The College Dropout

I don't think anyone wanted him or not at least at a price we were happy with. Benitez didn't even rate him. For us you have to look at the 2009 relegation. That was an actual midtable team that went down. 2016 is a much weaker team outside a small handful of players. It's the likes of Dragusin or Richarlison that will be hard to shift. And you might not have teh interest you expect in Odobert, Sarr, Tel etc. As an outsider i'm not sure there's a good market for Solanke. One of Richarlison or Solanke could slap up the Championship. You're going to have to make a lot of signings yourself. And you will have to sign some stop gaps and proper men which would be good for you.

I’m not sure Woltemade is a good player at this level. He has talent for sure. But I can see why he wasn’t considered a major talent pre-2025. He’s good technically but not so good that it makes up for the lack of physical and mental strength.

We lost our nerve in players we really believed in. I’m with you - I didn’t see it in Gordon or Guehi tbh but the club backed themselves. Etikite first time would’ve been cheap but the rest were expensive given their output but yet so highly rated. Where I attribute some blame to Howe is I don’t think he loves that profile. He much prefers a sure thing. I never thought Hall was his first choice. Slow to integrate Tino etc.

Ramsey for £45m is a first team player. More than Gallagher, Cherki, Gravenberch and Reijnders. Close to Zubimendi. That money needed to be spent on a player as good as Joelinton or better. Not Sean Longstaff. Can say the same for Elanga. In 1 summer we tried to sign 3 strikers JP, Etikite, Isak that would atleast double in value. Same position 3 young targets that need to prove something. We’ve totally abandoned that.

I’d rather stick with that old approach and supplement with cheap experience like Dan Burn and Trippier. If we sign players for £40m+ we need to be convinced they can increase in value. As you say Elanga was peak price. Then yes we were naive. And i believe all of our signings bar the strikers were high up the list. Lost out on Mbeumo, straight to Elanga. Never looked good value for money transfer. Ramsey first choice or close. Said this in another thread. Even the suggested approach requires an amount of pull and bravery im not sure we have. Like Guehi - we were scared to go to £50-£60m. Thats the same transfer as Isak, Tonali, Bruno, Hall, Livra, Gordon. All signed with a potential premium where other clubs look back and say ‘man we should have got him’. Semenyo fits that build last summer. It takes a bit of bravery and pull to make those transfers. On paper Elanga at £55m is easier to justify than Gordon for £45m. Elanga was way more proven but considerably less talented.

Our best players were signed with that policy though. Going from Tonali to Jacob Ramsey doesn’t scream ‘title race team’ ready. The opposite in fact.

We used to go for players 1-2 years before other big clubs would go in for them. Last summer we decided to shop in the same stores as the big boys. The moment to go for Mbeumo and even Wissa was 12 months earlier. That was the summer to gamble on Semenyo. Instead we went for the safer Elanga.

Interesting parallels to us. Especially without Bruno, Schar and Trippier.

Rotten for the lad. I hate to see it personally. All these big injuries further justify players going to bigger clubs and moving for money. Lad may never be the same.

Yep. I get a feeling Slot’s training is bad for him physically. Howe got him as strong and fit as he could and that was still a 60-70 minute player. And he’s no good at hold up. He can come deep and link it. Turn and dribble. But you really want him high on the defenders shoulder.

Think Atleti can do Arsenal

Obviously they’ve played a lot of time against 10 men. but I’ve been so impressed with Atleti. They know Barcelona will give them chances.

Absolute bobbins. Deserved red. They tried to give a yellow then an offside. No that’s a red.

We need to get back to going in for players 1-2 years earlier than the clubs above us. Nearly all of our best players fit that profile. Isak, Hall, Tino, Gordon in particular. I’m including Guehi, Etikite and JP the first time. We need to get back to that but it still requires a level of pull and bravery I’m not sure we have. We paid a premium for these but we believed in the players. I look at Guehi now and I think post-Staveley we were too scared to drop the money that was needed. £50-60m would’ve been an overpay at the time but time has shown he was worth it. Edit: This might be harsh on Thiaw. But I feel like while they are both close on ability, Guehi has those intangibles that makes a massive difference over the course of a season. That bit more composure, concentration that leadership.

It wasn’t a plan the club had. It was SBR’s plan. FS was never going to hire Mourinho while he had the chance.

£20m for Willock is fine. £15m is fine. £20-30m for Joelinton is fine.

I'v grown into the opinion Freddy Shephard was not an astute Owner/Leader of the club. He was never going to improve on SBR. With FS as the Owner, SBR was the best manager he was ever going to hire. I'm not sold on what PIF will do after Howe. If Howe becomes a weak link of the entire organisation get him out. But I don't think that's the case.

Think he can be great tactically off the ball and in transition. Agree with much of the rest. It's in comfort posession we have no plan.

We pay significantly better wages than Brighton

Plenty of good players are available at good prices every summer. If Willock is so useless, he won't be that hard to replace.

This. Sell the dross we bought in the summer. There's some value in Joelinton, Willock etc.

I don't care about Man Utd. I won't care about them if the Saudi's bought them.

I’m sick of reading it.

It predates this season mind. We’ve spoken about for years about facing low blocks. There’s a cluelessness to our attack against a settled defence. we usually found a way to score but we’ve never looked a good side in possession. We are so direct at times we play aimless balls forward just to turn the opposition defence and press.

That's what Man U have been doing since Fergie left. You need some nous. Man City and Abramovic have nous. Particularl nous at cheating. Abramovic put so much of his power into Chelsea - personally. Saudi would never be so involved. PSG spent billions and it took about 15 years for them to be competently run. And IMO the big clubs are always the big clubs. It doesn't do half as much for Owners reputation if they bring success to massive clubs. You get notoriety from turning Man City, Chelsea, PSG into elite clubs because the success is Owner driven to the public. It won't be if Man U get back on top. And again - if PIF sold us I wouldn't care about what they did next.