Pata

Just one RB who is anywhere near CL-level though and he’s getting old.

Bayern don’t usually pay high transfer fees, right? Just wages. Can’t see it happening with Levy.

I recently posted how devastating an injury to a soon 33 year old Trippier would be for us so very happy with this. Ashby is an unknown and Krafth can be an emergency cover at best. Livramento stepping in for Trippier would be class and he would be a good long-term replacement too if/when he has fully recovered from his injury.

The right wingers he's going up against in Champions League are likely to be worse than the ones he has shut down in the league last season tbh.

There’s definitely room for improvement based on what he showed under Rafa. His shooting was a strength back then but really poor in the past season. IIRC his passing was more ambitious then too. He just seems to embrace the workhorse role and not even try anything risky now (which is fine).

I don’t see it like that, Tonali is like a supercharged version of Longstaff. Joelinton/Willock for the one other spot if the formation is still the same. Plenty of games for Longstaff to play at too.

Yeah but I think it would be worth the risk for £35m. He was probably a £100m player after the last Euros and still relatively young.

That's a nice transfer, going back to where it started and he'll be ridiculous at that league even at his age.

Calhanoglu at Inter is good.

Think they are in a hurry if the end goal really is the raising of their league's status before the bid for 2030 World Cup. And McCormick can correct me but patience doesn't really mean much with all that money burning in their pockets.

Get in!

Haaland and Odegaard are probably two of the best Norway has ever had? Looking at their World Cup squads in the 90s they had better defenders but nothing even close to the class of these two in attack.

I really hope Ashby is decent cover for Trippier but no one really knows. Trippier is an instrumental player to our style and replacing him with Krafth or Ashby would be terrifying but no doubt Howe has a plan for that if/when Trippier gets injured. At least we have two decent proven options at LB but if Trippier goes down we are relying on a youngster that has never played or a not so talented player coming off a bad injury and asking them to replace one of the most important players in the squad. It's a tricky situation as it's hard to sign anyone good and proven to sit behind Trippier and it all comes back to Ashby hopefully being decent.

I think it’s an interesting subject. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Serie A and PL have the largest number of big clubs and players mostly stay at home. La Liga, Bundesliga and Ligue 1 have less big clubs per league and have more players in other big leagues.

And failed miserably.

Even if that's true right now (which I disagree with) you said there hasn't been that many in the past ~15 years. Someone already said it earlier but Italian players have no trouble finding other big Italian clubs even if they fail at one. There are always the classic big clubs and couple of other good teams pop up cyclically like Atalanta right now.

I don't think that's true at all, they clearly like to stay in Italy just as English players like to stay in the UK.

He flashes his world class technique in most games, many managers probably think they can get him to that next level. Has all the talent in the world, just needs a good system and a role in that system that gets the most out of him.

I have some serious trouble branding a move that raised Sancho's market value to €100m a mistake. He could have easily folded in the Championship while making £3,500 a week for the rest of his career but at least he could handle some kicking, now he makes 100x that a week. Bundesliga might be shite but that's a fucking wild take even from TCD.

Better get on the phone and let Ashworth and Eales know about this breakthrough.

He’s had unlimited resources at Man City but so have many other teams in the same league and they are still absolutely dominant. I would struggle to say that anyone has ever been better than Pep. They are so far ahead of everyone else including PSG, Real, Barca and Bayern that I think the money argument is very lazy. Hope they win the CL and Pep starts to get bored of it all and goes looking for a new challenge just for ours and PL’s sake.

Hooligans or their economy?

Are you using whatever that is to defend West Ham's fans tonight? Fucking turbo Englander.

And there’s nothing wrong with it. Once again it’s imo better for the minnows to get 6 matches instead of 2.

I don’t know exactly but don’t think so. IIRC English and Dutch leagues would’ve got the extra CL spot for this season due to their performances last season.