King Kante

Lewa to Barca and CR7 to Bayern on loan seems the most logical solution. Bayern win again; no comment to a player on loan who also takes a paycut, whilst they also cash in €30m for a CF in his mid-30's who they've had the best years out of that they got on a free. Next year, they buy the best CF on the market and send CR7 back.

Wow, Barca have actually been able to pay their free transfer that they agreed months ago.

Yeah, I am only down for a Neymar Jr transfer if his Neymar Sr promises me a pass to one of his transfer orgies he likes to throw when Jr gets transferred.

Obviously would like a deal done soon just to get things moving but we also need to ensure that we get the right players. News that players like Maatsen will be given a look rather than just buying a 2nd tier LB/LWB is actually something I support. I mean, let's be real, such transfers please some people for about three games then said 2nd tier LWB/LB gets call a dreg, a deadwood player etc, by the same people screaming for transfers after those three games. In addition, I think some people need to be realistic about where we're at owing to the take over and the moving on of Granny. By the looks of it, we went back to square one some time after the take over. This means that we needed to decide who would take over the transfers, change our transfer targets and get agreement between the leading parties dealing with this on what they want/can do (TT and TB.) That isn't something done in one or two meetings. On top of this, people really need to remember that transfers don't get done in a couple of weeks, unless; a) someone is willing to pay over the odds (the buying club) b) a player is willing to take a hit C) a selling club needs to fire sell/raise money quickly. If not, you're looking at weeks/months as there are big tax/family/housing implications. I am really surprised how some people don't understand most Summer transfers get worked on for months or even a year (the top players) in advance. Thus, this Summer, people need to relax and stop having a near mental meltdown every time some ass-clown on Twitter posts something. I mean, seriously, why do people think clubs/players are going to talk to some prat with a mobile about highly confidential financial deals? It doesn't happen as those ass-clowns are just in the click bait/wind up game. From where I am standing, the change in direction this Summer has been a good thing and the club needs our support and patience. I mean, a move away from Kounde to MDL and the targeting of Sterling (if on reasonable fees/wages) are deals that are better than we/I thought we would get this year. For me, a Summer of: MDL, Sterling and maybe Raphinha along with getting rid of Lukaku is a positive. Of course it isn't prefect, WB is a major concern for me for instance, but with everything that has gone on just buying a few quality additions, getting our transfer strategy to a better position and giving some of the kids an opportunity rather than just flushing them away to buy second rate options is a good thing. Obviously, next Summer people will have more right to question things as everyone at the club would've had time. However, for now, lets get on with supporting the club, give the new guys our trust and save such comments such as 'pathetic' and 'monitoring fc' etc, until a time when such comments are deserved.

Well if Azpi goes it will essentially be on a Giroud type deal, like £1m, owing to his service, so I doubt he would make much of a dent. Alonso, will get what? £5m-£8m? I can't see those two as being that helpful.

€20-25m plus Emerson and RLC would be ok. If Lazio value SMS at €70m then that make RLC at least €30m and Emerson €15m. This all said, I cannot see the biggest home boy in our squad leaving London, let alone moving out of England/UK.

Media are just stirring the pot, firstly Barca cannot afford him and secondly they're not getting live updates on his feelings. Raphinha to Barca is such a non-story and only being peddled for clicks and to wind up the gullible.

There are so many things wrong with Barca atm. Here are a couple of reasons why they won't be signing people: 1) Short term debt. Not only are Barca €1.5bn in debt, around €350m of this is in short term loans. Barca are currently rated about one level above junk and are needing to refi in a market where rates are going through the roof. At best their liabilities on that portion of the debt is going up 2% but it'll probably be more like 4% (so around €8m a year just to pay off the interest.) Then you get to the medium term debt, which will also be impacted by the current rate increases. FFP a) Remember all that money they owed their players that magically disappeared because they 'took wage cuts'? Well 'surprise!!' That was actually deferments and not wage cuts so that money is slipping back onto the books over the next five years of so. Pique is reported to be owed €80m alone, so God knows what the total figure is. So that €80m they're going to put on the books by selling FDJ gets eaten up almost straight away by the: A) the excess they have already on the books. B ) money owed to current/former players who deffered C ) the players like AC and Kessie who they're yet to register. Barca now have to essentially sell one of their best players every season and just buy 'frees' in order to comply with La Liga FFP and to ensure their debt doesn't balloon anymore; no way do they risk another disaster signing/big fee that goes wrong. In addition their debt is going to get exponentially expensive quickly due to the interest rises and their near junk status. So, yeah, they're not buying anyone for big money on a long term contract.

People crack me up on here. Do people actually believe that Barca the team that are; A) €1.5bn in debt B ) cannot even register their free signings C) selling off their future revenues to keep the lights on D ) selling a top young talent in FDJ in order to create some La Liga wage cap space Are all of a sudden going to buy Raphinha for €70m plus big wages? Some people are way too taken in by people that talk absolute BS on the Internet.

Ever been sold on KK and I am even less so now, always been a reason he has stayed at Napoli imo.

In that case, I wouldn't be so keen on him; well not at £60m.

I think he is probably the best option. I am not sold on that 29 year old from France who has had one good year. For me, Raphinha has enough of the characteristics to play RWB. Problem may be aerial more than anything (which may be why MDL is now looking like our first option) as he doesn't mind putting his foot in and he gets through a lot of yards. I am still hoping Livra gets brought back next year if he recovers from his injury, so Raphinha's flexibility in being able to move to AM is helpful.

I've got a feeling that we may only end up with the one CB. James then shifts to RCB. That'll give us: MDL, James, Silva, Trev, Colwill and Dave (TBC). For me, I think if Raphinha comes in, he'll play RWB, which is why I am buying the links as he is equipped to play that position with his workrate and it solves us trying to buy 2 CB's in one market. Exactly, this all makes sense. I think the key is Juve finding a CB to replace MDL.

This is a problem we're going to face in the CB market. Either overpay, get someone not good enough or go without. Personally, with MDL I think there is a deal to be made. Juve aren't going to want to go to his last year at his age (at 22 it is no hardship for him to see the deal out and sign on a free elsewhere at 24.) We also have a few players that would do well in Italy and they have been linked with; Jorgi, Werner and Ziyech. I think the hold up is Juve trying to source another CB as they're also think there. They do that, then I expect a cash plus player deal. My money would probably be on Jorgi (even if there hasn't been direct links yet) as I can't see them taking on Werner's wages.

I am with you. No signings unless they're option 1 or option 1 and 2 if we need two of them in a particular position. I am personally sick to the back teeth for watching us spunk £100's of millions on absolutely wank players like Lukaku, Baka, Bats, Kepa etc (players even I could see prior to us signing them were not what we needed.) If worst comes to worst, just roll with the academy players and wait until we can get the players we want. No more batsh*t cray, cray signings for the sake of it, even if that means zero signings.

I understand the frustration but people do need to be patient this year. It is fairly obvious there has been a significant shift in transfer policy from a month ago. From all accounts Kounde was nearly a done deal and now that has gone very quiet with Granny going. I would argue Dembele is another one; wouldn't be surprised if there was some sort of outline with him and now TB has reeled that in a little which has left him short of options. As a result, we are way behind. I would argue this is a good thing as I was not sold on either Kounde or Dembele. De Ligt for me would be a great signing but that deal is going to be very complicated as he is Juve's best CB and they are weak there if he goes. On top of that Juve know we're desperate. People can talk about previous dealings with Juve but MDL only has the two years left so they've got a weaker hand. Imo, it will probably depend on whether they can find another CB to replace him. If not TB will have to decide whether to pay the buyout. Elsewhere we also have to have a look at the returning boys' from loan properly. For me, seeing us shift Gallagher, Colwill etc only for them to rip it up elsewhere would be worse tha missing out on a signing or two. In an ideal world, obviously we would have our business done by pre-season but that simply isn't possible this year.

The deadwood are called deadwood for a reason. Imo, they'll mostly end up on loan or rotting here for the rest of their contracts. Barkley, Bats, Baka, Rahman etc, are all virtually unsellable due to their wages and ability levels. Best we can hope for is that they get loans where they're wages are covered or we can agree some sort of release deal with them. However, they'll be right down the pecking order in regard to priorities. People like: Kepa and Sarr are also difficult. Players like RLC and Ziyech will command some fees but again, it'll depend what the player wants.

For Utd FDJ is a massive upgrade.

I think once ME left she effectively absorbed his role. Now I do not think she was an out and out DoF but I think she took on a lot of the responsibilities of a DoF once ME left. This for me is seen in a few public instances: 1) ME being on the bench with Conte for his last game at the club. The two of them hugged it out at the end (something I witnessed being there) this told me that they got on well and that they weren't happy with something at board level which is why ME was leaving. 2) Cech came in after the disasters that were 2017 and Kepa in 2018. I think by that point Granny realised she wasn't getting the deals right/a good enough judge of footballing ability so need someone to help her a bit more with this and for someone to act as a bridge between board and playing staff/coaches. On the abrasive comment, there have been lots of comments from various people that she was or at the least 'very tough'. So, I think she was a strong personality that would finalise deals. For me, I don't think she scouted, but I do think she had final sign off. Now people can slice this which ever way i.e. she wasn't scouting so she wasn't a DoF or she was the person that just finalised deals. I think she was the latter, however, either way, if you're the one doing the final sign off, then ultimately you're responsible for the signing as you have the power to kill the deal. This is especially true in American sports where the GM gets held accountable most of the make up of the squads, even though they don't do the scouting. Thus, I don't see how she cannot get blame for the make up of the squad because her lack of judgement on footballing ability allowed her to sign off numerous deals that were poor value.

James shouldn't even be sold for €200m.

If we got MDL and Skriniar that would be an immense pair of signings and would also explain the Richardlison links to me. In that TT wants to turn us back into a high physical team that beats everyone up. A little like the Jose teams. Ake is interesting in that I don't really rate him as a starting CB BUT I see the logic in him coming here, due to: 1) He is an obtainable left footed CB with experience in the PL. 2) He can play DM, so there is an option to experiment with 433 with him here. 3) He is a safe option to then rotate into a squad role later on if Colwill steps up and takes his chance at LCB (I want him to get a chance but I am not sold on him being thrown straight into the deep end.) 4) He can play LB as well if we switch of a 4, so he could cover three positions if we move to a 4. CB, DM and LB. Like I said, not entirely sold on him but I do trust TT to get the best out of defensive players and I think he'll cover a lot of roles, even if he starts this season. To some extent I would view him as Dave's replacement.

Losing zero sleep over Dembele. Expect him to go straight back to the level he was for his first 4.5 seasons at Barca once he has his new contract.

Personally, I am of the opinion Granny had final say on transfers. This meant that she could kill a deal if she wanted to or she could get one through. Do I think she scouted players? No, I do not. Do I think she would push through deals that weren't necessarily what the manager wanted and/or what she was being told was a good player by other people? Yes, I do. The problem for me with Granny was that she was in the most powerful position in regard to signing players (outside of RA) but didn't have much judgement on whether they would be any good or not (as she doesn't have a football background.) As a result she didn't kill deals that should've been (I mean how many of us muppets on here would've killed the Lukaku deal if we had as much power as her, owing to us knowing he was a Donkey?.) I think with her, she just went on what was told and she played a version of Fantasy manager in selling players (she was good at this) to balance the books to fund the incoming players. However, she wasn't able to judge from a footballing perspective if the deal was good or not; just from a financial one; this is also why we kept on extending players like Baka and Batsh*t. For me, a DoF should have knowledge of football in order to make the final sign off as otherwise they're going to get blamed. It is the same in all industries, whoever is the one signing off the cheques is ultimately responsible (even if they've not done the leg work) as they've got overriding power to stop/push something through.

It is probably the case of Ziyech/Puli/Werner are all available. Thus, it probably depends on who gets interest. My feeling was Ziyech was most likely but if Werner has interest the club will probably take someone up on it. Wouldn't be surprised to see Ziyech leave also. That would then mean we need two AM's which at this point look like Sterling and Dembele (I am personally not sold on Dembele.)

I think it may be that De Ligt is No.1 choice now and the 2nd CB will be resolved later down the line after that transfer is sorted and we cover some other areas. May even be we take a good look at Colwill in pre-season before deciding on a 2nd CB in case TT thinks he is ready. Personally, I don't buy much into the Ake rumours.