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.

Coombs What do you mean? You'd rather go for half measures this window and then not have the funds to be in the picture for better talents this summer? I acknowledge we never know if they will indeed be available and moving like last summer but I'd be interested in how you feel we should be moving.

Also I think it's important to note that there don't even seem to be many half measures that are moving this window - the Cunha's, Mbeumo's, Watkins of the world are not moving.

samthegooner i think it means that sacrificing short term gains can have negative consequences long term too. Add to that, if you by short term gains mean winning the league or the CL, isn't those gains the same as our long term goals?

Regardless, I've been clear about it being too late to win the league even if we sign good players.

Sicario2 - Tier 1 And what cost though ?

No cost. The PL title race is over. You yourself have made a big deal posting about this a million times. You are correct. Stick to your guns.

While I'm relatively confident about the CL, what I mean by "confident" is that there's probably somewhere between a 15-20% of us winning. There's no signing that could move that by any more than a few percentage points.

If we were really in the thick of the title race then I could buy the idea of myopically optimizing for the next 4 months. However, there isn't much there to optimize for.

While I do wish we had strengthened the attack in the summer, by no means do I agree with the statement that our failure to add to the attack in the summer is the reason we are in the spot we are in terms of the title race. The confluence of awful injury luck with Merino/Odegaard/White/Saka being out long term at various points and some absurd refereeing decisions with tangible point implications is just something you cannot plan for. Would some new signings have helped? Probably but I've gone through my firm belief that the players we needed to add last summer were not available or moving. I simply do not believe that players that moved, like Neto, would have made a difference this year. There certainly is an opportunity cost of not getting your #1 target and I think this summer is critical in terms of pivoting to our #2 or #3 targets if we strike out on initial targets. But I don't think that January is the time to make those pivots or concessions personally.

I look forward to the end of August when we are once again told there is no point signing players for the sake of it and we need to keep our powder dry. I don't know what magic striker people are waiting for but if they reveal themselves they will likely go to Real Madrid or City.

His dad is saying he'll join his new club in the summer. It must be us. He wasn't going to make a difference right now and he gets a proper preseason to step in slowly. He's a long term bet anyway.

Let's get a proper fucking forward now.