ALC Fox

I agree if we're only about maximising the money we get for him, this summer might be the best time. Next summer he may not have that World Cup premium. Not sure if TV rights will contribute to a huge increase in transfer fees again or not. In 2 summers' time he may well have lifted the European Championship trophy with England, when his value could go through the roof once again, but I don't think he'd still be with us by then regardless. However, from a footballing perspective, I'd want to keep him as long as possible. I don't get the 'he ain't that good' argument. He's just won our Player of the Year and Player's Player of the Year awards and plenty of pundits and ex-pros seem to be intimating that he'll go right to the tippy top.

I think the club being after 2 CBs is to cover our backs in case a Drinkwater style situation happens with Maguire, i.e. a last minute approach with the player handing in a transfer request. If it doesn't happen, then we have ample cover and real strength in depth in the position, and we can still offload players like Benny to a club overseas and Johnson on loan to the Championship or League One. Rudkin's learning, I think.

For a horrible split second I thought you were talking about Campbell

For someone so young in that position, he has a fair amount of experience. He could well force his way into the starting XI regularly this season. With him.on board though, I'm suddenly quite optimistic about our centre back situation. Hopefully this also allows us develop Johnson without putting too much pressure on him.

For someone so young in that position, he has a fair amount of experience. He could well force his way into the starting XI regularly this season. With him.on board though, I'm suddenly quite optimistic about our centre back situation. Hopefully this also allows us develop Johnson without putting too much pressure on him.

Indykaila has a Sean from Enderby poster on his wall

Nice to hear some positive things from someone who's seen him play a lot Hopefully Puel can work his magic and get Ghezzal confident and playing well again. At 26 he should be entering his peak years so it may turn out that we've got this guy for an absolute steal

This post might be more at home in the 'Unpopular opinions you hold' thread, but I'm actually quite pleased with the transfer business we've done so far. Good defensive upgrade in Evans Pacy, skilful full-back in Pereira Backup keeper with potential in Ward, who is arguably better than Hamer and Jakupovic One of England's most promising young creative players in Maddison An enigma of a winger in Ghezzal who may just need a fresh start under an understanding, astute, techically-orientated manager in Puel £60m in for a player who hasn't wanted to be here for the last 12-24 months Musa off the wage bill with only a smallish loss on the amount we paid for him Some promising youngsters getting game time out on loan (e.g. Barnes, Iversen, Thomas, Moore) Some more promising youngsters signed for the U23s Maguire, Kasper and Vardy are still here It's not a perfect transfer window by any stretch. We still have a lot of deadwood. We need more players capable of playing Puelball. Ghezzal was probably way down the priority list of wingers we wanted. But it's not the worst window we've had either. There are genuine reasons for optimism going into the season. Sure, things look a bit disjointed going into the Man Utd game, but the World Cup and injuries have screwed us a bit. When all players are fit and we have a settled side, we've got a squad capable of playing good football and winning plenty of games in this league. Also, foreign transfer windows and the EFL loan window stay open after Thursday so we're still able to farm out some of the deadwood until the end of the month. Things could (hopefully) look a bit rosier by September 1st.

Great to see. Hope they both have a good season for Nige.

Oooh, it would be sooooo good if we kept Maguire and signed one of Mourinho's backup options

Can you imagine all 5 of those title-winners being released next June?

Cheer up lads, it was a fitness boosting session with many first-teamers either absent or getting their first taste of preseason action. Iheanacho is back on the scoresheet and Harvey Barnes bagged 2 for West Brom against Cov!

How are we pronouncing his name then, BERN-uhd or Buh-NARD?

To be fair, I think you're right. Player power may increase the pressure to sell in situations like these. He could hand in a transfer request and/or tell a journo that he wants to play for Mourinho, etc., etc. But, on the face of it, Maguire appears less likely to be the kind of guy who would kick up a stink and go on strike.

From one transfer saga to another. This is another one that could run and run. If Maguire doesn't go this summer, it will continue into January and possibly next summer. I suppose it's good for the club that our players are wanted by elite clubs for astronomical fees, but I just think that with our owners we have the potential to crack that top 4 again within the next few seasons. Selling our best season after season will just turn us into Southampton. I just hope this doesn't turn into a Drinkwater situation where Man Utd bid for him close to the deadline and we've got mere hours or minutes to replace him.

It'd be good if the club could pledge to plant a new tree for each one that has to be cut down. I'd also hope that the newts could be safely accommodated on or close to the site, there must be some sort of precedent for relocating wildlife. They seem to be the major issues, don't they? Highways problems should be fairly easy to sort out and I bet many of the locals are just NIMBYs.

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Picked up for free purely so we can make a profit in a year's time? Or is it to allow Johnson to compete purely in his preferred centre-back role? Of course, we may have just seen something in him that Norwich didn't based on that article saying his former coach is now part of our set-up.

Sounds like a kind of Kyle Walker type role for England, and he is 5' 10'' and impressed at the World Cup. Perisic's goal wasn't a height issue either, just that Perisic is a beast, as further exemplified in the final.

I love the nickname 'The City'. I know it's not exactly original but perhaps that's why I love it. To me, there is only one 'City': Leicester City. I also like confusing non-football fans who don't know the difference between going 'up town' and 'down the City'

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He was brilliant tonight. I'm sure the commentator said he's been heavily linked with Lazio.

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Judging from this World Cup only, he seems to often choose the difficult option. Today he had time and space to take a touch and choose his spot. Instead, he goes for the first-time shot, trying to bend it into the top corner and it ends up missing by a mile. Granted, he may have thought a defender was near but if so that just shows a lack of composure. In another game (I can't remember which) he was passed the ball square and was running on to it. He was under pressure in a great position for a first-time shot. Instead, he rolls it underneath his foot (why? no advantage gained in terms of gaining speed/momentum on the shot) before taking the shot which went nowhere. So, he just keeps taking the wrong/more difficult option, either to look better when there was actually a simpler, easier and more effective opportunity available, or he's just not composed/good enough. TL;DR: Not impressed

If this is how it turns out, then Uruguay-Spain should be a very tasty little game. Portugal are a weird team, somehow spawnily just doing enough. Russia will have the weight of the nation behind them but I'd expect Portugal to just about scrape through.