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I've said it before and I'll say it again. PSR is the VAR of the transfer window. In principle its a good idea, and if it was executed well (and fairly) it would make things better, but as it is it doesn't and any chat around it is diabolically boring.

tbf, Its been shite for us but brilliant for the player. He'd have played a fraction of the games for us last season as he did for Forest and its playing those games (and being used differently to how we saw him) that has led to him flourishing.

Ware you saying chin-stroking chat about player amortisation isn’t a hoot?

Yeah I get it, the weird lass from holiday is more exciting that Melissa from Shildon. But you know what Melissa can do. I wanted to mute this thread ages ago, I should have just ignored it

I agree but I also want them to get all the players in that we need for the CL. That becomes harder to do if we shop exclusively in the PL because of the extra £20m or so you have to pay for each player with PL experience. It might mean we end up having to drop some targets or risk ending up in more PSR shit. The whole thing is fucked. I want them to go and sign whoever Howe wants but am also wary of having to panic sell players we don’t want to at the end of next season again.

Its the mystery of it, its more fun. Unless you're signing a properly world class player from within the league then its someone good from here vs someone you know less about from there. The second option is less known and therefore more exciting. We've lost a lot of that now with wall to wall football coverage and stats and whatnot but it's like how watching the world cup or euros when we were kids was more fun than it is now because you had full countries turning up with players you know nothing about and then some of them would be signed by teams on the basis of that tournament performance alone. It was just more of a laugh which for me at least is what I want football to be.

I thought Man Utd had that one done... interesting. But he did get 20 goals last year..

Brentford are going to price Bryan out of a move

Couldn’t give a fuck. It’s not my money

Howe's teams work to systems though, making good players seem a lot better than they are because they're operating as part of a whole. He needs to find players who can operate in his system more than he needs world class players who can do their own thing. I get what we're saying but world class players don't grow on trees and we seem to be struggling to ensure we have the people in place to find them. I would be happy with the players discussed, it would make us a lot stronger than we are now.

I think the thought process is that while Elanga and Pedro are very good its doubtful if they can be consistently world class. Whereas with a relative mystery buy from Europe you're looking to see if we can find another Isak/Bruno/Tonali for the same price. Man City seem to be going down that route now with Reijnders/Cherki etc.

I don’t think they’re more exciting but they are cheaper and PSR has turned us all into fucking accountants

This. This x 10. No idea what people are worrying about here. Fucking this.

Mental to me that some randoms from shite leagues are more exciting to some people than proven premier league players. We have seen what Howe does with run of the mill premier league players (like Burn) he turns them into international players. Are all of our first 11 internationals now? Apart from Murphy who should be. We have the best manager in the league at developing players. He has targets that he thinks he can develop. We should give him the grace the buy the players he wants and develop them.

Fucking amateur.

I was thinking that. Wrist is killing now

I like to think this is step 1: can we fill the positions we need, with young but PL experienced players, at a price we like? Stick in bids for Elanga, Pedro, Trafford, RCB?, and see if we can get them for the price we want (say 50m, 50m, 30m, ?) Each one that works out, great. Each one that doesn't work out, move onto step 2: can we fill the positions we need with young but experienced players from the other top european leagues, at a price we like? Stick in bids for [I know nothing about other leagues, sorry!] for say (45m, 45m, 20m, ?). After that, there would be other steps (hot cheaper propects, older cheaper players, etc). Anyway, that would be my sensible, structured summer transfer strategy for bringing players in for the positions we need filled for the squad this season. Anyone know of a club that's looking for a new sporting director? My rates are very reasonable...

Possibly Fantastic arse though.

Bit fucking harsh.

Alanis Morissette still belting them out - bit fuller but still has it.

Jo Whiley is looking well for being a week off 60.

Not me but my mams best friends daughter who I grew up with has been given a year to live, only 45 with two young daughters. Im here worrying about being a bit over weight, not sure it’s worth the stress tbh. Might get fat as fuck and happy.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/jun/27/keir-starmer-says-he-deeply-regrets-island-of-strangers-speech Here you go Renton, he regrets the immigration speech. Too busy trying to sound like an immigration hard lad to actually stop and think about the words that were coming out of his gob.

Is it too much to hope we have a buyback option on him given he'd love to play here again? I don't anything like that being reported at the time though.

I get what people are saying about Elanga, may main concern is him not being a one season wonder. But he's certainly got the attributes to be a consistently great player. If we get him for around 50M it's a great buy imo, proven at this level, hard working, very much fits into how Howe likes to play, will provide the dept we need with CL games etc. If we pay north of 60M you start wondering if we're getting value for money. I hope there's enough interest in Longstaff/Willock to generate a 25-30M fee allowing us to strengthen in CM too, maybe get an upcoming creative playmaker from Europe to get the juices flowing here