I'd be tempted to give Barry Gibb a go at leftback, the way ours have played at times. Would expect Keiran Gibbs would need to be willing to accept a big pay cut for us to get anywhere near signing him, but worth a 12 month contract.

Is 4 goals an acceptable return for a forward? of course not. But is it comparable to other forwards in the same price bracket? Yes. This isnt my opinion on how good or not Gallagher is, but an illustration that £5m doesnt get you the goals some here seem to think it should. Take it to an extreme: if every £4-6m forward in the championship next season scores a maximum of 5 goals, then some will say they've all been rubbish, but the other way to see it is that's all that you get for a £5m forward these days. For every Dack or Armstrong, there'll be misses, Brereton and Gallagher if you like. Its always been this way - Grabbi and Davies? Even Kalanic?

I'll spell it out. £5m isnt that much these days for a forward, it far from guarantees 10 goals, let alone 15. If the Prem examples dont suit, try these for perspective: Glatzel at Cardiff - 7 league goals £5.4m, Wells at Bristol 3 goals £4m, Zohore at West Brom 3 league goals, £8m. Gallagher spent half the season out of position, but is in line with these. The expectations of some on here are far too high.

Che Adams got 4 league goals and reportedly cost £15m. Cutrone apparently cost £16m and was loaned out half way through the season after 2 goals. How did Moise Kean do this season? Yes it was a lot of money to us, but the way some speak, you would think we're the only club to not get instant success from our forwards.

I dont debate their quality or their legacy. Youre the one whose comment implied Gallagher isnt a real footballer.

When youve played at 3 professional clubs in the top 2 English leagues, and been paid tens of thousands per week to do it, then you can Gallagher isn't a real footballer. Another example of our wonderful fanbase.

I get the impression Gallagher's positioning on the wing is mainly for two reasons: The engine and willingness to get back as well as forward. I don't think many question his endeavour. To be the full back in the air at the back stick, given most are shorter players. He doesn't do this, granted, and we don't have the quality wide delivery for him from the left. Years ago Roque was played wide right, I think against Evra, and it worked a treat hitting diagonals to him.

For all the criticism of players being out of position, Guardiola has made it a huge part of his management. Lahm to cm, mascherano to CB, alaba CB, fernandino to cb. And these are players who were much more established in their 'natural' positions compared to Gallagher

Goalkeeper incoming then.

Didn't the Rochina details show the agent fees were about 75% of the outlay? So signings up to 12.5m not really that big a deal in the prem.

Based on the freekick I wouldn't say so. Had he done that in our shirt, particularly in a playoff final, I dread to think how some on here would react. Along the lines of "should have sold him to Brentford for £1m" perhaps.

I don't disagree Raya is better, but the way some have talked of him, especially following the Arsenal and Man City link, you'd think he was Alisson. Yet when he was with us he made errors, wasn't dominant enough...some short memories have just been reminded.

Hmm...maybe Tony was aware Raya always had that in his locker.

It was hardly Keane on Halaad level. Do our fans have equal hatrid for the guy who smashed Evans face in?

Sorry I should have specified league goals. We're hardly going to be pushing in the cup comps.

In itself the lack of goals isn't a problem as long as you contribute in other ways and have players to link up with who do score. Olivier Giroud is a prime example of this - Chelsea and France look much more effective with him in the side, yet he'll get 15 a season at most.

As much as a I believe the kits should be out, in order to generate revenue, some of this seems OTT. The training range was launched about 2 weeks ago, so clearly people are there to deal with new stock and postal orders. Huge clubs such as Liverpool and Real Madrid only launched kits in the last week; its not as if we're the 92nd team in england/wales to launch a new shirt. And whilst i dont want to comment on season tickets too much in this thread - the club, like all the others, cant even tell you what you'd be buying. For all the comments I've seen about refunds later, or changing what comes in the ticket - what's the point, other than it causes more work at some point down the line? My guess would be single IFollow sales until its confirmed crowds can return.

Opinions aside on who is better, it is too obvious to suggest Wharton is used as a make weight either on loan or permanent as part of this deal? Given they seem to want him back, we must be on pole position if other clubs are interested.

....and convincing the PL team to loan to us whilst still paying a significant percentage of the players wages. Many of these 'kids' at the top clubs, like Brewster, will likely be on the same if not more than our top earners.

For all the stick TM gets for his loyalty to Bennett, I'm sure there was a long period when Nyambe was RB and Bennett was benched.

Given his contract situation, if we could get 1.5m-2m for nyambe, jrc could go to RB? he would provide more of an attacking threat

Denis Irwin, Javier Zanetti and Paulo Maldini all played a considerable number of games as right footed left backs, regarded as at least world class and with the latter 2 I'd say genuine legends of the game. Not a problem having a left back be right footed as long as a)they know how to effectively play the position and b) have a moderate left foot

Do people expect the local paper just to have a one liner once a sale has completed? You want them to not report this as it may encourage a sale yet doubt their integrity if the club isn't criticised. More importantly in this would be finding out if Newcastle have a sell on clause or if we'd get the full fee.

As long as he isn't Scottish along with this. Otherwise we may as well find a Brazilian Denis Irwin and the heir to batistuta.

The Platt transfer will be that £10m bid people mentioned. Happy days, we've balanced the books for a season.