MrBlack

That I agree with. I am really intrigued what back 4 we'll end up with on that topic. And I mean the preferred choice, recognising that we will rotate as needed. Pau is definitely starting in Emery's preferred line up. Which leaves one spot for 3 centre backs, two of whom were responsible for one of the tightest defences in the league last season - Mings probably won't be anywhere near as good playing on the right, but having not played there maybe he starts favourite Until proven otherwise? - Konsa isn't as good as Mings, but certainly no slouch, so might face the drop, but is naturally more suited to the right. Maybe he will replace cash... - Carlos is an unknown quantity really, but has played on the right hand side for a very strong sevilla defence before now, and we spent a lot of money on him. If he's fully recovered, he's a more natural ball playing centre back than either Mings or Konsa.. It's a nice problem to have, and I'd rather not see any of them sold to give us that strength in depth. Be interesting to see what happens with right back position before the end of the window as that will answer the question about whether Konsa is expected to be an option there.

And if we ignore all the links what would we talk about in this thread? The majority are indeed horse turd, but this thread is to discuss the relative merits of players we might sign, how much we might have to pay for them and generally pass the time between the actual confirmed signings. It's a valid question to ask who you might want to sign? It's a valid response to say "whoever Emery wants"... but you can still hold a separate opinion yourself.

I think that's what the "wow" was for. How the club had used the responses to justify their actions, despite what you've said above.

I thought we'd already agreed terms with him... these ITKs need to get their stories straight.

I think they absolutely have the sense to not help villa unless it also helps them. But idon't think they're consciously ignoring our players You only have to look at them buying Fabinho (as mentioned above) off Liverpool to know that they will help Newcastle's rivals if it helps them. I suspect the Coutinho situation is one where he's just not interested. Traoré maybe doesn't have the same appeal or there are other options that they're looking at first. I'd be fine keeping Traore around to bring on in the kind of gamed where we're either comfortable or struggling to unlock a defence. He scored our goal of the season last year, and even if he only played 5 games this year I wouldn't be surprised if he did it again. Football is shit enough these days with all that's going on, but at least Traore brings entertainment to the game.

Yep. It's kind of a bi- product of our fairly rapid transformation from bottom half club fighting for survival to European contenders. They're players that aren't good enough for where we are as first teamers, but they're on first team salaries. The benefit is it does give us a fair amount of depth compared with some of the other clubs around us. Ideally we'd replace them with younger prospects on less money, but it's going to be difficult with how much money is in the PL. Guilbert is already gone by the way, although i don't think we for anything for him

Generally or genuinely? Obviously back early to try and stake his claim and be involved in the US tour.

You won't belive what @TRO said about this villa target

A funky kind of AV in that pattern... but can't say I'm a huge fan of the top overall If there's one training top in getting its the one from three post above.

Emi back as well so guess this is the date most late returnees should be given for their return. McGinn the first one though of course ;).

It was launched at the trough of our "we're shit" phase. We didn't sell out the stadium every game back then. The inflation between the Championship and PL probably explains a lot of it too.

Insightful... Anyone else know?

Did Scotland finish their intentional games around the same time as the rest of our intentional contingent? Should we expect the rest of our internationals back today or is McGinn truly made of more?

Could you use a data editor to recreate a similar scenario in a league that doesn't then validate the Saudi existence? Does the game these days now need Internet to work and thereby they can track and measure who's playing the Saudi league? Thereby encouraging then to spend more money licensing it in future. Does the Saudi league even exist in FM these days?

I don't see how they'll get into a European competition. They'll never comply with the Uefa FFP rules. The only way they get their salaries to be under 80% of their income is with dodgy self funded deals, which uefa won't recognise. Like others have said, they'll host finals first. I think they'll then eventually set up their own tournament. They'll have so many fifa / uefa officials in their pockets that the powers that be won't be able to close it down like they did with the super league.

Obviously if you sign a 4/5 year contract that's still more money than the average person earns in their lifetime. I wonder if a club (in the interests of FFP) might be interested in you negotiating a new contract in that scenario on a longer term but lower wage. You get longer term security, lower tax costs, they get lower current costs more flexibility to sign an immediate replacement. Would that even be legal? On topic though, if Moussa would rather play there for twice the salary, he's not the kind of player we want playing for us anyway so kind of a win win for me. Bullet dodged etc

Mings has said his injuries in his youth were from the damage caused by him playing left back. His body can't cope with the expectations of a left back. And definitely not one that's expected to overlap our left midfielder as on our system. More likely one of the youth comes in... or even Pau.

Those stats probably highlight the fact that West Ham were a counterattacking team that were regularly on the back foot last season. Rice isn't a plodder sure, but kamara isn't being asked to carry the ball for us as he doesn't need to. Who can handle a press better isn't shown in those stats.

I'd say slightly, but only because a forward signing always attracts more attention. Realistically, Pau is the more established player. Both are totally beyond our realistic reach currently, and we can probably thank Emery for both if this ends up happening!

How am I supposed to work with that when you spell it correctly? But yes, go for it!

I'll only start thinking he might leave if we sign a genuinely quality "backup". If we sign someone with potential, young 20's as a backup then I'll be very happy as no way we'll expect them to cover the season, and no way we'll let him go before we have his replacement.

So, how many years before their reign of dominance ends? Reckon it will be PL punishment related or Pep leaving related?

75 million is no where near enough. We wouldn't sell him for less than 100, so it's clearly rubbish. Also, I don't actually think he'd leave us for Chelsea.

Given we're banned from trading players with them while we are in the same competition as them, maybe we're exploiting a path via Saudi Arabia to sign them further down the line ... would hate it if we were.

Yeah, I wasn't claiming you did say it did, just more reflecting my annoyance at the op from twitter. Some real garbage gets posted there and the love of McGrath podcast is usually better that that The rest of your post is basically an expansion of what I said. Agreeing twice in 24 hours ;). I should add, i do normally agree with your posts, last nights exchange was more just me being over worked and miserable so sorry for the ranty exchange!