The College Dropout

Chelsea are doing this to do what they’ve done in the past with KDB and Lukaku and sell them. Madrid buy the very best and intend to play them.

ASM always wants the ball into feet. Rarely looks to get on the end of passing moved. Huge area for improvement. That Joelinton run? ASM almost never does it.

When it’s Livramento not going to the bigger club is short sighted. Not saying you I no particular. Real have a good track record in recent years of developing youngsters. Either to play (Vini, Camavinga, Valaverde, Rodrygo) or sold (Odegaard). I suspect they won’t sign a striker and will start the season with Rodrygo and Joselu as the striker. Meaning there’s lots of opportunity to play at RW. Only Valverde is there now.

I don’t know what the debate is about. Yeh the lad might get a lot of game time. There’s also good reason for him to think he won’t. That’s that.

Aye academy products is FFP GOLD. That takes 10+ years to come to fruition. Villa benefitting immensely from that. And they’ve got another £80m worth on the books if needed. That figure rising. It’s another reason to get Anderson out on loan. Get his value up.

He doesn’t have to go to a top 6 club. But I think he gets a lot of game time for Spurs and Man U. And most of the others in the league.

Go on…..

Aye but if he stays fit and stays on form Tino will start no more than 6-8 league games + FA Cup and League Cup. I can imagine he would not be happy with that. 20+ starts across all comps if fit is the minimum to be considered a regular starter or close imo. Based on what I’ve seen from Howe, that would require a massive promise and a change in tact. I can easily see Trippier starting 32 league games + all CL games If fit. Unless he was regularly being subbed off at 60 minutes, I don’t think that would be enough for another player wanting first team football. ‘Trippier is old. He’ll get loads of minutes.’ There’s nothing to guarantee it. There’s nothing in Howe’s management that suggests it’s even likely. Meanwhile he would start for West Ham. Targett is a genuine alternative to Burn. Once Burn got that LB slot, Targett didn’t get a look in for a start. Once CL was secured Targett got his start. There was plenty of times he could’ve started Targett or brought him on earlier and he refused. Likewise Anderson rarely got a look in. Typically when a player has earned the shirt, Howe doesn’t rotate much. Wilson aside. Longstaff will get his minutes because he has the shirt atm. He’s trusted. Tonali has to adapt to Howe and the league. That will ensure Longstaff gets lots of minutes next season. There’s also a tacit belief that Longstaff will be happy with a squad role long-term if we continue to level up. doesn’t sound like Tino is up for that. Im not suggesting there’s no chance Tino gets first team starter troupe minutes. But the likelihood isn’t great and it’s fair for the lad to reject the proposal. It’s not like he’s being asked to deputise Wilson or ASM.

Aye. And the 32 year old started 43 games last season. All 38 league games and 5 cup matches. Tino isn’t going to accept FA Cup and league cup + starting 5 league games and coming off the bench. And I don’t blame him. We could promise him more game time at RB. But Howe hasn’t struck me as a ‘rotate for the sake of it’ manager unless there’s fitness or injury record concerns.

Needing to increase revenue is a fact either way. How we go about it is the issue.

Re: Tonali. The data suggests he’s not that passer. I agree with you really. I just think that option is viable but carries that risk.

TAA hasn’t had a genuine understudy that I can remember. He starts 90% of Liverpool games.

We have 2 Jamal’s :wink But seriously them both and Hendricks. Double their wages. Modest fees. Couple years in KSA. Lewis might not take it but the last 2 need to think about their families.

Real Madrid ran the academy like that for decades. They still kind of do.

It’s a cheat code for FFP. City have flogged about £100m worth of youth player in 2 years. Arsenal will do it to circumvent FFP. Problem is that it takes 5+ years to come to fruition. More like 10+ in fact.

We should really flog a couple to KSA

This is a viable route. B UT leaves us with 2 problems (assuming Thuram is the added midfielder). 1. Bruno is still the only CM that is creative from open play, who can constantly make those line splitting passes. 2. ASM is the only winger with any guile or massive creativity. In that scenario we are still short of a passer. Whether CM or wide. That Szo/JM profile.

Good info. I never paid attention to him at Brighton. But at Chelsea he’s been one of the very worst in a bad team.

I don’t know but they often played a back 5 and Potter is good at organising a defence. Tierney.

Defending 1v1 is easy to judge. A bad as Chelsea were - Cucurella was often THE weakest link. Chelsea defensive stats weren’t that bad. Especially under Potter. But Cucu stank.

He’s awful defensively. Pass.

It’s only just dawned on me that players will definitely watch their own YouTube comps. ASM must play his whole do in f the dirty. Gotta time it for when he hits that volley against Wolves.

Agreed.

Think Anderson is a little better defensively. Just from observation. Better in the air/physically. Not as slow. But also composed on the ball and capable of that one over the top. Also he’ll cost more than £25m unless he kicks up a massive fuss. He went for £17m from a relegated Fulham side that was defensively bad. He’s since proved himself and still has years on his contract.

I don’t rate Gordon like that. I would stil sign that Amad Diallo kid. But on paper Joe and ASM left. Almiron and Gordon right. If we had some more creativity at CM I wouldn’t be mad. But in reality I want another RW.