tajjuk

That would suggest the club has not been running at a loss for years, which iirc it hasn't, the only issue is covid and the lack of gate receipts/match day income. We've also quite heavily reduced the wage bill this summer, possibly as much as £250 - 300k a week compared to the last few years. Also as far as I have seen we haven't actually spent the loan, multiple times it's been said it's there as a contingency because of the uncertainty around covid and the drop in match day revenue with no idea how long that might have gone on for. So your post makes no sense, we need to sell to pay off a loan we haven't spent and to cover our losses that going forward we won't have?

They will without, maybe not relegation as Buendia should compensate for some of the lack of creativity but not sure about goals, they certainly looked decidedly average without him for that long period near the end of the season. Kind of understandable why they are looking at someone like JWP, because he will add goals and assists from a different source with his set piece ability, so you'd likely have Buendia basically playing instead of Grealish, and then JWP playing in midfield, then between the two you'd reckon they would be creating enough chances to compensate. Can't see him going though to be honest, not sure we can really replace him and can't see them offering the £50 million plus it would take for us to even consider selling.

What a big ol' bag of nonsense. One at time - 'We’ve progressively reduced the quality within our squad for a number of years now' - Have we? So like the signings of Ings, Armstrong, KWP, Vestergaard, Salisu, to a lesser extent Diallo, Djenepo done that have they? Not IMO. We've also seen several players improve a lot under the current manager. With even a young player like Tella coming through. Most of our transfer duds, if not all were signed in a period before the current manager and board, for big fees and big wages, that have hamstrung the club financially. Also your statement makes out like they did it on purpose, all the players signed (aside the travesty signing of Carrillo that went outside of usual transfer strategy and against the recruitment department) were young, high rated players, who were internationals and had impressed in decent clubs like Juve or Lazio or in the Champions league, they were the exact profile the club had been successful with before and really the only sort of players we can sign if we want to improve because we don't have money to throw at players like the big 6 or clubs like West Ham or Everton. 'Those around us are improving and we’re getting worse. We’re heading towards relegation.' - Other have covered this but this is also giant nonsense. Barely any PL clubs full stop have made major signings beyond Utd (who are IIRC the richest club in the world). Palace lost their experienced manager and replaced him with a guy who has no real managerial experience, lost many of their squad on frees and whilst they have made some decent signings, one of their best players is injured until at least December and they seem to be excited about signings a guy from Chelsea reserves who got nowhere near their first team. Newcastle signed literally no one and only stayed up last year basically because of a magical spell of form from a loanee they look unlikely to get back. Burnley have signed a centre-back from Stoke. Brighton are about to lose a key defender and likely their best centre-mid and still haven't sorted out their striker issue. Wolves have got a squad player in from Barcelona on loan, lost Portugal's no.1 keeper and replaced him basically his back up and have a manager unproven in this league. Promoted clubs are the promoted clubs, but Norwich have lost their best player hands down in Buendia, and the others haven't recruited much. I cannot see how in our current state we are any worse off than we were last year against the bottom half PL teams, if not better off, because we have potentially upgraded at left back and at the moment with Elyounissi and Valery currently around, we actually have a little more depth. We also have Romeu fit again who was a big loss for basically the whole second half of the season last year. AND we have cleared the likes of Lemina, Hoedt, Bertrand and Gunn off the wage bill giving us at very least scope to add some loans minimum. 'No leadership from the owner. An owner who wants out; but no one wants to buy us.' - What does this even mean? What does 'leadership' from an owner do to a football club? He hasn't exactly destabilised the club and told the whole first team they are going to be sold, he just lets the board and football people get on with it. Not sure how this has any impact at all. He doesn't interfere, which is a GOOD thing. 'we’re riddled with debt' - Are we? Or did we actually take out one major loan for a specific purpose to cover issues due to COVID, and something that other clubs IIRC did. 'A number of highly paid players who we’ve had to loan out season upon season and/or get rid for next to nothing.' Which we have finally got rid off and should now basically be a clean slate with more room to move in the wage bill. 'not a dig at those running the club, I think given the circumstances are doing the best they can, with their hands tied behind their back.' - Hand tied behind their back by whom exactly? You say you are not 'having a dig' but it damn well looks like you are.

One swallow does not make a summer, prior to last season they have been like a drunk man fumbling around in the dark, throwing money at anything that moved with no real plan, changing managers right left and centre and hilariously going back to a guy they deemed not good enough. I mean can we point to Felipe Anderson, bought for nearly £40 million, sold on for less than £3 million back to Lazio I believe, or how about Haller, again bought for like £40 million, sold to Ajax for barely £10 million. Who knows how many millions they threw after Wilshere on wages. We've achieved far more relative 'success' in the last 10 years than they have on probably a 1/4 of the Budget and we didn't get gifted a stadium either. Also have we not already seen that their fanbase is unhappy because they are going into a new season lacking depth with the added pressure of playing n Europe? They are hardly a model for a super well run club with a clear philosophy, just because we've f*cked up over recent years does not suddenly mean that West Ham are some sort of leading light, both them and Everton out of the middle of the road nothing clubs just have more money than most, that is about it. If there is a model to follow and envy, it's Leicester.

Leon Bailey, exciting, but not going to happen (but would be a really good signing). Phil Jones, no, just no, better than Bednerak? LOL no, even if he was fit and was able to play regularly he isn't. I mean really comparison to Jonny Evans? Have people actually ever watched football? Jonny Evans was always a classy defender that was maybe not quite top level to hold down a regular spot at Utd. Jones was just a walking mistake that occasionally threw his ugly mug in front of the ball and now there are doubts about whether he could even walk to that mistake....... He's the centre back equivalent of Tom Cleverley, someone that would get nowhere near an England squad if he wasn't at Utd.

Son basically, 17 goals, 10 assists, no one else got more than 4. But yeh basically Kane is a big part of their creativity and how they play.

Kane is their creativity.....

I'm surprised Son hasn't been linked to a bigger club to be honest or wanted to move.

IIRC contract renewals they get loyalty bonuses not signing on fees. I think less the question is would Spurs bid for Ings, its more does Ings want to go to barely above mid table Spurs who are losing like 54% of their goals. I mean they scraped 7th and the Euro League 2, with Kane scoring 23 and setting up 14, are they genuinely going to be competing for Champions League without him? I doubt that, certainly not in the next 2-3 seasons that Ings is going to be at his peak.

A lot less than I think was being quoted last year, seen him linked before for like £20-25 million.

We have got shed loads of transfers wrong, back to back, which is why we are struggling to spend. I don't really get this argument people are making, they are expecting a unicorn but unicorns don't exist, where do you think the money is coming from if we make transfer f*ck up after transfer f*ck up. Our owner neither adds nor takes out money, therefore we have to spend what we have, until the last 2-3 years we have spent that very poorly and got nothing back from those purchases. We have spent around £150 million (transfer fees + wages) on half a first team, that basically have not made any impact or had any re-sale, whilst also then needing to have a full first team. I don't get how people don't get that doesn't cripple our finances? Add in Covid and the situation becomes very understandable. Add £150 million to the books, we suddenly become one of the wealthiest teams in the league. We also probably threw £10+ million away on sacking managers we should have never hired in the first place. We made too many f*ck ups in a short space of time and that has basically crippled our transfer strategy for the last 3 years. Those f*ck ups were the previous regimes fault as well, with the ultimate example being Carillo who was a panic buy signed for £19 million on the say so of a manager who should have been sacked weeks before and clearly had shown he was out of his depth. That alone probably cost us £35 million, we are still probably paying some of his wages. I bet we are paying some of Boufal's and Hoedt's as well. The reason we are still in the league is largely down to Ralph, some transfer hits like Ings, Armstrong, Bednerak, KWP etc. and players like JWP stepping up their game, meaning we got a lot more value than our outlay.

Yeh it's wages more I would reckon. Have to remember we are still probably accounting or budgeting for, I would reckon around £100k a week offer for Ings. I would reckon another £70-80k a week is also on the table for Vestergaard and someone like Armstrong probably got a pay rise to around the £70k a week I reckon, probably from around a £30-40k a week salary coming out of Scotland. So those contracts offered to those two players can't be offered anywhere else until they definitely decline them and the players are probably gone. Then I would reckon the likes of Hoedt, Lemina, Carrillo, Forster, Long, Boufal etc. all these players would be on wages of like £50-70k a week, so relative high earners in the squad that basically haven't contributed much to the squad at all. Even with some of those gone, I reckon we are or have been contributing some wages to get rid of them, as certainly the likes of Anderlecht, Angers, Getafe, etc. can't come anywhere near those wages, so it wouldn't surprise me if we weren't subsidising the wages of some of those players. Basically we are repairing the damage of signing multiple players for around £15-18 million, probably on 4-5 year contracts of £50-70k a week, which as a total package going to be something like £25 - 35 million PER PLAYER over the length of their contracts, and we've done that what 5 or 6 or even 7 times, back to back pretty much with basically ZERO impact on the club. If you add up the fees and wages of Boufal, Carrillo, Hoedt, Lemina, Elynoussi, Forsters new contract, Long's new contract etc. and then consider that we have got very little back in fees, loan fees etc. AND they have offered basically nothing to the team over that period, so we have had to have actual players as well doing a job for the team. Then we have probably wasted around £150 - 180 million on transfer fees and wages on basically nothing over the last 3-4 years. Yes other clubs have transfer duds, I doubt other clubs have had so many transfer duds back to back, on high wages, that they then have not been able to sell on. Yeh there is one, on a much more massive scale, it's Barcelona and they are royally effed. Stop the page loading before the pay wall thing comes in, you can just read it then.

Just two mates on holiday I'd reckon.

IIRC largely down to him. I think he was linked with like Arsenal and maybe a few of the other big clubs, was offered a contract by Bournemouth, turned it down and then his form plummeted for the rest of the season and he ended up at Newcastle where he has been pretty meh and not a regular. I think he picked up a few injuries as well. Suppose it's the risk these players take, yes as a free they are an attractive option and they can often negotiate a big wage because of that, but at the same time if the get injured or loss form they will suddenly have less takers and possibly a less lucrative contract on the table at the end of the season than they initially had from their club. It's the exact same issue Ings will have, I am sure ideal situation for him is someone like City buys him now, but at the same time in 12 months time, he could have had an injury blighted season, not done much, and even we won't be offering the same sort of terms. It's why I don't think the door is closed on him signing a new contract here, I think if the window shuts and no one has really come in for him he might look at 4 years as our best paid player as his best option. Hardly like he hates the club or the people or the area, he seems pretty happy, he just wants to test himself at a higher level and I presume push for a World Cup squad place so can't blame him for that.

Interesting to see whether these players rejecting contracts will start a shift in Chelsea's policy of stockpiling players. Younger players I presume seeing the likes of Sancho and thinking they want some of that and want a proper pathway to the first team, which has probably gone with Lampard's departure.

We bought Salisu for about the same amount as VVD and they were both similar profile, young relatively unproven talented centre-backs with good physical attributes. Not saying that Salisu is going to be as good as VVD at all, but we didn't know VVD was going to be as good as he was, hence why were able to buy him. But Salisu was rated as one of the best young centre back talents in Europe and had a very successful full season in La Liga. Also Alderweireld was on loan from Atletico IIRC and had struggled to get into their first team, they had also only paid like £6 million for him, he was also far from a proven talent, he was again a promising player who hadn't found his feet at a big club. None of our signings are ever proven quality because we have never been able to afford them, they are either young players from lesser leagues, i.e. Mane, VVD, Tadic, Jay Rod, Djenepo, Perraud, Salisu, Diallo, Adams etc. etc. of which many have not worked out (Ramirez, Boufal, Elynoussi being examples). Or they are slightly older (like usually 23-26) players from bigger clubs who haven't found regular football, like Bertrand, Romeu, Ings, Lemina, Toby, Hoedt, again some of which haven't worked out. Then are some other slightly left field signings, like the Carrillo one or Pelle. Edit: Hopefully we will also add a few of these type of signings as well, young players in big club reserve teams who want a better pathway to first team football.

Also Bertrand had been phoning it in for a while and seemed to have lost his energy to get up and down the wing, which I suspect why the club didn't fight that hard to keep him, so the new left back being younger, fresher and reportedly quicker probably adds to the squad as well. In current state the first 11 is good enough for top half, if not a bit higher if they get on a roll. The issue really is depth and the two contracts running out, we ran out of steam and faded horribly once the injuries struck (plus some awful refereeing) in the new year and we are in the position where we might have to replace two of our better players.

Can't really sell them if no one wants to buy them. Ings seems to have a rather small list of clubs he wants to join ( I mean really it's City, Liverpool, Chelsea and Utd from what I can tell based on reports), and I doubt he is high up on the list of priorities for those clubs if at all. I don't particularly think he wants to join a Europa League conference Spurs that are likely not to be in the CL for a while (especially if they lose Kane) and they are so far the only ones been linked. Those clubs seem to be more looking at the likes of Kane, Haaland and Lukaku. Plus the club seem reluctant to do business with Spurs, which makes them less likely to be the destination for both Ings and Vestergaard. Plus someone has to pay the fees the club wants, which I would suspect is at least around the £20 million mark for Vestergaard and £25-30 million for Ings, in a covid impacted market where even Super clubs like Real, Barca and Inter are struggling. Certainly with Ings I still think all 3 options are on the table, just because he seems to have a preference for the club he wants to join which limits the options.

I think the whole market seems to be waiting for some of the bigger moves to happen and then that will kickstart everything else.

LOL desperation time it seems.

LOL wasn't the whole point of the channel to air 'controversial' views (i.e be a racist) but now a guy airs his own view and he gets sacked. A TV Channel for racist far right idiots, and they employ actual journalists and more moderate ex politicians, both of whom have somewhat of a conscience and a sense of morals. They should have looked to FOX news, Hannity, Tucker et al are basically human trash cans with no morals, honour or a soul.

Armstrong is not exactly quick, he's a strong runner with the ball, but hardly has bursting pace in behind. He's also been our most effective player in those attacking mid positions. Those positions are more about cutting inside, working hard, driving at players through the middle and being able to finish/create chances, especially round the edge of the box. Whether he can do any of that I have no idea, but he does have a better goalscoring record than Armstrong did at Celtic. IIRC he mainly seemed to struggle with the pace of the game when he first joined, so maybe the time in Scotland has helped him adjust, who knows. Should also remember the guy only got 8 starts in the league, in a season that was pretty poor overall and some of which was managed by Hughes, in his first year after joining from a different country. Some benefit of the doubt should be afforded to him IMO.

It would only make sense IMO if it was a loan with an agreed buy option at the end, but just to borrow him for a year it seems a waste. If Man Utd want someone else to develop/train their players they shouldn't expect fees for it and all his wages IMO, as the player clearly wants game time and if he develops well then that benefits Utd. I understand a loan fee for a player in his mid 20s who the club basically doesn't want but buying clubs can't afford to purchase, but not for a developing youngster, hardly like he's a proven premier league player.

Game management and experience won it for them, they were second best for most of the first half, changed some things, controlled the ball from there and got their equaliser. Kane faded at the same time whereas at times he was unplayable in the first half, second half he was barely doing much and he'd been a crucial factor in our build up. Plus we had no legs to bring on in midfield, Rice ran himself into the ground and we only had completely unfit Henderson to bring on who looked even worse and just handed control to Italy. Plus Sterling unfortunately had his worst game of the tournament, and whenever we did threaten to do something Italy were clever enough to break the attack up with tactical fouls. Penalties are penalties, anything can happen there, as we saw with France world class players can miss them and average centre-backs can smash them in the top corner. I do wonder though whether the delayed step penalty is now getting found out a little, Jorginho had his saved, Rashford missed, Sake saved all with the same technique, whereas Kane, Bonucci and Maguire picked a spot, smashed it in and the keepers had no chance. I think this team will get better to be honest though and grow from this, some overly critical comments in here IMO, we have some very good players and really it took a lucky bounce of the ball from a corner for Italy to win it, when they had a much more experienced team. Aside from that what saves did Pickford really have to make, we neutered Immobile so much they took him off early, a guy who has scored like 150 goals in last 200. Insigne also barely threatened and Barela, who had been very impressive in previous games also was barely noticeable and got subbed.

Met him at a wedding once, back when he was only on Sky Sports news and he had a massive massive ego then and was one of the most annoying people I have met. Hopefully that sh*t show of commentary he produced last night might knock him down a peg or two.