The College Dropout

Not really. Botman x Burn was solid. Agree with the others. Miley isn't our 4th best midfielder according to Howe. £15m pays for Tonali/Onana for a season. Would rather not sell but he does need football.

That will also mean Miley barely plays again. What good is that for him or us?

Yes. We should be looking at playing 55ish games next season. High intensity top level games. I feel like Bruno G has never been rested for a full game he’s been fit for the entirety of the time he’s been here. (I’m personally happy to start Pope and have Dubs on the bench bur whatever). I think we can get away with a 10/striker hybrid Cunha/JP/Alvarez mould, RW, CB. Play with 1 less CM at points.

This is it.

We are an excellent side. We lack pace at CB, quality at RW and depth/quality at CM and in attack. Address that and not lose players we frequently play - we are a 80-85 point team with some luck. Thats the quality of the current Aston Villa squad. Where they had Onana, Maatsen, Watkins, Malen on the bench when everyone was fit. The current Arsenal squad which would have Merino, Calafiori, Jesus, Jorginho, Ben White on the bench with everyone fit. Thats the level. The upcoming season is the most important. We don’t qualify for the CL so we keep Isak and Tonali? Do we get top dollar if we do want to sell them? CL is now £50-80m every season.

We won’t qualify for the CL again next season if we don’t have several Barnes, Joelinton, Trippier level players on the bench when everyone is fit. We won’t qualify for the CL again if we don’t buy a first team quality CM/10 this season - unless Miley is that player at 20 years old. For me it’s that simple. Villa couldn’t do it with half a season with a super squad. We barely managed it with no Europe. A winger, backup striker, CB and GK won’t be enough

Miley barely plays. He’s not good enough as it stands to be the next choice CM for a side in CL looking to requalify. If he’s not good enough to be Joelinton level-ish over 25 games next season - it’s better he’s sold for someone who is. That could be the difference between CL and Conference league. Last 16 CL or group stage elimination.

You have to trade. Selling Miley for £20m would pay for Tonali for a single season. Tonali was the difference between CL and no European football. That’s £80m in revenue. £20m pays for Tino and Hall for a single season. The impact of that level of player is the difference between on pitch success and failure which impacts revenue. At some point we may have to sell Tonali, Hall or Tino themselves too.

Clubs that think he would help them in the short term with an immediate impact. Real Madrid and Villa have done this in the past to great effect. The specifics of the numbers are just an example. Point is: you sell a player at slightly below market value and insert a buyback at slightly above market value. Buying club gets a player that improves their first team below market value - we still get a decent fee with the chance to buy and flip for more money or keep him. If Miley can’t contribute well to a promotion level team or Champ team going for promotion - what use is he to us this season?

FFP means academy players don’t make a lot of sense as squad players.

But you have a good footballer in your squad at a fair price. You’ve hopefully utilised his initial sale to fund another player to secure you CL football in his absence. If Miley isn’t worth £20m amortised over 5 years then we should be happy if we can sell him for £14m now. That £14m pays for a purple for a season to try and get us into the CL. Closer to 2 seasons probably.

We’ve seen it with Dubs - it’s great. Also seen Dubs struggle with crosses coming into the box.

Do an Aston Villa - sell with a buy back. Better to sell to the Champ so he gets more minutes.

Elliot Anderson has become a hunger Joelinton. Dual monster and ball carrier. Wish he had that season on loan. He could comeback and rotate with Joelinton seamlessly freeing us to be another profile of midfielder.

Howe didn’t. Miley was 6th choice CM behind playing a back 5. Miley needs to play regular competitive football.

Yeh I’d sell Miley for a good fee and a reasonable buy back. Needs to be somewhere he’ll be pushing to start though. id bring him back for pre season to see how he looks first though.

Seemingly so. The worst things I can see about his game is relatively poor finishing and just ok end product in general. But the rest of his game looks top class. If he had shown that end product he would be a dead cert for an elite club. As it stands he seemingly needs to develop a bit. And at 23 he’s not a kid. He’s a baller though and I want him

Would rather we spend £60m on Joao Pedro

The ruck do we want Theo Hernandez for ? Have him for a season then sell him to Saudi ? Get me the goalkeeper.

He’s only joint 15th. Messi is #1 and Ronaldo is top #5. Also assume both will be there. Ronaldo holding back his nation for at least the 3rd tournament.

Luka Modric is going to play in the next world right? He must be closing in on the appearance record

SerieAh.com

I saw a Man U fan talking about the ‘pull of Man au’ - it’s just money. No problem with Mbeumo getting to the bag. I wouldn’t be surprised if he earned less than £40k per week. Time to get focking paid. Sure he’ll get paid half what Ivam Toney is on but he’s still in the PL with a big club.

He's not even moving to Newcastle tbh

Nick Pope is England #1 20 years ago imo. Shay was an elite shot stopper. But he didn’t dominate his box in an era that was a key skill. And it felt like he rarely saved penalties. He couldn’t kick much either iirc. I saw an interview Shay did with Nick Pope - there’s no way Shay could command a box like Pope does. Pope towers over him. I love Shay - I think he speaks with the most knowledge and heart from all ex Newcastle players on TV. But always thought he was over rated. Got knocked off #1 in his prime by Joe Hart.