Reddish-Blue

Another PL club will definitely take a chance on CHO, just depends on whether he'd be willing to take a pay cut as no-one's paying him 120k a week

Saka would walk into their XI

We did pay in the 60 million range (including add ons) for Cucurella who isn't anything special and the Brighton CEO basically said that Caicedo would be going for a decent margin on top of the Cucurella deal....so the 70-75 million mark actually makes sense. I do wonder whether the club will try to balance the books with a potential sale of Gallagher though....as there were rumors of a good transfer fee.

Hopefully an Italian club will save us from the KK wage bill... @Vesper would you sacrifice Conor Gallagher (for a good fee) if it helps us get Caicedo?

I didn't say that we should not keep him, but based on the rumors of his 300k a week demands, is he a must for this football moving forward? I doubt the two English wonderkids will be asking for that from City & Arsenal.... We're quick to jump on other players when they start performing below standards but we're giving Mount a free pass because he was good for 2 seasons (and even then, not much was actually achieved in the league, we barely got top 4 both seasons and if it wasn't for the strong start, we would definitely be in Europa or conference league at the moment).

There are a few on here with similar views, players like Mount can do no wrong but you bring up a foreign player and there is plenty of criticism. I don't doubt Mount's quality, he's a solid squad player but I hope the club doesn't overpay him just because he's English.

Yea because winning player of the year twice means that we have to keep the player at the club even though he has shown very little signs of significant improvement from his previous seasons. Don't forget we sold Mata to United even though he won player of the year twice...and he had more creativity than Mount could ever hope of having.

Good player but he's not the player you build your team around, that's someone like Enzo. Arsenal would suit him as they are looking to top-up their settled midfield....unlike us where we are in midfield rebuild mode. Depends upon the system being played, he'd be a good addition but Declan Rice alone wouldn't fix our midfield issues.

I don't think we'll be able to go after a striker until the Lukaku situation is resolved.... I wouldn't mind getting the Brentford keeper (if Mendy or Kepa decide to move on at the end of the season).

Pretty sure Robertson came from Hull (relegated), Henderson was at Sunderland, VVD at Southampton, Mane at Southampton, Wijnaldum from a PL relegation side, Jota from Wolves....they turned out to be pretty good for Liverpool. There is value for money signings from mid table clubs, we got Cahill from Bolton all those years ago and he turned out to be solid.

Feel like there are other players (Pulisic, RLC, Ziyech) that we can get rid of at the end of the season before worrying about Colwill, kid has too much talent to sell. Would hate to see another Tomori situation where we sell him for peanuts and he turns into a class defender.

Fairly sure Porro at Sporting (RB/RWB) has a release clause, surprised we haven't been linked at all considering Reece's injury issues.

Interesting point....as apparently Danjuma has been allowed to fly to London to speak to PL clubs about a loan to permanent type of transfer... People on twitter were mentioning Arsenal/Villa (Emery connection)/Spurs (squad depth for Conte) as options

I don't see Thuram moving in January, he'll have many more options at the end of the season. The Madueke interest is just weird considering his injury record...

It's not about infinite resources, it's about having a quality core of first team players that you can build around. If you look at our teams under Mourinho, Conte, there was a quality core there, players that could be relied upon to put in a performance week in week out. As of right now, there are maybe 3-4 players in our squad who would be considered "core" - Reece, Thiago, Kante, Kovacic.....and two of them are out for who knows how long.

Not just Casemiro, the squad signings have been solid as well (Eriksen on a free, Malacia as a backup LB). Even managed to get Cristiano to leave the club which is massive. It's Moyes 2.0 but this time it's our turn to deal with a bang average manager. Feel it's harsh to judge Potter with most of our backline out injured but the lack of fight in the players is a concern...

His celebration means nothing, he's just trying to back track now and still maintain a good relationship with the Benfica fans before he leaves at the end of the season (as Liverpool will be all over him if the Bellingham to Madrid rumors are true). As for the whole release clause saga, it's funny because all the noise about Chelsea paying Enzo's release clause was from Portuguese sources. Ornstein was the only reliable source from an English perspective who said Chelsea were not interested in paying the release clause.

It's not even the injuries, it's the fact that there is no passion or instructions or anything from the sideline. I don't doubt Potter's quality as a manager but this is looking like Moyes at United 2.0 (a decent manager who was well beyond his depth), wonder how many more gutless losses it will take before he's leading the sack race.

That's the point though, he's been put out wide because he doesn't really offer that much in midfield. Even got dropped from the starting lineup in the world cup due to bang average performances, had to settle for cameo appearances off the bench. Will be interesting to see what happens with his contract extension talks as he's a safe, steady player but nowhere near the other English youngsters who have star potential (like Foden, Saka and co).

If we're going to buy a technical midfield, we would have to make room so I guess that means parting ways with Mount.

Wonder if Bettinelli or whoever our 3rd keeper is, gets a shot at this rate. We really went from the legend Petr Cech to Courtois to this....no wonder why we've become a mid table side.

He would be fine as a squad player for mid table PL clubs. Put it this way, he's no worse than Chalobah (who is only here due to Homegrown status).

Gilmour wanted the loan though as from memory he said he spoke with the manager and he said minutes would be limited to cup appearances and that's why he decided to go out on loan. The problem wasn't the loan, the problem was loaning him to Norwich of all clubs that were keen on him. Why not loan him to a side that isn't fighting relegation?

Look back at our 2016/17 squad that won with Conte. The players that we failed to replace with top tier quality: Courtois, Terry, Cahill, Hazard, Willian, Matic, Fabregas, Diego Costa....you could even add Alonso to that list as Cucurella isn't even half the player Alonso was (in the attacking third on the pitch). The only players who would get a shot in that team from our current squad are: James, Silva and probably Felix.

A direction towards building a younger squad is there, you can see it with the investment in Carney, Casadei, Santos for our midfield, Fofana up front, Slonina at GK, Badiashile at CB, Lewis Hall and some of the other promising youngsters getting a look in with the first team. You take away 4-5 starting quality players from any PL team and they would look bang average as well. Might be time to invest into some physios from the top clubs as well.