The College Dropout

Finished behind Liverpool in his first season. Behind Ranieri's Chelsea. Losing to the likes of Leverkusen & Porto in the CL. Only got more than 80 points twice while he was there. The second one was while he was being phased out. Prime Cole would've been a good part of that squad. RVN could never - too selfish and not prolific enough to compensate. Neville says it himself - RVN was the most selfish striker he ever played with and he respected that but he acknowledges it may have come at a slight detriment to the team. RVN was doing all of that and still being outscored by Thierry.

That documentary made Edu and Arteta look like partners. It’s been international break though.

The media want Howe for the England job. It’s all fake news.

I would too as a pure striker. The numbers give him the edge. But people act like he was this greyhound in the box and super duper elite finisher. While Cole needed 10 attempts to score 1 goal. When the numbers show they were close. What they did in the Prem - they were pretty equal. Same level overall. Neither touching Harold Kane. That’s another level imo. A lot of it is narrative and personality. Cole has that kind of quiet, sulky demeanour. Not taking penalties makes his numbers look worse.

Ruud was the quintessential greedy striker. In an era of 2 strikers and proper number 10s he never really struck an elite partnership or combination. He just ate off the others without giving much to them apart from the assist. Andy Cole isn’t credited for his all round game either but he had 2 of the best partnerships the PL has seen. He hit double figure in assists with us iirc. Ruud initially had the whole team built around him and they won 1 league title and FA Cup. I don’t think it’s a an accident that the relatively lean years were with RVN as their main man. Directly before and after Man U were dominant. If RVN was a more selfless player he could’ve been a part of that next phase.

RVN - 77 goals from open play in the PL to my count. 0.51 strike rate. Cole - 0.47 strike rate for Man U from open play. RVN better by 0.04/5% One was a lethal finisher. The other was horrible.

Always felt that was a harsh narrative that he had. He’s second in the all time top scorer list for non penalty PL goals. More than Kane, Rooney, Fowler, Aguero, Henry etc. Only 19 behind Shearer but people will get on the internet and say ‘his finishing was horrible.’ Remove penalties and his goals per game ratio would be close if not higher than RVN who is considered clinical. While being even more limited all-round than Cole.

32 goals in 55 PL games is consistent.

Let’s drag this out for the season and give him the supermax Bowen style. The 6 year contract has turned out to be a great decision. His fee is amortised at £10m per year. At the end of the season we could offer him a £4m p/a wage rise and still break even FFP wise. We shouldn’t offer him that much though.

I’m an original Wilson defender and a PSR amateur accountant. But lad does need to show us something this season.

Aye - I just think those things look good to people. And he does it with the style of a flair player. Quick feet, sharp turns etc. I think the quick feet, press resistant, progressive passer profile is one of the easiest on the eye. If they’ve got an engine and can tackle that’s a… Romeo Lavia type fee.

The cartel is most definitely Man U, Liverpool, Arsenal and Spurs. All were original PL cartel members for the formation of the PL. I don’t know what Chelsea are on now but Roman wasn’t part of the cartel. He spent hundreds of millions circumventing and cheating the rules. Sorry to be a pedant but this is a definition of a cartel: A cartel is a group of independent market participants who collude with each other as well as agreeing not to compete with each other in order to improve their profits and dominate the mark. That doesn’t include sportswashing clubs like City or whatever interests Roman had. The last lines are inportant. Abu Dhabi, Roman and PIF aren’t in it for profit - at least not the same way the American owners and Levy are. That’s where their interest don’t align.

Disagree a bit. He has a bit of the Pirlo about his style in that you can tell he used to play as a 10 or more of an attacker. He’s got those ‘aesthetics’ to his style. I think people have and will like the look of his style. I’m happy for Gomes. I followed him a little bit when he had the hype at Man U. You could tell he had talent but the size and all of the other bits were questionable. It’s good that he’s built his career and an England manager has given him this chance. Southgate was largely ‘out of sight, out of mind’ with lads playing abroad.

He’s one of the biggest winners from not signing a CB. he’s only fighting Kelly at LB

has a playing style of a deep lying playmaker (as compared to other fullbacks). His pass completion rate is comfortably higher than Kelly’s. And he’s much more involved. When he does lose it, it’s more noticeable because (a) he attempts 15% more passes a game so will lose more as a result and (b) a lot of his passing is trying to be progressive and in-field. So when he loses it the opposition is applying pressure straight away. Kelly is more of the hopeful ball down the line back to the opposition fullback. Less dangerous position to lose it. Im team Hall. When he’s good he’s excellent and a dangerous asset in our armoury.

The more I see of him the less impressed I am. Maybe it’s Angie’s tactics. He was brilliant in his first 6 months in England under Conte. He’s more talented than Elanga. Eddie would have him back up there I’m sure.

I like Elanga as a player. But signing him would really burn because I think ‘you know who’ has a higher ceiling and maybe better already. Elanga would also cost more than we sold buddy for too.

He’s an elite level professional athlete tbf. We still see Premier League footballers as fairly talented boys. If he was a lawyer, he’d be one of the best what 500 in the world? In his specialism he’s top 10 in the country where the level is v. high. If he was in any other professional field - this is how mid level professionals would talk as de rigueur

It’s a loser mentality that reinforces the status quo. Also encourages anti-intellectualism. In our society but 100% in football. Rafa said it about English football. Whilst at Liverpool He suggested a 10k run the day before a game and the lads immediately went off to run. He said in Spain the players wouldve pushed back because running 10k the day before a game is insane. He also just doesn’t beat his man very often for a winger of his calibre. Trick or no trick.

Such a British thing to say.

This is just wrong. Or at least we are talking about separate things.

Man City don’t have a PSR issue. They do all types of accountancy tricks - mostly via the multi club model. £60m more than Liverpool. Which is our gap to Brighton.

If PIF wanted they could do a Real Madrid and make the new stadium include a shopping centre, a hotel, whatever man. All revenue. The power of Owners means we don't have the same limitations as most other aspiring clubs. The only limitation is their ambition and the scope of investment they are willing to provide. Like I've said elsewhere, money for transfers is easy (for them).

Our ability to improve infrastructure and academy can't be compared to Leicester or Everton though. All of those things sit outside of FFP. If we can produce an academy close-ish to Chelsea and City in the next decade - that will go a long way to catching the elite. We can throw unlimited money at 15-year-old prospects. New Stadiums sometimes slow down on-pitch investment. We shouldn't have that problem.

Hard wage caps would be too messy legally. Football is much bigger business than rugby. Them going on strike or whatever isn’t palatable and the PFA taking legal action will be much better funded then rugby. The new UEFA rules based on ‘squad spend’ against revenue is a soft salary cap. As-is FFP/PSR.