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FWIW The voices inside Iran the regime doesn't want you to hear

Clearly. 🙂

Until you sign Guivarch. 🙁

We have to do the dance with their clubs on the price though. Pedro has confirmed attitude/behavioural problems on and off the pitch which is the reason they're willing to sell. He doesn't excite me for many reasons. I was hoping the years of signing decent players with issues were over but apparently not.

Better bring some Pimms as well.

Not an overseas player, but from an overseas league, but yeah I'll agree since he had plenty of PL experience. Buying from PL clubs also has a bit of an incestuous feel to it. Elanga I like mostly because of his pace, but he's also not selfish. Technical ability and positioning can improve with age and training but if you're not fast now you'll never be and speed (particularly on the ball) is so important in wide attacking players. It's why I'd never consider Pedro to be a wide player.

Oh, I'd be delighted too. I suspect we may get only one of Pedro and Elanga though.

I think Trafford, Pedro, Elanga and a CB would be a mint window. Trafford - Just broke the record for clean sheets in the Championship and could be our number 1 for the next 15 years. Surprised Man Utd aren't after him to replace Onana. Pedro - 30 goals in the last 2 seasons. Perfect replacement for Wilson and can play at LW, CF or 10 Elanga - Nigh on matched Murphy's best ever season for us, despite only being 22 and playing for a worse team. He's 6 or 7 years off being at his peak and already knows how to play with Isak at international level. Elanga and Pedro both have hefty sell on clauses so we are going to end up paying 20% over the odds, but if we can peddle Targett, Dubs, Willock, Longstaff et al to cover it, who cares?

Are you sure you wouldn’t want to emulate Brighton’s transfer model and finish 9th every year?

I appreciate you.

Matthew Syed is an utter cunt who's never been right about anything

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.