The College Dropout

Saying what I’ve said about Barnes. We could probably get our money for him this summer or next. Which would be an FFP profit. And again - that transfer didn’t make sense to me. Tielemans is on a reported £175k per week salary. Nobody in Europe will pay a fee for him. And he drags up the wage structure. What does McGinn or Luiz get if Tielemans is on 175k and Kamara is similar? These are sentiments I’ve shared about Tosin and Kelly.

Tielemans and co. have poor resale value because their wages are so high (excluding Kamara) and/or they’re getting on. Like I said - you seem to be moving away from the Carlos, Moreno, Digne type transfers. Those have poor resale value. Tielemans has poor resale value because nobody else in Europe would pay his wages and a fee. I’m talking purely financially. Im on record saying that the Barnes transfer doesn’t make sense financially. It’s a heck of a lot of money for a player to sit on the bench. As I keep saying. You can do that because you have a great academy to sell. We can’t do that so we’ve largely avoided signing players 26+. We have to consider resale.

Selling high potential academy players to fund signing players 26+ is short term thinking. I don’t think you will continue to sign players of that age on big wages. Carlos wages makes him hard to shift. He’s not going to get £100k in La Liga. Digne, Tielemans, Moreno, Carlos - these are players with poor release value in Europe. And if you can shift them, the fees will be moderate due to age. Again - that might not matter because you have a productive academy to offset.

Who do Villa think is buying Diego Carlos and taking on his wages? I hope Saudi stay away. The one thing I don't understand about Villa's strategy is they have signed a good few older players (Digne, Moreno, Carlos) and then a few high wage free transfers. They will be hard to shift. They do have a good academy they can continue to flog. But that's short-term thinking. I've just checked and their average age is a lot younger than ours so I'm probably wrong somewhere. Must be the Pope/Dubs, Trippier, Schar, Burn, Wilson, Dummett, Ritchie. The core of the side is a great age mind. It's really only Schar (not counting Pope as old for a GK) that doesn't have a younger model ready-made to replace him.

Thanks Paul but it's enough. If we get Kelly & Tosin we don't need him. Hall, Kelly (LB) Schar Tosin Burn Krafth (CB) - Lascelles & Botman to register in Jan too Livra, Trippier (RB) What do we need PD for?

The key people running Southampton left. Poch has them on the right track. It was a mess. It took him a long-time to get the in order. The key problems are at board level though. All in he's done ok considering the weird circumstances.

You use the underlying data with the outcome. The best pure finishers (Son, Kane) consistently outperform their Xg but their Xg is still useful. The better their Xg the better their outcome. Burnley had some close scares relegation-wise and eventually went down. Because that approach is high-risk. You are right - the conclusion isn't that Burnley should have been relegated those years. They deserved to stay up for the reasons listed. But it did indicate they would be susceptible in the future if those narrow margins shifted. FWIW I use stats extensively in FPL and I've done way better than most. I suspect that 98% of the people that finished above me use stats a lot too.

I love this. Gwarn Bruno tell em. (tell me) His endurance and fitness is A1. Played every game no?

Villa have been doing that since Emery joined. Think Martinez is a big part of that. I think selling Martinez has been Arteta’s biggest mistake. He might’ve made the difference this season or last.

Don’t agree with this. Over the course of a season the stats tell a true story. But you might have to dig to find the true story. For example Dyche Burnley consistently beat their Xgc. A combination of high volume low quality shots conceded and a great GK was the reason.

Think that’s tactical. We are setup to create for the main man. He has the ability to do it obviously. lovely shimmy for his goal. What a lad.

Thanks. Only 2 red arrows in the last 16GWs. And those were the weeks of my own Freehit and Bench Boost (popular chips in those weeks tbf). Final rank: 7,199. That’s going to take some beating. My next best final rank is 64k.

I don’t think anyone wants a new LB. Hall is him. Id take Kelly to share minutes and the load as Hall is still a kid. But that’s it.

Good job Eddie.

Sounds a good except the evidence suggests Howe intends for Barnes and Gordon to compete for the LW primarily. If both are fit (and so is our main striker) 1 starts, the other is benched. Standalone - that is top quality depth at LW. Wider picture. We may have been better off strengthening RW. But the season is done now.

I think Pedro Porro has won me the N-O FPL League.

Poch hasn’t done a ‘great job’.

Hall is a good few years younger too. More time needed to develop as a professional and a player. Hall is only 19 now. Saka & Foden are Gordon's age mates.

Am I crazy for thinking Hall is probably 4-6 weeks short of being in the England squad? We don't have many left-back options.

We know the answer to that.

I'm usually harsh on defenders defending... but I thought he was pretty good defensively. 2 kids up against each other like.

James doesn't go. I don't think Shaw will go. I think at least one of Rashford or Henderson goes. If Rashford goes it will be at the expense of Gordon imo. If he's fit Maguire is a shoe-in.

Form and fitness aye he should stay home.

Why would you be astounded? Southgate loves him. Southgate likes to pick the same players. There are few choices at LB. All Tripps needed to do to get on the plane is prove his fitness imi. I agree he's not had his best season though.

Still think people are living on cuckoo land. We need revenue. "Ruthless summer". We don't have saleable assets. The ones we do are old or injury prone. If we sell Trippier, he's not being replaced. If we sell Wilson, we are signing an understudy for Isak. We'll sell a RW and sign a RW. i can't see a world where we spend £30m on a keeper and still have Nick Pope on the books. He can fetch a fee, Dubs can't. We'll only spend £100m+ if we sell Isak or Bruno IMO. Unless the commercial team do some magic.