MrBlack

They equalised. Own goal by one of our defenders Any Eagle eyed youth team followers may be able to confirm who our 10 is from this pic

Our number 10, whoever that may be

We all moan when England pick the supposed best players and have no shape, rhythm or cohesion and look worse as a team for it. But we also moan when there is no plan b. Trying to play devil's advocate here...Taking his performances this year he has to be considered a left winger. Compared with whoever is in the squad and expected to play in that position, how do his stats compare? If he wouldnt displace whoever that is in the first 11, has he performed better than the next best option on the bench? If his stats are better then either, then its a farce he has not been included (it is a farce).. Failing either of the above two criteria, you could extrapolate his performances in the championship as an ACM, and compare him with who has been picked there. In this scenario, his stats definitely outweigh what Southgate has selected, so maybe you temper his stats based on the fact he got them playing largely on the left or they were achieved in that position in a lower league... But then his stats still outperform Mr Winks, who has achieved precisely nothing in his very limited playing time this season. It cant be a villa grudge (he picked Mings), it can't be a hooligan thing (he picked Maguire and Walker). Sooo it can only be concluded that Southgate has a personal vendetta against him? It is so truly bizarre.

Its clear to me that the daily record is misleading with their intro to that quote from Lennon. He's clearly talking about villa's offer having been agreed. There is no quote from Lennon that celtic matched the bid. There is a similar story on sky sports that they also believe celtic matched the offer. Again, it is not proof. That said, it is irrelevant. If McGinn had wanted to go to Celtic, he wouldn't have jumped at the chance to join Villa 23 days before the window closed. Its a totally moot point. Not sure how we got on to this topic, but let's just let it die. On topic: I'm getting very confused by this Odsonne chap. The videos of him look meh to me, he's never being closed down, under little pressure when shooting, and he doesn't look particularly mobile. Which is totally contrary to the written reviews i'm seeing about him. Not wanting to base my opinion on a highlights reel or second hand reports, I'm reserving judgement on whether he'll make it here. My instinct says he's more Jan Hesselink than Dembele, but I woud very much enjoy being proven wrong if we sign him.

I'd argue it looks more like a cheap shot after the bell had gone, and black cat promptly does a runner to escape punishment.

Oops..see above...again

Head hanging in shame

Ah Yes, I was intending to, should have added their quote before my second comment. No offence intended.

Were the top two genuinely approached by anyone else? John Terry was at a team winning leagues and cups. Mark Noble is probably a good comparison, rejected Tottenham, although at the time they were finishing in 5th or below, so not exactly a massive guaranteed step up. As for Gerrard, it was almosy certainly the combination of death threats and money that changed his mind, with a bit of loyalty. There are very few examples, but they do exist, and Grealish is very much an exception with his love for Villa. If we give him a GOOD reason to stay, he will, I think even if one if the very top teams come in for him. If anyone other than a very top team comes in I dont see him listening regardless. Edit: Odsonne has no loyalty to Celtic so this is way off topic...how did we get here?

Wow, what did that evil woman say to him? It's like she's laughing at his pain. Also, no sign there's anyone coming in means .... absolutely nothing. There was no sign of most of our signings last year, I expect the same this year. No need to cry until a week before the season starts and we have no signings.

I suspect the same, but if RBL don't cough up enough, it then becomes a game of who folds first, if anyone. Does Milot strike to force an acceptance, does he resign himself to an alternative club and feel there's now too much bad blood between him and Werder, does he accept it's not happening and play on. Do Werder give in to player power to avoid an unhappy player on their books, will they need to if he's not a bad egg and the consummate professional. Milot's contract ends 2022 (according to google), so I can see a situation where he stays at werder for another year and gets his (supposed) desired move next year with his asking price significantly lowered. I can also see a situation where we persuade him to join us with suitable clauses, assuming RBL don't up their offer and Werder dont lower their demands. And the above all assumes we're even interested in him and not just being used by Werder to up the sale price. Speculating, it's a funny old game.

Hadn't thought of it that way, good shout. Spend it boys!

I have my doubts about him; the level of defending in the Scottish PL is, I feel, lower than Championship standard. That said, he is highly rated and we're limited on who we can buy in terms of wage demands, fee and general appeal versus the competition further up the table. We will have to accept that a gamble is pretty much all we can do this season and maybe Odsonne is the least "gambly" option we have. If the dubious link proves correct, fingers are crossed he works out

The season looks set to be very injury inducing, this is why it's key we don't release any existing first team players. They will all be needed at some point this season, unless we buy 8+ new players, and i'm very against that level of turnover. Signing a striker (Edouard?) and a forward that can play across the front three (Watkins?) makes a lot of sense, and is really the minimum we need offensively. A dedicated right winger on top would be perfect. Throw in a CM and a GK assuming we don't keep Reina and that's your 5 minimum. Ideally one or two more for me, with what we'll be allowed to spend from an FFP perspective, otherwise we're sacrificing quality and/or making too many changes in one season.

Agreed, the restrictions on what basis you can create a speculation thread seem to have loosened this season. Thought these things used to get locked down within minutes of being opened

I will also do that, but caveat with the fact that we need at least 2 first team signings before the season starts, which is a long time before the window closes

Soooo, we should expect our first signing in 4 days. I get what you're saying. And that would make it ...Wednesday. Oh my!

We converted a few to full time contracts, signed a few more, and probably had a fair few on promotion based wage increases. That said, we're capped at how much we can increase our wage bill each season (thanks FFP), so it wouldn't be massively higher, and definitely below most of the rest of the league

If he ends up here it will be because he wanted to. He is not being forced out his club. Saying we should move on....we don't even know if we're interested in him in the first place, let alone whether we're not already looking at alternatives whilst awaiting a response to our enquiries. The only quotes we have from source are that RBL agreed a deal with him, but haven't agreed a price with Werder, so if that falls through (as is looking likely), what would you suggest he does ? Play for noone? Or move to a second choice.

Ok, maybe a small few are not necessarily below our station, but definitely none of them are above it. Agree with your last statement too. Maybe I'm missing your point, but I don't think anyone in the championship would refuse to come to us. If there are better offers on the table for them I don't expect them to ignore them, but I'm not sure there are any players in that league that will attract attention from the top teams with European football, which puts us on a pretty much level playing field with anyone we're likely to compete with. We'll see i guess!

When we have a Brentford fan syaing there isn't going to be lots of interest in them, I fail to see how we could be aiming above our station. Signing anyone from the championship is below our station. We're in the Premier League. That's not to say we shouldn't buy anyone from there, nor that there is noone in the Championship that would improve our team. But, saying they're above our station, having only ever played for a team outside the top flight, is bizarre. Paying over the odds for them, on the other hand, is definitely not what we should be doing. And I am absolutely sure we won't given the leadership we have at the helm of our club.

537 pages... *538

Off-white... hyphenated so I think we're safe. Must mean he doesn't like Tottenham. Incidentally, those flip flops cost over £100...

These reports of not exercising the buy back are hilarious. Man City would only exercise it if they had a buyer ready to pay more than the buy back clause is. They cant exercise it to play him as he still wouldn't get a work permit for them, unless they pay him a wage that is way over what he's worth, and would destroy their wage structure. If the situation arose where they did have a buyer willing to pay more, there's nothing to stop us paying that (or slightly more) to man city instead to buy out the clause. Next season may be different if he starts playing enough games for Brazil.

The clash with city could be resolved by moving it to a different Saturday and then having whatever was meant to be played that Saturday rearranged for midweek. They've got options although why they wouldn't plan for this before releasing the fixture list i'm not sure