The College Dropout

I don’t think this is the case for established PL clubs anymore.

Only 18 months older than Miley or so. Gittens is showing some signs of elite ability but also way off it in major ways. It's a gamble. Minteh compares favourably to a lot of these players in some key ways. Such a shame.

If our scouts like him - I like him. If we keep Pope I don't think he comes straight into the first-team.

Like the difference between getting KO’d from the CL group phase and a run to the QFs is what? £10m+ all in? That covers the amortisation of Elanga’s fee.

I wouldn’t mind if we needed to sell next June if it meant another season in the CL. I would actively encourage it tbh.

Apart from kicking, Pope is better than Dubravka at everything. And this was borne out in the stats. That’s immediately not the case with Trafford.

Add European football and that’s an immediate -6/-10 points.

Do they? A lot of talk about ‘the budget’. I think about 10-20% of our revenue is dependent on performance. And we can take a risk based approach - we don’t know what that risk decision is. And it can change.

What’s that figure based on?

Finished above us 2 seasons in a row. Unlimited spending hack.

I’m a big Kudus fan but I don’t want him. He’s one you gamble from abroad. He’s not performed well enough to get that big move up. Both not in input or underlying numbers.

Doku would be brilliant in our team.

It’s not like. He’s generally poor in possession - bad passes under no pressure. Worse passes under pressure. Just lacks basic footballing ability. It’s not really a debate - you can see it. Cant criticise his G/A and I would only hope to replicate that with his replacement. We’ll never be a Pep type team. But you can see our level of play would go up a level with better ball playing GK, LCB, CM, RW. I don’t think it’s a particular strength of Livramento or Gordon but it’s a lot better than Burn and Murphy. Just that bit more comfortable on the ball.

Aye relatively low risk for City. Could become a Ballon D’Or contender or at worst they’lll make their money back if they don’t stick him on crazy wages. With his ability he can swan about just insert the elite level well enough and eat l the pies he desires.

He’s a DM.

Murphy is one of the worst wingers in the league for simple ball rentention. I would be delighted if his replacement matched him for G/A. That bar is high. But for general play, there’s a lot of improvement to be made that will lift our entire game.

It can’t be understated how much better the likes of Strand Larson, Alex Iwobi and Kevin Schade are than the best the Championship clubs can often muster. If one of them has a massive go maybe they can stay up. But it’s going to be super tough.

Kevin Schade scored 11 PL goals last season uno.

They’ll be aight. Kevin Schade about to get 20 G/A.

you need the owner.

I doubt we could afford both without CL mind

Why not? Anyone player can be transformational. Especially someone replacing Jacob Murphy.

Agreed. I’ve not checked the stats but I think Bruno would average 88 minutes or game or more. With the amount of games we’ll have next season he’ll need periods of regular 55-70 minute subs. We’ll neee quality to replace him not squad players.

Joelinton is an auto start if any of Isak, JP, Tonali or Bruno is injured/suspended. Let’s assume they are unavailable 10% of the time, that’s Joelinton automatically starting 40% of games by force. Thats 22 starts in a 55 game season. Not to mention minutes off the bench (Joelinton would get 20-30), tactical starts and genuine rotation games. I can easily see a situation with Joelinton preferred against top sides and away from home. My point is if we sign JP it is with the intention he starts most matches with Isak. Yes I do think it’s the central midfielders JP is likely to take the most starts from. Isak is the crown jewel, not Joelinton, Tonali or Bruno. Isak is the man and he’s going to play loads of minutes. But we’ll have a genuine option when he does his statue routine.

Cool. Isak will still start 95% of league games and all CL games when fit. This is the case for ALL top players. Kane, Son, Haaland, Rodri, Saka, Rice, Palmer, Fernandes, Salah, Mane etc. If we sign JP for £50m+ the intention will be to start him with Isak 80% of the time.