Monkeypuzzle

Torres certainly did at Barca!

Guaranteed striker at Villa, playing in Europe, family settled or probable starter vs Richarlison at Spurs (your childhood team's bitter rivals) just as they look like they are about to start a rapid decline in success and quality, and no European football? If he went he really would need his head looking at.

@Nabby are you Samuel L Jackson? That's how I read that.

I'm hoping the squad number change is an indication that he is staying. He was great for us last season and is competition for that left back spot who offers something different to Moreno. There were plenty of times when Moreno was available but Emery started with Digne instead due to tactics. Forget the silly nonsense people make about his wages, he isn't a bench warmer, he's a valuable squad member who plays regularly for us. I hope he stays.

He was very upset at the Ramsey to Burnley story.

Yes we have Tielemans competing with Luiz and Kamara right now. But that is what gives us our strength. Depth of quality. Selling Dougie weakens us as quite frankly, there is no-one we can buy that adequately replaces him. If you sell a £100 million player and don't replace them with another £100 million player you have become worse as a team. We saw that with Grealish. You don't have to pay £100 million to get a £100 million player though, I understand that, but that sort of scouting should be adding stars, not replacing them, for us. Selling someone like Luiz weakens us when we are so close to becoming a strong team in the Premier League and Europe once more. The fact that some people say we will replace him with Adams from Leeds makes me despair as he isn't even better than Dendoncker.

Maybe to say something like....look at this, isn't it silly, what utter rubbish. Can you ever imagine us doing that? People like to discuss transfers, realistic or not and this is the transfer thread. The place to do just that. Why are you trying to police other people's harmless conversations on the internet?

That data is wrong. Coutinho missed a penalty last season for us I'm pretty sure.

To discuss it?

At least it didn't take long to find out which version of Tielemans we were getting. Possibly his best version yet!

Of course I'd like us to produce our own stars where possible but right now, for this season, I'd have no problem selling Archer and bringing in a senior striker.

Are we resigned to this one then? Still no official news. Disappointing but it won't actually affect our season at all. He wasn't going to play much I don't think.

I'd love that but it sounds as if Sporting won't sell him at a price we're willing to pay, sadly.

That's not our problem thankfully. We seem to have gotten our recent targets at great prices compared to many clubs, for players in their prime. I'd rather spend £35-£45 million on Diaby, knowing what he has already achieved, than £72 million on a young striker who has only played about 68 senior games and is nowhere near the finished article. Right now Man UFC's main striker isn't as good as Archer! He may well become a tour de force in a few years, but then again he might not.

He was a couple of years ago, but in today's crazy prices he'd be between £60-£80 million at least. Look at what Brighton want for Calceido, who is nowhere near as good. £40 million isn't enough for Ward-Prowse apparently. It's what McTominay and Fred are valued at. Our current squad is worth a fortune in today's market.

Have I misread this post or do you have some good news? Do we have to wait for this sale before you share or are you going to tell us now?

Someone did warn us that Monchi would upset us with some of our sales. I guess this is the sort of thing they meant. There is no guarantee that Ramsey would have become a star for us, but he is very promising and we like to keep our better youngsters. Someone needs to adapt. Is it us or Monchi?

I hope that is all it is, yes.

Being linked to Liverpool this morning.

Apparently Liverpool are trying to tap up Philogene Bidace according to the anfield observer.

I would be very surprised if this has any truth in it. There is no report of how villa have responded and only one minor source talking about it at all. As many have said, it makes no sense to sell him at all and certainly not at the pittance reported. He is incredibly highly thought of at Villa and if he wasn't currently injured would have been fully involved in our preseason games. This preseason has been so full of highs that something is bound to upset us sooner or later. That's the villa fan mentality. This sale would be stupidity rather than sad though. It's not like a big club coming in and the player wants to leave. It's Burnley!

What happened regarding the transfer which the psk guy on FtLoPM said was happening? Has anyone called him on that?

If the club are happy to pay that much, go for it. He will definitely add a great deal to our surprisingly impressive squad. Top level goalkeeper. Hard to argue that there is anyone better. Back up has had questions asked of him, but is still a veteran international. 4 fantastic centre backs. Can't think of any club other than Man City with as much quality in depth. 2 top quality left backs, each offering something slightly different. A strong right back. This is a position that we discuss a lot in terms of a second player to compete. 4 amazing deep lying midfielders. The weakest of which is a regular in one of the top international teams. 7 very talented attacking midfielders, with varying levels of consistency and form right now. A high quality striker, who's hard work makes up for the little bit of extra talent that the best strikers in the league have. Frequent debates about whether we get another experienced striker as competition or rely on our talented youngsters. All this without even going into talented youth players. Only 2 senior players that we have to unload still and any other outgoings will probably mean more top quality replacing them. I can't remember our squad ever looking so healthy top to bottom. Back on topic, Torres can work in both a striker/attacking midfielder role. I'm certainly not complaining if our attacking options in midfield are Diaby, Torres, McGinn, Ramsey, Buendia, Coutinho, Bailey and Traore, possibly also A. Ramsey and Philogene-Bidace. Yes that's 8-10 players competing for 3 starting positions and 3 bench spots and yes, some of those might depart in the next month, but I'm certainly not complaining about this squad, or the possibility of adding more top players like Ferran Torres to it!

Didn't he play in Australia for us in last year's preseason too?

Based on Man City youth player sales, with no first team experience, we should be asking £30million minimum! Ridiculous prices youngsters are going for now.