birchfest

Yeah that was the figure I heard a few weeks ago, but then on a recent pinkun podcast Connor was saying is was only 15 million (pre-emi sale). Surely it must have been closer to Bailey’s figure, because I don’t think Webber could be talking about the improved transfer approach to last time when 10-15 was roughly what we spent in loan fees etc.

Urm no, he’s the sporting director, I’m sure he would have been made aware of it but he’s not in charge of commercial decisions. That’s like saying Ben kenswell gave the the green light for the Buendia sale.

A little gutted about Pereira, but it’s likely he’s going to get a move for 20 million or so which would basically mean we could get him and then a bunch of loans for the season. That’s not going to happen. Fingers crossed they are on it with their first choice who will be starting in Emi’s old position… I’m being careful not to say replacement as that’s what Pereira would have been in terms of style, perhaps it’s more likely we will be looking for more of a fast paced winger instead of a technician.

Most people know all this, but you are dropping in on a message board for a team that had a pretty horrific relegation experience and just sold their best player for maybe 30 years. I think the general consensus was that we hoped Atletico Madrid would come in for him, as in the same way it would be for Grealish, its going to be really hard to see him playing against us next season. Especially when we will probably be scraping it out toward the bottom end. Check back in after we've got a replacement and the future looks a little more exciting for us. Right now we've lost our best player and our shirt sponsor appears to be a creepy asian betting ring. Not a great few days.

I think the answer Webber would give us is yes. Remember this is a man who said he sent Farke to war without a gun last time (with Buendia in the squad) its also the same man who said our goal is to finish the transfer window with a squad that on paper is better than the one we have. Now thats quite a bold thing to say if your willing to let our best individual player go and don't have any idea or plan in place to compensate for that. I think the way we have to look at it is the club rated Emi as a 9/10 player but within our squad we have too many 5 or 6/10 players at the Premier league level, something we learnt last time. So at the cost of selling one excellent player we can hope to bring in 3 or 4 players that are more in the 7 or 8/10 to raise the overall quality.

I think keep him in the building till January, by which time if he hasn't yet had a chance or our defence looks settled and everyone is fit (including any new signings) we could then look to get him to a Championship side on loan. Time is on his side so I think we don't need to rush him out and 4 months of training in a premier league squad will be a good experience for him.

It’s easy to forget there is a person behind the name sometimes, and I have no doubt there will be a few people very worried this morning about if they will still have a job by the end of it. That for me, as a human, doesn’t make me feel good and not something I would chuck around lightly. Yes, there should be consequences and yes that might require someone being disciplined, but we have no idea what the full story is. For all we know the higher ups might well have been semi-aware and just thought no one would notice. Either way, don’t be so quick to wish hardship on others, even if they have done something wrong, let’s see if they can put it right.

Urm, are you honestly trying to suggest that a photo of a famous actress sat on a business class bed-seat is comparable to a video of some Asian girls playing ‘the hotdog game’ in lewdly cut football shirts? I mean, she’s showing her ankles… are you from 1890?

To be honest the ‘hot dog video’ is what sets it apart, it’s degrading and a whole level above some raunchy photos. I think if that video hadn’t emerged there would be perhaps less of a backlash, but that said with the her game too issue and just in general society slowly progressing on social issue I think it’s not fair to say you weren’t upset about it before so you can’t be now. Hopefully your right and this is another nail in the coffin of gambling sponsors.

I'd been at work and the first I saw of this was the bizarre twitter account with no followers, that was strange enough and I actually wrote 'well, I hope you guys have done due diligence because if that was a company I was looking to work with I'd be sceptical'. The next was then seeing some screen shot of the models on the instagram pages. That, whilst in offensive to some, is simply not what our club is about, a club that supports womens football and a club with a banner over the Barclay stand once saying 'a club for everyone'. Then I saw the hotdog video. I mean, if you don't have an issue with our club having wandered into this blindly then you need to give your head a wobble. If thats your thing, fine, but thats NOT what an inclusive and community based club should be linked to. Whilst I appreciate that we have to make enough money to stay in it with a chance, the irony is that they have launched this on the day where we have received a record transfer, so really that argument stinks in this instance. Either BK8 were giving us so much we could forget our morals but keep our best players, or our sustainable model means we sell players for record fees and don't get into bed with companies like this. The amazing thing is we haven't even spoken about the gambling or their potential links to dodgey stuff with chinese betting. Someone has got to go, I'd wager that Delia is going to be furious.

Hahaha well that was completely mad, fun but bonkers! EDIT. having seen the aftermath of this, a few fancy lights aren't going to cut it.

In theory yes, I agree. However, much depends on what is now done in this transfer window, if we drop 10 million each on a couple of flops and no show next season then it’s not going to look good, However, I’m actually quite excited to see what we do, I’m hoping we see the overall quality of the squad now go up.

Personally I don’t see why we don’t move into the Arms dealer market. Think of the promos… ‘the only thing better than a Pukki strike, is a Archangel 2789 tactical air to sea missile strike!’

Cant believe we’ve let Dafabet go to Villa, same old Norwich no ambition.

Ashton, I was gutted and I have a bit of a dislike for West Ham so that made it worse.

I think what is also extremely important is to remember Webber’s words in his season debrief, he said something along the lines of ‘judge me on if the squad is stronger/better than the one we had this season’ and that being the aim, to increase the quality. Now that is a fascinating comment when you think in comparison to who we had, we currently have: Pukki Cantwell Dowell ??????? McClean ?????? Giannoulis Gibson Hanley Aarons* Krul (* likely to go also) So, if we are going to be better we can see there are some big shoes fill, but I’m currently not too upset about that, if anything I’m excited… if they think they can let Buendia go, probably max and no certainty of skipp returning and STILL actually end up making us better, then we’ve got some pretty exciting weeks ahead. I’m positive, despite my sadness.

Despite what some on here want you to believe, this money will largely be going into the transfer budget and spent on quality rather than prospects. I have no idea when the first signings will be made, but I except there to be one or two eye catching ones. Would love it if we could get Pereira in, a similar type of player to Emi and has scored for West Brom in the top flight too.

I would understand some of the doom and gloom mongers reactions if this sale had gone through on deadline day and no replacement had been brought in, especially if we had had an average window. I think this is shaping up to be one of our biggest windows, possibly in the history of our club. Every chance we are going to be breaking our transfer record multiple times in the coming weeks, and we now have a decent pot to play with to make the whole squad stronger. The other thing I’d also point out, do you think Webber etc have only just woken up this morning and said ‘right, he’s gone… let’s start having a think about who we could get in?’. They have allowed this to happen, so there will be a bigger plan in play with regards to who comes in, this likely having been identified well in advance. Im gutted to see him go, but Norwich are not one player. Southampton didn’t go down when they lost Mane or Van Djik, Leicester won the bloody league and still saw Kante and Mahrez go, look at them now… not exactly gone too bad for them. This in a weird way could end up being something we look back on and say it was sad but necessary.

I think we all thought Max was the one that would be leaving us first, the rumblings from the club and the interest in the last two windows made it clear he was in demand. I must admit that was the player I thought Webber was softening us up for. Buendia going is by no means a shock, but I am curious to know if this changes the chances of anyone else going? So what do we think? Aarons stays or will he go? Another 30 million and we would have a huge transfer pot, probably our biggest ever or will the club be looking to hang onto him now?

Would love Danjuma too but that would be almost the entire Buendia fee for him I’d recon.. I can’t see skipp being a permanent deal, just too much on one player and we know he is well thought off at the club, Levy is also hard to deal with and not one to cut deals on the cheap. A loan would still be fantastic for us, a second season of finances might see us be able to replace skipp properly,

Going to be really funny if we get Pereira….

This is the most excitement we've had since the tracking of Amadou's plane on flight tracker haha

Sums up my feelings too. Id love Bunedia to have stayed, but it is what it is and not a shock. Hopefully we have some really strong moves for incomings.

Clap, he's a double promotion player and he's given us some outstanding moments. Hopefully his legacy is the fee allows us to stay up with a solid squad.

Can I point out that it was this model that brought Buendia to the club. Cant have it both ways, we either are a club that finds exceptional talent and develops it, or we go back to buy 'established Premier league players' like Naismith.