StanBalaban

I believe Gala have a hefty sell-on clause with Roma. By arranging a loan fee, that's a few million that doesn't need to be split. The remaining amount of the full purchase becomes a smaller figure, making it more profitable for Gala and better for our FFP balancing.

Hello.

Philadelphia? Crikey, that was a rough week.

Brighton are very much the outlier here and, up until last season, have never had the huge weight of expectation on their shoulders. If they can do well in Europe, or finish higher up the table again, their buying process might change. Given their resources, I'm sure Liverpool, Man U and Chelsea could put together a recruitment team to continually unearth gems for a few million quid - but they can't afford the risk, nor would the fans accept buying anything other than proven players. That's why they continue to let other clubs be the guinea pig. If Brighton **** it up and finish 12th, there's no backlash from the fans. The manager isn't losing his job. As I said, if Brighton continue their trajectory, they won't want to go back to mid-lower table, and I expect the risk to be dialed-down in their future, core signings. They'll be sat on a shit load of cash too. Our fans can be a quirky bunch. We're a big club for sure, but haven't acted or performed like one in a very long time. We've brought in a relatively unknown South American, and we hope he does well, but we're now looking for players to immediately improve the team. We're almost too big to gamble like Brighton yet, at the same time, have been woefully unsuccessful in recent years. Brighton had Danny Welbeck playing a key role in their season, and started the first game of this. Do you think our fans would accept Emery bringing him in as a backup to Ollie? I don't think so, and I'm sure that influences managers, boards, DoF's, etc... Our version of Brighton's income strategy is our academy. It's much better than theirs (in fact most in the PL) and that's where the revenue stream will be. Those that prove to be good enough, we'll keep control of their future. Most won't be however, but will generate millions in profit when sold. The difference is we're not dismantling our squad by doing so.

Have we seen a fully fit Coutinho under Emery? Whilst he's not going to be peak Liverpool-era Phil, he tore it up for us when he first arrived (before the 'coaching' seeped in). He probably doesn't have as much strength to play the Buendia role as Emi does, but they'll be working on him naturally finding pockets of space in training. He looked quick against Newcastle too. Obviously I'm more hopeful than convinced, but I'd love Phil to show us his on-loan form when he first arrived.

But here's where that's a false economy, as the replacement player also has a price, is likely to occupy the bulk of the transfer fee and requires a certain element of luck in order to improve the team. Chances are we'll go backwards in overall quality. Hence why we're moving more to a model where academy players that are good, but not good enough (yet) for where we wish to be, are the ones that have a 'price'. They're far more profitable to the club than selling a star for £100m, and replacing him with two lesser players but with a higher combined wage.

FTFY.

Timber confirmed with an ACL injury. Dropping like flies.

And the Conference League too.

Thanks to FFP, selling players like Archer is the best way to generate funds for the club. Sadly, whilst a very good player, he's probably not quite ready for where we want to be, yet he's going to want regular football. I can see him being something of a Dwight Gayle - too good for the Championship but no that effective as a PL striker.

Not relating to Acuna per se, but as a team trying to compete at the right end of the table, I think we'll find our 'resale' funds coming from developing good academy players purely to sell on. This allows Unai and co to find the right players to win games immediately, without worrying about what happens when / if a player is sold.

Diaby.

The loaning of Zaniolo works well for both clubs instead of buying outright. The loan fee can sizeable, but doesn't need sharing with Roma making the deal more profitable for Gala. Helps us with FFP to get the deal done. Harrison would most likely be in response to the events of this week. The deals for both players are not connected to each.

Harrison has shown he can be effective in the Premier League under a decent manager. We still need to balance the books, and the deal with Burnely with an unproven AJ will help with that as well as develop a player that we may want back. No comparison in their roles for the club.

Maybe underwhelming, but an experienced and reliable Premier League player that won't cost the earth, in an area that we are short of cover.

This man took a team that was "coached" by Steven Gerrard, and managed to find a winning formula within a handful of games. He will be meticulously going through the game, analysing everything that went wrong, and the few things that went right, in order to ensure we're prepared to take on Everton. I'm hoping this was our Stevenage game.

Ezri has come on leaps and bounds under Unai. To say that he can't perform without Tyrone is doing him a disservice, as he never had another quality CB to play alongside when playing without the big man. Now we have both Carlos and Pau, two players that have been successful in their respective careers. His mistake yesterday was poor, but who knows how much Tyrone's injury affected him (and the rest of the team). All the players need our backing, and an opening day shocker against a very good team is not a good sample size for us to learn an awful lot.

It's also worth remembering that the players and manager need our support more than ever. Losing Buendia and Tyrone to horrible injuries has clearly affected us, so imagine the effect it's had on the players that consider them to be personal friends. The team needs us to lift them, just as we need them to lift us back up.

That was terrible, but we can't extrapolate too much from the opening day. We were very sloppy, missed great chances and gifted them goals. The Mings injury is terrible, especially on the back of Emi's ACL. Diaby looked good, but pretty much everyone was off the pace. Thankfully we have a manager that will analyse the **** out of the mistakes and has the footballing acumen to put things right for Everton.

He's back interviewing Elmo... Not mentioned Bailey as yet.

Nothing further on BeIn as yet.

McGinn is likely to be one of the first names on the teamsheet at the moment.

I think it's only for injury, or exceptional circumstances. Said player would be withdrawn from the match day squad.

Gave no indication why, or how likely.