The College Dropout

Similar % of claiming crosses. Pope less flappy too.

Won't he get more of that actually playing competitive games. GK is a funny position. Emi Martinez has a commanding and strong personality. I don't think he played 100 pro games until his late 20's.

Yeh i'm talking about his transfer to Liverpool. He was bought as back-up for a back-up price. Through injuries his value has skyrocketed. Samer as Ortega, Martinez, Lunin. IMO that's the back-up goalie blueprint.

You can rotate and sub at FB and we were in Europe - so more opportunities for games. That makes sense. But you would figure he would be loaned out if that's the case. My issue is if we have the budget for that and to improve key first team positions. All the players I named are solid to great first-team options. But that also points to something. It's fairly rare for clubs to sign a GK to become #1 that actually stays at the club as a #2 first. GKs need to play. Courtois went on loan until he was ready to start for Chelsea. De Gea went straight into the team and had to learn on the job. VDS had a #2. Cech had a #2. If we are planning on selling Pope then fair enough (I don't like it though - Pope is better than Trafford this season). But to keep both of them at the club doesn't make sense to me. Elite clubs have v. good backups at backup prices. Or future stars out on loan. Not transition strategies. I get Trafford coming in, then being loaned out where we can recall him. I get Trafford coming in and Pope sold. Trafford coming in to sit on the bench for a year - I don't get.

I like him. But I feel like there's lots of lads out there that can be good backups available for less than £10m. Martinez, Fabianski, Kelleher, Ortega type deals.

Fair chance that's less than 5 games this season. Pope missed 9 league games total in the 3 seasons prior to last season.

Back in the day - you would hear of players but not see much of them. Now you can watch enough comps and read enough comps to get the feel of a player. At 19, the lad definitely has talent and already proven he can be productive in a decent league. But what level he ends up at is hard to predict. His physical profile and output at his age would suggest a higher ceiling than someone like Adam Armstrong. He looks better at 19 than Anthony Gordon did at 20. But then so did Fabio Carvalho who has struggled a bit.

My post doesn't suggest that. But to answer your question we've seen more young players do well in the Champ and go onto do well in the PL than the Eredivisie in recent years. Bowen, Eze, Olise, Maddison, Wharton, Mount, lad at Forest, lad at Spurs from Forest & James did well in the Champ. I just want to see him dominate Eredivisie or a league like the Champ. I would prefer him to stay in Holland for his own comfort than move away to play in the Champo. I would like him to stay and get minutes in the PL. But we know Eddie....

The stats and the eye test backup that his ceiling is crazy high. Lik he has everything except aerial threat and a right-foot. Can pass, shoot, dribble into space, dribble tight, athletic, gets back. At 19 he has another level to go physically alone. He's positioned the way Olise or Eze were 3-5 years ago.IMO the only reason to sell him is if it meant we wouldn't have to sell crown jewels.

Minteh's Feyenoord season at 19 is one of those that puts him in genuine wonderkid territory. He didn't dominate the league but he was very impressive. The next step is dominating that league or looking the business in the Championship type level. He looks to have a high-ceiling.

In the main we've signed good players. The biggest issue in recent windows the question "is this the right position/profile that the squad needs to challenge this season?" Barnes is a good player. But he's a bench warmer. Hall & Livramento are excellent talents but spent most of the season as back-ups. Not rotation option like Barnes but a full back-up. Hall 4th choice at a point. Trafford is in the same bracket. I'm ok with the transfer, surely an upgrade on Dubs. £16m is a decent price too. But he's surely backup for next season and we only have 2 guaranteed back-up games. If we can sign a top class CB & RW, no worries. But we've seen we'll sign a great back-up and leave Murpy/Almiron as our RW options. Last season was such narrow margins. The Pope injury cost us 6th. The Joelinton injury too. Or the Tonali suspension. Trafford would close one of those gaps.

It all stems from the CEOs interview and the following rumours of sales that never materialised. I don't think we need to sell to be compliant. But we might need to sell to invest.

That was the Europa though and they took a voluntary ban. Probably wanted to focus on the league. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/48801681 Milan did the same thing PSG have always done so I don't know why they would get banned bar not really wanting to play in Europa.

But AC Milan were banned from Europe

Steady on

The most likely team to support is Chelsea.

Anchoring is also based on revenue - just that of another club. Our UEFA wage cap is 75% of revenue. In anchoring, we would be able to spend more than 75% of revenue typically. And you could agree whatever multiple that is deemed reasonable and vote to change it. UEGA have imposed a hard cap of 75% of revenue. And revenue is arbitrated by the PL by FMV.

I always liked Sessegnon & Perisic obviously. Sessegnon needs to go back to Fulham. So does Fabio Carvalho. Fuck it - Perisic too.

One thing i don't understand is - there's already a salary cap. We can't spend what we want on wages. So how is anchoring any different? Anchoring will only limit the caps of a select few clubs at the top. Not the remaining clubs. The current rules are tighter a bunch of clubs. Also the UEFA rules are more of a salary cap than anchoring. FFS it's bs.

It's not a hard cap. Transfer fees are included. They can include a luxury tax if they want.

As far as I can remember it's been THE factor. Man U generally won when they were the biggest spenders. Blackburn won as biggest spenders. We challenged by spending. The first winning Arsenal team under Wenger was the most expensive squad in the league. Chelsea & City you already know. I read a stat some time ago. The only teams to win the PL and not be among the top 3 biggest spenders were Arsenal Invincibles & Leicester.

IMO the biggest driver for the others (including us at the time) voting for these rules is that it reduces the likelihood of another club that cannot be relegated. City were a club that could get relegated. We were a club that could get relegated. An open system would make a dozen proper super league teams + 8. These rules essentially caused Leicester's relegation - that kept one of them up.

I want spending limited at the top. But with others able to spend at that limit. I liked the idea of anchoring. Disparities between the top and bottom in leagues should be much smaller.

maybe close to a sale to an oligarch

Villa want to shift Luiz due to FFP right? There's not much money in the European market. It's a proper Juve/Atletico transfer for 40m euros but Juve don't have it.