midds

Just have the chat in the dugout instead

Apologies. It's been brewing a few days

Ashley selling removed his safety net and he knew immediately that he was utterly fucked. New owners would have expectations of competence and ability and he knew he was failing miserably and would be found out immediately in the most embarrassing way possible. So he holds his hands up and 'offers' himself up before he's found out and binned like birdshit from a windscreen. Begging to be sacked whilst pocketing £8m in the process, all under the guise of wanting what's best for the club. I buy all of that actually, it's him down to a tee - fucking pathetic, useless, disingenuous, lying manipulative and gormless piece of fucking shit. He's been absolutely shown up by Howe since he took over Bruce's shambles. And he's still trying to spin it so he's the good guy. Except no cunt has fallen for it, every cunt has seen him for exactly what he is. He just needs to disappear so the fans can forget he ever existed, he doesn't even deserve to be remembered ffs

Martial. Never mind

Fifty million, down the drain iirc

Spot on. No malice against him personally, probably a canny enough bloke but just not good enough. That Brentford goal had me fucking steaming for hours, similar to Clark's red against Norwich tbh. The tv nearly went through the window on both occasions.

Same knee as his ACL?

Bet he's absolutely dripping in clunge like

At no point in the future am I ever going to think "damn, I wish we still had Lewis on the bench to bring on". nothing personal against the lad but he's just not good enough and not shown anything to even warrant more chances been given. I'm sure he's done his best but he's just not good enough for where we are and are heading and the move down to the Championship gives him a fresh start, it just never worked out - it happens. Move on

Pulled the trigger on this one (for the boy). Better be good, I've got £14 riding on this one

That's approximately 200 million bottles of blew pop. Fact

Are Sheffield Utd even bothering this season or what? Spent about £5m so far. I mean, if they're in the 'take the parachutes and come back down' mode then fair enough but it's got to all seem a bit pointless getting promoted if there's virtually no ambition to actually stay there for more than a season?

Think it's worth reminding each other that we're only halfway through the 4th transfer window since the takeover. Comparing the squad as it looks today to how it looked in Oct '21 shows how far we've come and how much has been invested. Turning that squad into one with good cover in every position that can cope in 4 competitions and withstand injury crises isn't going to happen in 4 windows. This is a long term thing and expecting every hole in the squad to be plugged with the quality we all want will take another 4 or 5 years realistically. I can sense a growing amount of entitlement and impatience amongst the fan base on socials etc. Bit shit tbh, just enjoy it and be patient, it'll happen *directed at no-one in particular*

Sounds like everyone wins. PSG get a massive lumper, Real still get him for free next summer, Mbappe hits the jackpot and still gets his Real move in 12 months and the Saudis get one of the biggest names in the business. For all of those reasons it'll probably happen

Doesn't even rhyme. Poor. 2/10

Does Daniel Levy think it's fair market value?

The ironic thing is that the only reason we're selling him to ensure we can comply with the (fucking bullshit) FFP rules in the first place. Ideally I'm sure we'd like to keep him and add to the squad but we're doing it by the book and he's the one that's been sacrificed this summer. As I've said we could be really blatant and shift the dross on for inflated fees but this is a single transfer for a fee that's 'about right'. It's not excessive or disproportionate and no cunt would have batted an eyelid had the money been coming from Milan or Napoli. I understand the scrutiny but there's literally nothing out of the ordinary about the fee for ASM

The fee is completely proportional to the other Saudi transfers. I can understand why they're querying it to an extent but it's not a huge amount of money. If we wanted to takw the piss the there's plenty of shit left in the squad we could have sold for big money but we've stuck to the rules and played it by the book since day 1. And they're still fucking crying, they're scared shitless of things that haven't even happened. Yet.

Can definitely see the disappear button being hit before long

Fee seems a bit high and I'm always wary of signing players after ACLs but he's young and talented and has a high ceiling. But it's all about growing the squad over the next few years and he'll add to the group and develop. I'm also not sure what the rush seems to be with some people this window either. We all knew that to go from relegation fodder to regular CL participants was ridiculously unrealistic but I can still sense the anger at not catching 17 teams in under 3 years. This is a long term project and it's not going to happen immediately, I'm all in favour of growing this thing year on year on year on year. Maximum possible investment, enjoy the show each week and let's see where we are in 2027. It'll happen, try and enjoy it and not stress out about filling every possible hole in the squad in the next year

Any fee we get for him is simply free money. He's offering nothing to this squad and he's not even the 'safe pair of hands' cliche any longer, he's much more of a liability now. He wasn't always shit and was adequate for a season or 2 but he's looked like he needs a fresh start somewhere, seems a canny enough bloke, good pro etc. No loss on the playing side of things though and more money coming in, it's all good

Ah, dunno like. Maxi picking the ball up and driving at his full back was usually pretty fun and entertaining We'll miss that but we'll be a better unit with Barnes compared to ASM imo and that's the main thing for me. A bit of individual brilliance is great to watch but scoring and winning is also very satisfying, as you say

Think he'll fit into the club and team like hand in glove. Seems an excellent fit and he'll add things that Maxi didn't do but he's a different type of player and he won't excite as much. Think he'll add a bit more balance and can finish with either foot and offers a threat from distance too which we'll need if teams are sitting in regularly. He's a good age and will improve even more. I think he'll be fucking brilliant

Love this shit:

£40m seems about right imo. Any more than that and it'll raise eyebrows. He's 26 and entering the prime years of his career, he's great to watch and comparable players are going for about that. Fine line to tread but he's being sold for financial reasons, let's get as much as we can, no need to nerf the fee just to placate the rest of the league, fuck that