The College Dropout

He’s also at an age he can secure 3 maybe 4 year contracts. Next year that’s likely to dip and he may have further injury issues. If we pay 70% of his wages and release him. He can probably get another club to get him to 90-100% of that value next season with a commitment for another year, 2, 3 already confirmed.

Unless they are transfer supremos - I do think it's hard to judge the DoF role. Particularly in regard to hiring and firing managers. Youth teams. Contract value and extensions. FWIW Dan's time here and Brighton - he seemed to have a tight control on wages. He negotiated those. I assume he was involved in the 25% CL bump for Isak and others for example. Now Dan has gone we seem to be happier to increase wages for contract renewals. I liked the hardline approach Dan/Brighton/Spurs take but appreciate that causes other issues.

Always liked Joselu. I always thought he was one of those players that was a good player but just not good enough. Liked his movement but he just didn't have it. Then suddenly last season, he had it a bit.

Messing with the oxygen in your body can't be good for injury recuperation. Any supposed fee we could get for him depends on what his actual wages are. At £100k we'll be glad to just get his wages off the bill.

I get your point. But there were 2 excellent skill/dribblers tonight. If Real win it Vini Jr. has a good chance of winning it and he’s fitting. And the Copa and Euros will bring forward candidates.

Thought Jude was decent tonight.

Kane was doodoo across both legs. Played in a lot of semi finals and finals and only seems to score from the spot.

Thought he was poor for the goal and on a few other occasions. But class for the goal on his weaker foot.

And Madrid stopped playing. Non incident.

15 pending.

Better than Bayern tonight. all that extra time ruined the vibe. Madrid did them old fashioned by 92 minutes.

Love that for him.

Is he not involved in that process? I remember he was meant to have been involved in getting Vieira. I understand that would've partially been Ashworth remit here. Tbh I'm not sure what our role is actually becoming. It's always hard assessing the performance of a DOF. Palace have done well with British youngsters in recent years. But the clubs location and status is uniquely positioned to take the Cobham graduates and give them first team ops and take a risk on top Championship talent. Palace's youth setup has fallen behind Fulham and QPR in recent years. Whose responsibility is that?

Freedman is an interesting one. Seems right up Howe's street in terms of player profile. The other guy seems better suited for the multi-club shenanigans.

Makes no difference for FFP

Think Tonali was more expensive but I get your point and agree. There's absolutely no way we sell Bruno for less than £100m too. £60m would be daylight robbery.

I think a lot of modern football can't have neutrality. Neutrality would just be uninformed pundits/journalists.

Maybe it's because I listen to a lot of Eddie, a lot more than Neville but I didn't learn much new. There isn't a mass media figure that would give Eddie the type if interview I would like. Maybe the guy on Sky as he has his nose attuned to what's going on. Like I found the ASM bit a bit grating. Eddie's answered that question before - his public line is that he loved ASM and he was only sold for FFP reasons. Neville is behind on all of this. Likewise in thinking we would come in and splurge on stupid signings - from the first window it was obvious that was not the plan. Good enough interview though. But my biggest gripe with Neville is that he's away from the game at large. A lot of his talk is just based on cliches and narratives he's made-up in his head (some of which might be true) but it's not supported by hard evidence or the actual footballing landscape. For all that he's grating, Jamie Carragher actually does much better homework.

Player value is so interesting. Like Ruben Neves. He was a standout player for Wolves for years. And a top international. Tielemans similar as well. 2-3 years ago - you would say they were both worth £30-40m but nobody ever stumped up the cash so how much are they really worth? Neves ended up going for mega money but that was to a Saudi. Nobody in Europe would pay that fee. Tielemans ended up leaving on a free.

I would prefer more of a playmaker type but you are right.

Linked heavily previously. Reminds me of Miggy if Miggy was good at football.

Rumoured release clause. He chose to stay at Palace last season when Chelsea seemed to have activated his then release clause so he seems to be advised well.

Michael Olise is actually from London so it’s fair to think he would prefer to stay in London. Aside from a stretch in the Man City academy he seems to have spent his whole life in London or close (Reading). London is more of a desirable location than Newcastle, Manchester and the midlands for most young people. That’s fair.

I thought they had not confirmed that.

There’s no guarantee of 6 places for 1 FA. UEFA may just give it 5 to Germany.