The College Dropout

Neither would fetch as much as a 19 year old with 1 years experience in the Eredivisie. I’m not sure they would fetch half. both are late window panic buys too lol. that’s the problem.

We have 3 at LW. And 0 at RW.

Our problem is that we can’t sell dead wood or squad players. On FM you could get a few quid for Longstaff and Almiron. In real life - nobody wants them.

The transfer never made sense to me. He’s a good player. But he’s backup. If things go well… he’ll remain backup his entire career for us. We have loads of options at LW too. It’s not a serious suggestion anyway. I’m just a bit frustrated by how we’ve built the squad. It’s quality. But not coherent.

I don’t think we can afford points deductions. At the top it will be the difference between CL and Europa, Europa and no Europe. Im more annoyed that we haven’t tried any real FFP hacks. Tell Miggy he’s not wanted, give him a blank cheque and ask him to jot down an annual salary that would have him move to Saudi. Sell the training ground. Something.

I don’t think he’ll go for that much. Especially if we have favourable sell-on or buy back clauses. We need to recognise this for what it is. This is a fire sale. I think the buying club will get a decent deal. Say £30m but with buy-back + 40% of future sale profits. If we are selling to Everton the fee will be similar to whatever we pay for DCL. Looks like we plan to sell Wilson too. Yes. I was hoping the rumours were wrong and we didn’t need to sell to be FFP compliant. But it looks like we have to sell. Villa got rinsed by Juve for Luiz. And we are selling one of the brightest young wingers in Europe. Big clubs win again. Maybe this is knee jerk. But I’d rather sell Harvey Barnes than Minteh.

Olise is class and has looked to have real quality for years. But aye this is the first season he’s hooked it up consistently and produced goals and assists regularly. Minteh at 19 is way ahead of Olise at the same age. His output and underlying stats (at 19) has him on an elite trajectory. He’s the type of player Dortmund sign and look to flip for £50m+. IF (major IF) he continues to develop the way he should, he’s going to be a v. good player. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see him go for more money than Olise has in a few years. Physically he’s big and fast - and should only get stronger and quicker. One footed but a great left foot with great dribbling ability. And he’s already proven he can score a lot of goals at a fairly high level. He even did in the other professional league too. He built on that promising trajectory. it’s just early for him.

We really need a PSR sticky thread that just has the rules and how it impacts us. We have the same conversations daily because most don’t understand how it works. ———

I understand why. PSR. But DCL in and Minteh out is GRIM work.

There’s usually something in it financially though. A player from abroad at DCLs age and form rarely moves for close to 40m.

I reckon we want him to go to Everton because of PSR shenanigans for both teams. Either way he’s off. I’m desperate for us to have a buy-back clause.

Grand total of 8 goals mind. Chris Wood has more consistent PL pedigree.

Said this before - Villa’s fees and wages were very high at the end of last season and they went again this season. 100% they would fail FFP this season without these sales. As would Chelsea which is why they are trading in circles. I like Chelsea’s approach to FFP tbf. They will find a way. I would like us to trade with others in a similar situation so we don’t have to sell the likes of Wilson or Trippier for non footballing reasons.

This is the biggest issue. He’s been good before.

Aye let’s sell a prolific scorer and crock for another crock who isn’t prolific I liked DCL under Carlo

TAA is a victim at RB at Liverpool. He's been a bigger victim at RB for England.

People suggest massive changes to accommodate 2 players who have not done it for England in TAA & Foden. TAA didn't go to the WC right? That was the right move.

RIP

Love that we have 3 former players in the Spain squad.

If it would work so well why hasn't Howe tried it? This is the thing about balance. We'd probably be better off with Lloyd Kelly at LB with Gordon in front of him than Trippier. But everyone wants to hamfist a non-LB there.

Yeh he’s ducking it up. He had a side that was balanced and pretty much worked. Now he doesn’t and is looking clueless.

Don’t mean this to be a defence of Southgate. He’s fucking this up. Im glad he took Gordon. But he might as well have brought Rashford or Sterling - he would’ve actually used one of those by now and he knows they can play well for him. He doesn’t trust Gordon like that.

He doesn’t have ideal profiles at LB or Central Midfield. He can either pick players of less repute/ability or shoehorn a big name into those roles. He’s ham fisting the front 3-4 though aye. People talk about this squad like it’s France. France have multiple ideal profiles at CB, CM, AM, ST. Wingers and decent enough fullback options. I also think there’s less quality and depth of profiles than Portugal. Way less balance than Germany or Spain in the squads. England narrowly beat this Denmark side 3 years ago at home via a last minute penalty in extra time. I don’t remember that game much but the result was the same at 90 minutes iirc.

Howe could start a combination that includes Isak, Wilson, Barnes and Gordon our most talented players. But he doesn’t. He’s rather play to the strengths of 3 of those and have a more balanced team with inferior talents. That’s team building.

This is where we get too caught up in individual players. Burn, Longstaff, Almiron etc. wouldn’t start for a lot of other PL teams. In other setups I don’t know good Joelinton would be. But we have a system that plays to their strengths and works as a team.