MFletcher

That's exactly what I wanted to read. We have to make sure we don't bottle it and sell him if he tries something desperate like going on strike.

Been very impressed with Rodgers' handling of this.

Could be a seriously grim start to the season if we' were to sell both Suarez and Agger about a week before the first game.

This "clause" is a laugh. Just tell him to f*** off and find a club willing to pay £56M, the benchmark set by the Cavani sale, and then we'll sell him to whichever club he comes back with. I'd also make it clear that if he wants to move to Arsenal, he'll need to convince them to pay a premium on top of that. w*****.

I've went for sixth ahead of Everton. The top five to be the same as last year, although not in the same order.

The fact it's on the BBC gives it additional credibility. Usually so anyway.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/23550760 What a w*****.

Underwhelming.

I'd tell them that, given they're rivals, we want £70M for him. I'd probably take £55M from Real.

I'm not suggesting that, what I am saying is that if you were a player with the option of coming here, you would look at us and not see us as genuine top four contenders with the current squad. Which is the crux of the argument here, as if we had a squad with genuine ability to make the top four I suspect Suarez would be content to stay for another season. As it is, if you take a step back and look at it completely objectively, we're just not competing at that level and it's going to have a big knock-on on the players we can bring in and the players we can retain.

I agree it hinges entirely on Suarez, but selling him would also be taken as demonstrating a lack of intent/genuine belief that we can reach the top four. The general inference from our purchases is that we're not a top four club and don't really expect to get there soon, because the players we've bought aren't the sort who are coming in and having us think "we'll definitely get there". There's probably not much we can do about it given we are where we are, but I do have some sympathy (not much admittedly) with the line that we don't have all that much cause to be hopeful about breaking into the CL places this season. If Spurs end up signing Soldado or similar, I don't think we have a hope of getting past two of City/United/Arsenal/Spurs/Chelsea.

I think we've regressed in terms of goalkeepers, stood still (at best) with the defence, haven't signed anyone who should be starting in the midfield and our options up front remain limited. Assuming last year's squad stayed the same, we haven't actually signed anyone who should be considered as being straight into the first XI. It looked promising to start with, but it's starting to look like a bit s***.

Tremendous news, this. Played a blinder.

The problem I have with this is that Mingolet has had an okay season followed by a very good season with a team who are, if we're being realistic, s***. Goalkeepers, unless they're throwing it into the net, generally look a lot better for s*** teams because everyone blames the defenders and he gets a lot of chances to make what should be relatively routine saves. Not that I'm suggesting we haven't scouted him, but assuming the longer term goal is dominance of possession, he's going to have to show an ability to concentrate and do f*** all for long tracts before leaping into action the one time they get through. Reina was brilliant at this. He has eight years' service to the club. He has won things here and been involved at international level in a squad which wins things. He's a leader and a captain in the dressing room. We've decided he's not good enough. I don't think that's correct for starters, but there it is. We've now replaced him with someone else who looks to be flavour of the month. This has happened with Carroll, with Allen. And we've spent millions doing it, in a position which didn't need to be looked at assuming Reina wasn't looking out, and neglected other more pressing positions. I can't really understand the thought process behind it in the wider context of what we want to do this summer.

That was Sam Allardyce though. He was always going to pay the money if he could persuade him to move.

"Protecting his value" worked well with Aquilani going to Serie A on loan, after all. We're actually s*** at this.

I'll restrict myself to saying it's absolutely mental. Who the f*** sanctions this sort of thing?

I have no words for this.

Cavan is a dump, to be fair.

If Higuain was attainable, we should break the bank to get him regardless of whether or not Suarez stays. He won't be though, because we can't offer European football.

Not a hope Alaba comes here. None.

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