My take on the press conference was that we're unhappy with Liverpool's valuation. The board want to improve the squad but not at any price. I'm not sure the deal will go ahead.

And we won't sell Bolasie unless we get an "equivalent" player in and it seems Townsend doesn't count in this respect.

Interesting that Pardew believes we are in "transition" this year and it may impact on results; he seems to be expecting a hard season.

Sitting round a table with us and negotiating must be akin to having your teeth pulled by your favourite Dentist, most definitely not an SAS operation more Home Guard. As I see it either we have the money without having to sell the likes of Bolasie, if so why wasn't a deal concluded weeks if not months ago if we were that serious - perhaps we were just fishing? or as I suspect we wanted/needed to sell before we bought and to be virtually a like for like.
Whilst I appreciate that this amount of money aligned to the player in question (CB) carries a high degree of risk and possibly P45 if it goes t--s up surely by now we have the ability/experience to conclude deals far quicker where we appear to have a clear route as it would appear with CB than we are currently delivering?
Quite clearly we are now embroiled in a game of brinksmanship, denying Bolasie travelling to Merseyside for the medical and still not signed Benteke. The two quite clearly are linked and to spite Everton, Liverpool may be quite happy to do business with WBA as long as their terms are met as this may scupper the Bolasie deal.
As part of this, AP announces lunchtime that he is not aware of any Bolasie transfer...really Alan, if so where has all the detail come from in the past 24 hours?
All high octane stuff and more twists than Chubby Checker!!

Bring back Brolin

With the mega bucks they now have,the situation will change , as they plan to buy success.

No austerity at WBA

AT had a release clause and his agent was Gayle's agent (who's also Wilf's agent!) - So it makes the transition easier.
Tomkins was available and rep'd by another well know UK agent, so there's an existing relationship and no doubt he'll have players with us already too.

You'd imagine that CB's agent is a big european hitter who we haven't dealt with before so the angles for leverage and pre-existing relationship is going to be little to none. So, he'll be out for the best deal for his client, rather than worrying about the clubside (although by the sounds of it, that side of the deal is plain sailing, it's arguing the toss with Liverpool/Fenway which is causing issues).

Edited by Palace_Jack (11 Aug 2016 5.47pm)

Edited by Palace_Jack (11 Aug 2016 5.49pm)

Absolutely not - he's very far from that! Benteke's his only decent client & he has a real reputation for being a 'used car dealer'.

Google Kismet Eris for more....

Will this be five? It's gonna be five! It IS five!

When I heard the news about WBA making a bid for CB the air was blue in our house. This blog has had its fair share of disguised expletives through its many pages. Have to say I really respect the response to these reports on this blog. Fans showing obvious concern but using words like like really annoyed, not cricket etc. Page 143 (I think) made me lol.
This said, there's been some considered and and well argued blogs recently. Well worth the read. Many thanks to the contributors.