Howay

It’s just absolutely mental that we are being discussed on things like that. I agree fully about the fee structure, Marcotti is talking shite as regardless of the cash on hand we have why give someone the full fee upfront when they can put that money to work and make more money with the money they will be making future installments with? My sheets are definitely in the dryer if this deal goes through. If we manage to stay up we go into the summer in a much better position and can really be deliberate and structure deals how we want, we were always going to have to bend a bit with the payment schedule to get deals like Guimeraes but it sounds like we didn’t have to break for it.

Remember when that bitch Edwards said they only had £50m to spend in January

So from what I hear, we have zero interest in going for Carlos in the summer, we will move for younger targets. Our CM options are Guimeraes and Sangare both are provisionally agreed with Guimeraes the preferred (despite costing twice as much). Again take it with a grain of salt it’s second hand info, but as essembee says remember where you heard about Carlos first Also hear Howe has an absolute chub on hoping we get Guimeraes in

That’s all fair and on the surface appears to be the case. I just find it very fucking odd and coincidental that the day after (or the same day but later on) we turn our attention to another CB and basically walk away from the deal Monchi goes and does an interview with one of the major press outlets in the country of the interested party to basically discuss a supposedly impossible transfer move. I’ve really never seen that before. He then goes out of his way to highlight that it was a good bid, but it’s purely the timing that was difficult and that they’ll hold out until summer, which can be read as screaming for more money. Again it could be reading into things but it’s a bizarre move by Monchi imo if they have no intention of selling, the same as entertaining our bids for 3 weeks was.

It kind of reminds me of how Dummett is viewed in our support base, in that he’s solid enough and a canny lad so he is well regarded but is really limited.

I can’t imagine he won’t be an instant improvement on Longstaff tbf, even if he’s adjusting. I also think France to the PL isn’t a bad adjustment compared to other steps.

Awwww ruffling some feathers are we? We literally are bullying clubs to sell btw, has he not realized this? Why does he think we are walking around agreeing all these personal terms, unsettling players and then coming in to bid? Can he tell Monchi to stop publicly flirting about a bid if Carlos is so out of our league then.

Agree, that’s why I really like the move for Burn. It is giving us at least some leverage to show we don’t absolutely need Carlos so stop pissing us around over the price and do a deal or dont.

Aye, I think if we stay up we are more interested in younger players on the up. I was reading somewhere last night that we are after a 21 year old striker at Marseilles and basically told his agent we want to sign him but have more pressing needs right now, if we get our primary targets we can try for him at the end of the window or wait until summer. If that’s true I think players like Carlos/Zapata etc will not be the targets they want, they also likely know this themselves and know it’s a chance to have a big contract late in their career so it’s mutually beneficial in the current situation.

I honestly see this as him posturing. I could be reading too much into it but having an interview with a foreign news outlet about a player you rejected a bid for is a bit weird to start with, Monchi knows there’s no chance we come in with a bid anywhere close in the summer as we have way more time and options by then (the situation could also be different given the league we are in too of course). I almost see it as him trying to steer the story back to Carlos after the Guimeraes and Burn deals have took attention away, after that I can see them coming back to us before the end of the window to see if we would do a deal tbh. This is different to the Botman deal in that Botman could potentially go for more in summer whereas this is the peak of Carlos’ price given all the circumstances. Of course they could simply want to hold on to him for a title push but it’s weird they spent 3 weeks entertaining bids if that’s the case.

90 fucking years of watching the mackems

So overall it’s a pet peeve of mine as I always find it disrespectful when reporters say “United” about Manchester United, but in a fucking story about two teams called United would it kill them to put Manchester for fuck sake. On topic £50m is absurd, it’s also a load of shite as it’s Manchester ‘not a real’ United holding our feet to the fire, West Ham paid £1.5m for him on loan last season supposedly so why is it 10 times that? It’s pure and utter greed, which is fine but the reporters don’t need to report shite about how it’s tied to valuation . It’s also shameful of them to do to a lad who has been a very good pro for them and come through their academy especially after they priced him out of a move last summer then have basically never played him all season. In short they’re a bunch of cunts, if it’s an Avenue that is allowed we should have him pay up his contract through the Webster rule to piss them off.

“I’ve heard of him but don’t know much about him” for fuck sake man.

Aye the fact they’re publicly listed gives much better background for why that tweet was made. The football world tends to be quick to announce things before all of the paper work is signed, even if it is all basically agreed Lyon can’t really allow wild speculation.

So it would seem they have likely agreed but it’s not all signed, so they release a statement like that as one final dice roll to flush out any improved bids? Guesswork on my part tbh.

Interesting, so am I seeing it right that this Lyon fan is basically saying Lyon are bullshitting to cover up that the deal is closed? As he seems to be showing they tweeted similar about Ferland Mendy before his move to Madrid.

Obviously we don’t know the full goings on, but if what Romano is saying about the Guimeraes deal is true and we miss out on him over basically a difference in payment terms (upfront v installments) then I’ll be gutted. They can’t claim it would be overpaying at that price point. Again that’s if any of it was true.

Right so we are playing Muller off Chris Wood, Guimeraes with Shelvey in CM and a back line with Dan Burns in it. That would be EXACTLY the eclectic mix of ability levels I hoped to see in the early days of this new ownership.

I fell off for similar reason to you as well as the whole WFH thing meaning I wasn’t say in the car 2 hours a day, I’ll definitely give that one a try so cheers for that, had no clue he did one with Virzi.

Cheers Ant, look after yourself and hopefully see you back one day. Thanks to Meenzer, Andrew and Tom for stepping in and getting this clique back online.

Cheers! And thanks to you, Tom and Meenz for getting it back online - echo what others have said

I kept refreshing this place the last few days wondering what the fuck was happening, before resorting to randomly searching twitter only for Andrew to tell me this was back up Just took a scan through the N-O thread, glad to see Gemmill got a nice confidence boost in the time this place was down.

We’ve been watching Brennan Johnson and Djed Spence (I know the latter is a boro player) so might be something in it? Regardless of a slight lifted performance against Leeds I want rid of Longstaff whether we stay up or go down.

I hope he continues his same content of loitering outside the gates of the training ground up for the entire time the team is in Saudi Arabia.

Would be a shame if someone was to buy their best CB.