Let’s see if Watkins story evolves.

Sicario2 - Tier 1 80m is too much. £60m in between the 2 valuations I could live with.

Burnwinter preferring United to Spurs is entirely sensible.

Qwiss he’s also not Carabo cup tied so could play v Newcastle as well on Wed

Sicario2 - Tier 1 wouldn't really come into my consideration TBH. I wish we'd lost to Palace.

flobaba

That's the only way I've ever been able to stomach it. You got to see the best, now see the not so best. Still get butterflies rewatching old Henry footage.

Sicario2 - Tier 1 Homesteak already posted a link to Evan Ferguson Guardian article - I want my money back!

Oh god even our semi interesting 18yr old signing isn't happening this window.

Does feel like they are just going to stick with what they have (again) until the summer.

They are probably thinking schedule becomes a bit more manageable after the next 2 games as we only have Prem and CL left and have enough cover to gamble on Ode + Havertz fitness. Don't ask me who we will see if either of them 2 go down with Saka still out.

It's a tough one. Saudi slosh is a real problem. Say we wanted for example Gyokeres this window. How much do you think Sporting (and his agent) will ask for? Duran 85million, Boniface rumors of 60 mill. Marmoush crazy fee, crazy wages. I can see why we would "settle" for a Watkins. Still believe that will happen. Underwhelming, but it is what it is. We may still want to try for bigger profiles in the summer after bringing in Ollie, but nothing is guaranteed then either anyway. Top strikers are in demand, and are a rarity in today's game. There will be blood. It will be ours.

Qwiss He'd be Alan Partridge level, I almost want to see it.

Guess Mitoma didn't get a PhD in close control to become another bauble in Saudi's hamfisted attempt to diversify its economy.

I don't know what's worst. Mitoma's decision making or the Al Nassr's in offering £90m for him. Mental by Brighton to reject that.

No Ollie Watkins to us then:

It certainly feels like the summer where we had a few targets that we would be willing to spend big on (Sesko, Cunha, Mbeumo) but when they did not want to move, we are reluctant to spend on secondary targets since we know those players will potentially still be available in the summer, with the addition of other long term targets.

From the media reports today, it seems like we have our sights set on Zubimendi, Semenyo (love that links are getting more concrete here) and a CF this summer. To me, that sounds like we have a big fee reserved for the small chance that Isak becomes available, as the combination of Zubimendi and Semenyo won't represent an unreasonable outlay, especially if we negotiate a slightly higher fee than Zubi's release clause and thus can distribute his fee over a few years. I just really worry that we are going to spend a ton of time this summer chasing an unattainable dream in Isak but hopefully we move quickly to Sesko if Newcastle gets Champs League.

While I will be disappointed if we don't add to our attack this month as I feel like we are really short in numbers and another injury away from being in real trouble, I have always been a proponent of not sacrificing the long term vision of this team for short term gains. The bulk of the team is still 25 and under and coming into their prime. If we nail this next window, we could have a sustained era of success and titles for the next few years even with our rivals also strengthening. But we need to nail this summer to do that and that makes me nervous. I hope we bring in a real killer as a DoF since it feels like we just can't convince players to make the push to move when we are 80% of the way there... (Sesko, Nico, Zubimendi previously).

samthegooner I have always been a proponent of not sacrificing the long term vision of this team for short term gains.

I believe this is a fallacy.