The College Dropout

Harry Kane moved to Bayern for £90m at 30 years old. Fernandes would be available for what? 40-60m. No buyers in Europe. Juve don’t even want him. He’s prime Inter material but he’s not good enough.

They act like he’s one of the best players going and will be a massive loss when he leaves. They just finished 8th and 15th. He’s likely to go to Saudi - he’s not an elite player.

In shirt - neither are proper ballers. But I kinda like them both too but not enough. A combination of the 2 I would love.

Tino is almost invaluable due to the lack alternatives and his flexibility. It needs to be a stupid offer.

So we would have Trippier and Krafth as our RBs?

Same issue for City. So if they want him they need to pay up. There’s no obvious alternative that can plug and play.

I don’t agree. People act like Bruno Fernandes is prime Gareth Bale. —- Re: Elanga and Madueke - don’t love either. Both are the type you pick up for 20-30m not double. I don’t think either have that Raphinha ability to justify £50-60m outlay. Of the 2 - I think Madueke’s technical ability is greater but his end product is so so and I don’t like the cut of his jib. Would be serious if Howe’d but so could lots of others. Elanga feels more of a constant danger and more reliable end product. I like the cut of his jib. But Impressjon is he’s not as solid technically. It’s hard to separate themselves from their teams style of play tbh. Chelsea do the slow patient stuff and Forest do the fast transition stuff and both seem to suit and somewhat define those systems. Everyone needs the job remarks are similar to the clubs.

Need at least £70m. £60m isn’t enough - his replacement would likely cost £40m and not be as good. There’s no obvious candidate.

Biggest issue is Forest, Palace and us imo. Spurs under a good manager will make play offs at least. Forest and Palace might struggle to balance PL and Europe with some injuries. Everyone needs to play into at least the play offs. All but 2 maybe 3 need to go straight into the KO Phases without playoffs.

Yeh not gonna happen. Also seems to love West Ham and living in the area he’s at. Think he signed a 6 year deal at 26 with West Ham. Why would you do that? A free agent 29/30 yo Bowen could play for any number of top clubs.

I’m super convinced of this btw. It’s impossible to have a squad that can compete in the CL and qualify for the CL again without struggling with FFP. You either accept you will fall behind in the league and accept no Europe the following year or conference league at best. Probably have to sell your best players to meet their ambitions but able to keep most of your squad and keep building slowly. Or you invest properly in the squad, go for it and compete on all fronts. Whether you get CL or not you’ll have to sell in June but if you do get CL you could probably reinvest all that money in the summer anyway. Villa messed up by switching strategies midway through the season. Maybe they always needed to sell in June so they said fuck it let’s go for it anyway. Don’t think PIF will do that. They’ve not shown any FFP creativity themselves. I think the delaying Hall signing was a smart Ashworth thing. Again it’s the kind of thing we could do more of. Juventus did a 16-month loan I think because they wanted the funds in later years.

Agreed. PIF have been fortunate that they everything Staveley and co. did has paid off. Things that are entirely led by them move so slowly. Or wrong like letting Eales hire his pal.

You can’t capitalise on success on the pitch without big risks. I am tempted to take that Villa risk. But do it in August rather than January. Had Villa put together that squad in August they are comfortably top 4. I wouldn’t mind us spending £250m net and needing to sell next June to the tune of £50m or so. I wouldn’t even be against signing a couple of older players that wouldn’t mind moving to Saudi in a year if needed. I just don’t think the club will do that and I don’t think we have many of those types of players. Of the current squad the best candidates would be Barnes, Joelinton, Bruno but none of them seem the type. Schar and Trippier too but wouldn’t be able to justify the £30-50m we would need.

Aye. It feels a bit like the year after Leicester won the league. The biggest threats to the top 6 are neutered by FFP. Villa are likely to have to recycle their team and lose depth - let’s see to the degree this will happen. We can build but let’s re how much we can invest. The top 6 are going to spend heavy again.

Murphy’s issue is not his output. It’s his general play. His lack of ability to play manoeuvre in easy and difficult circumstances.

Bowen is not the right age but he’s well worth £60m like.

He was weak against Brighton but overall he wasn't terrible. And most of the issue was tactical. It didn't resolve when he had a year to settle in either. It was only resolved with the tactical shift.

I don’t think he was terrible. That was a tactical thing mainly which will be the same for any signing. In any case, he had about 2 months playing time, and another 2 months when he came back before hitting top form. Isak, Botman, Bruno all hit the ground running. Especially Isak and Botman.

Where has this come from?

Settling in period is a bit of a myth. Which of our foreign signings needed a settling-in period?

Takeaway penalties and Murphy and Mbeumo’s G/A will be similar which is fine. It’s difficult to beat Murphy on that. But it’s his all round game that Murphy is weak. Mbeumo improves our ability to keep possession and is lethal in transition. I’m just not sure we need that profile of RW.

£60m for Mbeumo is about right but could also be too expensive for us.

Aye which is also why the other European competitions have been devalued. Real Madrid won the UEFA Cup 2 or 3 times. in those decades theyd didn't win the European Cup. At the time, some of the best teams in Europe played in the UEFA Cup. Barcelona won the Cup Winners Cup several times. I don't think Real Madrid have played in the UEFA Cup/Europa League in the last 30 years.

They played better against Liverpool. But Liverpool put up more of a fight.

Honestly don’t like that. PSG were great but Inter were bad. PAG weren’t even that great either.