I never back against Germany or Italy, but I do fancy Croatia to get to the final. The defeat against England has them as dark horses, but it was close, and they have experience and quality.

I did my normal routine (the only games I have watched in full are Germany’s three) of watching small bits of the other matches, more to keep up with the score than anything.

But I do watch the highlights programmes they show in the evening, and I’ve just watched the Belgium vs Portugal highlights on BBC1. I didn’t realise until I saw it that both De Bruyne and Eden Hazard got injuries. Looks like they could both be serious. If they’re both out, that severely compromises Belgium’s chances.

Strong links to Nuno Tavares- left back from Benfica today. 21, 6ft tall, lots of pace - has had a few controversial off the pitch moments apparently. Fee could be anywhere from £7-15m depending what report you read

£15m seems a lot to spend on a reserve left back who will only play in the League Cup and early rounds of the FA Cup, or when Tierney is injured or suspended. If the rumour is true, which it probably isn’t, then £7m would seem more like it.

Lots of reports the transfer of Lokonga from Anderlecht to Arsenal is very closes. Should be our first summer signing

The rumours are about this guy are mad.

He’s got a tattoo of benficas biggest rivals despite playing for them. There’s some video of him making out with a dog on the internet or something.

He’s gone to the top of my transfer wish list even above White, Maddison and Ødegaard.

Villa make a 2nd bid for Emile Smith Rowe at £30m - immediately rejected. I find this slightly baffling. It is no secret that we need to sell some players but bidding £30m for a 20 year old academy player who we're looking to build our team around is so far of the mark. Villa would have to get up close to £80-£100m for there to even be a conversation in my mind. people may think that is a ridiculous price but why shouldn't we put ridiculous prices on the heads of players we have no intention of selling. Ask man U what price they'd put on Mason Greenwood if anyone wanted to buy him?

Hi Rich.

It is quite odd, unless they have been given some kind of encouragement.

My guess is that they would see him as a natural replacement for Grealish, albeit an inexperienced one.

Can't see them going higher than £30m and can't see us really being interested in a deal at less than £50m.

So we get rid of Guendouzi because of his antics but sign another rebel.

Oh football wise it’s fine we should be ok to unleash him on the premiership. He's a top lad apparently and his barks worse than his bite and he should be able to grab the lead when Kieran Tierney isn’t around. We should be happy to let sleeping dogs lie because our defence has been such a dogs dinner for so long. Getting any random dogsbody in isn’t advisable really.

Putting this new signing in the doghouse because of Guendouzi wouldn’t be fair.

Looks like a good plan!

Man City have already launched a £100m bid for Kane and are also looking at a £90m bid for Grealish. I'd rate both transfers as having a very good chance of going through.

So the team that walked the title last year is adding £190m worth of players including the best striker in the league and one of the most exciting creative players.

Tough for the rest of the chasing pack to beat them next year

Beat me to it

Their target is higher than EPL, it is the Champions League they are after. Their ambitions are so much higher than Arsenal's.

Rich, many thanks (on behalf of those who won't say so) for the rumors and links. Question. Any chance we'd actually sell Smith-Rowe? More specifically, do we want to? And if we don't I wonder what price would make us change our mind or seriously consider.

Bashing The club over the conduct of a player just being linked via a transfer rumour who hasn’t even kicked a ball yet.

Next level *%^@

...ah, but this rebel has talent.

So is their funding (I was going to use the word ‘budget’ but then realised how inappropriate it is).

For a club in our position (and 99% of clubs out there) every player eventually has a price, but for Smith-Rowe that isn't a price they are going to be able to meet.
My guess is that Villa are putting in a cheeky bid because Emile Smith Rowe hasn't signed his new contract yet and they are looking for a good news story or highlighting their ambition to their fans for when they inevitably sell Grealish.

City were never going to sit on their hands.

What we need to do is ensure that if one or more or hopefully all of City, United, Chelsea and Liverpool have a poor season, we are not languishing in mid-table yet again, and we at least give ourselves a chance of qualifying for the CL.

Ornstein has picked up this story now, he says the deal could be done at less than 10 million euros - which is under £8.5m.
If we put aside the ability of the player (only because I doubt any of us know much about him) the profile is right, 21 years old, relatively inexpensive, tall, athletic and pacey. Some odd off field activities by the sounds of things.

I was thinking about a whole raft of players who would turn us down because we're not in the Champions League, so then we're shopping in a lower category of players in the hope that those players can push us in to the Champions League - there is still the risk that they might be able to push us to get there but not good enough to compete in the Champions League (as strange as that sounds) so we have to consider age and re-sale on every signing.
For example, Willian 'might' have been considered a signing to quickly push us to the CL spots, but even if he got us there he would be at our past his peak with little resale, so we have to start again - of course the guaranteed CL money would help but I'm convinced we need to be targeting these younger players at affordable values.
I'm not even overly concerned at Ben White at £45m. The only 'rumour' that concerns me at the moment is Aaron Ramsdale for £20m - that seems like far too much money for someone to be a back up and for someone who is not an improvement on our current No.1 and we wouldn't get much more than that for Leno.

Interesting to think who might be catchable in those 4 clubs.
Of those that finished above us last year you can make a decent case for expecting us to finish above West Ham and Spurs with the turmoil they're in at the moment. Leicester look like they're recruiting strongly again and right now I'd have them as favourites to finish above us.
Then when you look at the quality of the other 4 teams it is hard to see any of them having a poor season but one of them will - can we get 70+ points to be in the mix and take advantage?

Do yourselves a favour and don't Google that one lads.

.. or read the comments responding to Ornsteins tweet that we want to sign him.

Goodness me!

Indeed. Great stuff from the Croats.

I didn't see that coming when Spain went 3-1 up .

I don't think anybody did! Hope they go on and win it now.

Edit: and Morata smashes it in for 4-3. Great game.

and again
Now I really can't see the Croats coming back.

Great game. There's a vulnerability to this Spanish side, but there's also so much quality there without really having any world class players going forward. If France do their job against Switzerland there's a very interesting quarter final waiting.

The Times are suggesting that if we get White, Holding could well be on his bike.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.mirror ... 398753.amp

Cracking game.
Viva España!

I'd prefer to keep him.

Pedri isn't world class yet, but he has some amount of talent. When he bulks up a bit he will be fabulous.

What a fist they made of it - they should have scored a fourth just after the restart of the second period of Extra Time, and if they had.............Spain would have got a sixth. That sort of game.

Yes, brilliant talent. Ferran Torres had a great game too, could become a big player for Man City.

https://www.sheffieldunited.news/news/r ... nal-radar/

Not sure what planet the author of this article is but to call Ramsdale ecxeptional is laughable. He is average at best.
Henderson Pope even Johnstone are good English keepers but Ramsdale in my opinion is poor compared to those 3.
He has been relegated with 2 clubs.
What on earth do Arteta and/or Edu see in him????
Very very underwhelming.

I wonder if we’re spending £45m on White, Holding will be able to get a reasonable proportion of it back for us. Even if it’s half of it, that’s a decent amount. I suspect that’s an important factor for the Arsenal hierarchy?

Ideally, like you I’d rather keep Holding. But if we get White and keep Saliba, there’s also Gabriel, Mari and Chambers. In an injury crisis Tierney has shown he can play in central defence too if we’re getting this reserve left back Nuno Tavares being discussed today.

I’m just wondering if there could be something in this because I find the Times more reliable than some sources of transfer gossip. Also, I can understand Hazuki’s point that if we’re looking to challenge for the top four, Holding could end up being used as a squad back up rather than a regular first choice starter. If it wasn’t Hazuki who said words to that effect, I apologise to him. But I read it somewhere and thought it was him.

If we can get a decent fee for a squad back up, as I say I can see the logic in selling Holding, even though ideally I’d prefer to keep him.

Would prefer to keep holding but I agree with Haz when he said the other day we simply haven’t got enough quality in that area of the pitch.

I honestly think there’s not many players in our squad at all we wouldn’t contemplate selling if the right offer came in at the moment.

On Ramsdale I would agree it seems a strange one but it’s crazy using a non home grown spot for a reserve keeper. It’s pretty much a keeper for the league cup and a few FA cup games. How bad can he be ?