labibs

He's a decent player, will add pace and frankly a bit of nastiness to the team which we haven't had for a while. £12m is clearly a mental price though. Thing is, it will be reported as undisclosed, so how will we ever know how the deal is structured? £7m and an extra 1m every 10 goals he scores would be an example of a great deal for us. £10m up front and £500k every 20 games he plays not so much. If he's bought as Jay Rod replacement then we may as well give up now

Yes but you haven't considered wages. Luke Shaw is probably on a relatively low amount of money, as I expect will Clyne having joined from a Championship club. I doubt the replacements you have outlined above will be happy to join us on the same money, so we need to cover the difference in wages from the £50m. For every 10k pw they want more than the current players, that's £500k per year, or £1.5m on a three year contract. It adds up.

Thing is a lot of their best players are on loan, which is clearly unsustainable. Barry, Lukaku and Deofelu have scored not far off half their goals this season in the league, players which (possibly Barry apart) won't be there next season. Yes he's doing well, but I just wonder if long term they are not in something of a false position. They will likely also need to replace Distin for next season, which will not be easy to do on the cheap.

If he went in January, I would fully expect it to be on a loan until the end of the season, probably with all of his wages covered and a decent loan fee attached. Would suit both parties (assuming we were able to get in a suitable replacement either on a permanent deal or on loan with an option to buy)

Clyne should be in the squad as I feel he is much better than Walker (who I don't think is great defensively). Realistically, I expect Roy to take Johnson and a CB who can cover RB (Jones or Smalling) instead if 2 specialist RBs, bit of a waste of a space otherwise? Shaw is clearly 3rd choice, so this WC is too early for him. I would call up both of them for the next squad though, no point in Cole getting another cap etc. Lallana should definitely be in the squad. He seems to have added more to his game physically this year, he does things quicker and seems to have more energy. Again, if he played for Man Utd, he'd probably have at least 10 caps now. Lambert will have a place in the squad until Carroll is fit, then it's a battle between them for the 'big man' role in the squad. Obviously I would take Lambert, but Carroll younger say he may win out. Depends on the form of the two until the end of the season. Still J-Rod is a but short of the squad to be honest. He's not even a guaranteed starter in our team! He would need to nail down a place for us and have a fantastic season (lots of goals, at least double figures) to have a chance. I think the elitism in squad selection is largely down to the media. If he loses games and he's ignored players from big teams, he'll get slaughtered. If he loses, less people are likely to say its because he didn't out J-Rod in the first XI. Not right, but the way it is. Nationally, still a view (a ridiculous one!) that if you were really that good, one of the 'big clubs' would have signed you.

Going tmw, hoping tmw is the game when our forward players click, but cant see it. Think the game will either be very tight, or they could blow us away if they get an early goal and the crowd gets behind them. Definitely the kind of game where Wanyama needs to prove his worth, up against a 'big' side away from home. Be very interested to see what team Poch puts out as well. At some point I expect us to play Schneiderlin / Cork and Wanyama as the midfield three against tough opposition away from home, wonder if he will try it tmw? Also, if Gaston doesnt play tmw, then starts in against Bristol in the cup, has he been relegated to just a league cup player? In a world cup year (I realise Uruguary are still touch and go to qualify) he won't be happy with that surely?

Not at circa 80k p/w on a three year contract.

Wanyama. He's young and hungry

Why do people keep talking about Lukaku as a realistic signing? Chelsea paid £18m (I think) when they first bought him. He has since gone on to prove himself in the Premier League. I doubt they would sell at all, but certainly not for less than £30m. I also can't see him moving permanently do a club outside of the CL. He won't be joining us.

Hooper only has a year left on his contract, so I doubt a potential fee will be anything like as high as £8m. I could see him going for £5-6m, which for a player of his age is probably not terrible value. Banega would be a massively impressive signing. If you think about it, were it not for off the pitch issues, we would have absolutely no chance of signing a player of his ability, he would have been playing for one of the bigger European sides by now.

Belmadi would have played for Marseille I think? Would El-Khalej have maybe got a game for Benfica? To be fair, there are probably quite a few.

He did well for us, we went down and a side in the CL came in for him. Don't blame him for leaving at all. Since then, it looks like he's more focused on moving clubs every year or 2 and pocketing some tasty signing on fees rather than making something of his career. Then again, short career and all that, so can't say I blame him for making that choice. Would be crazy if he got booed tmw.

Done.

An exceptionally ambitous move for Micah Richards. Centre half for next few years.

Great post

He's a striker playing for one of the best attacking teams in the country, yet he can't score goals. I think he is goal in the Premier League this season? I know he plays wide a lot, but he's not a particularly good winger either. I personally don't see what he offers to the team ahead of others and if he played for say Everton or West Brom, I don't think he would have a single cap. Even if he eventually comes good, why is he being indulged and given time to bed in at international level when plenty of other candidates aren't given similar opportunities? Not trying to troll at all, just genuinely can't see what he is good at? He actively looks for a pass ahead of shooting in some games. 'Putting a shift in' and 'tracking back' are not good enough to justify being the future of English football.

Came on here to post the same news about Krul. Never want any footballer to get injured, but if he and Cabaye were both out (and realise this is speculative at this stage), we would have an excellent chance on Sunday!

Don't doubt West Ham would be interested and could well make a bid, so it's a little harsh to have a go at the mirror for reporting such? [previous erroneous stories notwithstanding]. Guess once we are mathematically safe, we will sit down and try to negotiate new contracts. If Ricky asks for say £60k p/w on a 3 yr contract, then we will have a real decision to make. He's not going to be able to play a high tempo pressing game at 34 and if WHam are offering say £7m, you could make a case for the sale (provided a high quality, younger replacement is immediately brought in). Personally would pull all out the stops to keep him. More worried about tieing down Morgan to be honest. His contract is up at the end of next season and can see all the big clubs being after him. He will want (and be justified in asking for, IMO) a large basic wage and possibly a minimum fee release clause as well. The Don is going to have get his negotiating head on for that one.

If he went on loan for a month now, he would miss games against Man City, Newcastle and QPR. Games that barring injury he is very unlikely to get more than a 10 minute run out in any of them. Coventry have 5 games in that period and he could conceivably get a full 90 minutes in all of them, were he to go on loan there. If he's not going to start, I would much rather he went there and played than sat on out bench. We could always recall him and he would arguably be of more use to us with some match fitness under his belt.

They're right in that it isn't worth signing someone unless they are better than what we have and would be challenging for our first team place if everyone was fit. A first choice front 4 of AL / GR / JP behind SRL is good enough to stay up, the issue being that they pretty much know they are playing every week. We need to someone to come in and put their place under pressure a bit. Those kind of players are difficult to sign in January, particularly for a club with the threat of relegation hanging over it. Even if you can get them, you usually have to pay way over the odds to do so. I also imagine that MP will want to see what our players can do before bringing in new players. As mentioned above, the likes of Lee, Mayuka & Chaplow have hardly had a kick this season [for our variety of reasons] and it may be that MP can get something more out of them.

In terms of wages. Apparently he just didn't really seem to be bothered about trying to get into the first team at all and didn't make much effort in games.

My Villa supporting mate say he is regarded by Villa fans as possibly their worst signing of all time, given what how much he cost them and what they got out of him! Decent for us and as many have said, really good in the great escape season. Don't really blame him for taking the money at Villa either.

Who would pay anything more than £1m for Punch, when you can have him for free in the summer? I would have him at £2.5-3m max anyway. Morgan would be expensive. If Jordan Henderson goes for £20m, I would say well over £10m, maybe higher. SRL is difficult, due to his age. I would expect around £6m could tempt a club to sell? It would depend on whether the player was agitating for the move I guess. Jack Cork would be a lot more than we paid for him as well.

Nail on head Charlie. Assuming we stay up (which I think we will) watch us and Swansea be linked with every out of contract or nearing the end of their contract player in La Liga next summer, probably in conjunction with us looking to add 'Spanish flair' and 'hunting for the next Michu' I think he will want to sign players who are comfortable in possession, who are also happy with pressing high up the pitch and keeping the shape of the team (largely based on lazy mentions of Bielsa in reports of his background). This suits Morgan well and I actually think could be the making of JWP.