toonotl

That took two minutes by my watch.

This thread is hilarious.

She is such a piece of shit. Failed to do the research on Tonali's ban and the conditions of his public service orders. Asks a stupid question. Then has the temerity to accuse Howe of being disingenuous because he took her question at face value. She is the epitome of everything wrong with modern clickbait journalism.

Agreed. The original question was Guehi or a RW. Now it's Guehi or no one. To roll out the classics from the Carroll transfer, we can't play a bag of cash at CB. FWIW I think the offer on the table at the moment is 70m (65m +5m) according to Keith Downie's latest video. So who knows what we'll actually need to pay to get him at this point. Howe has gone out for the presser and presented like the deal is off. He spoke about PSR and the need for deals to be right financially for us to make them happen. So he's done his part. I'd imagine a last ditch improved offer will go in late today from Mitchell/Eales. Then it's up to Parish. I'm still hopeful. Maybe it's desperation. Parish has played a blinder on us.

Perhaps Howe is being told to intimate that we're walking away from the deal as a last ditch attempt to force Palace's hand.

That's true. But actions speak louder than words. The transfer market and the pitch are the two places where statements of ambition have ultimate worth.

It was my impression that it is quite common these days for players close to being sold to not play to avoid risking injury. Seems like Palace are trying to have it both ways by telling the press a transfer is immenent to keep us on the hook whilst picking the player to play to play hard to get or something. Who knows.

Wonderful.

There hasn't been a Xerxes this stupid since the one that whipped the Hellespont.

The germane penis pics?

Are you crazy? Boehly needs all of them for his extra point special teams defensive unit.

He got cowabonga'd!

Thanks for clarifying because it was my suspicion that you didn't understand my point. I did not suggest that Geuhi's performance was deliberately "below par". I suggested that the transfer speculation may have impacted on his performance. It wouldn't be the first time it has happened to a player. It is actually quite a common suggestion that people make about players becoming "unsettled" by transfer speculation. You can have your preferred opinion. Understandably, it means very little to me that you would judge a misinterpretation of my opinion as unlikely. I never suggested Guehi performed below par on purpose. That is why I suggested that it would be "strange" for his poor performance to increase the possibility of his transfer occurring even if it raises some concerns for us about how he might manage the expectations placed upon him by an exorbitant fee. This is basic stuff really. I meant what I said, after all.

Howe has mentioned quite often that it is difficult for us to sign players because the pool of talent we're looking at is incredibly small. I think he has every reason to be believed on that one as it simply stands to reason that it is the case. The pool is much smaller than when the takeover began because we only have a few positions with significant ability to upgrade with better now. It's also worth considering that the club has an even smaller pool relative to other top clubs because we don't have the margin for error of the big clubs with massive profits and heaps of PSR headspace so taking a chance on a player isn't exactly something we can do without an extra level of risk. The PSR headroom also limits us on wages so we can't offer massive wages to well established stars looking for a new challenge unless they're willing to take a pay cut. We also have an even smaller pool relative to other big clubs because we don't have the pulling power to get players who are seeking immediate opportunities to start stocking up on trophies. Overall there are several very understandable limitations placed on us. But the intentions are clearly there this window to move things along. It'll happen it just requires some patience and the maximum amount of leverage and clarity that will arrive at the end of the window when we know who we can move on and who is serious about doing a deal to allow us to bring someone in. Hang in there, CT.

What point are you making?

Agree with all that. Admittedly his head is probably a mess with all the transfer news but it's also possible that we just got a preview of how he'd respond to the pressure of being the subject of a 65m+ transfer fee in that performance. Not doing his club owner any favours in demonstrating his superstar credentials. Interesting to see if we move on or hold out to the end of the window and see if Palace crumble a bit. Short of him signing a new contract this is their only chance to sell him for what we're offering. I still think we'll get him. Strangely, I think that performance makes it more likely.

Brilliant.

Shall we vote on it?

This transfer is taking a massively greater level of risk to previous transfers. We can deal in "if" scenarios about the lad's future or talk about who knows what compared to whom but the facts are that this is a new level of risk for the club. That seems straightforwardly true. If it works it works. I hope it does. But it's undoubtedly a greater level of risk to spend top striker money on a CB. He needs to be a amongst the world's best for years to come merely to justify the transfer. I don't think we can say that about a previous transfer. Not even Isak's transfer held such expectations owing to the inflated prices for strikers. That said, I actually hope the transfer goes ahead because it's exciting and fundamentally that's more important to me as a supporter than balance sheets. But, like I've said, I also wouldn't be disappointed if it fell through. I'm fine either way because I think this transfer indicates a shift of direction from the new directors. It seems like we're in a situation where it's an educated level of risk since we need to be upwardly mobile this season or face losing our top players. We may as well push the boat out because if we don't crack into the upper echelons sharpish the likes of Gordon, Isak and Bruno will look to go elsewhere. It seems like the risk is that we'll cover PSR in the season after next either through another CL qualification or selling one of our big players. I hope that the Geuhi signing is followed by a similar RW signing to really show our intentions because if it is our aim to finish 4th with a good amount of room for error built in then we have to improve that position also.

I hope the rest of you are happy with yourselves. We've been reduced to Dave being the voice of reason. For shame!

Ultimately, I think it's premature to judge the window before the window shuts. If the top brass at the club treated transfer negotiations like we sometimes want them to on here the club would have their own pants down over every transfer because they wouldn't be able to go 5 minutes of waiting for a reply to an offer without getting back on the phone to increase the offer in the hopes of getting a faster response.

There's no denying the transfer process is frustrating and only getting worse with the added incentive of PSR now in the mix that makes both buying and selling parties determined to squeeze every bit of value from every transaction. At the end of the day, we clearly have money to spend this window and by the time the window closes we'll have added one or maybe even two top quality signings to the first XI. Whether it's Geuhi or someone else it doesn't really matter. Personally, I think this lad is way overpriced and we could get better value with a CB of half the price and spend more at the business end of the pitch where 60m is the going rate for a quality name. If this lad comes in for 60-65m then the price tag dictates that the expectation should be that he will perform immediately and for a long long time at the level of one of, if not the best, CB in the league. This is big big money for a CB. It's the equivalent of spending 100m+ on an attacking player. A 60-65m fee is a lot of expectation to lump on a defender. And we've seen many an expensive English CB crumble under the weight of such expectations. In saying that, I do hope we get him and I hope he's worth it. But if we move back to Thiaw (or whoever else) I also won't be disappointed because the value proposition of a 30-35m CB and a 50-60m RW is much more likely (everything else being equal) to represent good bang for our buck (in my opinion) than the other way around.

Fuck off, man.

Spunking this amount of money on a CB seems a little out of proportion with our previous transfer dealings. It could be that the change of leadership structure has meant a change in direction. But I wonder if this is a bit of an educated gamble by the club in the sense that perhaps it's been concluded that we absolutely need to make significant strides this season in order to keep the likes of Isak, Bruno & Gordon long-term. Either way, it's a good move in principle even if personally I'd prefer a slightly cheaper CB that doesn't come with the England international tax and for more money to be committed to RW. But I can also see the excitement and message behind going out and getting a current England CB who is likely to be at the core of the international team for the foreseeable future. Hopefully we can raise some good coin from a few sales and get Guehi & a top top RW.

Is there going to be a test?