The College Dropout

As someone that has led multi-million pound projects. I can’t say everything is going to plan if the plan keeps changing. Plans can evolve and change. But I can’t say ‘that’s all part of the plan’. It’s part of the new plan aye. The one that is more expensive, delayed, less quality etc. aye. Now some things aren’t ideal at face value and are genuinely part of the original plan. Like eventually selling Bruno or someone. But this isn’t one of those things.

I’m not counting Miley as a senior CM. We have 6 senior CMs and a literal kid. The number of CMs is perfectly fine. Our summer transfer strategy left us with no room to do further business if it was needed in Jan. there were good reasons to do this. But there were also good reasons to not do it, as we are finding out now. There’s always a risk of needing to strengthen in January for whatever reason, not having any contingency budget is poor planning. The transfers themselves haven’t worked out at all bar 1. That’s another issue. Again, you can question the fees, profile and position of the transfers for value for money.

In what world is a team with European aspirations having Murphy as its only natural RW not a desperate situation?

Is it a positive position to be in? Selling Miggy to fund a CM is a desperate situation. But we’ll see.

Even the fact that we seemingly can’t buy without selling is at least an amber flag imo

Our first choice RB And RW have had confirmed bids. I don’t think either have been unsolicited. It’s looking likely that we need to buy a CM if we want to continue to try and achieve something this season. And to do that we need to sell. Spending the entire seasons transfer budget in the summer was perhaps unwise but it is understandable. And for various reasons we have had a what 15% (of total transfer cost) success rate in summer signings so far. So I can understand and forgive how we’ve got here. So now we are in a bit of a pickle. We can make it work. But we haven’t got here by design, it’s not part of a master plan. The plan has gone wrong.

A squad with 3 wingers? That’s too light. And only 1 is a natural RW. And he’s not top 8 quality if we are being real. If we sell Miggy, we should replace him. Our problem is that we have 6 first team CMs (which is good) and only 2 are fit. 2 will miss the whole season. So we are desperate for another. But we have no PSR headroom. No valuable fringe players. So we will have to sell a valuable player to buy another valuable player.

Aye - this January has been a shitshow. We have been linked to selling our captain, vice captain, first choice RW and last seasons top scorer. And not directly replacing any of them. It seems we want to fund a CM because we only have 2 fit senior CMs due to injuries and our £55m star signing being suspended. I surprised more people don’t realise this is a bit of a shitshow. I understand how we’ve got here. But it’s not part of some master plan, it’s mitigations for a plan that has more or less failed.

Well it opens £16m of FFP headroom for one single season. While also meaning we don’t have any fit RWs. So we sell Miggy and spend £50m on Onana or MGW. That covers their cost for 6/12 months only. And we still don’t have. An actual Miggy replacement.

It’s kind of the same thing. We might have expected to be in Europe this calendar year. So that’s a few million missing. We most definitely targeted finishing in Europe this season. Not doing so will cost several millions. We also thought we had a squad that could last the season. With Joelinton and Tonali out for the season and Willock injured pretty much all season. We are in desperate need for reinforcement. So now there’s a need to generate PSR headroom. If not for PSR, we would only strengthen. PSR is the reason we have to ‘trade’ valuable assets.

That is true. But that was also the case for Everton. It doesn’t say much about the quality of decision or risk management by the leadership.

He’s about the standard of most genuine backup ‘good’ PL strikers.

The accent thing is funny. But fairly common. Most people laughing at it - don’t speak frequently with non-native English speakers.

Some people seem to think there’s some master - well coordinated plan where everything is premeditated and deliberate. At the start of the season - it was not planned to sell Wilson in January. Increasing PSR concerns have led to this situation. Selling Wilson is a pre-emergency lever.

Aye. He's played well this season mind. Someone will grab him. He would be great in a Dyche team.

Technically - thought he was better than everyone bar Bruno in midfield. But a long way off Bruno. Solid but not top drawer. Good athlete but not totally up to speed with the pace and physicality of the PL. He lost as many duels as he won but was always able to make it a duel. I thought after a year playing in the PL he would win more of those. But speed-wise he's not faster than Joelinton and definitely not faster than Willock. His dead-ball delivery and general crossing were strong. Very strong. He wasn't as good tactically or off-the-ball as I had hoped. As someone mentioned, Brighton and another game - some signs of real lazy play when closing players down. Turning his back. We had heard so much about his workrate, personality and graft and it was a step below the standard we are used too. Again, I thought that was a pace of the PL type thing and a year of Howe ball he would understand. Similar maybe to Paqueta. When he first joined he wasn't right at it - but now he's everywhere, sharp, first to the tackle etc. I hope that will come with Tonali. There's lots of green shoots. But that's all it is. He could easily go the other way. He looked a potentially v. solid all-rounder. But he didn't click in. I never thought of him as a massive talent the way I see Isak or Bruno. Then again, I didn't see it in Gordon either and he definitely has it. At least with Gordon there was work-rate and pace. Apart from maybe crossing/deadballs, I don't see any standout attributes. But maybe the standout attribute is how well-rounded he potentially is.

If I were him, i'd ride the season out. He's one injury away from starting again. See if we can finish in Europe. See if we buy another CB. Again - if I were him - i'd be delighted with how the season has panned out for himself from a selfish POV. He started the season 4th choice at the back. He's now a trusted 3rd choice and had a long run in the side. Captained the team in the CL several times. Equally it could be mission accomplished. Played a proper role now since the takeover.

Fair enough. I didn't see this reported by super credible sources at the time. It's the custom stuff that is really cool.

No we aint.

I dunno man... losing your Captain of 5 years and then the vice-captain is going to leave a massive gap in leadership no matter who else is around. Ritchie will leave in the summer and he rarely plays. Wilson probably isn't first-choice either. And Burn is the (second if Miggy stays) weakest starting player.

I believe Adidas have tiers or something. Like Arsenal are in the top tier. So there's clearly more finance and effort involved in designs and pieces.

I'll be honest with you. We are in the same boat. As a fanbase we would love to be a BVB type club... but we are a Man City type club.

Such a massive gap in leadership suddenly.

It's the way football is heading. Not really a bad thing imo.

PSG have become a fashion brand. I think Arsenal are trying to copy it. They've got genuinely cool pieces.