The College Dropout

With the emergence of Anderson and Wharton there isn’t a need. But I thought James could do a solid job at CM for England. I’ve seen him play there under Tuchel before and he was solid. Also played there in the Championship I believe. He’s a much more positionally intelligent player than Trent. I held on to my James stock.

He’s played there before under Tuchel. He’s also played CM under Tuchel too to a high standard. James is one of the most complete English footballers I’ve seen, hope injuries don’t wreck his career. It’s taken injuries to 5 players to play Reece James at CB. 2 injuries and we are playing Dan Burn at LB. The squad depth is different levels.

While this is true - Chelsea just beat Liverpool with their best player out injured - a 18 yo Brazilian genuine wonderkid got the winner. Pretty much 20 of their players would be pushing for a start with us. And that's before Howe-tax.

Chelsea have so much depth they'll finish in the top 4. They won't get Dan Burn at left-back type situations. Chelsea haven't been super impressive the last 2 seasons and finished above us. I expect it to be the same this year unfortunately.

That 5th spot is wide open. Top 4 is wrapped up imo. Too much strength in depth.

Genuinely she gets ignored and she is good craic. It’s Roy in the main too.

Aye most footballers look mid low to mid 70’s in KG. Big Joe looks 80kg+ maybe more. Pretty rare for an all action CM.

Ok. Enjoy Sandro while he’s here then. Expecting him gone in 10-22 months. Hope I’m wrong and he signs a 5 year deal with no release clause.

For Tonali the bigger issue is what happens if he wants to go back to Italy. Juve aside Serie A sides don’t pay €80m for CMs.

Bit of a contradiction there. If we have to get used to selling our best players in their prime, it won’t always be on our terms. That’s been proven. If he’s not signed a new contract by next summer, he’s probably off imo. No club has managed to maintain position by consistently selling their best players. The well will run dry. We need to increase our revenues and performances enough to keep our best players. Might be too late Tonali mind.

That was my impression.

We have to take Serie A fans view of transfer fees with a pinch of salt too. All transfer to PL teams have a premium to them. They’ve bought the likes of Reijnders for less than £30m.

Trippier Isak Tonali

This is weird questioning. I said we spent all the Isak money on 2 players... that is a fact (well 93% of it). I didn't say anything about PSR or FFP.

Woltemade and Wissa cost what £115m? Sorry 92% of the fee then.

We had a winger that could be worth £60m soon but we had to sell him. Game is rigged.

Hasn’t been impressed by Elanga’s work rate either tbf. AG has been dining off that 1 season for some time. His G/A over the last 15 months is ok at best. The likes of Kevin Schade and Ismaila Sarr have been more productive in inferior teams. These are good PL players in their own right. In a team of our ambition we should have at least one winger that is among the best in the league and we haven’t had that. It’s difficult because we want immediate success.

Is it not one of the other wingers that should be in the box too? 0 league goals and assists for the pair I don’t think is wildly out of sync based on how they’ve played. Between them they’ve probably put in 5-6 really great balls into the box in the league. Elanga needs to adapt to the team, tactics and get his confidence up. As a top 6-8 winger, you are the better team in most of your fixtures. You’ll face low to mid blocks more often than not. He needs to be able to offer something in those games. In time I think his delivery quality and timing will become Murphy like. He’ll find our players.

Him going right down in Howe’s trust ranks is all that matters. he’s in the worst position of the entire squad imo. Even Osula is getting fairly decent minutes now.

I can’t think his touch and dribbling was this bad mind. I think there’s an element of nerves or confidence involved. And also I don’t think he knows his team mate or the system yet leading to poor choices. His touches are bad. His decisions are bad. His work rate is poor. I think perhaps he’s in his head and overthinking. I think Murphy suffered from something similar. But now even in his 25 minutes he did 2 or 3 super positive things. Keeps his game simple. Sure he gave the ball away under no pressure but that’s Jacob for ya. That will come from Elanga hopefully.

It’s a bit early for ‘got ya’ moments. I wouldn’t discount Elanga for a slow start or bank Thiaw as brilliant now. But he’s been rock solid and has all the tools. Long may it continue.

Love the lad. Can through when it mattered most. Again.

Thought he was good overall. Bad clanger for the pen.

Hard to be efficient when you struggle to trap a football.

So far… very early days. Long time to get up to speed. The worst thing about his performances so far is that it’s his technical attributes look so bad. The touch and dribbling in particular.