The College Dropout

any rivers to share?

At least Elanga was a top choice for us. Ramsey might be too tbh.

Wasn’t always fancied at a generationally terrible Milan side. He doesn’t come with a reputation of a Guéhi. All signings are gambles. But like Tonali had a better reputation at Milan as did Reijnders.

Seen little of Thiaw. But he looks good on the ball - more dribbly. Im being optimistic.

Guehi level right? I think Thiaw has the potential to be better than Guehi and Fabi. He’s got better raw materials. But we would be relying on Howe really working his magic. foolishly I hoped (didn’t expect) us to go all out and get 2-3 super high reputation players like a Nick W.

Schar is also retired from international football. He doesn’t need a rest. If Howe wants to rotate defenders as part of the teams evolution that’s fine. But if it’s for fitness/sharpness we really needed another midfielder that could start 30 games a season if needed.

I don’t feel like you need to rotate centre backs much unless they are injury prone imo. They do the least running. Its injuries and form that you watch out for. VVD is older than Schar and will play every league game he is fit for and any meaningful CL games.

It’s typical of most transfers.

He’ll not get a proactive break and neither will the others. Making it more likely they all get injured.

Aye. Bruno Fernandes is bullet proof. He gets tired. But he can play 50 games a year for 90 minutes. Gets tackled. Rolls around. Keeps going. Ramsey lad isn’t built like that and we knew it.

Yep - I was big on a short-term signing that could step in and play meaningful minutes.

That's an at least too.

THE NEXT INTERNATIONAL BREAK???

DR Congo to you mate

Yasir said this year he wanted us to play regularly in the CL and challenge for trophoes as part of Project 2030. Significantly closing the revenue gap to the top 6. If you can't take what your chairman says seriously - there's a major problem.

Having Owners that say one thing but mean another is going to cause massive issues ongoing. The Isak situation can partly be contributed to it imo. And some of the frustration at the transfer policy.

HBA under prime Carlo would’ve been immense. Would’ve built a system that let HBA walk around for 60 minutes

Laurent Robert. Kieron Dyer. Craig Bellamy. I remember Bobby saying sometimes he would sub Robert and he wouldn’t have sweat on his back. He would’ve got a tune out of past-it Kluivert too. He managed king lunatic himself Romario a true GOAT - Bobby knew he was special and he indulged him. Sir Bobbby valued talent if you would deliver for him. Bobby knew what Robert and Bellamy were like when he signed them and that’s probably why they weren’t first choice. But he knew he could get a song out of them. Hear Bellamy speak on Bobby. He would’ve day Bobby made him feel like Didier Drogba.

Not a single player put 5 good performances together in a row under Steve. Robson put up with wild and lazy characters his whole career and got the best out of them.

Gordon’s done well to me.

Cheers for sharing. Will give it a goood read later. Interesting read from what I’ve seen so far. Awful about the injury.

I love HBA. But I think he played under one of the better managers for him, with us. I don't think Rafa or Howe would have any time for him at all. But after KK and Robson - I think Pardew is the NUFC manager of recent times that would have tried to work with him most. He is underrated in the wider footballing world. He was better than Taarabt, levels better imo. All that needs to be said is HBA was considered the better talent out of him and Benzema. And Benzema was considered an A1 talent himself

We'll be back in 2026 anyway

Donnarumma signed afterwards. Wasn't like he was guaranteed to start here anyway.

Both are getting better so let's see where we end up