Temporary replacement. Although, I'm glad it was.

Only 25 this week, got a decade left as a keeper. Huge wage bump, increased profile even if it doesn't work out at Arsenal (at which point he will probably get loaned out or sold to a Prem or top Championship side). Chance to break into one of the top sides in the country, always the possibility to impress enough to stay in. Nah, I stick by it, great move for the lad, it'll set him up for life if he's smart, and probably sort his career trajectory and salary out for a good 5 years or more.

That was my first thought. Although tbh one of the reasons he went there was the GK coach who is now at Arsenal, and they'll be getting offered a lot more money than they paid for him, up to a cool 7 million profit (then minus our share) for a year of having him. Good business, they should sell really, and a huge chance for the lad. Not like us, developing him since he was 17 to sell him for 3 million to a league rival...god that was stupid. We could be pocketing in the region of 10 million probably for him now just for holding onto him a season longer, and not had Walton wasting around in the meantime. Bet Brentford go in for Dillon Phillips to replace him.

Dunno, think Johnson has made that move a few hundred times in the last year already and we don't seem to be any better off for it.

? he would have said agent! Are we really gonna keep doing this?

Uh yeh thanks for that, I'm aware. Know what else is a third party? Third party ownership. You haven't solved this mystery yet, sorry. Seems odd a manager would describe it as a third party instead of just saying an agent. He talks about agents plenty after all. Maybe he just wanted to mix his language up a bit. Or maybe a third party owns the player abroad and wanted their cut. Either is perfectly possible until confirmed, which probably won't happen as the club have moved on. We should probably move on too.

Are you saying that because Sharpe described it as an agent in the article tonight? All of the direct quotes I've seen just say 3rd party, I think that was just Sharpe making an assumption. Could be he has actually fact-checked it was an agent but just didn't read that way to me.

So those clubs are fucking it up too, and? There are also clubs getting their business done and not throwing excuses around. If we got relegated (we won't) would you be saying 'well x and z got relegated too'? Other clubs failing isn't an excuse for us to fail.

Here yes, not in some countries. Still need to buy them out to bring them here.

Why in the world would there be a domino effect for new signings? As if they're all waiting for one to sign before they will. Another total bollocks statement. They might end up signing in short order of each other, but not because of a domino effect, just cos time is running short.

They clearly do have something to do with the deal, or they'd not be able to stop the deal. It's bizarre that this would only come up at this late stage. Who says it's an agent? Sounds like third-party ownership to me, like with the old Tevez and Mascherano debacle. Although you would think the agent would bring this up at an earlier point in proceedings tbf. Maybe they did and the third party didn't get back to anyone for a while with what they wanted. Who knows. It's definitely dragging on towards 'unacceptable' territory though. With nobody signed by today you can be certain we won't have a new face for Saturday. I can live with a game or two if the right player comes in after, but the longer this goes on the more it hampers us, simple as that.

That doesn't really mesh with the discussions to sell Williams.

Tbf we didn't appear to be splashing £5m on anyone like we did on Gally until we splashed £5m on Gally. Covid and the impending FFP cycle end have likely put paid to that kind of profligacy though. If the last two high cost failures didn't already.

Still think he's better than our manager.

Yeh that's why it was the last priority I listed for a specific position, and more a case of leftover funds or new funds from a sale, as JRC looks a very capable cover there (how good he is defensively can't be fully judged yet though). But no I still want him further forward when possible. He isn't really a defender despite some time there in the u23s, so not the best spot to develop him. He might not make the front 3 but we have a middle 3 too. I'm suspecting JRC's performances are going to be too good and consistent for him to just be the utility man off the bench. Although you never know what Tony will do...

I assumed that was the legendary Ben Benson....could be wrong

How I see our needs, in order, all TM and SW's bluster aside. I'm going to avoid using the hyperbole of '8 minimum' and all that stuff I've seen. Absolutely Imperative 1. CB - has to be the number one objective, as this is the one position we are still definitively weaker in the starting 11 last season. Bell is awful and we need better (see number 2), but we had him or other makeshift LBs all season, the only one of which is gone is Downing. Cunningham is gone too but only featured for 9 or 10 games before injury. Tosin played nearly all season, was one of our better players, and with him gone we are just outright worse at CB unless we bring someone in. It also sounds like we can get good money for Del and save a bit on Mulgrew's wage, but there's no point doing these without bringing in at least one, quality CB. 2. LB - goes without saying we need better than Bell, better than Bennett wedging in there, and need to be using JRC in his proper position (it also remains to be seen how long he could be an effective stop-gap there for). But for the reasons stated in number 1, this is the second priority. Definitely needs to happen though. Very Important 3. Back up GK - the only reason this isn't in the 'absolutely imperative' section is because it's not unknown at all for a GK to be fit and available all season. So, we might get away with it if we don't bring someone decent in to mostly warm the bench. I'm really not comfortable with the risk though, plus we don't know if Kaminski will satisfy our need for consistent quality here anyway and may need effective competition to keep him on his toes, or for if his form drops badly, or if he breaks Lenihan's penis. The youth goalies are yet to demonstrate they could be relied on for a 10-game streak without our first choice goalie. 4. Back up CB - you always get game time out of a third-choice CB, and it's important they can fill in effectively and not gift goals to the opposition. Arguably we have one already, I don't think Williams is the worst cover at CB (horrendous at LB though), but if the claim (from the LT was it?) that we might get 7-figures for him is true, I'm sure we can replace with better value as he isn't too consistent there. We have a clutch of young centre halves who have all shown promise at some point or another, but none have proven enough that they can be relied on consistently yet. Partly because of that, it would be good to let one or two of them out on loan, and we'll need to sign 2 CBs this summer for that to be wise. We'll need experience to call upon, on not too much of a wage, and if one of the young lads takes the bull by the horns then great. I've put this below a back up GK because the GK only needs one injury to utterly expose us, but here we have more options. Would Be Nice If Funds Allow 5. Striker - unless we find a terrific bargain, or loads of money comes in from King, Raya, Cairney, this would probably be best as a loanee. We've made our investments here and for better or worse we need to try to hone them. Real quality and guaranteed goals is likely to cost too much for the buget, and if we do have another 5 million or so around (yeh right) I'd rather direct nearly all of that at the defence. I suppose there might be some steady journeyman striker on a free somewhere, like DG was when we got him. But this isn't a major priority area despite BB and SG failing to delight us, as we didn't really struggle for goals last season and are only missing the 4 goals in 38 from DG and the 2 in 15 from DS. Dack hopefully won't miss half the season, which should cover those in itself, and I have a feeling BB and SG will score more than last season (but probably still not set the league alight). We do also have Vale and Butterworth on the fringes, might be good un's, might be crud un's. 6. Back up RB - not majorly fussed about this one, but it'd be nice to feel like there is no chance of EB lining up at full back. Nyambe is prone to the odd twinge and short layoff, but he does at least seem to be the first pick there now, and I'm happy with him. JRC would be an able deputy but it looks like we're going to need him further up the pitch when we can. Don't see much sense in a loan here unless it's almost free, but if we could find a good young cheap RB with promise, especially one with versatility, it'd be nice. Still question marks over Nyambe signing a deal after all. 7. Anything else if sufficient quality at a good deal. I know some people insist we need wingers, but we don't play with them, and aren't happy with our CM options, but we have nine million of them. I'm confident based on how we did last season that if we just fix up that crappy defence we should be good to launch a serious playoff fight if TM doesn't sabotage it with barmy selections. A few less pathetic capitulations and we'd have been right up there. We also have a mostly young squad, many of whom should be better after another year of experience and growth. That isn't to say that another player of real quality in pretty much any area couldn't propel us to So I'd say we absolutely must be signing those top 2, and doing everything in our power to get the next 2. If we end up with 3 of that 4, so be it, it happens, but anything less is unacceptable and unlikely to see us progress. I don't really like that SW is already talking as if 4 might be the ceiling. Seems every summer we water down expectations for numbers after starting high.

Fool me once....

Tell Twitter it might like to go fuck itself with a knife.

I know he's entitled to every penny of it. But cash up front and the freedom to get another contract, earning money from it and keeping his stock relevant has to be worth upwards of 120k. I'd have a bit more confidence in him than Carter at the moment, overall. But from the fresh trio of youngsters you can be sure one will fail to adjust well to regular games and pressure.

I think he'll get over it if he wants something left of his career. Look I don't rate him much anymore but with the lack of experienced CBs there might be games where he can plug a gap and offer the odd goal threat. So he wouldn't be my 5th/6th choice with current personnel like you imply. I'd expect to be able to get more than 120k back on terminating his contract if we got the players we need by the end of the window tbh.

Mulgrew is on half that at best.

I'm sure we could put out feelers in the Middle East, China or US or something to pay more.

I'll be amazed if 120k is the difference between signing someone or not. If you told me we could have Mulgrew as an emergency backup for 120k for the season I'd probably say sure. We concede more with him but he also scores.

Fine let me rephrase- I'm bemused we are entertaining it. It isn't really worth bothering at that amount. Like Alex said hopefully there's a big loan fee attached to get around it.