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The board need to learn from this. A - Transfer deadline day deals are too risky B - stop trying to be over friendly with other rival clubs (most of them wouldn't even sell to us let alone loan us a player)

Well we won't have a midfield so more giving up possession and punting the ball to them like Brighton I guess. If Alonso was making a point starting Gusto in midfield in the last game how will he react to our debacle at the end of the window? Perhaps Penders in midfield.

If fit, Caicedo and Lavia wouldn’t concern anyone for now. Problem is Caicedo is unknown, and we’ve never seen a fit Lavia. Any one of the above being fit with Reece also buys us time. Problem is, never fit. That brings us down to Barco and Henderson (also not fit). IF there is any way we can get Caicedo and Lavia playing we’ll be ok. Outside of that, this is a problem. Preserve top 6 thru Xmas, sign two midfielders and make a push for top four. There should be consequences for this. Sporting Directors messed around - there’s a lot riding with the on the pitch success at the club, and they’ve sent us in with one hand hand tied behind our back.

I imagine it is impossible now but it would be rather funny if the Balogun deal did not go through in time.

Internet will be full of memes of him getting ready to slot in that midfield role 😂

Lavia dropped on his knees praying to god he completed his first 90 during preseason. First full 90 in 4 seasons. Lavia isn’t staying fit, and there is NOTHING on Caicedo right now. Could very well be out for a while. Henderson (vomit) isn’t fit until after the international break, and with no preseason + his age, he’ll take a while to get sharp. Barco is too untested. The remaining options are 2 right backs, one of which is sh*t and the other injury prone. Well done BlueCo.

Why City? We already replaced Enzo with Rogers. Where would Enzo have fit had we pulled the plug on the deal with City? No place for him in the front three and a liability next to Caicedo in a midfield two. To sell him for that record fee was the right choice. We did not end up in this situation for the lack of trying. I truly believe the board was sure they would get Scott and had some good signals from his agent, otherwise they would not have bid that many times. But Bournemouth just did not give up. But we should move on, I know we're putting all the hope into James and Lavia's fitness, but at the end of the day nothing is guaranteed in football. They can be as fit as ever, but get injured after a bad tackle. And it can happen to any club.

Given the resources Eghbali has at his finger tips I would expect he at least explores every avenue to sue Monaco.

Caicedo and Lavia is a very good midfield pairing if they're both fit, but with Lavia in the conversation it's a very big if.

Internal solutions round 2.

Just because James can play there, doesn’t mean he should play there. Awful seeing the dippers so giddy this fell through. We are losing every, single, midfield battle this season.

That's literally what I said. When I say done over by City I mean this transfer has been on the cards for months and they chose the very last day of the transfer window to make an offer. That stopped us really going after Scott, Wharton or any other replacement. They even paid £5m more than they needed to just to screw us rather than wrap this up 2 weeks ago. It was by design to screw us up and leave us with as little time as possible to get in a replacement. Ultimately we've only got ourselves to blame by leaving it so late and giving power to City and Monoco in these deals.

Any club that has played 2 right backs in midfield so far this season didn’t have a 9/10 window.

The incompetents of these Blue Co goons is on a level that's really hard to fathom

I wouldn't call a British record transfer getting done over. It's our own fault for leaving it so bloody late, something could always go wrong

Bothers me when people class James as a midfield option, even though the club treats him as such, because if he was purely a midfielder he'd be playing at a bottom half of the prem team. There is now a lot of pressure on Caicedo to stay fit, if he does then I think we are ok to make it through to the January transfer window, but if he's injured we are well and truly screwed.

If there's a paper trail I'd sue them just for being such massive twats.

We can only hope the board learn the lesson to never leave it until the last day ever again. Because in this sorry saga we ended up being done over by City and Monaco.

I see Gusto in midfield I’m going to the gym.

Sky reporting they had agreed verbally and via email. Surely they said the agreement was subject to final contract etc. if they didn’t, I would of thought that is grounds to sue.

Finally getting their revenge for Caicedo and Lavia. Thing is why would it even need to be more money, if we’re not going to deal with Monaco again. Just paying more for the sake of it with no competition. Strange one.

That qualification there says a lot doesn't it? I think the disagreement here is regarding having James, and especially Lavia, in the “healthy” category—they are anything but. Lavia has hardly played in three years.

I still give this summer a 9/10. Got rid of a lot of dross and squad not bloated anymore. Alonso made it possible by somehow convincing the owners that their w**k Sporting Directors signed tons of dog turd players that needed moved ASAP and it all happened in such a short time. As for Monaco, they are bastards. But it is what it is. We move on. If fit, James and Lavia are top players and perfect next to Caicedo. Remains to be seen if they can stay fit for more than two minutes. Big risk, high reward. I feel that with both of them is more mental than anything else. If they somehow stay healthy for more than 3 months in a row, I believe they can finish the season unharmed.

We don’t know how long Caicedo is out for. Don’t kid yourself about Lavia. His 3 month injury is coming soon. That leaves us Barco, a 36 year old Henderson, and 2 right backs for midfield. Another top 4 slump is genuinely a possibility AGAIN