verlaine1979

I think we'll need to be more pragmatic, that's all. Burnley went up with the highest average possession ever recorded in the Championship. Surprise surprise, they were not able to impose their philosophy on a much stronger PL and got dicked most weeks. I'd prefer we have a plan to avoid that, rather than stick with a playing philosophy we lack the players to implement successfully.

Right. And it's my belief that trying to play keep ball is going to be suicidal. Better to have players who can carry the ball forward on th break, as that's likely to be all th possession we get.

I think the idea that we're going to be a possession-based team in the PL is absurd. In terms of having the right personnel to dominate possession we're second last behind only Ipswich. Good intentions will wilt pretty quickly when we can't get hold of the ball (or keep it when we do) because the opposition are both technically and physically superior.

Absolutely - the reputational aspect is just to explain why we shouldn't be surprised when, financial considerations being equal, a player chooses Brighton, Fulham, Forest or Bournemouth, etc. over us at the moment. We're probably the top relegation candidate right now - nobody with decent options is likely to pick us without exceptional additional benefits, be that higher compensation or guarantees of game time not offered elsewhere. The reasons why we seem to lack the financial firepower of our closest rivals is another matter entirely.

Well, unless a more desirable club matches our valuation. In which case we'll have to offer more in order to get Celtic to "encourage" him towards us, and probably higher salary too.

Bigger club discourse is just narcissism of small differences unless you're one of the handful of teams with global recognition. We're not a bigger club than Brighton and they're not bigger than us - they're just another interchangeable modestly sized PL club with a better five-year record than ours, which is pretty much the only reputational issue that will matter to a young player choosing between us as their next step on the ladder.

Bournemouth had a striker who scored 19 league goals last year. Last time we had that, we finished 11th.

I remember Haji Wright being absolutely dire at the last world cup. Didn't see him last season in the Champ. Perhaps he's improved?

Reported at the time as 10m for Edozie and 6m for Larios.

Wasn't Edozie 10m?

Err, I'd say man for man that current midfield four is much weaker than either of the others... Downes is good, but he's not prime Romeu or Lavia, and he's the only one you could argue is at par.

Taking on the PL with the much-feared Blackburn Rovers 2018-2021 attack. Who dared to dream, eh? Seriously though, BBD looks like good business at that money.

Yes, and they haven't qualified for the knockout since 2012, whereas Atalanta have done it twice in the last 8 years and won another European competition. I'm not saying O'Riley won't choose us - there's definitely a financial upside to playing in the PL, even if you're at one of the bottom clubs. But unless he absolutely backs himself to tear up the league, he'd probably be better off taking the next step in his career at a stable European club with a reputation for playing excellent football than foraging for scraps at the lower end of the PL getting dicked every week. In short, let's hope his agent and everyone around him don't have his best interests at heart and push him to make a purely financial decision.

I'm not sure two seasons fighting relegation with Saints is quite the shop window you think it is, vs. winning the Europa League and regularly qualifying for the CL knockout rounds (which Celtic haven't done in over a decade). It's not as if Atalanta haven't sold plenty of players to the likes of Spurs, Man United, Juventus and the two Milan clubs in recent years. I seem to recall we were interested in Koopmeiners the summer he joined Atalanta. Based on his career since (and the transfer interest in him right now), you'd have a hard time saying he made the wrong choice.

Smallbone has a decent eye for a pass and a knack of arriving in the box to nab the odd goal. Should be competing with O'Riley/a.n.other for the AM role. But if he plays DM or CM in the premier League he's going to get stomped by just about everyone he comes up against.

Still think we need someone of substance to play alongside Downes. Whatever the configuration of midfielders you pick from our current squad, it looks lightweight.

Just watched BBD's goals for Sheffield. Some good movement and sharp finishing. Promising.

Dallinga's price tag seemed pretty reasonable for his scoring record. I suspect even if we'd been in for him, the example of Zirkzee probably makes comfortable mid-table with Bologna seem a much more attractive career step.

Dibling is the one who looked like he really deserved more minutes. Seemed physically up to the challenge and demonstrated great technique. Will be very disappointed if we end up letting him go having seen a grand total of 2 minutes in league football. Especially with Sulemana failing to score or assist in the latter half of last season.

I liked Steven Davis more.

Did this post time travel from 2005?

Barring us signing someone unambiguously great in attacking midfield, I hope we keep Alcaraz. We're not going to dominate possession in the PL, so having someone who can carry the ball forward at pace through the middle is going to be vital. If we're slow as well as static next year, we're going to get killed.

We did get relegated though, right? So there probably were a few windows in recent years where the likes of Bournemouth/Fulham/Forest etc. had better windows than us. Currently the squad from fullback on is as weak as piss. Lots of work to do before we can roll our eyes at anyone looking enviously at other clubs' transfer activity.

Have there been any links to DM/CM players in addition to Downes (other than speculating that Reed might be the ex-player alluded to?) Even with Downes in the side, our midfield gets walked through in the PL unless we sign someone with strength and bite to play alongside him.

Considering he'd signed for Real Madrid six months later, I suspect neither us nor Leics were ever really in the running.