The College Dropout

There's nothing in the Solanke link other than Eddie liking him. We don't need him. It's not a priority position. He would cost a mega premium. Impossible.

I remember Wilson playing for Bournemouth under Howe and Wilson and falling down and getting treatment. He got back onto the field and continued playing for another minute or two before sitting again. He had done his ACL.

Lots of people on the forum did. I always thought it was naive thinking. Levy remains a shrewd operator. In terms of the actual team and manager, we'll understand their level better once they are back in the CL. Likewise with Villa. If the top 6 turns into more of a top 8. The teams in 7th & 8th will have a big advantage going into the next season either not being in Europe or competing in the Conference League. Chelsea are fumbling their opportunity but Villa & Spurs are taking theirs. Liverpool not being in the CL has helped them too.

It's similar language to the club. "Wait and see". "We'll react to the market". We are not being proactive in our search for players in this window. At least not until the end. That's the message and it's akin to "sit on our hands" IMO. Chelsea have been doing this for ages. Kenedy only left in 2022 because of it. They don't let non-first teamers run down their contracts.

They knew this when they bought us. We ae in year 2 of a 10 year plan. Doesn't seem worth it. By the summer his book value will still have a balance of 24m euros + his years wages. That unlocks one or two first-team signings at the Gordon fee level and wages. He needs to sell for close to 70m for it to be worth it IMO. And maybe a further year into his contract to get his book value down.

Is this true? They should both have decent wriggle room to invest considering their sale of academy assets. It's Arsenal, Chelsea, Wolves & Man U that are close to the wall iirc. And only Man City in the division can fuel the transfer market. Spurs & Liverpool might have FFP headroom but their owners won't push the boat out on transfer fees. It's Saudi and promoted clubs fuelling the transfer market.

How much would we get for him?

I think we do have FFP wriggle room, but it's precisely a little wriggle room. If we use it now, we won't be able to flex in the summer. They don't seem to consider RW an urgent priority like I do. Besides that nothing requires an immediate upgrade with the possible exception of DM depending on Howe's tactical plan. Kalvin Phillips turns 29 this year - we should not sign him permanently, and any option (not period) should be a cut-price deal under £25m IMO. City won't go for that now so yes we are sitting on our hands and watching the market for opportunities. I think a loan and an option for Ramsdale would be good and all but these are not worth permanently signing. With Arsenal out the FA Cup, there's a good chance Ramsdale won't start another game this season. He's not even the CL goalie.

Need a RW before a striker.

I think we are more likely to see our Bale's & Berbatov's before you see our Son's.

No - just tired, lacking a bit of confidence. At his best 1v1 is near unstoppable. He's too quick & too strong for 90% of fullbacks.

Spurs like Liverpool - work to real-world accounting standards not just the FFP accounting standards. You would think that would lower their spending power.

Lots of hard decisions. Multiple premium players are unavailable. 2 free transfers. And no obvious captain.

We looked susceptible against Sunderland without Joelinton. There's not enough bite or athleticism in a midfield 3 of Miley - Longstaff - Bruno the way we setup. And Howe is unlikely to set us up differently to compensate.

I would love us to try and have someone sit in front of the defence for the whole game, maybe even 2 but it won't happen. Bruno will try and press Rodri and they will slice us apart.

Makes Foden a more attractive FPL option for me. They'll score 3 and he'll contribute to at least 1 goal.

How many times has a player come back from injury and got re-injured this season soon after? Joelinton Isak Wilson Willock Did we try to bring back Murphy with a jammy shoulder?

He says something here I agree with. The most talented footballers play further up the pitch. Think I had a debate with someone on here about this.

Scored about 20 league goals in 3.5 years. Rumoured to earn £175k p/w - Leipzeig just happy to get him off the books.

Aye. So even if Bruno doubles his wages, adding another 3 years to his contract and stretching out the fee contribution means he probably remains at a similar figure from a FFP perspective. I don’t remember how long his contract was extended for but you get the idea.

The problem with the offside law is the law itself. It was brought in to prevent "goal hanging" and it has done that well. But it's nearly impossible to write a law for goal hanging that isn't pedantic. We have to accept a minimal level of pedantry and time taken to arrive at a decision. I favour an automated solution that arrives at a decision within 3 seconds. That might not be available now but it will come. The problem with that is - what happens if the linesman flags that for offside? He's right, the player is factually offside.

He's pretty slow. All of our first-choice defence is fairly slow and without Pope reducing the amount of space in behind - it's going to be a problem until he's back.

Big fan of Mane as a footballer but that's rank.

I’m agreeing with and disagreeing with the poster above. I should’ve said ‘everyone still thinks Botman is slow’. His post suggests people have taken back the ‘he’s slow’ point and they haven’t. At least I haven’t.

Depends on the details of the clause.