ClaphamFox

If Daka leaves and Szmodics joins, you'd have to imagine we'd be signing another striker too (particularly as Szmodics operates primarily as an attacking midfielder).

Yes. They wanted him but it fell through after Kieffer Moore's move to Millwall collapsed.

Daka was in Bournemouth on Monday. Probably just enjoying a spot of volleyball on Sandbanks Beach...

This is from an interview with Szmodics published just a few days ago: "The midfielder’s perspective on the style of play resonates strongly with current debates in football circles. Szmodics prefers a more direct style, a sentiment encapsulated in his critique of over-caution in play: “I’m not a fan of the teams that just keep the ball and don’t go anywhere with it. I like to see teams take the game forward, to push the boundaries.” His philosophy aligns with a growing frustration among fans and pundits alike with overly cautious tactics, advocating for a dynamic, forward-thinking approach to the game." Shhhhhh. Nobody tell him....

Were the marketing dept planning to take the reveal pics on an oil rig but were struck by last minute jitters about the optics?

I just listened to the WYS podcast and didn't get the impression that Enzo is getting any pushback on his attempts to modernize the club. He definitely wants changes, but nothing Balagué said implied that there was a power struggle - or at least that's how it sounded to me. As others have already pointed out, though, Balagué's claim that Burnley have been relegated because they kept faith with their promotion squad was plainly ridiculous, and it was weird that neither OPA or Piper called him out in it. In fact, Piper repeated the claim a few minutes later. It was very odd - a few seconds of research reveals that Burnley changed their squad extensively last summer. They might not have been able to splash tons of money around, but they definitely tried to significantly refresh the squad.

He wants more support staff around the first team. We don’t know exactly what these are but they may include more specialist coaches, scouts, data analysts, health/nutrition experts, etc. He’s seen how the support structure works around Guardiola and he wants something similar with us.

Do you think we’d be able to buy another centre half with his passing range?

But refreshingly, he doesn’t seem to be asking for a massive transfer budget he knows we can’t afford, nor a ridiculous wage for himself. He just wants to see whether the club is serious about making the step back up to the next level. I think most of us could get behind him on that.

But he’s saying exactly the same as Balague…

Guillem Balagué has already reported that Maresca would prefer to stay, so it’s not even news really. It seems it will probably just come down to whether Top is willing to make the back room changes that Maresca asks for. On balance I reckon he will.

But if their idea of taking advantage of our need to sell is to offer us £15m, then it won’t happen. Is a club likely to come in for KDH before the end of June that: a) is willing to offer £25m+; and b) is a club that KDH wants to join? Two major unknowns there. Of course a club that meets these criteria may come in for KDH, but if that doesn’t happen we may just have to accept another PSR breach.

We're not the kind of club that can afford to drop a first team player because they don't want to sign a new contract. You could make a case for saying that in his last season with us Tielemans didn't deserve to be in the team on merit, but that's a different argument. Soyuncu wasn't left out because he refused to sign a new contract. There was obviously something very personal between him and Rodgers.

This is where it may get complicated. I can see KDH wanting to go to one of the current top eight, but I imagine he'd regard any team below that as a sideways move at best. Would he accept being pressured into a sideways move that he doesn't think is in his best interests? None of us know for certain, but personally I'm not convinced he would. If the only offers we receive for him are from the likes of Palace, West Ham, Fulham or Brentford etc, I suspect he'll still be with us next season.

Where have you heard it's a done deal?

It isn't just about the cost of finding a replacement for unwanted players, though. I think if we sell a player for less than his amortised value, we have to record a loss - which can have obvious implications for PSR. If there were no PSR rules to worry about, a club might decide to just take a hit and sell an unwanted player at a loss. But because the current rules penalise clubs for making losses on players, getting rid of players you don't want is much more complicated.

This is my take on it. I don't think Maresca is throwing his toys out of the pram - I think he just doesn't fancy the prospect of navigating a difficult season in the PL with a shoddy operation behind the scenes. If we're serious about avoiding relegation and re-establishing ourselves as solid PL club, we should give him all the support he wants. And I think Top will see it that way, too.

This has been discussed a fair bit, but it bears repeating: you can’t sell a player to another club if he doesn’t want to sign for them. It’s not a slave market. So yes, it absolutely will have to be his choice too.

I think the issue is that KDH may not want to leave but the club might need him to leave to generate funds to avoid another PSR breach for 2023/24. But you're right - nobody can force him to sign for another club if he doesn't fancy it, which means we'll have to find another way of raising the funds...

They don't make it obvious, do they? Glad you found it in the end...

I think that's a bit of a reach. For every young player we've loaned out who has gone onto be a major asset for us, many others have been sold for peanuts or released and have ended up plying their trade in the lower divisions. Loaning out a young player can give them very useful experience, but it's not a magic formula for turning a mediocre player into a good one. I like Luke Thomas and I wish him all the best, but all the available evidence suggests that he isn't anywhere near to the standard we require - and loaning him out at an earlier stage in his career wouldn't have made any difference to that.

It's reassuring to know we're targeting a quick centre half. If the rest of our targets are similarly in line with what we need, we might have a decent transfer window this summer.

According to the other poll, almost 75% of renewing season ticket holders (including concessions) who had a physical card last season will be sticking with one next season. If that is replicated across the fanbase, this £25 policy must either be considered a colossal failure (if the intention was to put people off physical cards) or a major success (if the motive was revenue generation).

But then images started emerging of a plausible-looking kit with PTT as the sponsor. So either: a) people are creating fake mock-ups based on kylelolly’s rumour; or b) kylelolly was right that PTT is the new sponsor but for some reason got cold feet about revealing it so tried to pass it off as a joke. I’m leaning towards b).