The College Dropout

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

@KaKa here seems to suggest we could have made better decisions in certain areas in the transfer market and have a better balance in the squad. Not pointing the finger at you, but a few of us said the window left us short of quality, depth and balance. Many refuted that and were extremely happy with the window. Sounds like you’re playing both sides.

I thought you were a big fan of our summer recruitment?

It will defo stop him from talking about football with rivals. If they go for multiple targets of ours we could take action. For first teamers we don’t have the same issues though.

Salah injured again. A lot of similarities between Eddie and Klopp. Reintroducing players too quickly post injury is one of them. Similar happened with TAA recently.

Aye. I mean he can leave and have no job if he wants. But he can't join Man U.

That's a CB position. The defensive FB heatmap of White is here: Massive caveat is that even though Arsenal have a defensive FB - and recently been playing 2 CBs by trade at FB (Kiwior at LB) they spend the majority of games attacking. But when it's time to defend they are on business. Edit: Arsenal tend to play with a box midfield which gives them extra defensive security and both CBs have pace so they are more comfortable defending with only 2 at the back on transition. We don't have that privilege so our third CB/FB sits more.

Saliba doesn't play full-back at all. Gomez, Ake, Akanji, White, Tomiyasu, Colwil. I don't think that profile is that hard to find.

It seems he has a v. long notice period/ gardening leave if going to a rival hence the mentions of 2026. That is seemingly what is in the contract he signed as a default. He/Man U can negotiate to break that leave period earlier. I don't think we should budge for the summer unless the fee is incredible. Legally we seem to have him tied up until 2026 if he wants to join a rival. He could quit and probably leave earlier. But he still would need to comply with the non-compete clause he seemingly has. Good work by the leadership to set it up like this btw. He had a tough situation to get him out of at Brighton and we've made it tougher to leave us. Well done. --- I stand by the most important people at the club are the leadership. Saudi + Staveley and co. I think Staveley and co. will be close to this situation and will have a hand in his replacement and I back them to make a good decision for replacement and negotiating Ashworth's release.