Mhsc

Will be curious what leaks later about it. Clearlake have been brutal so far at clearing out problem people and keeping a lid on what happened - we still don’t know what happened with Tuchel aside from rumours about him being a womanising coke head. I’ll back the clubs decision until some reputable leaks come out that suggest it was not his fault tbh.

Gardening leave = fired. Maybe he disagreed with the others too much. I wonder if he was the one signing all the Brazilian kids?

Very likeable so far. Feeling very good vibes. Just hope we give him the squad he needs.

Btw hope we don't sell Maatsen - certainly not without a very low buy back clause. Very promising player.

Wouldn't surprise me if it were 70+10 next and possibly 'final' offer probably with similar caveat Utd gave to us: this is the final amount we're offering but discussion over terms is possible, where we'll end up agreeing to 75+5 or 75+7.5 or whatever. Wonder why no club has signed Lavia yet? Think our negotiating position weakens as soon as he's signed with someone.

so no change at all

Really makes it obvious that Sterling has to be held to extremely high standards to make it fair on the others who are on sensible money. If he is not top for goals and assists this year we have to get rid. I do think he deserves another year, but only just.

Similar to Conte in terms of his views on work ethic and intensity but without being a callous bastard with the players.

Shame he’s a creepy pedo sex pest. NO THANKS now or ever don’t care if he scores 1000 goals a year

Yeah… don’t get me wrong, love having a bunch of up and comers, but this is getting ridiculous. Maybe 5% will work out. And this guy is some kind of sex pest too.

I think the question is whether we trust Thiago to still be at last seasons level. If he is all year, we are good. If he is not, we need a signing. And after his injury at the end of the season he really did not look the same.

Probably double sessions with the fitness test Poch uses did it. Guess it wades out the unfit / unhealthy people on the training ground instead of on the pitch…

If Kimmich is available at 75m we buy immediately without hesitation surely

Wonder if a loan for a right footed CB is on the cards to shore us up for the season?

Something like 6-9 months to recover from an ACL these days isn't it? So, maybe we see him again in March or April and season ends in May? Grim.

Chalobah definitely has to stay then, glad he wasn't one of the ones we flogged quickly. Him and Silva should be fine for the year. Curious if Bads or Colwill can do a decent job at RCB as well. It would not totally shock me if Colwill could do a very solid job there, would be a bit more surprised if Bads could do it well though.

I have a strong dislike of the idea of paying Inter anything for anyone ever again.

Yeah, a Boehly era fuck up that we're stuck with now, very good player but never should have gone for him until he showed a solid season injury free. Does Fofana have a repeated problem or is it different every time? Wonder if he can just have a surgery to get through whatever it is or if he's just in general got a fragile body. No doubt didn't help that last year we threw away all of our medical staff (another Boehly era move) and evidently didn't take care of the players properly whatsoever.

We are not at risk of pissing them off, this is just how negotiations work, being patient and slowly bidding at sensible amounts is the only way to get the deal done if we want to pay only sensible money for him. The hilarious thing of course is that both sides will be trained negotiators, who know what the other is doing, and will be totally unsurprised and definitely not offended. We're not even doing anything underhanded, like Liverpool seem to be trying with Colwill - what we must not do is speak to the player and tell him to go on strike, or do anything inappropriate. We could only have got this situation resolved quickly if we had overpaid, or already bid our final number and then walked away if they didn't accept. The former is a poor tactic as by definition it means we overpay. The latter is a poor tactic as they will definitely reject an offer that we have not compromised on, and will feel empowered to tell Caicedo that we've not made the kind of serious effort or serious offer that it would take. If we move up from our initial number too quickly then it reveals that it was never serious in the first place, and is not actually an anchor point in the negotiation. We have to be seen to be making every compromise, that we are bending over backwards to make it happen, that we went to every length, until we eventually have gone up a great deal and put down that final offer that they either have to take or leave.

Brighton's whole "sell" to players is that they are the stepping stone club who will grow you and facilitate the move to the Big Time™, they will have to sell at a reasonable offer or jeopardise their entire project and the spirit in the squad for next year. They'll cave if we stick it out. It is just a shame it will come at the expense of a fuller preseason with Caicedo, but there's no way that training time is worth us paying millions extra (and definitely not tens of millions extra). I still think (as others here) it will get done at around the £80m mark, either 75+5 or 80+5 worst case.

Yes, but the theory was that Poch wanted to see him in preseason to decide if we need a striker. Now that he’s not, maybe the decision is de facto made? Well, it’s just a fun theory. Anything that might make our window more fun, been pretty dry for a while…

Saw a suggestion on the Pys twitter that Broja not going to USA maybe means we will be looking for a striker, as Poch won’t even be reviewing if he is good enough perhaps that is already decided. I’ll keep dreaming of Muani.

This would be wonderful, ideally with a sell on clause.

Did you jump from talking about needing a right footed CB to us needing to have more home grown players, or you mean we need to get a right footed CB who is also HG? Aren't we allowed up to 17 non HG players over 21? And aren't we no where near that limit?

It is called anchoring, the key and most basic principle in all negotiations. Both sides establish either an intentionally low or high number, and then refer back to it through the process for how much of a compromise they've made. It also allows both sides to immediately kill any conversation that is totally pointless. Both sides also know that the other is doing this, and enter the process knowing it. They've anchored at £100m and we at £65m. Likely therefore both sides are open minded to a deal in the £85m range.