The College Dropout

Awoniyi clearly didn’t feel fine. Poor lad couldn’t move and looked in distress the entire time.

It’s the wages for Allison and the injury record. Age is not a massive issue for goalkeepers. Performance wise at least. Inter replaced Onana with a 33 year old. VDS was one of the best pickups by Ferguson.

He doesn’t work that hard and he’s not a RW.

Anyways Awoniyi has been put into a medical coma. Rumours he’s had a ruptured spleen or intestine.

Pl has had 2 winners over the last what, 7 years? 5 to City the other 2 to Liverpool. The times Liverpool have won it, there wasn’t even a title race. Every close title race ends with Cty winning, if there is a close title race. Only Serie A has different winners. Atleast La Liga bounces between 2 clubs regularly. Madrid never defend a La Liga. Been a while since Barca defended it. And Atletico have won it twice. Financial rules have killed European leagues.

Why would we want to do what Chelsea do? Our model works. Theirs does not.

A part of me would like to see it happen. Rodrygo’s good but I’m not sure how good. Typically he’s amazing for 6-weeks, then will score important goals but otherwise not be a consistent menace. I actually think he works better with Mbappe at LW than Vini and wouldn’t fetch of the money Vini would if he was sold. But Vini’s proven he can carry a side week in week out. Rodrygo hasn’t.

It’s easy to look good for middling PL clubs. their middling shot stopping doesn’t become an issue. We saw with Kepa when he played for big clubs - he would throw them in. Sanchez was highly rated at Brighton - he’s a poor shot stopper and not that great with his feet. Vicario - you can just put that ball on his head - he’s going to struggle. Flekken, Verbruggen - all meaningfully inferior shot stoppers and inferior at claiming crosses. Nick Pope at his best is elite in those categories. Pope is a big reason we don’t concede many goals from set pieces. I’ve not seen much of Trafford so won’t comment too much. But I don’t like that he’s a kid. Goalkeepers need to be commanders with stature and that’s more likely to come with age and experience. Maybe he’s a Courtois, Donnarumma, Cech type that is commanding at a young age. The fact we have a team of men is an advantage in the pitch. Unless we sign ice cold players like Botman I’d rather not got sub 25 at GK and CB

Fair chance several teams finish on 69 points.

If Pope plays 40 games next season and Dubs plays 10 we are fine. Not perfect but we are fine. Longstaff/Willock/Miley will play 40 games next season. It's not fine. We are significantly weaker whenever one of them is on the pitch. Every other good team in this division has a quality CM that is on the bench when everyone is fit.

I lost my nerve with Isak and took him out for a hit to bring in Nicholas Jackson It was the West Ham game he missed through injury and we looked so shit. Didn't trust Howe to be honest about his injury and couldn't bear the pain of us being shit and having Isak in the team. Jackson scored 0 goals, Isak scored something like 10 in 5. Brace against Liverpool, hat trick when the fixtures got easy. That was my point of failure. Moved on from Wood and Mbuemo when I was better off sticking. Failed punt on Foden. Never got on the right side of hat-tricks or multiple hauls unless it's Salah when everyone else did too. Too trigger happy in the wrong moments, too slow in others. Started to get on the right side of variance now with good captain picks KDB the week before, Wood this week. But not getting the hauls vs blanks to make serious ground, just single returns and bonus. I expected to make ground up GW20-30 but it never came. Was ranked 1m until GW30 or so. People can spend 5 mins on FPL a week and do that. Patience and keeping it simple for me next season.

What does that mean? why would we want Vlahovic?

One good thing we are doing is trying to keep our options open and take advantage of free transfers, release clauses and FFP swipes from other clubs. That might mean getting players we don’t 100% need so be it. I don’t love Angel Gomes for our system. But if getting him for free means we can spend big money on another CM, sell Longstaff and Willock - great. Let’s do it. I don’t see where Cunha fits but if we can get him for £50m let’s do it.

Don't think you can plan in detail for 2026 - right now. If we have back-to-back Champions League seasons compared to 0, it's a massive difference. Likw £250m difference when you factor in gate receipts, average ticket price, genuine sponsors, FMV sponsors. Some of our better players might want to leave, some may fall off a physical cliff, and others might enjoy an Indian summer. The manager's status might change. Some of the kids may emerge etc.

I'm not overly concerned about the definition of world class. Tonali is top dogs, Bruno is top dogs, for our system Joelinton is top dogs. We need a physical beast that can play in that 3 without any drop off. That's probably a £40-60m player. If you can get that quality for less, great. After a RW, CB that's the next priority position for me.

We signed 2 in 18 months.

In the Ashley days it was first-team and then backups. In this era it's stars and first-team then backups. With like 4 backups for each area of the pitch. Not 8 or 9 backup players, that squad can't compete on multiple fronts. You need about 18 first-teamers. The top squads in the PL have about that.

We'll likely play 50+ games next season. Barnes will get lots of minutes. I expect we'll have 5 first-team attackers for 3 positions. The non-preferred 2 will play loads. Darwin Nunez is the 6th choice attacker for Liverpool - he's played 22 games in full worth of minutes. Making 45 appearances. Curtis Jones is the 4th choice CM, he's played 25 full games worth of minutes. It's going to cost £40m to replace Barnes. And that player will need time to get Howe'd. I just don't expect a massive turnover of players. Unless we have to because of FFP, which I don't it will. CL is £50m minimum these days. Then we can exploit FMV to our advantage with new deals.

I don't think we need all of that at all. I don't see a world where we sign 9 first-team players for a 25-man squad. We've got a winning culture in the squad, we won't look to revamp it in one summer window. GK (with one leaving) RB - no need to buy here unless Trippier is leaving. Krafthu is staying another year. CB - only need one. Schar, Botman, Burn, New CB, expect Lascelles to stay on too. LB - Maybe if we sell Targett or it's a free transfer. Why would you spend money on a third choice LB? CM - again probably only 1 if we think Miley can step up. Expect one of Longstaff or Willock to be sold - not both. RW - Yep there's an open squad role for that. Might also need to play ST. ST - Only think we can get someone if there's a great deal to be had or a free transfer. Why would you spend big money on a back-up striker?

The Champ has put in a horrible title defence. Aiming for a top 25 finish in the NO league. First time in a number of seasons I won't have finished in the top 10.

Unless we really need the money I don’t understand selling Barnes

Think Semenyo would give us something a bit different. Mbeumo I think is a superior version of what we already have at LW. He's a forward rather than a midfielder. I'd prefer another midfielder type that can graft.

Hojlund doesn't have anything to his game to suggest he'll be a top player IMO. Like Delap is overpowered physically. Isak's touch and composure is tops. Jackson and Nunez always seem to find chances. Hojlund? Doesn't have the sniff, average physically, average mentally.

I remember at least 2 goals he just got done by some good movement from an attacker. A goal conceded against Chelsea by Havertz springs to mind. He was great but - he was one of the weakest links. This season - he’s been our best central defender. He wasn’t better than Schar in those 6 months. He’s been better than Schar easily. Been better on the ball. A bigger aerial threat. He’s gone to another level. I wouldn’t have thought then we could get CL with a BurnxSchar defence

He’s been better at CB than when he first joined.