Steve Earle

So, any news? Rumours?

A quarter’s good, a half isn’t? Don’t understand that at all. Both Evans & Dawson are good PL players. I’m not sure Gibson is.

Not the most interesting of topics but IMO we haven’t had as bad a player as Benny anywhere near the first XI since the ‘greatest escape’ season. In the highly likely event that there are no bids for him, we need to pay him to go!

Wouldn’t be unhappy but would prefer Craig Dawson...

Agreed. Wonder why Hughes didn’t make the trip to Austria? Dawson’s a solid player, strong, decent & worth a place in most mid-table PL teams. IMO he’s a better third choice CB than Wes for next season, & a better third choice RB than Amartey et al. Of course, anyone’d be better than Benny. We have to pay him to go!

ndidi silva drinky mendy ---- hamza that'd do me

Is this the Ziyech thread? Asking for a friend. A friend called Roy.

Really hard to judge pre-season friendlies. Some tentative conclusions might be drawn, among them: 1 Gray isn’t a striker in the making 2 Slimani doesn’t give one, and has to be eased out 3 Diabate isn’t ready for regular PL football 4 Mendy might, just might, be worth keeping 5 Madders is a player - I think we knew that! But I’m worried that without further creativity, we’ll be as reliant on him next season as we always have been on Mahrez 6 Elder has come on leaps & bounds in a year. Could be Fuchs’s successor next season in competition with Chilwell 7 Of all our ‘surplus’ strikers, Ulloa could be the keeper. He wouldn’t mind a role on the bench for one more year. He looks leaner & fitter than a year ago. He offers a plan B (or C). Takes a mean penno too! What do you think?

FFP, old bean. Not FFS!

Time will of course tell but the thing I’ve fekt all along about this player is he’s a gamble. And I’m not sure we should be taking £20+ M ones.

The Immortals went half a season with just three strikers - Vards, Shinji & Leo. We have 2 or 3 too many now!

That's partly right. The fee would be too high...

When we get linked with someone like Jordan Ayew. Oh, hang on a minute

And stil not even a tenuous link to Ziyech...

I'm pretty sure we agreed to pay a fee which could rise to E (you can tell how old my keyboard is!) 30m, a little under £28m, which was the figure widely reported at the time. Since then the figures of £29m & £30m have slipped into usage but not for any reasons based on fact. If I had to guess, it'd be that we paid E25M (£22.4m) and the add ons haven't been triggered. If I'm right, and I'm only reading between the lines here, then Ian's our record signing. BTW, I'd rather we take £12-18m for Slim than loan him out - what'll he be worth a year older?

Meh

Gut feeling Geoff or based on information received?

Decent No evidence for the much-vaunted three at the back as we played 4231 then 433. Highly promising start by Madders. Kaputska looked pretty good too.

That’s true ?

One of, if not the very worst, ever to play for us. AFTER his injury. Shot on target = goal. Repeat. He was brilliant for a few months before his injury, obviously!

You no doubt know loads of stuff that I don’t, but much as I loved Waller & Kasey, IMO Schmeichel’s better than both. By a distance! I’m perfectly relaxed about people disagreeing with me!

I’m sorry but how old are you? Eight? Ten? He’s by a distance the best goalkeeper we’ve had since Shilton. And yes, I berate his wall set up/positioning from direct free kicks and acknowledge we’ve had better at defending crosses and corners. He’s not perfect, but nor was Shilton.

Kasper’s the best keeper we’ve had since Shilton. Younger readers please google. Quite why the odd mistake (which all keepers make) gets him such grief on here I don’t know. We don’t need a keeper to push him either, just adequate cover. Do De Gea & Courtois beef pushing? Harrumph!

Franco Baresi, Bobby Moore, Carles Pujol...just to make it more than a one off!

Just stumbled into this thread while looking for the Ziyech and Shaqiri threads. Any news on either anyone?