The squad rebuild has been a striking success and Raya can be made to make sense if Ramsdale is sold for over about £18m—though I fear he'll go for under ten. If Havertz becomes any kind of valued regular I'll accept it, and I'd love to see that.

We just can't keep doing what we've been doing though. On the sales front, the poor results have been partly due to the direct devaluation of good players by the manager's selection practices.

Put bluntly, if we keep doing this we're all in on winning multiple major trophies with this squad. Without another step up in profile and revenue we won't be able to sign adequate players or compete.

Qwiss If this is what it's going to be we should sell him in winter to some desperate outfit. I think we've got Buckley's chance of getting what we paid, we'll get Leno money again.

    I’m pretty sure we’ll see an addition to the attack this coming window. It obviously needs a boost.

    Wonder if we’ll engineer a loan with an obbo to stay within FFP?

    I think we need more explosive pace, direct running, and unfussy finishing, whether in the wide areas or at CF. I want someone obsessed with scoring goals.

    Linked to Takefusa Kubo today. He’d be a good back up for Saka

    Also still being linked to Zubimendi.

      Yeah been very impressed with Kubo this season. Didn't realise he have this level to his game and he has been improving tremendously. Looks unplayable at times

      He does. Not sure if it’s a purple patch but he has that elite nimbleness to evade defenders. One hell of a pausa on him too.

      Think I’d rather him than Neto for the right hand side though I see Neto as being more versatile and he carries a more blunt overpowering running threat.

      Shall we get both? 😃

      lorddulaarsenal Also still being linked to Zubimendi.

      Wonder if the plan is to use him as our No.8

        Surely you'd play him at 6. He's probably the most obvious high quality choice for the role with how we play.

          6 days later

          There's also houseboat links to Santiago Gimenez. Looks good.

            He looks a bit lacking technically but probs would be an upgrade to the squad

            there is no winter windo for us. we're tapped. we'll be scraping around for loan deals for Chelsea leftovers again

              QuincyAbeyie Don’t rate him yet. Not at the level we require. I watch a lot of Mexico NT and he’s very inconsistent

                Gazza M I think we may well be desperate enough we find a way to sign a midfielder by then.

                Zubimendi, or is Kalvin Phillips worth a shout? Supposedly we are interested in him though there will be a silly "war" when City force him out.

                  Gazza M
                  Don’t believe Ornstein, he often gets it wrong in terms of how much budget we have in transfer windows. If we want to spend we will spend in Jan.

                    He's 18. Looks like he might have an Iniestaesque receding hairline in a few years, he's got time to develop.