DJ Barry Hammond

For reference, this is what happened when they asked him to smile!

I assume we’ve lost our best social media talents in the transfer window and have a couple of YTS lads doing them now?

****! We actually transferred the cash. Imagine being the one to hit send for this one!

We clearly blew our budget for these on Fatawu’s forever delayed reveal.

Announcement video as exciting as the signing itself… Wait, there’s more! He sounds as excited as we all are!

There are various ways you can transition a 4-4-2 attacking base into the favoured W-M attacking structure that provides suitable rest defence. It really isn’t that different from a 4-2-3-1, the positions and player rotations can be very similar.

Sounds expensive in terms of wages.

True, I think bring in a striker or two and we might look good in a bog standard 4-4-2. Most teams defend in that shape, so why not attack that way too?

I think that’s the potential conclusion of this one - can’t see anyone picking him up for a transfer fee and those sort of wages. Whether that loans to us, of course, is another thing completely!

Sir. Can you please remove yourself from the bus, please Sir.

Spurs are literally busing the guy to us tomorrow… add no-one’s blowing us out of the water on this one.

I guess technically you could say Rodgers was this - with his choice being to get handsomely paid to leave.

Well he’s getting 30+ minutes tonight from the bench - Panathinaikos are 1-0 down and have been reduced to 10 men at home!

No shocks so far in this round of fixtures so far… there’s normally at least one, right?

That’s definitely a “I want a transfer!” statement, just without the actual words “I want a transfer” so that he doesn’t lose out on any bonuses/clauses he would get from a non-requested transfer statement. There’s also a bit of “how dare you!” and “do you not know who I am?” in there for good measure.

Chelsea win today - impressively too (at least that’s my prediction).

Given Cooper’s managed him at England youth level and our midfield looked a bit powder puff - this could be one of our main targets.

An indication Panathinaikos will be coming into some money soon?

You’re talking about a player that’s yet to make a professional appearance. The best way to ruin a young talent is to heap too much on them too early. You have to nurture talent, put them in situations you feel they can cope with, ones that don’t require much thinking; ones that build confidence - and being involved in the first team setup and getting 10/15 minutes here and there across pre-season will be have been a massive boost to him. We’re tipped for relegation - so you can’t shove the lad into the starting 11 now and add the teams expectation of beating relegation onto his shoulders - the focus he needs is to just play and play without fear, so that will be selected minutes off the bench to start with. The signing of Buonanotte shouldn’t be seen as a negative either. It’s a temporary move so if Alves shows he is capable of taking on more later in the season, he will get more and more minutes; but in the meantime Facundo will give Alves a direct comparison in training of the sort of levels he needs to reach.

If you’ve got two sitting like Winks and Skipp that does give Vestergaard more cover - so maybe works - plus we might be pegged back in our own half more in which case space in behind us is less of an issue. The other thing I think is important is to not just focus on the starting 11 you look at what we have. Look at Ipswich yesterday - did great for 45 minutes, but then the effort started to tell and their changes weakened them further still. You’re guaranteed to need to make changes in midfield, upfront and wide areas after the hour mark in order to keep up the level of intensity needed - making what you have outside of a starting 11 in those key positions just as important.

I wouldn’t say that - he’s clearly involved with the first team, but you don’t just chuck a kid with limited first team experience into a side. You grow his involvement bit by bit, give him scenarios where he doesn’t have to think too much, he just goes on and plays his game. Alves - assuming he stays fit - will get increasing amounts of game time as the season goes on.

Well that’s why we’re dumping £10 million on Ayew! But seriously - I think the reality of the fee will be a lot different and that maybe we’ve paid a premium in total possible fee in order to stager the upfront cost. Maybe say, £5 million up front, a further £7 million across the length of his contract, then appearance, avoiding relegation bonuses, plus a sell on clause.

Sporting have been looking at him for ages (as have we it seems), so they clearly feel they can play the two together… but it’s also probably a bit of succession planning too. One way or another, this transfer will be resolved soon it seems - Sporting have just sold Fernandes to Southampton.

Given Ornstein is a London based football correspondent, you can guarantee the headline fee has come from the Spurs camp. The £20 million amount is also listed as the ‘total amount’ - so i suspect there might be a bit of totting up everything in that fee reveal. I imagine there’s quite a bit of structure to the deal with the upfront amount being a lot less - but at the cost of more in terms of fee for appearances, fee for avoiding relegation etc.

You can’t expect Winks and Ndidi to play full 90’s every game like we did last season - we will need at least one if not two midfielders to come on at the 60-75 minute mark every game.