Ashby Saint

With a few hours to go, my assessment would be a 3/10. Positives were selling Van Dyk, keeping everyone else, and buying a striker that on paper fits the mould of a target man/finisher. Negatives were not having a Plan B for signing Promes and not replacing Van Dyk in the squad with a commanding CB.

This. So much for lies spun to us when the take over was announced. Instead of more investment to push us on, we have paid off Kat's and Gao's debt and sold off one asset for £75 million.

If it is a f**king release clause then I do not see why they can prevent him from leaving!

We have probably tried to conclude it sooner, but the selling clubs know that if they delay it until the last day then they can exploit our desperation. Other clubs avoid this by just paying well over the odds upfront to begin with.

This. But it won't happen. :-(

Exactly this. But I fear we have left it too late to argue about it now.

I think the £27M offered was to meet the release clause €30M.

I came on this thread to look at transfer news and all I see is a discussion about planning proposals.

I think your right in what you say. You either subscribe to the absurd business logic in spiralling prices and wages in the Premier league (plenty of clubs will) or you decide that's just too rich for you. Maybe the board have decided the latter, which is up to them and the owner as its his money, but if that is the case then they need to be honest with the fans. If they came out and said "we are just not prepared to pay these silly prices because it is unaffordable longterm for a club our size" then everyone can manage their expectations. Relegation likely, Championship football for the foreseeable future - which I don't think is that bad. Its the fact that a deluded Les thinks you can still win without paying these ridiculous fees and wages, which it is clearly apparent that you can not.

I do wonder if this is just a cycle that teams seem to go through. First you stabilise and then have some success with good organisation and hard work. Eventually you end up in the top half of the table and the expectations rise for European football. It starts with the Top 6 cherry picking your very best players. Outside of the Top 6 you can't really buy guaranteed Top 6 players no matter how good your scouting is (are you listening Les) and therefore most are gambles or take time to develop. These players give you flashes of brilliance, but lack consistency. A few serious missteps and the team has lost its balance and organisation so you fall back down to the bottom of the table. If you've got clever ownership you recognise this quickly and change the set-up (usually with a manager who specialises in escaping the drop) and get back to basics. You then start the cycle again. However, if your board is arrogant (like ours is) they believe they are too good to go down and the team is promptly relegated.

Wigan, Bolton ...

Leeds, Blackpool, Blackburn

This 100%. The more I think about it, I do wonder how much of the profile for the production line was actually down to Poch.

So, if Theo isn't coming then is that one of the two promised reinforcements this week off the table?

Disappointed that it seems that Theo won't be rejoining the club, but I'm ambivalent about whether the club should be investing £20-25 million in him (if the reported fee is correct). Having a club that nearly went to the wall, I'm prepared to cut the board some slack if they don't want to throw money around in the transfer market like confetti. It does mean that it is a very tough task to stay in the Premier league when other clubs are not showing anywhere near the same fiscal restraint. It also means that we need to get the best out of the youth team and our existing players with top notch management and coaching. This is where I think we are currently falling down.

Duh! I think the question is how many Man City will score.

I don’t want us to go down, but if we do I won’t cry about it. I’ll get to see more games as I live in the Midlands. Also financially we are in a much better place.

This. I’ve also noted the plaudits that Pochettino gets from bringing Dpurs youngsters on. Reed was claiming that for himself.

We don’t have the same quality of players. Black box / players at fsult not the managers

Redmond made the first goal and worked hard defensively. Offered a lit more than Tadic. Honestly, play one of Boufal or Tadic, not both.

Tadic is poisonous to this team. He doesn’t work hard enough.

I always thought Jos, rather than Fonte, would have been the one to kick on when we were promoted. Shows how little I know about scouting players.

Some people on here really need to look at themselves in the mirror.

Honestly can't see we would spend 15million on a player and have him as the number 3 CB. It would mean that Jack becomes the long-term no.3 and we let Yoshida go in a year.