gaz90

Have you watched him extensively? What are his strengths and weaknesses? And why wouldn't he fit our system? Present that info and people will respect your opinion. If you don't have that type of info, your opinion isn't worth much. Too many people these days think they need to have an opinion on everything, without backing it up.

Go support Newcastle then.

I'm just trying to say that we all know the square root of nothing, so no need for anyone to get their knickers in a twist.

I'd love that, from the limited I've seen. Mundo Deportivo have linked us with another right back though, Thomas Meunier, who we were linked with years back. Dont know if there's any truth in it though.

I'm not sure how much he knows (if anything). Equally, I'm not sure how much you or anyone else on this board knows. If I was a betting man, I'd bet that we all know somewhere between very little and absolutely nothing. So let's deal in facts. The domestic window has been open for 8 days and we've signed 1 player from Leicester City. The international window isn't open for another 9 days and we've understandably signed zero players from abroad. We've therefore signed the joint-fourth or fifth (depending on what you read) most players out of all Premier League clubs, including the likes of Luton, Everton and West Ham, all of which need signings much more than us. That also includes the likes of Man Utd and Arsenal, who are arguably closer to where we want to be. Chances are we'll never know the full facts of what happens in this window or most other windows, so the most sensible approach, and the least irritating one for others, is to hold off with the panic until much closer to the end of the window, when it's probably a bit more warranted.

For anyone that wants a distraction from the kit/badge/sponsorship debacle:

Would be a huge signing!

This is what's fuelling a lot of the criticism with Chelsea's sales:

If the league in 2023 is anything to go off, Man Utd, Arsenal, Newcastle, Brighton and every team other than Man City would also need to improve to finish higher than us next season. For the first time in years I genuinely feel that we don't need to rely on other teams to get to where we want to be next season. We're set up to control games and the team have been drilled into a system that's working for us. Our destiny's in our own hands and Emery's already getting results out of the current crop of players, so I don't see him panicking like some of our fans. We saw in January that he won't panic buy. I do think this summer will be massive, but if Emery can't get the right player for his system he's already shown that he's prepared to keep his powder dry.

Monchi Theme Update. The statement was expected at 1:00 p.m. as it was expected that everything would be resolved. The last fringes are being resolved, but Monchi's contract is not over yet, the #AVFC has not yet made the purchase.

Apparently Monchi has to pay his own release clause! That's bananas if true. Let's spend the next 10 pages discussing how Spanish release clauses work over and over again.

For those, like myself, who have a penchant for getting excited at the tiniest piece of Twitter ITK first thing in the morning...

Edin Dzeko anyone? I've not seen him in a few years, but used to love watching him play. Can he still do it at this level? He's got Prem experience, he's a different type of striker to what we have and age is but a number according to Emery. Decent goals to mins and fbref stats from what I can see.

Close the thread. He's off to Barnsley.

Seriously though, how would we know? Only a handful of people would have the latest on our interest (if we have any) and everyone else is just guessing. I include the press in that, so no need to get your knickers in a twist if they say he or any other player doesn't want to come.

Take it with a pinch of salt, but it beats talking about Leeds...

You're right - that was meant to say 64. It's a ton games (if we get that far in the cups) and our active squad isn't massive. Add to that the fact that Emery wants options so that he can chop and change based on tactics and opponents, it's clear that we need more bodies. We don't need to spend £50m on each player to get quality that fits the system (see Moreno), but I just don't think that Emery is too comfortable playing the likes of Olsen and even Traore, so he'll look to get in his own players that he can trust to play his style of football.

Not sure how people can think we'll only see minor changes this summer - we've barely got enough players to fill our bench! We could play up to 54 matches next season, excluding friendlies, replays and any international fixtures our players might be involved in. It could be a very busy season. Emery made decisions in Jan to send players off on loan and only the youngsters (Archer, Ramsey, Tim, Philogene) have a real chance of coming back into the fold. The others (Wesley, Sanson etc.) aren't up to the right standard (especially with the higher expectations now) and clearly don't fit into his system/plans. Emery was also publicly frustrated by only getting two players in during the Jan window which, when combined with the number of players he's bought at other clubs, makes for a very busy and exciting summer!

I see people saying this a lot, but is there actually much evidence to suggest wages + signing fee for a free transfer equals the same as a standard transfer fee + wages + signing fee? I read an ESPN article last year that suggested an out of contract PL player with CL experience was looking for a £10m signing fee, though teams weren't willing to pay that much. The article didn't disclose who that player was, but a player with that type of profile and years left on their contract would have cost much more than £10m in last summer's market.

Just on this dismissal of players based on them not working in a specific team, set-up or manager - many were saying that Mings, Konsa, McGinn, Dougie, Buendia and Watkins weren't good enough under our previous manager and were asking for them to be replaced. I don't think it's far-fetched to think most players that come in will go up a level or two under Emery and maybe end up being good enough for where we want to be.

If Alemany's appointment is a result of our relationship with Jorge Mendes, we might see more of his clients join us this summer. We've been linked with Joao Felix, Manuel Ugarte and Antonio Silva in the last six months, to name three.

Same article also links us with Santiago Gimenez

That article's slightly misleading. He said that those clubs were the next step of his career in Spain, which is probably the reason he moved back to the Premier League - to continue his development as a manager.