Polarboy

https://www.footballinsider247.com/sources-newcastle-and-brighton-ready-moves-for-senesi-as-asking-price-revealed/ It's OK, we've already moved onto an Argentine centre back who plays for Feyenoord 😉 I'm sure he'll be fourth time lucky. I would repeat my point again from the other day. It's most likely the case that most of these stories are little more than a game of telephone at best, with very little solid fact to back them up. Edit. It should also be said that given the money we have behind us, every agent in the world is likely trying to feed unsubstantiated rumour to the press in order to drum up interest in their players.

At least you knew where you were with Bruce, Penfold and Fatley, none of this hope shite 😉

Of course all this contradictory are we aren't we, in and out for players could be 80% sports journalists talking out of their arse most of the time.

Yeah bringing Wood in is a clear win, win. I'm loathe to reference Luke Edwards, but he did make a good point about the amount of crosses we were getting into the box against Cambridge, and Trippier's delivery and tendency to bang the crosses in. Wood getting on the end of that kind of delivery will at the very least result in chances for those around him, and he has been pretty consistent with his scoring over the years in a Burnley side that isn't what you would call attacking. I would be worried if we just ended up bringing in the young French lad as our striking option with Wilson out, but having the plan be to bring in an experienced striker alongside him makes sense.

Supposedly he's highly rated, and some have mentioned him in the same breath as Mbappe in terms of potential, but who knows how hyperbolic that is, or how knowledgeable they are. Maybe it was his mam comparing him to Mbappe. Of course this is his first senior season, apart from a short loan to a Danish team. So it's definitely a risk whatever way you look at it.

https://www.90min.com/posts/newcastle-hugo-ekitike-30m-advanced-talks-reims-transfer In advanced talks to sign a 19 year old French striker from Reims according to 90minutes. I've no idea how reliable 90 Minutes are, but this lad has scored 8 in 17 games this season, but is largely unproven obviously given his age. Could be a great addition to the squad if true, but we'd hopefully be going for someone with a bit of experience as well.

We should do whatever it takes of course, I agree with that, but I'm playing devil's advocate in terms of wondering what is actually possible. As I and others have said before we do have to be realistic as to who will sign regardless of what money we are throwing around. The Vlahovic's and probably even Schick's of football are most likely not going to come, at least not until the summer.

12m on Trippier, a potential 70m on two centre backs, presumably another 20 to 30 on a left back, another 30 or so on a defensive mid, and we're up to 132, 142m. You could say a striker is more important than say getting a left back, but it does start adding up, plus we don't even take into consideration the cost of wages and agents fees. And again it's likely not a case of the club playing hardball. The reality is that there is a finite amount of money that's allowed to be spent, clubs are much less willing to sell their players in January, and high quality players that aren't mercenaries are much less likely to join a club in a relegation fight.

Yeah, but regardless of being ripped off or not there is a limit to how much we can spend in this window due to financial fair play. I know some have said it's close to 200m , but 1) I don't know how true that is, and 2) I'm not sure how that then plays into how much we'll be allowed to spend in the summer. Is it the calendar year they take account of when tallying up how much you're allowed to spend? The tax year?

Who is this Sean Casey, and why should I even care what he's saying? Has he proven himself to have reliable info in the past?

That's actually not the worst shout, at least for a short term solution, but I doubt Rafa would be willing to let him go given he's cover for DCL who's only just gotten fit after his big layoff. Granted Rondon hasn't been great for them, and iirc was more or less benched in favour of playing a false 9 with Richarlison or whoever else.

The unfortunate fact is that regardless of money and what we can pay in fees and wages, getting a striker in that costs 50 to 70m, or rather is actually worth that much, is not happening for us in this January window. If we manage to stay up it will be difficult even in the summer market. I think we need to target a player like a Dzeko, as in someone with undoubted quality but who's at a point in their career where they would conceivably join us. Dzeko it would appear isn't moving of course, at least according to the Inter owner. We should also target a young up and coming striker like a Nketiah, but I think we could perhaps do better if looked outside the league, given his record isn't stellar at least in the PL. I know his record in the cups is decent. The only point he would have going for him is experience playing in the premier.

I don't think Cantwell is an answer to our problems in the short term, very decent squad player of course as long we bring in other starting eleven targets, but, and I could be wrong, I would assume Cantwell's refusal to sign a contract has something to do with him being frozen out.

I will say in fairness though, that it's perhaps not through want of trying and money that we aren't attracting the type of player we want in terms of quality. That's likely especially the case in the attacking areas. The aforementioned of course is dependent on these links to Cantwell and Wood being based on fact. I suppose maybe it's a good thing that there seemingly aren't a plethora of quality mercenary players, who will go to a club if you bung them an extra 100 grand a week, over their choice that was made mostly on the basis of football.

Cantwell and Wood? Well we'll be favourites for the Championship next season I suppose.

I was going by transfermarkt, and it seems to be ten, but maybe they differentiate between players that were in the squad at one point, and youth players, under 21's etc.

Yeah Chelsea's way of doing things is pretty insane, in a good way for them at least. They currently have about ten players out on loan.

It's probably down to more than one thing. Maybe it has to do with PL clubs being less inclined to sell to us, but it could also be that other leagues are more desperate for money, and there's players with a lot of quality in said leagues if you have the money.

I see we're being pretty strongly linked to Issa Diop, perhaps as an alternative to Carlos. At 10M, if that is the actual fee, that would be pretty decent business. Zouma had come in and replaced him until he got injured, but I don't recall Diop being mistake prone, always seemed very decent. Can you imagine the two absolute units of Botman and Diop at centre back for us, both 6'4, 6'5 ish.

Yeah of course, but that's not saying much when all he has to do is be better than Jeff Hendrick as sammy was saying. If we weren't fighting relegation I'd say it was a slight gamble that could pay off big time in the long run, as is we are fighting relegation and we need players who are as close to sure things as possible. Of course it could be the case that we are just buying Cantwell for the future and are also looking at other midfield targets who will hit the ground running.

I 100% want Botman in, but I do worry if someone so young will take time to adapt to the league, time we obviously don't have. Even some experienced players can take time to do so. Then again if he's as unflappable as some make out, perhaps I'm worrying over nothing. He certainly can't be any worse than what we have at present. As for this Cantwell link I can't say I'm massively enthused. I do remember him being very decent for Norwich the last time they were up, and he's still only 23. Again potential is all very well, but we need to hit the ground running yesterday.

The defensive mid could be Bruno Guimaraes the Lyon player. We along with Arsenal and one or two other teams have been linked to him. He's supposedly a long term target of Arsenal's. so it would be amusing if we gazump them late doors.

Digne is a great player, but do we want someone if we're at least their third choice. Of course maybe Downie is talking shite and he has no idea what Digne's preference is, especially seeing as he had to correct himself. Stating the obvious, but as I've said, can you imagine the delivery from either side of the pitch if we get Digne on top of Trippier 😍 Then all we'd need is a fit striker to bang them in, oh and at least one centre back, a defensive midfielder, and maybe an attacking mid to top it off 😂

So just to be clear, you don't think it's related to racism?😂😉👍