The College Dropout

He's played 185 minutes all season in an injury crisis. Even under terrible circumstances, he's not going to play. I don't think he gets renewed anyway. Thank God.

Aye - who said he isn't slow?

If you didn't notice - we are out of the league cup anyway. Next season we'll probably not be in the CL, so will have less demands on our players. And we should sign another central defender in the summer imo.

Howe doesn't play Dummett anyway. So he doesn't have any use. He's played 185 minutes in our worst injury crisis in living memory whilst competing hard in CL and League Cup. We can field a bang average academy lad for 250 minutes a season.

Spurs will need more than a wobble at this rate. We'll need to have near-title challenging form (40 points from 18) to catch them IMO. But at a minimum, we should be looking at 7th.

I don't understand this "write off the season" talk. We are 5 points off 6th. All but 1 of the clubs above us is in Europe. IMO I expect us to finish above West Ham who are 5 points ahead in 6th. And Brighton who are 2 points ahead in 7th. We play both at home and I expect both to make deep runs in the Europa where we should catch them slipping.

Agreed. What’s the point in keeping Dummett to play 2 games a season? Unless they are on academy equivalent wages, Dummett and co. should be moved on. I thought Krafth might be able to contribute during the injury crisis but Howe rarely played him. If Howe isn’t going to play him, let him go.

I thought for every HG player (national or club) you are short - you lose 2 registration slots. So if you are 1 HG player short - you can only register 23 players.

I think all top teams need 3 top CBs minimum. Schar is good enough for one of those roles. We've seen - a 3rd choice CB for a European team will play A LOT of games. I'm happy for Lascelles to be 4th choice.

It allows us to register another non-HG player. So if we have 3 HG club players or 7 national HG players. We can only register 23 players. But if we register 4 we can register 25 players = a net +1 of non-HG players.

How?

But we can register Miley anyway. If we are so concerned with European registration, we can sign an academy graduate GK for free most likely.

Lingard wants too much money for too long. If he would come and play for £60k p/w for 6 months - maybe. You also have question his and De Gea's commitment to the game that they were happy sitting it out for half a year.

Players can definitely improve. But take Longstaff - it's not just composure he lacks. It's a technique, body positioning, agility, slow feet. You take Isak - he can quickly shift his feet and smack the ball cleanly with power where he wants. His first goal - yes it's super composed but it's the high-level technical execution that makes it composed.

As you say, having an actual DM does change the system fundamentally. But I don't know if that is the aim. Tonali is meant to be athletic. Hard, powerful running. I think the idea was 2 athletes (Joelinton, Willock, Tonali, Longstaff) + Bruno. You have 4 of them so you can rotate them. IMO at the highest level you need 2 or 3 players that can really put their foot on the ball. Again, I think Tonali was meant to be one of them but you need a bit more than just him and Bruno. It doesn't have to come from CM though. A Palmer type can bring it.

Close to fully fit squad. a 5% improvement in performance gets us better results at bottom half clubs away from home.

If we had better connections in Italy, IMO we would've heard *something*. Ratface Bruno is at least a main character. Havertz is a ghost. I think he's a second striker. Arriving late in the box to score goals. With his technique and athleticism, he's tactically flexible but he's not the type of player to stamp his authority on a game. He's a player who is much less than the same of his parts - like a better Jermaine Jenas. Something missing between the ears that prevents him being a top player. I genuinely think being German has helped protect his reputation. If he was Turkish or something - he would get far more stick for being "sometimeish".

Him, Burn & Almiron. Longstaff's replacement is surely at the club already though.

Arteta's getting stick off Arsenal fans and they are still on track for their minimum goal this season (CL football). Rightfully so the fans are questioning his transfers. Havertz one in particular.

We can also say that things haven't worked out quite as planned. But Hall is still a kid with plenty of time to improve and show value. It's the fact we have glaring holes in the squad in other positions that's the real issue with the Hall transfer. Hall having a slow start is ok. I would like to see him loaned out next season. A full season in the Champ or PL. He needs to find a position or two he can play at a high level. Especially physically and mentally he doesn't look ready to me. Same with Miley. As good as Livra is technically, Mentally and physically he's sharp. It's like he decides before the game - "I'm locking down this winger and then I'm going to play". He's up for the battle mentally and physically to impact the game both ways. Having a full season of men's football has helped with that.

Best window was summer before last which was without Ashworth as well. Botman. Pope. Isak.

Tbf it’s only clubs that are chasing that are up against it. The likes of City have loads of FFP wriggle room.

Clubs are free to offer 5+ year contracts. But for FFP it can only be amortised over 5 years. We’ll just see more 5+1 type transfers with minimal criteria. So we sign Isak on a 5+1 contract. At the end of the first season we activate the extension. So for a year it’s amortised over 5 years. But by year 2 it’s 6 years.

Brighton don’t sign 19 year old £30m left backs and leave them on the bench. If they stay at Brighton - they get minutes. If not they are loaned out.

Arsenal have 2 players that have won the PL and been regulars in the team tbf. You don’t need 11 world class players to win the league. 1-0 Liverpool.