Howay

What a fucking finish

The amount of times he just lifts the ball over the head of someone closing him down is mental . Watching Colback try to pick him up is absurd.

You don’t save those.

We need to upgrade the RW tbh. Almiron has seen so much of the ball as their full back is hopeless, plus trippier is on that side but for all Almiron does right in terms of positions and work rate it’s all undone when he touches the ball.

Completely dominant there, just lacking that final ball.

Colback

Another brilliant tackle by Burn

Brilliant run by Joe, then proving why he’s not a striker

We’re head and shoulders above these quality wise mind. We just look so indecisive in attack so far.

Is ASM wearing one of those basketball shooting sleeves btw?

Almiron absolutely should have put something on target there. He’s proving so far why RW is a priority for us.

Tbh it’s canny clear no one knows who the clubs targets really are. I didn’t see a single person link us to Maddison before the reports about us bidding come out, as Strawb and others say we’ve no real clue if Cornet was actually a deal the club were working on or if it was just the journalists. Personally I really hope we get at least one attacking player in, I think our attack is lacking in real quality so it would be great to see a Maddison or someone like that come in to help. I think it’s clear they know this and want someone in, and while Maddison may prove to be out of reach they bid a high amount for him which could go to a different player - so I think we can be canny confident we will get at least one more in.

It’s ok lads, if we do miss out on Maddison he’s only a slight upgrade on a player he is absolutely fucking nothing like that we have already .

Personally I think Maddison would be the biggest statement signing so far. It’s taking the best player from a side that a season ago were miles ahead of us. Bruno obviously is a star and a massive statement, as was Trippier, but I just feel signing probably the best (or close to best) player outside the top 6 from a PL rival is a real statement of intent.

I think ewerk is right, I think as OTF says it’s more seen in terms of amortization so total price of transfer + wages over contract rather than when the cash is paid. The only timing thing I think would be if we did the loan with obligation to buy, that plays with the timing for FFP purposes as it doesn’t start the amortization on the transfer until the permanent deal takes effect. The club does seem to have some cash flow issues, which the loan is looking to address - it’s probably been discussed but these loans are common and I think get round rules to do with how cash is contributed in by ownership, or maybe also plays with FFP. The good thing is our side do look to be very savvy in terms of how they’re doing things with FFP, but don’t want to take the Man City approach of almost ignoring it then possibly fighting it.

I really hope that bit isn’t true as I’m fairly sure Burnley paid pretty much that price for him themselves and he’s since proven he can handle the PL.

Agreed. It has the added plus that we will then be a bit better stocked and perhaps perceived as a little less desperate, which could possibly help in other negotiations. I agree with their determination to fight for price and payment to be all on our terms but as you say the season starts soon.

The mackems will be explaining how it’s just to make us feel good, and really they were MLFs and big marras first.

I agree it’s part of it but it’s a really low ball offer for probably one of the best players outside the top sides. We’ve also done this a few times already this window and then just pulled out before complaining about unrealistic valuations. I’m perfectly fine with them not wanting to sign £50m players, but why do we continue to chase and underbid for players in that valuation bracket? Belotti is available for free, Cornet has a release clause, etc it’s just a weird strategy and as things stand it hasn’t worked this window as we are going into the season with the exact same poor attack.

Aye I’m confident that we will sign attackers. It’s hard looking at the end of last season as there was a lot of momentum/excitement from the takeover/just get to summer safe and we will be flying attitude, if we look at the lack of goals scored/assisted from our forward line even over those games it’s still fairly low. Almiron, Fraser, and Murphy struggle at this level for goal involvements, they have other aspects to their games but we really need goal involvements and “fret” up front as our CM doesn’t create/score loads outside of Bruno’s late season run.

I think he’s quality if used right, Chelsea’s play style doesn’t suit him I honestly think if he had ended up at Liverpool, as he was often rumoured to, he’d be miles better than he is doing now. Chelsea are a bit of a funny side, they’ve had a rough time getting a striker to work in their team in recent years. There’s surely some way round the wage thing, maybe talk Chelsea down on price and pay him the extra in lump for a reduced wage if it’s really going to upset members of the team.

It’s class like, the ridiculous mental gymnastics he’s undertaken to convince himself signing a current England international, who won La Liga the prior season, when we were 19th in the table wasn’t ambitious.

Agree with Strawb on the topic of selling ASM, I’ve mentioned how frustrating I find ASM but as things stand he’s probably our best attacker (Wilson would be the other contender with everyone else miles behind). We’d then have to buy a LW, RW and possibly backup striker. I will say mind, if we could sell him for some high fee like £50m we’d be bonkers not to take it. It gives us a massive boost in terms of FFP as that whole £50m is captured in this year, with any player we buy having fees and wages spread over their contract.

Aye true, forgot about Pope he’s legitimately one of the best keepers outside the top six but I guess it doesn’t count since he’s from a crap side.