Pata

Will be between Barnes and ASM for that holding midfielder role in 2028.

Yeah, the fee is alright even if I’m not that excited about the player.

Willock and Longstaff were the worst offenders, Joelinton actually finished close to his xG. We really need both of them to remember how to shoot again as they’ve both shown they can do that before. Somehow Schär also had over 5 xG and scored just one thunderbastard.

Maddison?

Yeah but he has the skill set to take us even further when everything clicks is my point.

Excuse me?

This is how I see it too, it’s extremely hard to replace ASM’s abilities and I think Howe knows that. He’s a unique talent that would be a real weapon if he can stay fit and he understands what Howe wants even better. Really hope we don’t give up on him yet.

Tonali and Bruno certainly make the 4-2-3-1 a possibility.

He has outgained his xA a lot during his career, roughly 15 xA that somehow turned to 25 assists. Feel like some of that is down to Tielemans’ and Maddison’s shooting ability and Vardy’s running power without looking at them more deeply.

Hard to get excited about this, potentially swapping ASM for Barnes seems like a sideways move. We already signed a depth winger in Gordon, would like the next winger signing to be a bit higher profile and in the same bracket as Isak and Bruno. Would greatly prefer a RW too, we have a lot already at the left. I’ll trust Howe and Ashworth etc. disclaimer that’s obviously needed but that’s how I feel about this.

You’re doing the same but picking only successes. Out of that list IMO only Firmino had potential to flop, rest are just simply world class. Sancho, Werner and Havertz alone were big money signings that have failed badly in England.

Shola looked sensational, lovely flick by Viana too in the end. No recollection of ever seeing Kerr playing for us but somehow he started a match in the Champions League.

I’ve said it before but it’s a big concern that Leon Bailey put up similar numbers at Leverkusen before his move to Villa. Obviously he’s been injured a lot here but Bundesliga numbers come with a massive risk associated and the fees they get for their players don’t seem to reflect that at all.

Look up the goal Rashford scored against us and call Krafth quick again.

We are professionally run now, 100% certain our directors knew it would be approved and it’s not some surprise bonus money to use.

Aquilani wore 18 at Liverpool, I’m putting my money on that.

Based on this Barnes basically only scores goals. Obviously a valuable skill but I’m a bit concerned about his overall play. Assist stats seem massively misleading too, he has 25 assists in the PL but his xA is only 15 so he’s been passing to some impressive finishers.

Last season Harvey Barnes had 0.40 non-penalty xG+xA per 90, ASM had 0.52. Grass is greener and that.

I don’t think anyone thinks he’s perfect but he has so much more potential than pretty much any other winger in the squad. I’m all for selling him if he has another season in a row where he can’t stay fit but selling him now when we are still relying on players like Almiron and Murphy would be way too hasty and just creating another hole. I don’t see any reason why we wouldn’t get 30m for him in 12 months either if we needed to sell him then. Rumours of pay rises are just logical for everyone in the squad, we are paying midtable wages to a CL team now. I haven’t seen any evidence that Howe doesn’t like him or him not fitting into Howe’s system despite it being seemingly declared a fact in this thread by many. He has started him a lot when he’s been fully fit and trusted him in the League Cup final too. I honestly think it’s weird that it’s only him that some people fantasise about selling when the squad has players whose talent/potential, form and age would mean selling them would make way more sense.

There’s a lot of other mediocrity in the squad before we arrive to ASM. Also never a fan of selling a player at the lowest value if not absolutely necessary due to bad relationship with the manager or some other shite which isn’t the case here. Once again if you really need to sell a winger you sell Almiron. Getting old and had a good season which is hard to replicate based on his history and the amount of worldies he scored. Also much easier to find a replacement to a player whose strengths are running around with a smile on his face. I know that’s harsh but I’m still not the biggest fan and wish he could use his right leg at least few times a season.

Fixed ”he’s” to ”his”, whatever man. ?????

Oh the player trade where we were paying something in addition to giving away Bruno? Seemed a legit link.

ASM has started pretty much every game under Howe when fully fit. And no need to point out he had many injuries last season, he had but it was also pretty much his worst season injury-wise in his career.

Why aren’t they after Bruno, Isak, Joelinton or Botman then? Every team in the world knows where are not sellers, your point doesn’t make any sense.

So they don’t count? It’s hilarious that he is comparing him to the absolute elite of the position and is using apps and not minutes. If we really want to sell someone I would rather try to get 10-15m for Murphy or 20m for Almiron than 30-35m for ASM. If ASM has a good season he’s worth at least 50m, we’ll never get more for Murphy or Almiron.