The College Dropout

The striker in Eddie's system doesn't do any creating tbf. The stats and expected stats are historically poor for both our strikers. For a team of few creators, we do create and score a lot of goals.

There's lots of ingredients involved in getting young players and turning them into superstar first-teamers. Chelsea and City have magnificent academies and mostly sell their top talents. Real have the cream of the crop and still sell most of their prospects by 24. Fantastic revenue engines for all the clubs. But clubs like ourselves are better positioned to develop young talents as we will play them

I agree. But i'm learning that Howe likes what he likes. I want that type of player but I don't expect it. We were linked with a lad from Frosinone - reminded me of Almiron but with ability which would be excellent.

Mbappe leaving is for the best for PSG. If they just focussed on getting the best young French players that are hungry. They will be great. The superstar thing is to their detriment. Honestly, leave the superstars and big names alone largely. That's for Real Madrid, it somehow works for them. It doesn't work for PSG.

They had a policy of renewing vastly inflated contracts to avoid players leaving for free. I think that is what happened with Martial.

Not enough detail. Was Isak in full training or just a part? Still think there's no chance we sign Solanke. We need a RW & a LB that Howe will actually play.

There are 6 of them with similar resources and stature in Europe. They've been a shambles for a decade and still have excellent prospects coming through or signing them at a young age. Their biggest issue in that age bracket is domestic. Chelsea and City pick them up from even younger and London is a youth football super city which favours the local clubs.

I don't worry for Howe from the likes of Tuchel. We would still follow the Brentford, Brighton, Liverpool, RB, Leverkusen, Dortmund type model of buying young players with potential (Gordon, Livra)) and under-the-radar players (Pope). That's the overall profile. The specifics (technical vs physical for example) might change aye but not the wider profile. Howe fits the general profile while a "super club manager" like Tuchel hasn't had that type of role for some time and would probably want closer to the finished article. We'll be looking for the next Alonso, DeZerbi etc. types. Young with something to prove.

What's the etc.? There are few clubs with a big a pull as Man Utd at any recruitment level. They pay tremendously well too - probably more than Arsenal and Liverpool which will have a big influence.

Not true.

Hasn’t Ineos done well with their Ligue club?

I think Howe just rates what Burn brings to the team highly

It is a vanity exercise. But Mbappe is a level or 2 above Beckham. And Beckham was genuinely brilliant.

While I will criticise a manager for it - I won’t pretend like Howe is the only one.

They don't even need him either.

You pinching my takes?

Agree with most of this. I thought it was interesting that it was Eales doing that interview in January rather than Ashworth. The role itself seems to mean different things at different clubs. I hope now we have defined the role. We may even need several roles.

I don't agree. Livra can position himself more defensively in build-up if necessary. Villa do it, sometimes they have an "attacking" FB play much more defensively. If Dan Burn starts at FB in a back 4 against Saka, it is going to be ugly.

He would have lost the main man. Aye.

And a lack of ability. He's not great at passing, dribbling, shooting, first touch etc. Excellent work rate, movement, athleticism but not much else. He's the standard for a couple of those so he'll be a useful player for some time to come. Both. I thought he would be exciting but he's mostly injured or coming off the bench from what I've seen. Adingra looks a far bigger talent atm.

Aye that was my view too. With RB, RCB & another CM as stretch targets if budget allowed. I thought it was a bit strange we went with a LB for the future rather than right now - but I underestimated how highly Howe rates Burn and overestimated Hall's ability to step up and Howe's likelihood to use him. CM situ has been a disaster. And we didn't even bother with RW which seemed a major oversight. I was delighted with the Livra signing as I thought RB was a weakness in the squad. I didn't fancy Trippier playing 3x a week at 33. And we got him an ideal understudy. A top player. But young enough to be content with playing maybe 30-40% of minutes and returning from a serious injury. And he's been fantastic. He's been better than I expected and I expected a lot. But again, I overestimated Howe's likelihood to rotate. I thought we tried to be cute last January by going without a CM and it worked. We got to the summer and were able to get a top-rated CM in instead. And we decided to be cute in other areas of the squad. The whole thing has backfired now. With how tight we are to the FFP restrictions, I understand now that we are likely to try and be cute a lot.. but could benefit from using the loan market more.

Some interesting tweets. Says Nickson might be off and that it was planned. I give Nickson a lot of credit for the likes of Bruno and Botman. Also suggests PIF are calling a lot of shots. So Eales and co. can say what they like (to some degree). PIF are dictating fairly low level appointments.

I'm thinking more PIF, Eales, Staveley and Husband, Nickson & Howe levels. By the time Ashworth joined we already signed Bruno and identified Botman as a transfer target. Nickson earning his stripes. I assume Eales is his boss. Eales came in after Ashworth, Eales might have different ideas about things. From the documentary, Staveley seems very involved. No idea how involved PIF are.

His main remit doesn't seem to be transfers anyway. Man U haven't been run like an elite professional outfit. He's there to institute that primarily. Whispers that he's been a bit unhappy here. Our approach to recruiting professionals seems a little more scattergun than Man U's (the timing and their position is a lot better - they can largely ignore this season) so there's been jostling for power here that he might not have to do at Man U.

https://www.brentfordfc.com/en/teams/profile/phil-giles