampton had rejected

If they really wanted to make amends they'd throw in Mac Allister, Szoboszlai, Endo, Tsimikas and Jota while covering all their wages as well

No emphasis at all on trying to get the team tactically ready for the season then? Again, I don't think people are pessimistic about the upcoming season primarily because we've lost a couple of friendlies - I personally don't give a shit at all about losing narrowly to Palermo and Augsburg. The squad is starved of creativity and our plan to remedy that seems to involve nullifying two of our three biggest creative threats from last season, having sold the other one. Our strikers are a 37-year-old who may or may not be fit for the start of the season, someone with 26 minutes of top flight experience and Daka. In midfield we are relying on Ndidi getting back to a level he's not been at for about three years. With the season starting in a fortnight we've made four signings and the net result is that our starting eleven is slightly worse. We have an as yet unspecified points deduction hanging over our heads. I think they are all valid concerns and have a lot more to do with why people are feeling negative than losing 1-0 to a mid-table Bundesliga team.

The results are not the problem

Friendly results mean very little - true We're going into the new season with a points deduction and (currently) a worse team, manager and tactical setup than we had in the Championship - also true

He had time off due to being at the Euros so he's played in the one friendly he's been available for. I would love to know more about how you've determined he thinks he's better than he is because as far as I can tell there is no substance to that whatsoever. He went to Bologna because he wanted to play as a full back not because he thought he was above the Championship, and even if he did think that I'd suggest the fact he went on to be first choice for a team who qualified for the Champions League would mean he had a fair point.

How good does he think he is exactly?

Reminds me a lot of [black_player_name]

I have always quite liked him, with the qualifier that I do tend to have a soft spot for non-scoring strikers. His numbers are pretty crap but you have to take into account most of his time at Palace has been under Hodgson with his game plan of get everyone behind the ball and then give it to Zaha. His work rate and ability to hold onto the ball under pressure make him a really good foil for proper goalscorers and creators and a handy outlet for teams that come under a lot of pressure, which you have to assume we will. On the other hand, we are in very short supply of those goalscorers and creators and having just signed a 30+ year old versatile forward with little/no resale value whose main attributes are his adaptability and work rate, you have to question whether another one needs bringing in. For a low enough fee I think it would make some sense, but sooner or later we are going to have to add some actual quality to the squad because graft and experience alone are not going to keep us up.

That's about right for Everton going off Transfermarkt figures. Stones, Lukaku, Gueye, Digne, Gordon, Richarlison, Kean, Iwobi and Onana all went for big money, then there's a few like Barkley, Klaassen, Lookman and Godfrey who fetched 10-20m each

Per 90 minutes, Daka scored and created more goals, attempted and completed more passes, performed more shot and goal creating actions, completed more take-ons and had more touches in every area of the pitch including the final third and opposition box than Cannon, yet apparently the former is absolutely useless and the latter deserves a chance in the Premier League. Cannon is fairly clearly third in the pecking order and aside from looking a tidy finisher I'm not sure from what I've seen of him so far what it is he's actually meant to be good at. Unless someone offers us reasonable money for Daka I think a loan suits everyone provided we can get someone decent in.

That's what I want from Cooper if we lose to Spurs

Like Weghorst, I don't really mind Ayew and despite his pretty crap goalscoring record he probably doesn't entirely deserve the reputation he's got. Can play a few positions, works hard, outstanding injury record. But also like Weghorst, not at all who I'd want to see added to a squad light on goals and creativity. Can't see that we need another half-decent 30+ versatile forward and at least Decordova-Reid was free.

Wasn't that exciting mate but whatever gets you going

Yeah exactly. I'm not concerned about the performance and result, I'm concerned by the stark reminder of how many crap players we've got in and around the first team

Younger than I thought he might be, seems to have been around a while. Good how we went ages without having any depth at all on the wings and now we're stockpiling them, presumably only for us to end up playing a formation that doesn't actually use any

You might want to let him know then because he's played and scored for Forest today

In a perverse sort of way I would quite like to see it because he's very funny to watch, but at some point this season we are actually going to need to score some goals and signing a striker who in his two Premier League spells averaged one every 1100 minutes would not fill me with confidence

Even by our usual low standards, that is ****ing crap

I would be very surprised if they went for someone as limited with his feet as Donnarumma while Pep is there

I've done more or less this but with a twinblade - most of the time it's like you're running over everything with a combine harvester

Big three points, we are staying up

Definitely a concern. Our top scorers last season: Vardy 20, Mavididi 13, KDH 12, Daka/Fatawu/McAteer 7, Iheanacho/Ndidi 6, nobody else scored 5 or more. A 37-year-old whose last Premier League campaign yielded 3 league goals, two players who have left, Mavididi, Fatawu and Daka you would expect to chip in with a few and same for Decordova-Reid, McAteer is probably not quite up to it and Wilf I doubt will/would be able to perform the role he did last season.

Yeah I wonder what the appeal of international football is for any good club manager and particularly an obsessive football pervert like Pep. If he just fancies a change then fair enough but he could have his pick of basically any job in the world