thunderball

Yeah, he seems to have connections, I a, sure others here may disagree but he picks things up early which mainly manifest. He suggests that playing the waiting [poker] game seems to have paid off and we are back at the table with them

Dave Jenkins on twitter

If he arrives, there is no competition for the name on my shirt

Noises that Butland is back on at £20m. Liking this money tree we found

If we do sign him, Mings will have some competition for cult hero. This guy could be a legend....

Wow. What a window this continues to be... Benrahma is quality and will step up. Probably means Leao has elected to go elsewhere Christian Luyindama looks a monster, his highlights reel makes him look like superman. Don’t know whether he would be a DM or perhaps we will play 3 CB’s? Looks a bargain if that price is correct.

Who is going to be sold? No whispers on that yet? Wouldn't mind Philips if we can use Chester and/or Birkir as a make weight for him. I actually think BB would thrive at Leeds.

I reckon we are, and I reckon that's the hold up in Maupay. Don't forget Suso would know all about him, and in the past few weeks DS was spotted on a flight to Portugal (not a holiday) and we wondered what it was about - could have been meeting Leao's representatives or Leao himself as he is Portuguese?

@mallett Agree we need more forward options. We were one of the top dogs in the Championship, but the Premier League are mainly stronger: either much better and more sophisticated in offence, or solid defensively, or both. We have to change our tactics as we won’t be to solely rely on our offensive play. Smith plays possession football, but we are competing with the best, and I expect us to be tighter in midfield so maybe not play so wide so often. Targett and Guilbert look good additions, both better defensively and can put in an offensive cross. I think Douglas Luiz is key to flexibility, it wouldn’t surprise me to see us play 4-1-3-2, 4-1-3-1-1 or 4-2-3-1 (if we do sign Nakamba) or even 5-3-2 with Mings or Konsa overlapping into a midfield. This might suggest that we don’t play with wide players as often as we did last season but rely on a tight midfield combo of ball players with Wesley linking the attack and a striker (Maupay) running off him looking for space, and the full backs providing the midfield overload. Leao could play there and add also width in a 4-3-3 if we revert to that, but I honestly don’t think El Ghazi is good enough for this level a week in week out, I hope I am wrong, but this why I don’t think we intend to play as a 4-3-3 this season, I think we would have seen that Green/Adomah replacement arrive early and pres-season to progress on that basis, but it hasn’t. I think we are trying for Leao and it is unlikely to happen, if we fail I think we will get Maupay. I also think Nakamba might arrive to allow Luiz to be more flexible/roaming while he holds the middle.

Agree fully with this, our recruitment has lots of formation options but glaringly lacks that out and out striker

They’d get fit in any formation. Smith hasn’t played 4-4-2 with us before. Interesting when it might suit Wesley with Maupay alongside him?

Mendez will place Leao where it suits Mendez. He will call it ‘managing his development’ but it just means ensuring a new negotiating position arises for a transfer when the player outgrows the club (within 1 or 2 years) so his management gets the fat fee. Without getting above our station, with the money and clout we now have, we can likely hang on to any player we sign, and they will sign on under a 4 or 5 year contract reducing the need for a renegotiation. This will preclude Mendez onward managing a fat signing on fee for his agency.

Mendez is now his agent. A change

We played 4-4-2 second half today. Why?

Not a bad option if Benrahma is out of bounds this window, took his goal well last match too, he sure has an eye for goal. But are we now able to be a bit more picky and want just a little bit more quality (and a couple of years younger)?