HalfTimePost

There isn't quite as much money in the Bundesliga though and they signed him for €1m. £10-12m may get him but i'd still be dubious. However we have bid for, enquired about, spoken to or been linked with: Dempsey, Coutinho, Belhanda and now Kiyotake since Lambert took over. Denials of interest (Coutinho) and conspiracy theories (that i agree with) about Dempsey being bid for to close the Benteke deal aside those are some very good players that all play in the central attacking midfield role. If we can sign a player of those fours ilk before the close of the window I will be very very happy and we all know we need to add more goals and assists from midfield and this is a key position for us. A player like that threading passes through to our front three and chipping in with goals of their own would be crucial for us. Hopefully theres no smoke without fire

Luna is an attacking Leftback, spent last season on loan at Mallorca, the team that Alan Hutton spent this season at, and have just been relegated from La Liga. According to WhoScored.com Luna made 15 appearances in total this season, 11 starts at Mallorca, 1 start at Sevilla and 3 sub appearances for Sevilla. 9 of his appearances were as a starter at LB which he got a 'WhoScored rating' of 6.91 in and 3 starts at AML, in which he had a rating of 6.09. I havent seen the lad play but theres a little bit of info about him I guess.

Just came to post the Luna stuff as it is being posted quite a lot on Twitter now. On Kiyotake, I highly doubt it but it would be a HUGE Yes from me

I think the adverts stop altogether if you donate to Limpid to help with the running costs of the site, obviously with server costs etc and a decent amount of traffic this probably isnt a cheap site to run, so the ads help when a lot of us aren't donating. I also assume the ads produce more money for the site if they are on autoplay as we have no choice but to start watching them. Best thing to do is donate or cope with the ads

This. Though we changed to a 4-3-3 near the end of the season, what if we revert back to the 4-2-3-1 that we played in the early stages of last year? Who would we play in the AMC role? N'Zogbia, Holman or Tonev? N'Zogbia is good, but only on his day. Holman is an endurance runner. Tonev is not proven in this role, at least not in a league anywhere near as good as the Prem. I entirely agree. However we do now have a lot of players who can play AMC. NZogbia, Holman, Tonev, Helenius, Bacuna, Grealish, Carruthers and whilst they are still here Ireland and even Bannan. I think Gardner could also do it as he is very Gerrard-esque but he would probably be suited to playing a bit deeper. Im sure there are more youth that can play there too, Graham is one but he is better out wide. It's not the number of players we have who can play there but the quality of those players at this moment in time. But who knows many of us have never seen Tonev or Bacuna play, they may do really really well there and give us chance to bring Grealish in

Nigel, while I admire your patriotism, if I were to offer you CL for 16 successive seasons, the premier league, the FA Cup, a new stadium and 60,000 regular supporters I think you might take it even if it meant more foreign players. The bottom line is that they are better value for money. It doesn't bother me that Benteke, Guzan, Weimann, Mellberg, Laursen and Yorke are not British. All I am bothered about is can they play and will they give their all for the cause. It would be nice having a team with the likes of Young, Milner, Downing and Barry, but we have shown that we can't keep hold of them even if we want to. No thanks

I wasnt trying to say they would be. Just that Bacuna and Belhanda could play in the same team together. I didnt mention Delph or Sylla once.

I have never been confident of us signing Belhanda but theres no reason why Belhanda and Bacuna couldnt play in the same team. Both are very versatile players. Westwood Bacuna Belhanda could very easily work as a midfield and similarly they can play on the wings if need be. I dont disagree that signing Belhanda is unlikely though

He 100% wont be given it in this window. But over the next 3 or 4 windows? I think he would be. We've already spent £8m (once Helenius is confirmed) this window with a couple more to come in. I think £30m over 3 windows is realistic especially if its been funded by the club rather than injected by Lerner.

I dont think we'll sell him. If we did though supposedly Stoke have bid £13m for Wilfried Bony. More than I would expect Lambert to pay for somebody but if we got £30m for Benteke, Bony is a player who he has targeted before and has a similarlish style to Benteke so would slot straight in. I'd be surprised if we did because of the price after his storming season this year. But it'd be something to think about. And the remaining £17m would fund next summers moves and probably the next two januarys aswell.

Good little Left back... wouldn't mind us getting him in, would prefer Cresswell but If Lambert wants to go for White then thats good with me! Yep - My leeds supporting pal rates him quite highly - very offensive - which fits in with what Lambert wants - and he wouldn't cost much either - only 21 Either of the young Leeds fullbacks would be decent additions

I thought he'd only said that he didnt know anything of it?

I like Nathan Dyer a lot he had a good season in 11/12, not sure what he was like this season though to be honest. But I dont think he would be the right player for us, he'd work well in our system but I dont think he will be the 'mystery signing' and at 25 and a player with Premier League experience, I dont think he'll be somebody Lambert goes for. I'm not sure he would target him either but I'd really like to sign Tom Ince if we're going for somebody in that vein (Which I doubt now that we have Tonev and Bacuna who can both play wide if needed), I know he's been linked with Liverpool and Spurs for ages but he really has his head screwed on straight. Just given an interview with The Mirror and can see he's honest about wanting to get as much game time as possible, we could give him that

Think it's everybody who will be 21 as of September. So the likes Siegrist, Stieber and maybe Johnson would be included too but You'd assume they'd go out on loan. To cut 10 of those players out is going to be quite a big job though even more would need to go if we are signing more players aswell. Given, Hutton, Williams, Stevens, Bannan, Holman, Bent, Delfouneso, Ireland and Stieber can be sold imo. But then we'd have to buy a keeper, RB and a LB probably a CM aswell, so thats 6 spaces gone. Siegrist will probably stay to take over Marshalls role as third keeper. Then I guess we'd have to start looking at NZogbia, Albrighton etc

Depends who he's counting in that 35, if he's included a lot of our youth then I assume that they will spend time in the reserves or be loaned out rather than be sold

Shame that bloke is known to talk utter shite.

I still can't see 3-5-2 being our formation, Lamberts favoured formation with Norwich and with us at the beginning of the season is: ----------GK RB---CB---CB---LB ----------DM -----CM-----CM ----------AM ------Str-----Str IIRC we went 3 CBs when Vlaar was out and pushed Herd back into the 3rd CB to let them soak up the pressure, and it worked for a while going on a 3 or 5 game unbeaten streak until *that* period. Before then, I think, we were playing the above formation weren't we? I'd be surprised if we did move back to 4-1-2-1-2 and even more so back to 3-5-2 because when we moved to 4-3-3 with Gabby and Weimann protecting Lowton and Bennett our form improved so much and it's a much more balanced imo. If we did change formation though, i'd expect it to be to 4-1-2-1-2 (not that there's much difference between the two other than that CB being a DM min)

I'd like a LB, RB and GK. Wouldnt be against a top ACM signing, ideally Belhanda but more realistically Murphy But then I feel like Bacuna, Tonev, Okore, Helenius, Cresswell, Cavanda, GK?, Murphy is asking too much. Then I think with Given, Hutton, Dunne, Warnock, Lichaj, Petrov, Makoun, Dawkins, Ireland, Bent and potentially NZogbia, Bannan or Holman going too that somewhere around 8 coming in would be about right..

Well that was from out of nowhere. Welcome Jores.

Which is a shame as he was the one with more potential out of him and Baker, a lot of people on here were convinced 12 months ago that this was his year, the next Cahill, 'lets not make the same mistake as we did with 'Cahill' etc. It's a shame for him, I think he can come good, he had a lot of pressure this year being captain of a young, inexperienced team for periods of the season and having to lead a defence of himself, Baker and Herd during *that* spell. But some players really take to the pressure, and he hasnt. Will be a big year for him next season. Okore is really highly rated and is a good passer of the ball, which has been one reason to choose Clark over Baker, Clark is good with the ball and moving it forwards rather than hoofing it, where as Baker is strong, throws himself about and good in the air. In Okore we (hopefully) have somebody who can do both those things if he progresses well enough. Clark really needs to push himself to get into the team, which is good.

Same here, when we started this 'young and hungry' venture being seen as a club to have young talent developed at and players wanting to come here, I saw, as the 'end game' like thats what we need to be aspiring too, because if we can do that, then at some point down the line we can really build something. I did not expect players to be choosing us over clubs like Chelsea because of this so quickly though. Heres to hoping he signs and we can continue this over the next few years.

Could be a decent amount of squad depth next season for the first time in years. Guzan (Given, so far) Lowton (???) Vlaar (Okore) Baker (Clark) Cresswell? (Bennett) Westwood (???) Delph (Sylla) Weimann (Bacuna) Murphy? (***) Agbonlahor (Tonev) Benteke (Helenius) ***Tonev, Bacuna, Grealish, Carruthers in rotation Interesting to see what happens at CB, Baker deserves another go and I still think Clark can come good but Okore is probably the more talented of the three. Could shift Okore to RCB and Vlaar to LCB so that Bennett/New LB have the more experienced CB??

We once had a player like that... And I still want him back. Beat me to it. His song has written itself.

Alot of people, all seemingly at once, claiming this is a done deal... on twitter. But theres quite a few, and its beginning to convince me.