Pizy

The only place I could really see Liverpool taking a step back (if they don't invest) is against the other big boys. They still have such ridiculous quality that they'll easily steamroll the little guys. But if City/United/Chelsea/Arse/Spuds all improve considerably then they'll find it much harder.

I mean more how they will approach us than how we look at them. I'm not worried about them or anything but they'll certainly want to do us and raise their game for Chelsea.

Right then. Fulham and Leeds, two historic, heated rivals of ours, return to the PL where they'll both treat their games against us like the CL final while conceding cricket scores against our top 4 rivals. Great! 😂😂😂

This is how you know this big briefing came directly from United. They're desperate to prevent another Alexis situation where the whole club is destabilized by them giving him galactic wages. They want to soften the headlines and keep Sancho's wages on the downlow.

I don't think he was initially. But if reports are to be believed United are offering him an absolutely absurd salary (something like €18m per year) so he probably really wants to go now. Like Havertz, though, if he stays at his club for 1 more season he'll probably have several other great options. This is why it's absolutely imperative that ourselves and United get these deals done this summer because our chances fall wayyyy down if we wait.

Ah, I see Man United have done the old "let's brief a bunch of journo's to pressure the selling club" trick. They're trying to scare Dortmund into lowering their demands or else they'll miss out on a huge fee. This'll be done within a couple of days. United will pay up.

True. But only if we sell someone in there, I think. Because I can't see Kante riding the bench. He's a certain starter I think. If we buy Havertz for 80m he's starting every game. So that leaves 1 spot for Jorginho/Kova/RLC/Barkley/Mount. And Kova has been one of our best players this season playing deeper in midfield. At least 1 needs to be sold.

If CP is injured at the start of the season then I can see Mount playing in the left. If he's fit I don't think Mason is in our strongest XI assuming Havertz signs. He'll still start plenty of game obviously.

I was 100% convinced we'd get him but have really wavered. It could well be that everything is sorted and we've agreed to let him play the EL. That would explain why things got to a boiling point last week where it seemed as though all that was missing was an announcement and then silence ever since. But seeing United on the brink of signing Sancho while we've heard fuck all for a while now makes me nervous. For me, Havertz signing or not signing is the difference between us having a solid transfer window and us having a spectacular, best we've ever had window. Also the difference between us being a title challenger and top 4 lock or being just like we were this season which is in a knife fight for 4th with a handful of other teams. I'm desperate for this signing now! 😬

He won't be if we sign Havertz.

This kid is fucking massive and appears to have a PL ready skill set. I wonder if he'd be thrown straight into the senior squad for next season or whether he's one who would go out on loan for a season or two. Bringing an 18 year old kid in and expecting him to solve our defensive crisis doesn't sound plausible. So I'm guessing loan?

Nice. Potentially getting a bargain there if true. Free's up money for Rice hopefully.

I see Reguilon was in the Lá Liga team of the year in some places. He was that good, huh? Wonder why Real Madrid are apparently setting the price so low...

I'll admit that I've never heard of this guy Reguilon. Just watched his highlights and he looks good. Nice balance of attack and defending, good pace, good dribbling.

Arse fans are absolutely losing their minds over this. 😂 They all act like they're so above Willian even though he'd instantly be amongst their best players. Just like a lot of them were crying when we sold them Luiz and now they all love him.

Drinkwater always seems to be in a happy, positive mood despite his career just coming to a complete halt for years now. Guess he's got enough paper for it not to matter?

We all just assumed that United wouldn't be able to afford another massive signing after splurging on Sancho, but that was becasue everyone also assumed Dortmund would only accept a lump sum of 100m+. If Dortmund will now accept payment in installments over 2-3 years what's to stop them from going after Havertz now? 😰😰😰

I just figured United would do what they did with Bruno and haggle for months until finally signing him like a week before the season started. Didn't know about any deadline Dortmund set.

Lewis Dunk is a solid CB. Not going to wow anybody or jump off the screen when you watch him. The Gary Cahill comparison is a good one in that he's just a reliable, solid pro. Significantly better than Cahill on the ball. He'd be a decent fall back option if everything else falls through or if we've blown our transfer load on other positions and need a cheap deal at the last minute. Shouldn't be our main target.

Not in a million years did I expect United to complete a deal for Sancho before we did for Havertz. Not with the notoriously slow Ed Woodward. I figured that saga would last all summer. In fact, it's the Havertz saga that may last for weeks longer.

So...Spuds or Arse, I wonder? Would kind of be a weird one for Arse to want him because they've been hyping up their young players like Saka and Martinelli. Willian signing there for 3 years would surely effect their playing time. On the other hand, Willian is the type of experienced player Arse need in big games they often bottle. Spuds make much more sense. He and Bergwijn rotating with one another is probably be a Mourinho wet dream. My bet is that he reunites with his best mate David Luiz. I think he'll be very solid for either of them but as long as we do good business I don't think we'll regret letting him move. I'm already preparing myself to be annoyed when Willian raises his game to "stick it to us" when we play against him twice next season. 😂

Pretty damned annoying that we may have to wait until the end of August to find out whether we'll sign him. Which would mean barely any time at al for him to settle in before the new season starts. Plus hardly any holiday. We need to sort this before they play this week. Just pay the fucking money!

I think there would be a pretty sizeable queue for Zouma if Frank wanted to move him on. Even a few pretty big clubs in the PL would have him. Think Mourinho would have him. Everton would love him back. Tomori would have a host of suitors as well if he is offered on loan. Rüdiger & AC are the two that I can't see us moving. As far as other players, I think finding buyers for Batshuayi and Jorginho will be difficult simply because we probably don't want to take massive losses on them. And nobody is paying near what we paid for them. For that reason I think J5 stays.

Can't address everything in one window. As predicted. Havertz, Rice, and a keeper for me. Those 3 and we are a lock for top 4 again in my opinion.

As I've said before, from everything I've seen and read Theo Hernandez is even worse defensively than Alonso. Awesome attacker but a total liability defensively. Is that what we need? I would say no. Wouldnt say no to Telles.