CSA96

https://x.com/david_ornstein/status/1694985110431375618?s=46&t=f0hgNyKSvvOD5qjGLJhsXQ

I don't really think he's particularly worse than Perraud, who couldn't defend well but was handy going forward. (which is what the criticism levelled at Manning has been, from what I've seen) It'll be interesting to see Perraud's career after Saints. I think he gets talked up a lot by virtue of just not being as shit as the rest of the car crash. It's been three games for Manning and the two mistakes leading to goals have been incidents of falling over, rather than deliberate bad decision-making or anything like that, so Manning should be cut some slack for now. It'll be interesting to see how he gets on when we have a more settled midfield and when the centre backs calm down - we hope - which should make the games a bit less like watching basketball.

Yeah, but probably someone a bit more supplementary. If we can get Paul to piss off, maybe we can loan in a third senior option (not sure I count Mara)

It does amuse me somewhat that clawing back some of his £160m outlay on players (several of whom haven't been good enough) and moving on some of the pre-existing players (who were also not good enough collectively) is somehow inappropriate of Solak or a stick to beat him with.

I think I read in The Times that the purchasing loan was £110m alone and then that was topped up with other funds - but I could be wrong. But even still...!

Yes, a Serbian billionaire bought a football club for £180m, with a £80m covid debt already on it, pumped in a further £160m on player acquisition in his first full year of ownership and then got relegated and lost £200m in revenue - and it's solely been to boost his bank balance. Stacks up.

He's still relatively young at 24, so I very much doubt that comes into it.

https://Twitter.com/tomecoleman/status/1694802886289441274?s=46&t=f0hgNyKSvvOD5qjGLJhsXQ

Could make some sense. Still only 27 and scored 28 in all comps last time he played at this level, more than Adams or Piroe. Also outscored Ché at PL level (not hard) during his time with Brentford.

Wolves could be one to watch too, if they cash in on Nunes to Man City in the final week of the window. And by all accounts, Palace are still looking for a striker and were looking at Archer.

All depends who fed the story out there. Could just as easily have been the agent drumming things up and rocking the boat. Will all become clear soon enough anyway.

Yeah, very true. We spent loads last summer, spent more in January to try and dig ourselves out of a hole and we still have the Covid debt to clear. We've made a lot in transfer fees this window but the drop in revenue is also very steep.

I wondered if it was Swansea trying to smoke out more bidders. By all accounts there's more than one interested party for Piroe and there's still time to go before the window shuts. The wording of that story being 'are closing in' is interesting too, rather than it just being reported as being done and the player doing a medical. Maybe I'm totally wrong but if I was Swansea, that's what I'd be doing and trying to draw the other bidders out as soon as Leeds made a formal approach. Maybe they just really don't want to do business with us and are happy to accept £12m from Leeds instead (but it feels like they could get more...)

Swansea manager Michael Duff on Joel Piroe's future: "I don't know if they [Leeds] have tabled a bid or not," he said. "I'm the same as everyone else. Things will happen quickly at this stage of the window now, because they have to. If the board and Paul (Watson) make that decision, we'll react to it. So as far as I'm aware, it's a no at the minute. But I don't know if anything's happened or anything's happening. Obvious it's first thing on Thursday, so I've not met any of the players or anything like that yet. "There's a week left. There's one game left between now and when the window shuts. So one way or the other there's going to be clarity anyway. "It's not ideal that it's rumbling on this long, no. But I'm not in control of that part of it." "That'll be the outcome over the next week," he added. "I imagine he'll either sign a deal or he'll be sold. I don't envisage the club letting him run his contract down, because I don't think it would make economic sense. "There has been conversations with Joel. It's not a case of 'I'm not signing a contract'. There has been a dialogue between the club, his agent, and Joel. Where that's at, I don't know." "I've had conversations with him saying that I'd like him to stay. The club have been in dialogue with him. But until there's a decision made one way or the other, and it moves fast. Over the off-season and during the early parts of pre-season, it's prolonged and it takes a bit of time. "But when you get to this. He might come in this morning saying he's signed the contract, and he might come in and say he's driving up the road somewhere. “I’m the same as everyone else, I’m just waiting for those decisions to be made.”

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/swansea-city-reject-bid-nathan-27582648 Swansea City head coach Michael Duff says the club have rejected an offer for centre-back Nathan Wood. Reports emerging on Wednesday claimed Southampton had lodged an offer of around £10million for the 21-year-old, who's emerged as a key target for former Swans boss Russell Martin. While admitting Southampton's interest is genuine, suggestions of a bid were initially strongly denied by club sources. But Duff has since claimed the club have now rebuffed a concrete approach for the centre-back. "I think there's a bid, yeah," he said when asked about the speculation. "I think it got rejected. It's a sign of having good players. If no one's bidding for any of the players then we'd be useless. We think we've got some good players. "Woody's one of those. He's got loads and loads of work to do, but he's got a high ceiling in terms of his footballing ability and his attributes as well. "As an ex-centre-half I'll try to help him as much as I can, and we'll see what happens." Pressed on whether the bid was from Southampton, he added: "I know there was a bid. I've read the same Sky Sports News as you." It's not clear how much the bid was, nor is there yet any clarity on how much it will take to prise Wood away from SA1. "I don't get involved in that part of the conversation," Duff insisted. "There will be a valuation of every player. If it's met, they get sold. That's the food chain. It doesn't matter where you are in the football world."

£10m for Aribo

Scratch that potential replacement off...

To be fair, Norwich scored when they did have the ball

No, not really. Probably just exhausted from shitting half his body weight out in six days.

VG in Norway reporting that we are close to signing Johan Hove from Groningen. 22 year old CM/AM, No 8 for Groningen and Norway int'l up to U21 level.

Because the more you spend, the better the player, duh. Just ask Tall Paul and Guido Carrillo.

If Adam Armstrong was five inches taller and broader build, you mean?