DJ Barry Hammond

That is the only, very likely, problem! 😂

WAIT… I’ve found a worse deal!

I was mainly referring to the fee breakdown on this deal. The two others in question are probably David Fofana and Nelson.

Does this make it any better… probably not.

Given he has a year left on his contract - it’s possible that it would be cheaper to get Jordon to buy out his contract than to pay the reported transfer fee. Here’s hoping he fails the medical!

If they are you can bet they’re paying well over the market price for it.

Think I’d rather us pay Zaha’s tax bill.

Agreed, I don’t see how you change from the first 11 - there’s a game against Tranmere on the following Tuesday to do squad rotation.

I wonder what the collective club thinking is on this one at this moment. I think there’s been some hope that we might have landed another target (probably Asprilla) over this transfer - otherwise we would surely have got this done early this week to allow for a couple of training sessions / chance to settle into the squad ahead of travelling to Fulham. But Asprilla looks out of our reach now - so do we try and get this over the line before the registration deadline on Friday? I am sure there are some reservations on this transfer within the club, especially in giving a considerable fee to a direct rival - and that there will be voices advocating a further ‘wait and see’ approach whilst the situations for other targets resolve themselves in the final week of the window - namely, Reiss Nelson, possibly Zaha (I think Gala want him out to sign Depay - so he may get more of a push to resolve his situation next week). I guess ultimately we’ll find out over the next few hours what the club is thinking - but my hope is we hold fire and continue to hold out for other targets in the knowledge that if this is a last resort signing, we should be able to conclude it quickly come deadline day.

Cooper’s press conference is at 1:30 right?

That was an issue / excuse that was muted very early on - and I think the club addressed some aspects of that (like making the players return their food trays rather than being fully waited on). The club also identified issue around player leadership - which was a primary factor in us signing Coady.

You don’t get any xG from someone clearing off the line before you can nod it in.

Amazing how many people’s suggested teams completely ignores the readily available and inevitable “player scores against former side” factor.

Peak producer led content. “What can we ask Wout about? I know, hair styles!” 😏 And what exactly has been going on with that iPad?

With Ipswich, you have to remember that their promoted squad (and first 11) still contained a lot of players from their League One promotion. This in turn means they had more areas with scope for improvement - making it a lot easier to conclude on a signing. If you look at the 8 they have signed - do any of these instantly displace any of our starting 11?

Those comments are surely based on the first half - where every player on the pitch should get a ‘pass’. They were too deep to be in anyway effective with the ball, playing right into Spurs attacking and full press game.

Reid was involved in a lot of our positive play. He combined in that lovely move and was in the box and attracted defenders for our goal.

Their Conference League qualifier kicks off against Lens tomorrow - so nothing is happening on this one for a while yet now.

I don’t know if this is all Rudders. Lets face it, if everyone at the club wanted to do this transfer, it would have been a very easy one to do. We bid £4 million - so going to £6 is hardly a stretch - and you’d assume player terms would be easy to agree after that - so why hasn’t it been done yet given how long we’ be been linked to him after? Might there be an ongoing attempt to stall this deal - a bit like what happened with Sensi last January?

Link for Alves to a loan with Barnsley.

Lennon proving again that being a great player doesn’t mean you’re a good manager.

5 year deal for the player, that takes him to 33/34. And if you don’t sign someone for £30 million without a comparably expensive weekly wage so, it’s a retirement deal that can’t really be refused by Andersen.

But that wasn’t my point?

Don’t confuse having the tallest team to having enough players of a sufficient physical stature to be able to deal with set-pieces and other game situations. You don’t need everyone to be 6ft 4 - but you do need enough players of size / ability in the air across the side to ensure you’re not at a disadvantage. If a team consisted of 11 Raheem Sterling’s… they struggle against 11 Haaland’s. So Hatate’s 5ft 8, I think BDCR is 5ft 7, Facundo, Ricardo and Skipp are 5ft 9… you probably wouldn’t want to pick all 5 in the same 11.

It’s always something a manager should consider when building a squad - and you look at our squad / starting 11 yesterday, there are a significant number of sub 6ft’er’s in it. That might have been a reason Cooper turned to Soumaré late on last night - feeling some extra height to aid in dealing in any late set-pieces might be valuable.