The College Dropout

I want Welbeck uno. £8m bring him up here. Get me that French RW. And Ederson.

The "no dickheads" policy is a professional thing. Bad influences in the dressing room, poor trainers, those likely to stir up discontent or easily unhappy with a face on. Pep is big on dressing room harmony. Cancelo gets in a hump, he's out. Kyle Walker gets bladdered, goes to prostitutes and serially cheats on his wife. No issue with Pep.

It's us or Chelsea atm. It's a stonking fee and he's not done enough to generate interest from abroad at that price.

Unless they do illegal things we should stay out of our players private life. I don't want to comment on his personal life.

Agreed. @Seegull thanks for sharing

He’s scored 10 non penalty goals in the last 2 seasons. 9 assists. Thats not amazing. Minteh has 10 G/A at the age of 20. Kevin Schade has 13 league goals and 4 assists last season alone. I think a lot of JPs value is outside of G/A anyway. But his G/A and expected data is underwhelming when you exclude penalties. Which I’m going to do because he’s not taking penalties here (even though - he’s not missed any in his career as far as I can tell). Minteh is the opposite, his all round game is raw and basic. But I fully expect him to score and assist 10+ in a season because the final ball, composure, penalty box instincts, finishes are good now and will only improve.

Isak had also scored 17 league goals in a la liga season by 22 and 13 in 16 by 20 in the Eredivisie. That poor season prevented a bigger club from going in for him. Pedro is a little closer to Gordon (but more established). It’s a great profile fit for Howe and gambling on potential.

This is an awful watch.

We’ve heard.

I agree he fits the managers style. Gordon is a touchy subject - I still don’t think he’s that good he’s 24 and had 1 good season in his career. I like him and I’m not in his thread trying to sell him like many others are. But if we sold him for £60m I wouldn’t feel we were robbed. The reason I think we should get more is that he’s actually delivered and players like JP are linked for £60m without delivering. I like JP’s ability more than Gordon mind. Some of his finishes and his jinkyness is excellent. But I don’t like how he hasn’t delivered consistently and has the nerve to push for a move. At least Cunha balled out before acting a cunt and Gordon was boo’d. Gordon has shown he can hook it up mentally, JP hasn’t. As others have said if JP had we would be talking £80m+. The PL to PL moves are mad.

I’m not discounting the penalties - I’m putting his goal scoring into context. 10 goals is good, 5 non penalties is less impressive. And what’s worse is his underlying numbers aren’t impressive either. He’s also no record of being prolific anywhere. His expected data is pretty much identical to Minteh per 90 and their non penalty output is similar too. I don’t think team quality is a good excuse. Perhaps it’s the managers style? I think Howe’s direct style suits most physical and quick attackers.

I know it’s sometimes a novel concept for some. But every transfer has opportunities and risks. Upsides and downsides. Pointing out an attacker linked for £60m scored 5 open play goals is worthy of discussion. Especially as he’s not scoring loads more any other time. Likewise the supposed transfer approach is worthy of discussion too. Overall I’m for the transfer. But I like to discuss the good I see/think and the not so good.

Yea I agree. Thats the PL premium. We’ve had so much success going abroad for this type of big money player. Botman, Bruno, Tonali, Isak - it does jar a bit that we haven’t had many rumours like that. I remember loving Etikite. The eye test, the output, the underlying numbers, the profile, the fee. I was yeh this guy can go to the top. Even JP the first time. That type of link has dried up. It is what it is I guess.

Wolves did great without Cunha at the back and of the season. My fundamental point is the £60m on Cunha, you’re paying for him to repeat what he did at Wolves. For the same fee (albeit lower wages - I assume), you would want 1.5/2x more from JP which is the increase in risk of the move. And again, that’s fine, we can’t pay the wages so need to take bigger risks.

He’s not taking penalties here. He scored 10 goals and 50% were penalties. That does suggest he’s not close to the same level of goalscorer as Cunha who scored 15 I think - all non penalties. I largely agree with the points you’ve made in general. I like his profile. But he hasn’t produced consistently, £60m is a stonking fee. Isak has scored 17 goals in a single season in La Liga and fucked up the Eredivisie as a teenager for that money. The underlying numbers I’ve seen are per 90 mins so total minutes don’t matter. He played enough. We both agree JP is a work in progress and part of that £60m is on potential. That’s fine if we recognise that. I’m stuck thinking £60m should get you close to the finished article. Agree I think he comes and plays 10 primarily. Eddie is the perfect manager for him. At Brighton I think he got complacent. Where I’m most sceptical is his underlying numbers aren’t great and while he plays a second striker, he’s not that creative. Moving a lot between 10 and 9 has maybe skewed his stats to neither. Even from the eye test, he’s a jinky dribbler which I love and he links well but I would like to see more creativity and line breaking passes.

Because that’s what he’s doing at Brighton. And he’s not been really good there either. In his defence Brighton almost market themselves as a springboard. The squad building is focussed on value rather than achievement. Got a bag of AM/RW and like 3 CMs and CBs

Erm… Cunha had 21 G/A - JP had 11 (non penalties). Cunha has consistently better underlying numbers among most publicly available data points. On the eye test Cunha semi consistently scored worldies - excellent long range finisher - maybe that over performance isn’t maintainable but to me - he’s done it long enough to prove he just has that superior level of ability. JP hasn’t shown that. Both are hot heads and are questionable dressing room presences. But Cunha has shown he’s a cut above and JP hasn’t. I like JP. Fairly unique profile. He wins physical duels. Can play 10 and 9. Links it up, beats a man, find a pass etc. but we are buying more of a project and you are right - Howe is the man to realise potential. If he doesn’t tow the line and deliver he won’t play. That German/awustrian/whatever manager was gassing him and that maybe went to his head.

I like JP but he’s not shown that X Factor Cunha has these last couple of seasons. Winning games himself.

Net spend is almost meaningless. Real Madrid's next spend isn't crazy. Their academy and squad players are a conveyor belt of top 5 league players, often CL quality. Show me the wage bill. That's the real measure of investment. Overall squad cost too.

I think JP has a fairly unique profile. But for £60m?? Even 50 is crazy but seems to be the going rate for anyone in the PL at that age. Thats Max Kilman money.

PIF invested 1bn for a single digit equity of DAZN. Weeks later DAZN get the CWC for 1bn it seems. Wish PIF cared about uefa half as much.

It was a message primarily intended for the leadership. Very Rafa-like from Howe.

More goals and assists than £50m rated Kudus at the age of 20. in reckon he would fetch £40m or more. If he has a good season in the next two the value will keep going up.

I think if a European team was their primary focus in football they would’ve made Spurs happen. Spurs are uniquely positioned to become a powerhouse. Already a major player but with no history of winning the big titles - best balance of Saudi’ing up a club and ease of making them a dominant league winning and CL winning side. London as well makes it easier for fancy names. Stadium in the works etc. just super charge them. We require building from the ground up, massive opposition from the rest of the league and UEFA. I think they want a European team at the top table and winning. But the crowning achievement isn’t Newcastle winning the CL and then our 2 star players going head to head in the World Cup Final like it is/was for Qatar. Their ultimate goal atm seemingly involves the World Cup, maybe CWC and the Saudi League. No but they knew they had opps and FFP in place when they bought us. Nothing they’ve done in football suggests their number one priority in the sport is to make us a dominant team.

We aren’t the ones with Ronaldo and Kante. PIF have basically bought FIFA. If they really wanted too they could buy UEFA the same way PSG owners practically have. If we were top 3 priority they might even think to avoid buying players from our ‘rivals’. Or only do it by exception but nope.