PhilM

Not sure I agree on that. It's definitely a benefit to have players with an understanding of the other players around them (as well as those with experience of really high intensity football). Ironically we've seen the impact of that with Gakpo not forming an on pitch understanding with Kerkez last season. Next season, our first choice starting XI has at least five unknowns in it, which are likely to have completely new signings in them. Right Back - Presumably Frimpong at the moment, but I assume we'll buy another right back? Right Centre Back - Presumably Jacquet or another new signing? One of the Centre Mids - Potentially a new signing, given that MacAllister looks like he might be off. Left and right wing - At least one new fella, maybe two, potentially one of Rio, and/or Gakpo if he stays. That's quite a lot to bed in again, and given that some of the players were here under Klopp so are more used to high intensity football, it could be important to retain as many of them as possible. Also Gakpo really boils my piss sometimes, but it's important to note that he has actually had a pretty good output for us, last season aside. 25/26 - 52 games, 9 goals, 6 assists. 24/25 - 49 games, 18 goals, 7 assists 23/24 - 53 games, 16 goals, 7 assists 22/23 - 26 games, 7 goals, 3 assists.

I think Gakpo is important to us purely because of the churn. We're going to need someone to play up front when Isak is inevitably crocked, and we can't rely on Jayden Danns to be that cover, so it's either Gakpo, who we know has it in him to have a good output, or we sign someone who might be a bit of an unknown quantity and take a risk.

Life giveth and life taketh away in equal measure...

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He's been at Liverpool for four years, and I genuinely have no idea how good he is besides making an assumption based on how much managers have played him. He must have all of what, 200 minutes of game time for us?

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Zaf Iqbal wouldn't have stood for this s***.

Victor is doin it for The Reds Eddie Howe can go get f***ed I'm goin LFC instead

Yeah, fair enough. Was a cheap shot.

"Really good at forcing his way into the box."

Never heard of this fella, but all of the goals he scores are blammers. Love it. Looks like he could have come from Liverpool as well.

From an article about Crystal Palace confirming Pierre Sage as their new manager by Ed Aarons for The Guardian.

Chigwada you wanna make those eyes at L4 For the football that they play? They make Blues mad They make Blues sad They win a lot of trophies that The Blues never had.

Would be nice to even have the option.

Well, he certainly left a lot of unfinished chances.

Weird that they sold him for less than they paid for him, when he seems to have improved as a player as well.

Almost like they're represented by the same agent...

Although he's a bit one dimensional in his movement, all he can do is run away, turn away, run away, run away. That was Guy Roux, his old manager when we signed him. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2004/jan/09/newsstory.sport15

I think €50m is actually pretty good value for Summerville. Neil Atkinson made a good point on TAW the other day that West Ham are being pretty brassy asking for these values for these players, and as the window draws on, they'll be more desperate to sell because you can't afford the wages of the likes of Bowen, Areola, Wan-Bissaka, Soucek, Todibo, Fernandes etc in the Championship. Bowen is reported to be on about £150k a week, so a load of the teams in the Premier League couldn't afford to pay that. I reckon with West Ham, the longer people hold out, the more they'll budge on prices. Wouldn't be surprised if Bowen ends up moving for about £20m in the last week of the window or something like that.

I remember thinking that was a bit wild at the time to be fair. Shearer wasn't that prolific for Southampton. Obviously shows that Kenny knew more than me given what happened after he signed for Blackburn.

Just give it to a European country that isn't Israel or France every time.

Damn, he's a f***ing unit, that kid.

He's been injured for most of his career. Hopefully it's "growing pains" because he's pretty massive, but when someone gets injured that much, it normally means that they're cooked and are going to end up retiring at 25.

Villa didn't even think he was worth £35 last year!