Teale's 'tache

That would be an incredibly risky move on Chelsea's part, they'd be much happier and it would be much easier for them not having an option to buy at all in that situation. Clubs only agree to this kind of deal if they want the player off their books, hence it wasn't in Tammy's deal last year, they are still looking at him.

It's a bit early yet, need to see what business is done first, but I think Stoke could be up there, they have the squad and I quite like Nathan Jones

They play in completely different positions to be fair, this guy creates, they are finishers. It isn't supposed to be. I don't know if you noticed but we can barely put a team out as it stands, we need squad players as well as first team players, Jota plays in multiple positions and will very much be for cover as much as anything.

A players value is always seen differently by buying and selling clubs. In this instance it's our first choice keeper, he's homegrown which adds value, how much would it cost to replace him? Do we want to sell him? Is it worth the upheaval of integrating yet another new face in to the squad in such an important position? Once all of these factors have been taken in to account you have our magic number. Personally, I think Steer is worth about £6m-£7m. I don't think anyone is likely to offer us that, but that's his value to us right now I think.

Could be something in the medicals needs a second look, maybe we are waiting until we officially become a Premier League team which is sometime next week I think, as above swap deals can be tricky and need a bit of extra negotiating, or their fax machine could be on the blink and they can't afford a new one...

It's a good job agents don't create imaginary links in order to try and get their players a better contract, if that happened how would we be able to believe anything?!

From reading the article @wilko154 posted it seems that a points deduction is off the table, and any reports otherwise are just poorly researched, can't say I'm surprised by that. However we were further away from complying that I thought if his figures are correct. I would assume our back up plan to find that extra £30m would of been selling one/both of McGinn and Grealish. The whole selling the stadium thing to me seems like a way of allowing us to spend a little more than we otherwise would be allowed to next season, and I can see how that was the plan had we gained promotion or not. Not sure how I feel about it all to be honest, lets just hope we are sensible going forward, keep ourselves in the Premier League and get ourselves in a financial position where we don't need to be looking for ways to bend the rules.

Danny Ings has just moved to Southampton permanently for £20m+, 7 Premier League goals last season, the market is so much different to when we were last here, we will need to spend big on somebody!

I hope he's available and I would definitely take him if the price is right. He knows the system, gets on well with the other players, links up well with them, he scores goals, fits our profile perfectly.

What makes you think they aren't competent keepers? Honestly, looking at what's left of our squad and the amount we have to bring in I don't think we'll be in the market for a new keeper unless an amazing deal drops in our lap. We have too much other business to do and Steer has the confidence of the manager/defence at the moment. Having Croatia's number 1 as a back up isn't too shabby either. I trust the coaches to improve all of our keepers as well. I think it's an area we might try to improve in the future, there are better keepers out there, but I don't think it's as pressing as other positions.

Smith actually has a history for this kind of thing. He let 14 go in his first season at Walsall and brought 12 in, 18 came in during his first window for Brentford (according to Wikipedia). With that in mind we shouldn't be too surprised that we've let so many go. He obviously backs himself to be able to integrate a large number of players in one go, I trust him, but there's always that 'look at what happened to Fulham' argument nagging away. I only ever thought Whelan and maybe Elphick (depending on how many center backs we had lined up) had any chance of being offered an extension, but I can't say I'm all that disappointed that they haven't. We've got some serious business to do now!

If you are after Beef crisps I reckon Gardner is worth a bag of Beef Monster Munch...

I'd be amazed if we haven't breached the rules somewhere along the lines, just purely because our wage bill has been through the roof for so long, I know our net transfer spend the last couple of seasons hasn't been so bad, but we've wasted a lot of money since we came down. We must of found a way around it, everything coming out of the club for a good while has been saying we are compliant so I'm not overly concerned. Also, the unclean were deducted 9 points for a few reasons, they ignored the EFL and signed a player when they shouldn't, they were warned that they were in risk of not complying and went out and spent more anyway. They showed a complete disregard for the rules. That's why they were hit so hard. We've been a bit smarter about it and been working with the League, lowering the wage bill and showing willing, even if we didn't hit the targets. There's no way we are going to be deducted 9 points.

Tapas?...

The more I think about it the more baffling it is that he went to SHA in the first place, I mean other than the obvious reasons, he really just doesn't suit the way they play... I'm beginning to be sold on him after reading some of your posts, it just sort of came from nowhere, but I can see the benefits and we do need to fill the squad.

Not sure how I feel about this, if it's a straight swap then we can't really lose and it's a bit of a free hit. Adding 4m, although it's not a lot these days makes it a bit more of a risk if we can't get him playing well. We do need bodies though. I do think our style of football will suit him more than SHA clogging.

Which of you did this?

Oh I agree, I think a lot of people will be disappointed that Kodjia and Taylor aren't being moved on for example, I'm in the camp that wants some continuity, we need to keep the team spirit from last season and carry it in to this one, that's part of why bringing back the loan guys permanently is so important, but we just have so many gaps to fill. The point I was trying to make is that a number of those left over likely won't even make our bench, from your list: Gardner and Hogan I wouldn't expect to play for us again, Green, Davis and Bree will likely be loaned out as they simply aren't ready for Premier League football yet. That leaves us with 3 keepers, Taylor, Chester, Elmo, Hourihane, Lansbury, Grealish, McGinn, and Kodjia. That's not even enough for a team let alone a bench, and one of those is Lansbury who can't stay fit. We have a lot of gaps to fill and not all that much time to do it in.

I think it's impossible to say we are better than this team or that team when as it currently stands, we barely have a team to put out. Also, we need to see how well our transfer window goes, as well as how everyone else's goes. We aren't the only ones with money, and we aren't the only ones that will be improving their team.

I mean you can hope but there's an argument for Kodjia, Elmo and Taylor staying, I can't see anyone taking Hogans wages off us permanently, at least not for a decent sum and I think Nyland will be difficult to shift with his injury and recent reputation.

It's okay not having the same quality on the bench, but the problem is with all the players we're about to release we don't have a bench...

I think he's going to run riot in the Premier League, he won't be having two men put on him all the time and the defences aren't so tightly packed, the way he carries the ball is incredible to watch and nigh on impossible to stop. I can't wait!

I like your confidence, and I hope you are right and our investment in him works out. He hasn't got the shirt yet though so it can't be that easy! I think it's great we have competition for this position, Steer knows he can't make any errors or Kalanic will be in, it keeps the standards up and you must give credit to Steer for upping his game since he's been in the team, and not making any serious errors as of yet.

You can't pick your team based on what people have done previously in their careers, it has to be based on recent form. Steer has shown the better form and deserves to play, he has the trust of his Manager and Defence. Kalanic needs to earn that trust when his opportunity comes along and I hope he will, but for now the shirt is Steers to lose and Kalanic's to gain.

Our owners are ambitious, they will spend what we need to stay in the division. I think we will be prudent, but with the sheer number of players we need to sign and the number of those that need to be real quality for the first team we are going to get to around that total. Loan signings with an option to buy may take that total down slightly. I know bargains can be had, but it would be naive to think we are going to make 10+ bargain signings all of which turn out to be quality enough to keep us up and it only cost £50m between them. We need to buy half of our first team from their parent clubs, then improve upon that first team with real quality and then fill out a squad that is seriously depleted. It will cost a lot of money.