Wes

Pretty sure Reina has been strongly linked with a loan moved to Valencia. I don't think he'll be coming back here.

Aaron Hickey has gone to Bayern from Heart on a 5 year deal. We had been linked earlier this summer.

Last week it was reported it was not in their plans to activate their clause this year. Now suddenly they are? I think there may be some lost in translation going on here. I think it is merely stating there is a clause and that Manchester City could activate it. The main point of the article seems to be about of the benefit of a sell on clause to Douglas Luiz's previous clubs. We will just have to wait and see.... And hope.

Rashica better join us now. Would be a shame for this thread to end.

I'm going to have to buy a Werder Bremen shirt aren't I. Loving this camaraderie!

Good points both here. I think Smith wants to use him as the deepest, most central of a three-man midfield precisely because he is so good on the ball. We've seen since the restart he can receive an under pressure ball from a defender quite comfortably, turn and release someone with a progressive pass. That's just my view though. We don't know how Douglas Luiz will be used next season yet. I still see differences of opinion between will we play 433 or 4231, which would obviously affect things. Just have to wait and see!

Ok - Now I'm allowing myself to get a little excited. If this does come to fruition, beyond his obvious talent, the thing I like the most is that we have been linked with him for a year already. I think this is a fair indication this isn't a "sudden" signing, but one that has been on the agenda for a while. It's been a long time since I can recall that kind of planning beyond simply the immediate future at the club, even with the recent changes made to the recruitment staff. Let's see what happens.

Appears that Florinel Coman is going to Crystal Palace. His agent was in London to discuss personal terms according to Romanian media. Rumoured to be around £13.5m. We were linked with him last summer that's why I mention it.

He is a fine squad player to have at the club, but for our aspirations to move further up the league I think he needs (and will get this summer) someone to really challenge and stretch him in his position for a starting spot going forward.

My mistake then! Thank you for correcting me here.

Impression I had was that Lozano did not play domestically since the restart and was being pushed out. Completely hold my hands up if I'm wrong. Agree on Brekalo - looks promising.

Napoli appear to have agreed a deal with Wolfsburg for Josip Brekalo. He plays predominantly on the left, which I think would confirm Hirving Lozano's time is up at the club. He only moved there last year for £39m and would be available for much less you would think.

His agent was in Milan last week, he has been linked with AC Milan also. Seems unlikely unfortunately.

Some bits of interest this morning: RB Leipzig have tried to renegotiate their buy cause they had in their loan for Roma's striker Patrick Schick lower because of the impact of the pandemic. Roma aren't willing to lower, but seem to be making him available at the same price to other clubs which is around £23m. Also from Roma, sounds like they are looking to sell Cengiz Under and Justin Kluivert, both of whom are wingers. Neither have been standouts this season from all accounts, but there is talent there and so may be of interest to us.

Nyland wanted by two clubs in Germany according to a journalist on twitter.

To be fair, there's hardly been any transfers in the Premier League so far since the season finished.

Yep, by no means was I the first. Posters such as yourself have rightly pointed him out on here before. Dilrosun definitely. Like I mentioned in my first post this afternoon, there is a lot of really promising Under 23/Under24 players out there right now and, in my opinion, we are perfectly placed and timed right now to buy two of them. I like the idea of us signing two really exciting wingers this summer at the same time - let them learn, grow and compete against each other as they continue to develop.

Haha agreed - specifically why I included half a dozen separate links for each player to back-up my case!

Ok, here you go! Also my apologies. I completely messed up Mounir's name in my previous post - it's Mounir Chouiar out of Dijon FCO.) Whilst Videos are great 'n all, I find Infographics/Graphs reveal a lot . Plus nothing beats the written word as you will see down in Stengs' section below: The Case for Chouiar Key Passes and xA per 90 for all Ligue 1 players under 24 years old (from @MishraAbhiA) Evading Pressure in Europe's Top 5 Leagues (from @Shaharyarsays) Successful Dribbles per 90 compared to Passess Under Pressure per 90 (from @Shaharyarsays) Luckiest/Unluckiest Creators in Completed Big 5 Leagues) (from @GoalAnalysis) His Understat.com player page The Case for Stengs Successful dribbles & Key Passes per 90 in the Eredivisie (From @Ajax_Analytics) And how about some written articles (with images of course) to sink your teeth in to? Here's a Statsbomb article that discusses Stengs (amongst other prospects). Great blog post on Stengs' ability here at Below the Radar Analysis A Scout Report on FootballBH.Net

In complete agreement. I think that's what Smith wants too - players with particularly strong feet opposite to the wing their on.

It really is encouraging how much of a drive there is to fill our academy with promising talent. It feels like they're doing it in a really urgent manner too. It's something Purslow has stated in practically every interview, and has been on show from all their staff signings over the last year or so, but it's just great to see. This is what well run teams do across the world to consistently be good.

Heaton Guilbert Konsa Mings Targett McGinn Douglas Luiz Grealish Stengs Chounir Wesley I just really like Stengs (AZ Alkmaar) and Chounir (Dijon). There's a lot of really interesting options for either wing position, but they would be my top 2. I think Wesley deserves another chance, but you would bring someone else up there to challenge him also. May have to have another keeper in until Heaton is fit, unless you're comfortable with Steer. Would also want to bring in another centre midfielder and some competition at fullbacks.

It was meant to be more of a thought exercise just to see who people liked to bring in, and where they would allocate such a budget, rather than saying this is what our budget is going to be Appreciate all the responses though!

If you could only buy 4 players to improve the first team this summer, for a combined total of £100m (if rumours are to be believed), who would you buy? TransferMarkt is by no means an accurate depiction of a players value, but you can use that site to work out some rough values if that helps. I'm interested to see what positions everyone wants to prioritise and where people would allocate the money.