thomas

Forgive my blind faith in scouting and current management, but i'm pretty sure they'll go after players that they feel fill a need they've identified and would only sign a player comfortable with playing in those areas/systems so idrgaf about whoscored.com reports or heatmaps.

whatever the sign says + 5. +10 is where cops _might_ start to pay attention, if they have a quota to meet.

I was more going for the idea of both paying over the odds and for players aging out of the game. When we got aging players or cast-offs it was usually at the cut rate you'd expect. Babayaro, Duff and Smith were 27 when they joined and relatively cheap iirc. I don't know I could really have called Owen past it when he joined us considering Man U getting 3 more years out of him after his ACL at the WC

I was thinking about that but Butt and Geremi were the only two that came immediately to mind and neither were particularly expensive. Campbell came in under Hughton for next to nothing. I don't think it ever really fit but I wasn't following until 2002 so maybe there were some 90's shenanigans.

I'm not even really sure where we got the reputation of willing to pay ridiculous sums for past-it players came from: even before PIF there was a "haha, maybe nufc will buy them" thrown out whenever some 33+y/o was looking for a last payday, as if we were the luxury version of Allardyce's Bolton. Now the links will be cranked to 11. i'm not even mad, just disappointed at how lazy it is.

of course there's no immutable law of the universe around players deciding to hang it up or take a paycut for a move and/or a lower league this is horrible

I'm still on board with their stated intentions of increased, but not extravagant, spending and deliberate growth. £70-80m a window, in today's player valuations, is reasonable for the measured rebuild Mehrdad and Mandy have been preaching. If the extent of our business this window was another striker I'd be well happy tbh

i mean, it's his career, he's free to do what he wants, i guess time will tell whether it was the right decision to stay. Been at reims his whole career and if Real Madrid / Barca never come knocking and he's happy there, good for him. Won't be able to say he was never offered the shot at a move up, though.

Am I not a big enough draw?

[in ivan drago voice] if he signs .... he signs

eh, there or thereabouts. who pissed in your corn flakes?

good. kill the songwriting next.

the internet is clogged too full of people with actual corncobs for brains so if you're being anti-botman ironically please mark your post accordingly so i don't flame you

prior seasons I'd be devastated if we missed out because I knew there would be no backup plan. "Missed out on Botman early June, you say? Guess we start the season with the defense we had." Now it's just a potential mild disappointment.

Crypto token hyped by Inter Milan and Croatia players fell by 98% – ‘Everything turned to dust’ https://theathletic.com/3335623/2022/06/06/crypto-token-croatia-inter-milan/ petition to rename thread "The Football Pyramid Scheme"

Even with MA gone and the promise of better days ahead I don't care for transfer windows anymore. no protracted negotiations, rumors, back and forth, dodgy sources, itks etc. I just want to wake up in August with the deals done kind of thing. Not making a judgement on this thread or anyone like, and I'll exit forthwith, but I just never realized how the part of me that liked the offseason spectacle was unceremoniously chucked into the sea years ago.

Definitely feel old now that the generation where "Jayden" became a popular name is getting professional contracts. Fuck

I'd give him another year tbh. I think I'd rather spend money bolstering the rest of the team and learning to live with his deficiencies - as overblown or understated as you may consider them - than having to also spend on replacing the quality/dimension he does bring to the team. Ultimately it would be a make-or-break season for him, though. Maybe even half season if Eddie decides enough is enough in January.

bald fraud chequebook manager if we're being honest. manages just 2 cl wins with an all-time barca side juiced to the tits with horse adrenaline.

a loss is never satisfying but this is just one you take on the chin because, jesus, did liverpool even get out of 2nd gear? yeah, yeah, shite ref and all but at no point did I think this had "upset" written on it. at worst the takeaway is it highlights how much more improvement we need all over.

Yeah. We've improved leaps and bounds under Howe but we're still well behind these; arguably the best club side in the world. Not to mention playing strikerless. To get something from games like this as the underdog you do need the rub of the green and we don't look to be getting any of it today.

Joe's definitely swung on someone who accidentally bumped into him at the disco

am i high or is our purple GK kit actually gorgeous