Summer window

I know it’s only one game but Edwards was lifting in the play off semi final

 

I wouldn’t be surprised if the lad has just been sleeping and training at the academy since the season ended

 

Like I've said with Clarke - I am pleased West Ham are wanting to bid for Ballard. It's just further proof that we are building a Premier League calibre squad. Plenty of time left on contract so it will take a good chunk of money.

We need to get comfortable with premier league clubs wanting our players - its good news

 

God I ****ing love O9, really hope he sticks around. That attitude must be absolutely infectious

 

Stoke sold Souttar for 20mill.

Ballard is better than him, let's start at 25 eh lads

 

And annoying as **** I'd imagine

 

Looks that way

 

If West Ham get the £100m that they are after for Rice then there's no way we should be letting them get Ballard on anything resembling the cheap.

Minimum offer should be £15m

 

Exactly. We dont need to sell. The lads got 3 years left on his deal, and is a paramount player in our side. We are well in our rights to command a huge fee. We wont be bullied into selling players.

Only thing that should change that is if Ballard himself tells the club he wants to leave and return home to London. He will be closer to his family, likely on higher wages, and playing in the Premier League. Even then I wouldn't accept anything less than 15m quid.

Hopefully Ballard is aligned with the plan here.

 

I’d take £15m. I know people are saying Souttar went for £18m but he’s more of a one off. West Ham signed Zouma and Aguerd for £30m each who both had CL experience.

£15m for a player we signed for £2m 12 months ago and was injured 2/3 of the season is great for us. Plus we’ve signed a few CB’s already.

That money could improve us all over the pitch.

 

In an ideal world, we keep most of the squad together and then invest in a couple of top talents.

 

I was just thinking that myself. I could cope with his enthusiasm after a couple of coffees, but not before

 

I keep thinking about this when our players are linked to moves to the Premier League and i keep coming back to the same result in my head.

The lads we have brought in - Clarke, Ballard, Roberts, Cirkin, Alese, Ekwah have all been at Premier League clubs and either not played or been over looked for new signings coming in. I appreciate money plays a big part, but these lads appear to want to play week in week out and develop.

Maybe I am too optimsitic, but maybe these lads see the bigger picture? Stay here on not bad money, play regular football at a decent level, develop into better players and then go for the big move if we cant get to the level they want to be at?

As an example Jack Clarke COULD push for a move to Burnley this summer where he may play a fair few games in a team that are realistically going to struggle in 70% of games to play attacking football and earn £30k a week, or he stays here, plays pretty much every game, improves again and has some of the best statistics in the league and then goes to a big club with his bargaining power even higher

 

"We are back!!
youve missed me ain't yer?
Let's talk.
How much have you missed me.
On a scale of 1 to 10"

Class, love the fella

 

Pritch is like "**** off mate its monday morning"

 

I’d prefer it if we kept him but if we are going to sell him then wait until they have got the money for Rice.
No rush and I wouldn’t even listen to them until we got to £20m and I’d be looking for closer to £25m.

 

Wonder if Seelt is going to get Ballards squad number and that's why it wasn't mentioned yesterday

 

You might be right.
Bet their lass will be delighted he’s back training.
He’ll have been like Tigger this morning…

 

Nooooooooooo

 

The Ballard one is so weird to me. We signed him for a pittance last summer, and he played less than half a season's worth of games in the Championship last year. He did well in the few games he played but it's not like he was a standout in the team, Bathh was arguably our better CB. I rate the lad but I'm really confused why West Ham suddenly want to spend big bucks on him