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Maybe even low ball bids for Fofana and Chukwuemeka. Chelsea seem to want to move them on. Take a cheap offer from us or send them on loan. Options appear to be limited and Maresca has said he won't operate with a big squad.

I'd imagine the pay cheques and chance to grow his reputation for bigger pay cheques in the future is more of an allure than the post code or big city lifestyle. Not like Genk sits alongside Paris, London and New York either.

I'd agree but the assertion above was that a three year deal would be better. Five year deal, particularly for a 20 year old is ideal. I don't have a problem with a release clause but it needs to be smarter than a flat fee. Something like double his transfer fee for the first 12 months and then an additional £7.5m on top for each 12 months thereafter.

Rock up to the window closing Chelsea fire sale?

Helps with the amortisation for the FFP. You amortise the cost over the life of the contract. If we spend £12m then it's £3m a year amortisation over four years instead of £4m a year over three.

Quite possibly though one good season in the Prem and he'll be able to demand double the wages for his next move. He's 20 so presumably looking for a stepping stone move.

Chelsea offloading young players on loan to other Prem clubs makes a lot of sense. One good season and the player they were struggling to flog will go for twice the price of the previous season. In the short term they get the players wages off the books and maybe a small loan fee.

Depends entirely on how well he's managed his financial affairs during his career. In theory he should have a fortune in the bank but depending on who he's had advising them that may or may not be the case. Craig Bellamy and Bradley Wiggins are both recent cases of dodgy financial advisors ruining the futures of their clients.

Cannon would give it everything. Whether that would make any difference I don't know. Cooper doesn't seem to rate him though.

He only really rose to prominence at Sunderland. Spurs farmed him out on loan then flogged him off. I'm guessing we want a sure thing and hence are signing Ayew who has been playing at Prem level for years so we know what he'll bring. Clarke has got a higher potential upside but could also flop at Prem level. He's a risk and there's more reward there but also a higher cost. If we stay up and have a settled squad he's the type of player we might take a chance on next season.

Depends. It generally seems to be a stat that's ignored in football outside of centre halfs these days. You need to be able to defend set pieces in your own box and then depending on how you want to play have attacking options up the field. Man City can play a back four of Walker, Dias, Stones and Garvidol and sit Rodri in front of them with Walker being the shortest of the five at 6ft should they need to. Height is a useful option to have in the squad but not essential for every game as a lot of teams have moved away from a target man style centre forward. Man City being one of the few who actually still have one.

Signing on fee, pay rise, security of a long term contract and won't have to move house, change the kids school etc. No life admin required. Still playing Premiership football.

Bid up the price Brighton have to pay?

Marcus Leonardo is 21 now and we signed Daka four years ago. I think there's restrictions on signing players under 18 from Brazil so he couldn't have joined straight away and even if could how many 17 year olds are up to playing regularly in the Prem?

Mainly due to injury. I'd roll the dice and take the risk. Particularly if it was pretty much a straight switch with Soumare who we know is a burden.

Surely there's someone Roma are willing to swap and that we need. We can then agree to swap at whatever value works. Makeweight in a deal for Tammy Abraham? Add a classy young midfielder in Bove who wants out as he wants more game time? Eldor Shomurodov the big Uzbek striker, could he do a job for us? Let's get creative for a change.

Straight swap for Eduardo Bove. Add some bite to our midfield and I assume they want Soumare to replace Bove who wants to leave for more game time.

Yeah and Barcelona were interested in Tielemans every summer as well... agents drop "stories" to the tabloids all the time. Admittedly Mitrovic did get a chunky financial move to the middle east.

You see that depends entirely. Were Burnley to get relegated would you mind us picking up Trafford, were Sheff Utd to get relegated would you mind us picking up Hamer? They'd be Championship players when we bid for them. Maddison was signed from the Championship and did well for us before being sold at a profit. We needed leadership this summer so the signings of Coady and Winks made a lot of sense. Experienced pros with a point to prove. Cannon wasn't a Prem player, he was sat in the development squad at Everton. You sign the best player you can for what you need. Doesn't matter where those players come from. Brighton have proved that, they sign anyone that fits the bill from anywhere. The youngsters at Sunderland Clarke and Bellingham might well interest us next summer. If we lose more experienced heads we might have to go back to shopping for our of favour Prem players. I'd not rule out one or the other.

We won the league with a lot of guys who had mainly Championship and lower experience. We got relegated with a side full of guys with plenty of Prem experience. Culture, tactics and the quality of the individual player are more important as to where we've acquired them from.

Five goals in ten league games. Only three players in the league have scored more. Yeah, definitely isn't flourishing in the system...

Rumours around financial fair play issues as well. Cashing in on academy products does help that.

He's a great shot stopper which always gets good headlines. He was a leader for us as well which we did lack last season. Given how close we were to survival whilst being awful and having goalkeeping issues he may have kept us up. I heard the rumour Rogers wanted to move towards Ward as number one because he was better at commanding his area and given the number of headed goals we conceded that would make sense. Wouldn't fit in with what Maresca wants. We've signed a relatively short keeper (by Prem standards) on the basis he can distribute like a midfielder. Whether we'll re-access the priorities if we go up and have a lot less of the ball we'll see.

Vestegaard joined the season before Fofana left. You probably missed it because he did sweet FA. Vestegaard, Soumare, Daka and Bertrand what a summer of business that was. Faes replaced Fofana.

So you want us to go back to playing Rogers tactics? Maresca is 4 wins from 4 so far. He can play all the hybrid positions he wants if we keep winning. The more he shapes the squad and the longer we play the system the more profecent we'll get at it.