ts_1010

I don't mind the way we are shaping up too much. You can see that there's a load of pace in our front 4, pretty much whoever gets chosen. I think this will be necessary. We have to carry a threat on the counter, we will be under pressure more often than not. A pace counter including any of BDR/Mavididi/Fatawu/McAteer/Vardy/Daka/ Cannon or even Nelson could do some damage against teams that will dominate possession.

Normally we only lock a thread once the player has confirmed for another club. But I'd like to lock this one now, and ask all of Foxestalk to help me manifest him going to some other set of spanners.

This is exactly who and where we are now as a club. I don't like it, but it's the truth. To be honest that's where we've always been. We stopped selling to try and compete with the big boys and we got found out. Thanks to PSR, all clubs need to sell players for a profit to be able to compete, unless you have the worldwide fan base and revenue of the super league teams.

Those of you who are saying we don't need him because we have Soumare, shouldn't be pressing that submit button. It's a yes from me.

Not a bad shout at all. We have nothing like him in our squad. I can see us going for a physically dominant forward, to help us get up the pitch or cause some chaos later on. If it's not him I can see us finding another guy like him.

So this is quite similar to what Southgate has been trying to achieve with England. Only he used 2 players in Tripper and Foden who both wanted to be inside. I could only see Kristiansen doing that on our left and I'm not sure that Mav is the guy to come inside and create. I think he is happier with his heels on the paint. We could swap sides with that though. I could see Fatawu causing all sorts of problems on the corner of the penalty area if Ric or JJ are bombing around the outside. To be honest, with Cooper's flexibility, we could run a sweepstake on the formation we end up using.

I'd rather go for a younger attacking midfielder. Or one that has a bit of prem experience. This guy feels like an he's going to be half way down the list of options. He could be a very expensive backup. I'd rather let Alves and now Golding get the minutes.

I have to wonder whether they are hyping this move to build the feeling that we are busy and ambitious in the transfer market. If we are able to give of the impression we are going all out to stay up, it might just convince one or two other players to come to us over other clubs. Nobody wants to sign for a club that is less likely to stay up. A club constantly in the news for signing new players looks more attractive than one that can't/wont sign anybody. Got to remember, the players and their advisors don't know any better than we do which club is the best bet this year. Hopefully though, he shows some real talent. I'd like to see this guy coming off the bench alongside Alves this season.

My only complaint is that I'd rather us sign Greaves from Hull. He would probably be £5m more, but he's a tall ball playing left footed cb. And he's English so after a year in the prem his value will double if we need to sell.

I agree that there are higher priority positions to fill. But just because we signed this guy first doesn't mean we think he was the top priority to sign. Free agents are a relatively simple deal to do. And he was in demand from other clubs. We could be in talks with other targets such as cm and a striker. But they will take longer and have more parties involved.

No reason to sell him, unless he really wants to go. I think cooper needs to sit him down and tell him where and how he's going to play. Almost resell the club to him. He was signed to be an attacking left back and get down to the opposite touch line. Had an inconsistent start to life in the pl. Then Maresca told him he was going to play center back. As long as Cooper wants fullbacks who can attack, then he has a role here.

He's free. He adds experience. And has played at a higher level than any of our current wingers (barring the odd game here and there). As long as we have a proper relegation clause, I'm fine with this. Those talking about players with higher ceilings need to remember that we already have. Mcateer and Alves behind Fatawu. You cannot fill the whole squad with youth prospects, and definitely not on our budget.

Keeps us fans from finding out that we had players stolen from us too.

I know we have been slightly shafted on the fee here. But we can spend all of that £30m next week on players to fill the void. Those rumours about midfielders for 5-10m in the transfer forum are where we will be looking, but at least this way we should only get the 1 points deduction. It's time for Glover to make cement his reputation as one of the best. I wish KDH all the best and I hope he does well there.

There's two ways that plays out for me. 1. We hope, pray and instruct our solicitors to argue, that the penalty for the Championship season can and should be deferred. This could be suspended until we get relegated, or for a number of years to be added to any further offence. 2. We get a second penalty, but it is reduced to a smaller deduction than it would be as a stand alone punishment. The reason that the punishment might not be too bad is that the PL will be reluctant to ruin the league before it even starts. Imagine if a promoted side had 2 x 8 points deductions and were trying to stay up. That would be all but impossible. Basically becomes a 19 team premier league with a guest team that are not really part of it. The prem is a business, they won't want to ruin the spectacle. Especially due to what we did in the championship. So if we end up with a second deduction it could end up only being 1-4 points which might still give us a chance of surviving. Complete guess work obviously, but it could well be worth keeping KDH if it only amounts to a 2 point additional deduction.

Barnes had a strong end to the season if I recall for the Geordies. He won't be surplus to requirements unless they view his wages as too high for a understudy to Gordon. Remember, they signed Barnes 1st who thought he would be the 1st choice at LW. Now they have Gordon who is already better than him. It might be that Barnesy won't play second fiddle, and he's looking for a way out. Not very likely at all imo.

As long as we clear our PSR requirements for the championship season, it doesn't really matter too much about the fee. We tend to get wrapped up in what a fair price is. What matters is getting the cash in so that if/when we get relegated the Football League can't have our pants down. Doesn't really matter if the fee is £25m or £35m. As long as it is "enough” to keep the accountants happy then fine. If we get more value from picking up players like broja which helps Chelsea than by demanding an extra 10m then do it. I don't care that it's Chelsea. We have to get this deal done so we can move on. Frankly we are more likely to get a good part-ex off of those lunatics than Brighton.

Any benefits from promotion will almost certainly come in the next seasons accounts not this one. You are right. Hopefully, the bonuses were factored in. There may also be some small prize for actually winning the league.

I agree with the sentiment here, but our hearing won't be looking at whether the rules make sense, or whether they are fair. We may be able to argue this when in arbitration afterwards, but this hearing will likely reject those arguments.

This is the big one. There's so many variables in this it's untrue. I think we're just going to ignore the PSR for last season, and pray. It makes sense in a crazy, cold and logical way. But it could go very wrong.

Obviously it's all conjecture, but I don't think that our courtroom shenanigans are a massive factor. 2 reasons. 1. Most of that stuff, especially the recent rulings, were about the championship year. So that's the EFL that got a bit embarrassed not the PL. 2. Businesses will always try to find every loop hole. It's not personal we are just looking after our interests. Just like when Everton appeal the points deductions, or Man City find 80 million barrels of oil in Phil Foden's locker. The PL know that. They do the same with regulations that govern how they operate. We probably won't get a 2 point reduction in our punishment for co-operation. But that's not the end of the world. The idea that they are going to get vengeance doesn't make sense. They know, and we know, that if they give us a silly deduction we will be in court again and will probably win. They have to be seen to be above that.

This actually helps our case for the time being. If the PL can manage to punish teams for breaches that happened in the championship, but not punish 115 charges from their own league then they will look (even more) foolish. I also don't think they will give us the championship punishment at the same time as the prem one. It will open us up to arguing the number down like Everton did, as the total would likely be over 9.

We won't do that this year. Remember we are a "Championship" club for the purposes of this financial year. So this ruling doesn't affect what we can or can't do with this current budget. Our whole plan regarding this year's budget seems to be to get promoted and never come back. The current rules mean that prem teams can only be punished by the prem if they are IN the prem and same goes for the championship. Our pending points deduction judgement is based on our time in the prem. We have already handed over the accounts for this so selling things won't help those numbers.

I think there's a personality clash/ difference between what we wanted, and English football requires, and this guy. He's got every physical tool to be devastating in the EPL. He just doesn't have the personality. He lets runners go in defence. He doesn't close down. He doesn't make off the ball runs in attack. Let him go back to Europe. We need grafting high energy players in our midfield now.

Tempted to leave him there until June. But Enzo will want to get him indoctrinated as soon as. Besides, winks is probably overdue an injury.