The agreement was by email, then they refused to sign the contract and sold Balagun to Everton instead.

What a horrible club.

I hope the Everton deal falls through then they have money worries and ultimately get relegated in the near future!

Edited Tuesday at 22:321 day by 2211

1 minute ago, SimonH said:

1. Injured

2. Likely soon injured

3. Likely soon injured

No European football. Henderson won't be needed. The lack of european football is massively underrated here.

We've got a very healthy squad considering no European football. It's not perfect. But we can add talent in January.

Liverpool pages are claiming they got the deal called off. They went to camara and Monaco, said to hold off as they would return for him for more money next year.

Sure Monaco wouldn't have done it if they weren't sure they'd be ok legally.

Word now is that Liverpool told Monaco to pull out and they'd pay more next summer.

If Caicedo and Lavia don't stay fit our season could be in real jeopardy.

That midget Barco was awful in his cameo against Brighton, Essugo is awful full-stop, we’ve absolutely f**ked it until January.

Despite it being our fault for leaving it so late, if there’s signatures involved, who knows maybe it can go to CAS…

1 minute ago, bisright1 said:

No European football. Henderson won't be needed. The lack of european football is massively underrated here.

We've got a very healthy squad considering no European football. It's not perfect. But we can add talent in January.

I like your optimism, I really do, but leaking goals as we have done of late, and having Gusto in midfield, you’ll forgive my personal opinion that we needed this midfielder in.

1 minute ago, axman2526 said:

Liverpool pages are claiming they got the deal called off. They went to camara and Monaco, said to hold off as they would return for him for more money next year.

Wouldn't put it past them.

People are underestimating how big a cock up this is.

This midfield is not good enough to compete and that was a genuine possibility this season. We've shot ourselves in the foot, simple as that.

2 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

Liverpool pages are claiming they got the deal called off. They went to camara and Monaco, said to hold off as they would return for him for more money next year.

Personally, I think that’s just dipper delusion.

Just now, bisright1 said:

No European football. Henderson won't be needed. The lack of european football is massively underrated here.

We've got a very healthy squad considering no European football. It's not perfect. But we can add talent in January.

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

10 minutes ago, bisright1 said:

??

We have Caicedo, Lavia, James and Barco who can all play in midfield.

Henderson, who is a perfectly valid player, is our 5th choice.midfielder for two slots.

Henderson will not need to start a single game.

That qualification there says a lot doesn't it?

1 minute ago, bisright1 said:

No European football. Henderson won't be needed. The lack of european football is massively underrated here.

We've got a very healthy squad considering no European football. It's not perfect. But we can add talent in January.

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.

2 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

Liverpool pages are claiming they got the deal called off. They went to camara and Monaco, said to hold off as they would return for him for more money next year.

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.

15 minutes ago, forbzy said:

Who knows? Clearly nothing that was concrete enough to be enforced.

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.

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.

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

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.

Just now, 2211 said:

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 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

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

13 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

Liverpool pages are claiming they got the deal called off. They went to camara and Monaco, said to hold off as they would return for him for more money next year.

2 minutes ago, BordeauxBlue said:

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

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.

Edited Tuesday at 22:591 day by 2211

4 minutes ago, timetowaste said:

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.

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.

1 minute ago, Sconnie Blue said:

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.

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.

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

4 minutes ago, 2211 said:

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.

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.

Just now, timetowaste said:

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.

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.

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