Mark Albrighton

He has since acknowledged his mistake to be fair to him.

I think a few of us on here have a good idea what their general feeling is

What if we buy Heaton and, I don’t know, Benrahma (or whomever) for a combined £25m....would that offer a more long term benefit than just signing Butland for £25m, as well helping us further in the short term? I think one eye on the future, one eye on the present. Presently, I think if we can get a solid keeper for less than £10m, if it means the money saved can be spent elsewhere (and we need other positions strengthened), that’s the way to go.

Sheffield Wednesday was rumoured to be his last job wasn’t it? However I’d imagine he’d like to have a crack at his boyhood club before he retires. Although it’s pretty much a poisoned chalice, you’d have to have a real affection for the club or a real belief you could turn it around. Mind you, if he went in thinking it’s his last job, he may think it could be a decent earner. Newcastle supporters don’t seem happy at the prospect anyway, but then I wouldn’t expect them to be ecstatic at the moment. Sunderland supporters seem practically giddy at the idea. I don’t see Ashley paying compensation (unless it’s minimal), so think that might be the stumbling block.

@AvfcRigo82 Unfortunately (as I had a good feeling about him....based on nothing), Harold Moukoudi signed for Saint Etienne a couple of months ago.

Numberwang time! During the 19 games Heaton was in goal, in terms of conceding, Burnley were closer to Champions League chasing teams then they were to relegation candidates - Man City 8 Liverpool 15 Everton 17 Spurs 21 Newcastle 22 Man Utd, Chelsea 23 Wolves 24 Arsenal, Leicester 26 Burnley, West Ham 27 Palace 28 Southampton 30 Cardiff 31 Watford 32 Brighton 33 Bournemouth 37 Fulham 38 Huddersfield 42 For comparison purposes, in the 19 games Heaton didn’t play, Burnley were ranked 19th for goals conceded, conceding 41 - 2 fewer than Fulham. The next worst was Cardiff with 38. Just for a further comparison, West Ham, who Burnley matched in the second half of the season with 27 goals conceded, had 28 goals in the against column during the first half of the season. So while West Ham were fairly consistent throughout, Burnley noticeably improved defensively in the second half of the season.

No idea if genuine or not, but anyhow...

Yeah like we were saying earlier, if signing Heaton for £8m means we don’t spend £20m or whatever on Butland, then I think that means that the saving is spent elsewhere. It’s like the thinking is Phillips & Heaton > Marvelous & Butland (as an example).

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It may prove to be the big signing, but I think the media team are playing up to it because of the deluge of #announcemings tweets etc some of the more eager/impatient* supporters were relentlessly posting at every available opportunity. You supporters wanted him, well now you’ve got him and you’re gonna see him everywhere kinda thing. *choose whichever you feel is a fairer description

I think the wording is to be deliberately suggestive. When he says we had “an option” to buy him for £17m, I reckon he means we had a chance to buy him for that much. But it would have been an obligation. That’s my guess anyway, we’ve had options to buy in our loan deals for Hause & El Ghazi. Seems unusual we would turn down a similar option to replace it with a fairly opaque “matching option”. They just want to cause more clicks on the article. We’re paying £20m, which may rise to £26m, but he says we’re paying £9m more than we could have done because it’s the bigger number.

I think there is one more 20m+ signing left. My guess would be that’s more likely to be Phillips than Benrahma or Webster. One or two cheaper purchases from abroad - around £10m. Another couple to round out the squad, maybe a keeper or Axel on loan. Maybe another 50m-60m in total. Would take our spending to about £120m.

That could easily have been an obligation to buy. I know it says “option” in there, but I find it surprising we would do that with Hause but not Mings. I reckon it was to buy him provided he played X number of games. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Delighted it’s sorted. Tyrone was possibly the most vocal player when trying to rally everyone during our rough patch last season. We’re likely to find ourselves in difficult places this season, so having his kind of character for those moments is a big positive.

Would be a bit surprised if we bought Mings and another two defenders. I would think Mings, Chester, Hause and one more would be enough. Well, maybe I should say I don’t see us spending another £10m on Hegazi and bringing Cahill in on a free. Not enough game time to go around for those five. Maybe Hegazi and a young prospect who wouldn’t expect many starts. Did someone say that Phillips has played in defence before? Maybe getting that one over the line would fill that crucial DM position and add a bit more cover for central defence in case we needed it.

Glad we’re all in agreement regarding Hegazi at least.

Regarding the suggestion that we could have waited, is there absolutely no possibility that Bournemouth wanted to get this done quickly so they could use the money elsewhere? For all we know, we wanted to pay £15m, they wanted £25m, a compromise was reached with £20m and the add ons should the transfer be a success.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t look to strengthen the keeper department. I’m saying that going into the campaign with Steer & Kalinic as goal keeper options is, relatively, a much stronger position for us than having an inexperienced Hause and a physically battered Chester as literally are only central defenders.

While there’s some validity here, I think a difference is there are other keepers available who it could be argued would be smarter purchases - Etheridge for half the cost, Heaton for even less. Also I would say bringing a central defender or two is far more critical than replacing Steer or Kalinic, so spending more on Mings is more justifiable.

Still seen no suggestions for alternative defenders we could realistically buy that would on paper be perceived as better value. The stat has been doing the rounds but probably worth pointing out, Burnley spent £15m on Ben Gibson. He played one league match last season. That’s the market we’re in.

We can’t do much regarding team selections, or which players we should be buying or selling, or actually very little on the general running of the club, yet we often find ourselves discussing those things.

This account says £18.9m, rising to the £26m subject to various conditions. How reliable the account is, no idea. You can see the additional note about Cahill, so that might go some way in confirming either way. The account also tweeted yesterday that the Mings deal was much closer than was widely thought, so who knows.

But we’re not paying the prices those clubs are forking out. They’re spending 50m+ on one player. We’re spending 20m. I really want to know from the people who think we’ve massively overpaid, who should we be buying for similar or cheaper. Who are the circa £20m defenders, the players that are premier league quality, who want to be here, who we can realistically buy?

It’s only over the top if he proves to be a poor signing.