OK, well if you guaranteeing it then I'm sticking £10,000 bet on that and if it doesn't come in then I'll be claiming the full refund from you.
I don't see these happenning, they are not the kind of profile that the club generally seem to be looking at and not the kind Ashworth is typically linked with either. Just looks like lazy journalism to me.
I would not place much weight on those rumours mate. I think we might target some ambitious freebies like Tielemans etc but it wont be players like Maguire or McTomminay!
Indeed. Though we've been a mixed bag - Botman, Bruno, Isak all without PL experience, then Burn, Trippier, Wood, Gordon who do have it. There'll be a mix again this Summer, I think - and I'm not going to be crying if Tierney signs. However Maguire, McTominay, Mount are ****ing dreadful and I suspect there'll be a lot of agent talking us up in the hope it forces moves elsewhere.
The problem is we need a British/English contingent or "Homegrown" (8 British trained players - including 4 through our own youth system) players in and around the squad and there aren't very many quality ones around. Pope, Trippier, Burn, Targett, Longstaff, Willock, Anderson and Wilson is the current crop that are worth having in a matchday squad and we can't get the Kane's, the Rice's, the Bellingham's etc and once you are past that "World Class" group the level drops off a cliff edge. Grealish £100m, Maquire £80m and ****e like that won't be for us. Even Kalvin Phillips (27) at £45m makes Gordon (21) at £40m look like good business. What would it cost to sign someone like Mount? I'd not pay £30m for him but it'd probably cost 2 or 3 times that amount... We should/will be looking for the next generation of British players, aged 21-23 max who haven't shone as bright as they can burn yet. There's a few youngsters like Charlie Cresswell at Leeds, Taylor Hayward-Bellis at City, Troy Parrott at Spurs etc who should be on the radar and I'm sure our scouting staff will have eyes on the up coming players seeing if there's any deals to be done - especially at the top 6 teams where the younger players can be over looked in favour of big money foreign signings. Similarly with European talent - Isak 23, Botman 21, Kuol 18, even Bruno was just 24 - there's a clear plan that these players should be able to improve over 5 years and developed to top quality players to push the club on or to be sold for profit so it's quite a niche market especially when looking nationally. Players who have had an opportunity so far like Gallaher maybe? Maddison is probably the best English player we can hope for at present but he'll have offers from all the top 6 as well. JWP from Soton if they go down plus a few others around. Tierney would be a quality option at LB though but not sure that's a starter tbh.
