The College Dropout

I almost agree with this. I said cover for Trippier was more important than others have suggested because the drop off in quality is crazy. But I do think a LB is more important (not that it relates to this transfer). Trippier cannot play every single game the way he has this season. This to me is like the Pope transfer - as in - if not for relegation we probably won’t have prioritised strengthening the position. But now there’s an opportunity to increase the quality of the squad at a fair price (anything under £20m is a steal) and this one has a crazy ceiling and good resale value.

Trippier is 33 and our most important player. The jump from him to the others is too big. We need a better quality back-up. And it’s just great value for money. Only issue is the injury.

good article here from a statistical perspective.

A lot of the Nigerian lads should’ve thought twice about those England caps. Tomori and the Roma lad in particular. I feel like England capped them both just to lock them in

It can. But Miggys capability or even Longstaff and Shelveys capability are worlds apart.

Just looked: Bellamy never managed 30 league games a season. Did people want him sold for this reason like they do ASM? I remember and it was no.

TRUE.

Early days for Gordon. But he doesn’t have the (comparative) natural fitness of Bellamy. Bellamy could sprint all day long.

More Jamaican diaspora are joining the national team. Good for them.

These are pre-takeover signings iirc

Yeh that’s fine. Saka is a top player. But he was rinsing Burn and needed 2 team mates to stop him. Burn did not keep Saka in check like the person I quoted said. I like Burn. But he is a defensive weakness. Not only 1v1 but we’ve conceded goals when he’s tried to anticipate getting rinsed and the players checked inside and scored or assisted. And he’s often the one sleeping on tight offside calls or being done against clever movement. I like Burn. I even like his profile of being a defender first and foremost with height. But I think we can do better than him even with the same profile. Like an Akanji or Ake. Aye. That statement was false. Is happily keep the profile of player but better. Obviously we shouldn’t sell Burn though.

I missed the SJP game but Saka rinsed him for 20 minutes straight at the emirates. Burn needed cover from both Joe’s to keep Saka just about under wraps. In no planet did Burn keep Saka in check that game

If Mount will go for £60m I don’t think Levy will sell Alan’s for less than £100m

Would either of them join Chelsea? Kane would be a fool to join Chelsea.

Not upset that he would’ve liked to stay. The fact the ownership told him they were open to selling him to us and sacking Maldini let him know that fighting to stay would be futile. He would expect Milan to backslide. While we are on the way up and paying a better salary. upset that he’s leaving. Excited to join us.

Aye but you can do that to Man Utd. You can’t do that with Levy or us.

Disagree. Leicester are paying hard ball. They did this last season with Fofana and Tielemans. I think he is the primary target. But we want him for £40m or less. I don’t think either us or Spurs will go above £45m and are happy to wait it out. We might move on similarly priced alternatives but I don’t see us prioritising a £60m+ move for Szo as long as JM is available. Not at that price point anyway.

City’s on the books net spend will always be low because they buy some of the finest 22 year olds in the world then sell them 5 years later for big fees. They also have the best academy in the country where they sell most of the talent. Last year they made £150m selling Sterling, Jesus and Zinchenko. Another £50m selling Edozie, Lavia and others from the Academy. anyway Rice can play the Stones role or the Rodri role. He’ll get plenty of game time. He could probably play fullback too.

Earner lots of plaudits for winning the ball high up too.

Aye.

If they can keep getting the likes of Neves and Bruno things will get interesting.

No doubt my view is limited to compilations from YouTube, stats from fbref sofascote and whoscored and articles from the likes of James Horncastle. I’m not pretending to know the player inside out but with the above I have a decent picture of his strengths AND weaknesses. Based on what I’ve read and seen I think he’s going to be a big success here. His physical profile and supposed mentality is perfect for the league and Howeball in particular. I’m just not expecting that we’ve signed the next Pirlo and I personally like the skill profile of some other players more. For the money i would expect some elite technical ability and all of the data I’ve seen so far doesn’t suggest that’s the case. However I think we’re getting all the intangibles and a player perfect for our manager and team so I’m happy. I’ve just tempered expectations. We’re not the best at controlling games with the ball. As a 50+ game season team we’ll need to develop that part of our game. Tonali adds that extra bit of class to help us out there and I expect another signing to contribute to us being able to keep the ball a bit better and control games a tad more. ——— I had these same debates with people using the same method with Pope, Botman and Gordon. The data and YouTube suggested Pope was a more proactive goalie than Dubs and he would be a big improvement. People argued with me when I said Botman looked good but a bit slow. Now we all agree that he’s brilliant but he IS slow etc. That has it all. I think that turns a good few of our draws into wins.

They are different kinds of players. Or at least from what I’ve seen. Lavia plays the Bruno role at Soton. A lot of the game is in front of him. Beats a player or two with skill and quick feet. And short bursts of pace and power. Lots of sliding tackles. Tonali seems more like the Longstaff role. Everywhere around the pitch. Smart interception. Running with the ball in transition. Long busting runs. Good feet. Set pieces. Tonali Bruno Joe is a powerful midfield with ability. Add a playmaker type and then we’re laughing. If we add another I think it will be as good as any Klopp midfield.

Aye. Romano saying €8m after tax (or something like that). I don’t buy it at all. Unless heavily incentivised. This is not the case. De Rossi is a better template.

Who is being negative? Better at dribbling is crazy.