Fammyfan

Gutted that Scott’s gone but leaves with my best wishes, will be closely following his career. He’ll be another success story coming out of our club which again attracts some of the best young talent.

Take it you didn’t use the void if he doesn’t start ? still could come on and score or cash out option is still there

Bet 365 really have a lack of awareness with Conway, 5/2 to score anytime

Conway for top scorer now 66/1

The key to betting is finding bets where the odds are in your favour, this definitely has that feel to it

They’re only technically allowed to speak to the player with Brighton’s permission. In this case, I imagine that there may have been a gentleman’s agreement as part of the new deal signed earlier this year

I agree that he should go somewhere he’ll get game time but also think there’s better clubs for it. The likes of Brighton, West Ham, Villa, potentially Crystal Palace are all clubs that I think can offer game time, maybe not guaranteed every week initially but enough game time to allow him to show what he can do before becoming a regular starter.

I question whether Wolves or Bournemouth are really great for Scott’s development. Bournemouth have a squad that punched above their weight last season and Gary O’Neil did well to keep them up. Wolves have recently lost Ruben Neves and Moutinho, both are players that could have been beneficial to Scott’s development but unsure there’s really any outstanding players for Scott to learn from. Both clubs will need to seriously hit the ground running to avoid being in a relegation battle. Of course, it’s an opportunity to step up to the Premier League but it wouldn’t be a great move to step up and come back down. It may be better for Scott to stick around for another season, if he adds goals and assists to his game, you’d expect some solid interest to come from stronger teams.

I actually think he had concerns about coming back and it being a backwards step in the sense that he was previously one of the first names on the team sheet and a guaranteed starter, whereas if he came back now, there’s every possibility he would just be a squad player and there was no guarantee he’d get much game time. The quality of the squad, coupled with the fact that he’s had a few seasons whereby game time has been hard to come by, you can see why he would be concerned about the game time he would get here. Essentially, leaving your home club as a guaranteed starter to then rejoin several years later as a squad player is certainly a backwards step, particularly when the club is in the same league as we were back then.

Imagine trying to sign a player of Scott’s ability, imagine the transfer fee, imagine the wages required. It’s high numbers and it’s a high risk but he’s the bit of star quality, the player that can create something out of nothing that makes you believe promotion is within reach. Now think we’ve already got him, affordable wages and we aren’t in a position of needing to sell. Now think we’ve just had a season that’s saw the growth of a bunch of young talent that have went from strength to strength at this level. Now think we’ve invested well, got some solid early signings, recruited in the right areas, whilst also increasing our strength in depth. Now think we’ve got a manager that has experience of getting promoted out of this division. We have reason to believe promotion is on the cards this season. I would be absolutely devastated if Scott went for a penny less than £20m. He’s an exceptional talent, destined to go to the very top and in with a great chance of playing for England some day. If he’s going, I sure hope we get a very, very good fee. £20m as an absolute minimum and it should only fall short of £25m if Scott expresses his desire to depart.

Incredible business if we get this one over the line, getting our deals done early gives the added opportunity to integrate into the squad ahead of the new season, shows intent and minimises the amount of business required should we receive an acceptable bit for Scott. It’s a really impressive window and sees us go into the new season with a mixture of experienced players and players with potential. The thought that we have probably only worked with the funds received from Semenyo to really improve the squad as a whole. Very, very good work from the club. Bring on the new season. COYR

Cardiff finished 2 points below Brighton in 17th place and were 10 goals worst off on goal difference. On reviewing their results in the second half of the season, there was only 4 games whereby a single goal could have got them a point or more. Arsenal 2 - Cardiff 1 Cardiff 1 - Chelsea 2 Fulham 1 - Cardiff 0 Cardiff 2 - Crystal Palace 3 Taking into consideration the poor goal difference Cardiff had, they were 3 points short of survival. It’s a far fetched argument that Sala would have changed the outcome of 75% of the games above with no experience of English football or the premier league, or that this would have occurred without reply from the opposition. Cannot see the claim being successful, particularly with €110m at stake.

Hate to say it but can see salaries inflating even more over the next few seasons due to the money on offer in Saudi Arabia (it won’t be to the extent of what’s being offered there but it’s certainly likely to drive the salaries up to some extent)

Can’t see him staying unfortunately, would love for him to stay but his injury record must be taken into consideration which is likely to have led to either a shorter deal than he’d hope for or less salary than he’d hope for. Hope I’m wrong as he’s immense when fit but realistically, it’s too infrequent to keep him at the club on a long term deal as a top earner.

Agreed that it’s right for Nige to give Max his backing, happy with Max as number one and he’s certainly earned it. That being said, whilst happy with Max being number one, an experienced keeper would provide healthy competition. Should we proceed without signing an experienced back up goalkeeper, it would be an enormous amount of pressure on the replacement goalkeeper in the event that something happened to Max outside of the transfer/loan window. We could dive into the free agent market but there would be the requirement to train the keeper up to match fitness. There’s also the emergency loan option but this is only available with no goalkeepers available.

An experienced keeper provides more competition and also may have some attributes that he can help Max with, it’s a no brainer that it’ll be beneficial to bring one in providing that they have the right attitude to be more of a squad member initially and will have to wait for their chance

Agreed, these things happen. Some opportunities seem like a good move on the face of it but when thinking it over, they’re not always the right thing to do. Credit to both for recognising that it may not have the benefits we were hoping for

It seems a strange decision to turn down a return to his hometown club to go to another club at the same level. Left wondering what the reasoning could be, potentially a longer deal, potentially doubts over the system we play and how he fits in, could potentially be due to the demand for our players to be adaptable in their positioning when faced with injuries/suspensions. Impressed with how Nige and the club have handled it, maintained the respect when asked about it and it sounds as though there were multiple conversations, a decision not taken lightly. Whatever was involved in these conversations, they seem to have established that the move was not right for whatever reason which is far better to learn now than a few months into the contract.

Understand what you’re saying and it certainly is more for his advisers but AS has been a model professional through all the speculation and it’s more that we genuinely wish him the best and hope he gets a decent move which will benefit him, enhance our reputation for developing young talent and also potentially a lucrative sell on in future

Congratulations to West Ham It’s a brilliant achievement and fair play to them

On paper it looks a stronger league next season. However, on doing a calculation of the points taken against the teams departing the league, I make it a total of 10 points from 12 games (0.83 per game) which is a very poor return and considered relegation form. This also means that we took 49 points from the other 34 games (1.44 per game) which is the form of a team finishing 9th/10th. Glad to see the back of the departing clubs and confident we’ll gain a better return from the clubs entering the championship next season.

If the opportunity came up in future, in circumstances that would suit both parties, it would be great to see him back one day….and I reiterate, one day. He’s injured and not available but even if he was, he’s a £10.5m player that signed a 4 and a half year deal, so the loan fee itself would likely be in excess of £2m with wages on top. Unless we were at a stage of taking the gamble in throwing resources at a promotion push, we’re better off investing in a permanent signing elsewhere and going for development.

My prediction is for Everton to stay up, I think they’ll get the win against Bournemouth. It’s an exciting end to the season though, Everton can’t settle for a draw with Leicester ready to overtake but also can’t lose because both Leicester and Leeds could overtake.

He was a great signing but at the wrong time and that’s the frustrating thing as we would have got a lot more out of him in our current set up. That being said, he was a decent signing, brought him in for £2m and sold him for £4m with plenty of assists from the bench.

I’d expect us to be getting £25m as an absolute minimum, being one of the most sought after young players around with a host of clubs interested. Can’t see a loan back happening, the cost of retaining him on loan will put a dent in any transfer fee received. Had we have finished 7th/8th, we could have considered ourselves to be on the verge of playoffs and it would be a good time to really go for it by exploring the loan back but after a 14th place finish and falling 10 points short, it would be quite irrational to accept a dented transfer fee (Likely to be several million) for an extra season with AS. Whilst we are capable of reaching play offs next season, we’re not close enough to throw millions at it.