aimaad22

In the grand scheme of things this is the best we could have hoped for. Selling lads that probably won't have been first team regulars next season. While unfortunate and PSR can truly feck off, most people would have understood this. The scare with Isak and Gordon was not required

Sad how disposable Trippier has suddenly become. Makes sense given his situation and personal issues, but sad. Easily one of the top players we've had in decades.

Those are good points but we should have had a much clearer picture after the end of the season. We've waited over a month and are now desperate with a day or two to go, other clubs knowing full well our situation. Sell Miggy for 15M if must. Wilson too. No way any of the prized assets go now that Minteh has been sacrificed.

Paraguay having to live through this these days

If Almiron had gone to Saudi in Jan we might not have had to ship Minteh. I know this is petty and you can't force a player to go somewhere against their wishes but he's utterly useless on and off the field

I'm guessing Hall's fee would be included in the gap we need to make up, although you never know with the way the club has acted this week.

Feck me, it really looks like this is true, finding it hard to get over it This is the sort of stuff I'd expect under Ashley

I wouldn't be surprised tbh, seems we've been talking to Chelsea about Isak even if for an unlikely, very high fee. Whatever the reality we've been caught out and are scrambling which is disappointing given this was an issue a year or more ago.

As much as an absolute shit show the PSR is and that's clearly now coming to the fore, I can't once again help but think the club has mismanaged this. Aye it's not easy to ship around players and get the right value, but we're seriously here offering our prized assets to our rivals a day before the 'deadline'? Absolutely ridiculous. This is what the great project has come down 3 years down the line, what a great look for the project and attracting more talent. Chelsea might have shady owners but they've managed to pull through twice now while we put our nice guy hats on and peddle our best players to direct rivals. Terrible. Where are the PIF? I've been thinking there's surely one last trick down the sleeve here but we're clearly desperate now. I can't buy that there's NOTHING that could have been done in the past 6 months or so when it already should have been clear what are finances will look like at this stage. Miggy saying no to Saudi or Minteh to Lyon has unraveled everything? Sheesh

Just a small example of the impact of social media influenzers

The latest styles don't come naturally to everyone.

Therein lies the lesson though. Develop real-estate and sell hotels. That's the model for a healthy football club

On the plus side some of quips going around are occasionally enjoyable: "Southgate's favorite sandwhich filling is another slice of bread'......etc

I probably say this every 2 years, but just imagine this group of players under a coach with actual guts. At the very least they'd play exciting football, go down guns blazing in a semi final. Likely win something sooner or later. What you instead have is the most dour, tedious, boring man in football manage of the most talented squads around tournament after major tournament; getting to latter stages a couple of times due to a mix of favorable draws and individual player ability slotted on top of an ultra pragmatic strategic setup; making the football fan want to rip their insides out at the absolute torture of having to sit through England performances. I wouldn't be surprised if they manage to scratch and claw their way to the semis or the final again, take it to penalties. Football can work that way as we all know. But much like the last championships I hope they don't win, just because somebody who sucks the life and joy out of football shouldn't be allowed to succeed at life. The world is messed up enough as it is. For England's sake I hope we are not repeating this conversation AGAIN after 2 years.

Not just pro players, a lot of professionals in general do that. I told you all this when the Saudi signings boom first started Trippier, Wilson, Almiron are all great candidates for Saudi and should all know their time here is coming to an end. I know Miggy didn't want to leave in Jan but he needs to be promptly told to feck off now.

I don't buy that, since the deductions for the other teams there's been more than enough time to setup something with Saudi clubs or something like that. They can bail Chelsea out but not us? And with all the noise the club has been making about PSR for the last year or so you'd think we wouldn't be left scrambling till the last week. I suspect they still have something up their sleeve but we're running it real close now.

Time to reignite the Saudi interest in Miggy, he should be zero net book value by now surely.

I wasn't aware they were asking for 35M for DCL I was thinking maybe 20M for him and shipping Wilson to Saudi for 25M would be a shrewd bit of business. And aye, totally agree we need a 3rd striker, especially if the first two have a history with injuries. An up and coming young one from Europe or South America I suppose.

I get why all of these rumors feel underwhelming to many, not what we expected after becoming the 'richest club in the world'. It's just the reality of what the PSR have made football though. DCL for Wilson makes sense, especially if given his age we're able to get higher $ for Wilson from Saudi. Looks like we're monitoring a number of CBs, fairly confident we'll get someone decent in. Tomori > Kilman from what I've seen but lets see where we land. On the whole, having either of those and Burn/Kelly as backup makes for a very decent defensive squad. RW of course is the big one. I wonder if Barnes becomes a regular started on the left and Gordon moves to the right as we've seen on occasion. Still, replacing Miggy is absolutely paramount. He sticks out like a sore thumb with the quality of the rest of our attack now. If we were in for Olise clearly 50-60M has been earmarked for that position, should be interesting to see who's next. Neto links popping up again but surely we don't sign him, DCL and Kelly in one window with their injury records and what we suffered through last season

Why would you expect anything else from Southgate though? Even when you get far into tournaments the team is painful to watch, disjointed, getting by on individuals. Everyone has known this for years yet the FA still employ him. I can see them squeezing through to the quarters or the semis and then lose out trying to win 1-0 or go take it to penalties.

Much better rumour but we'll probably lose out here:

New PSR avoidance strategy, sign dodgy PIF owned Saudi/Middle Eastern sponsors and build in hefty cancellation fee for reputational risk. "Worker mistreatment? That'll be 10M, now bugger off. Next." "Lashed your lass in public? That'll be 15M. Next." "Fetish for farting on your camels' nose? Animal cruelty. 10M. Next."

Contract extension on the table too apparently. going by the model Ratcliffe seems to be following.......another 8 years lets say?

Sheeesh what a bunch of old farts