The College Dropout

I want Kovacic. Still a decent age. His wages aren't astronomical. Good player in tight spaces. Decent athleticism.

Chelsea are close to 30 years of being a good team. London is such a big city and they are relatively central they will have the numbers to support it. They could double their attendance imo.

Tosh. Fraser is going to the Championship and I expect Harrison to stay in the PL. Harrison's output is pretty consistent. 20 goals, 16 assists in the PL over the last 3 seasons. Now we have Gordon, I don't think there's a need for him though. I think Harrison is a level above Gordon (now) but not at the level we need.

Would look at (but not necessarily sign) Livramento, KWP, Edozie, Sinisterra, DLC, Harrison

More relevant is that Gabriel might miss our game. Holding and that tall lad CB pairing. We’ll win 3-1 or 2-0.

He’ can only ever sort out a defence when he’s allowed to bring in 3-4 of his type of backs to the wall defender and hoofball expert.

Nick Pope. That’s Maddison, the left winger at Leicester, Olise, Harrison type money. I get the point though. A £40m Englishman from a PL club is a level below what you might get for that money elsewhere.

Well aye they keep conceding bucket loads.

Aye legit because he’s foreign and from the east he didn’t get the media attention he deserved. He did everything the right way. Probably the greatest owner of the PL era. That and the family’s fortunes came from airport retail which has been decimated post covid. They lost his leadership, expertise and influence. Then the family lost a bit of interest and financial power. If he was alive he would’ve managed everything better than what they have in his absence.

This is why I asked the question. People keep talking about the likes of Longstaff. Is he not meant to be more Botman than Longstaff?

Dyche escaped any criticism for taking Burnley down. IMO Howe was more stained by Bournemouth going down even though Bournemouth were literally robbed.

Hard disagree. Nearly every time there's been 3 legit managers at a club, the 3rd everyone just down's tools. it's too many different ideas, players lose confidence in the project. It happened to us with Shearer, we went out with a whimper. It happened to Watford last season when they sacked Ranieri and brought in Hodgson - they just fell off. Chelsea with Lampard. Southampton with this lad. It's such a terrible fit personnel wise. They still have Championship level defenders and a GK with zero confidence (playing anyone else might be a benefit though). Allardyce is going there for the cheque and to be back in the limelight. Miracle worker if they stay up (they're not actually in the bottom 3 anyway), a draw and a win might be enough to keep em up on GD. And it won't be his fault if they go down.

Aye - it's a terrible argument.

I hope so. One major difference though is those lads had a lot of experience at the age Gordon is. Barry & Milner had like 180 pro appearances for a PL club. Lescott & Young about 140 in the Championship Lescott only limited due to injuries. Young had scored 24 professional goals who knows how many assists. His game would've developed much further tha Gordon has. He doesn't have the experience Gordon. And with CL football and new signings next season, will he get the games he needs to really develop for us? It's a major reason I want Anderson on loan. Lads need to play pro-football.

I like a lot of the players they’ve bought. They’ve just bought too many of the same ilk and not addressing the defensive frailties.

IMO these were all excellent players. 20-70 England caps each. All 3 proved themselves to be quality PL players. That level just below the elite in the division. Right there. Like Ashley Young. They were already there when they joined the massive clubs. Longway for Gordon to go.

I was talking about the death of the PFM earlier this season as well. Lampards run has been shambolic. At least 1 of Dyche and Sam will also end in tears. Praying for both to go down. Quietly, Dyche has not done a good job at Everton.

What do people expect Gordon to become? For his fee and age I would want a blue chip player for the future. Based on what I’ve seen. My ambitions are lower. He’s never had a purple patch in his career so I don’t know what that would look like. Much like Miggy, ultimately I’ll be happy if he proves to be worth the money we’ve paid and make it back when he’s sold. I don’t think he will ever have the quality to be a regular top 5 wide man. Would love to be proven wrong. I never thought Schar would look as good as he has.

Imo this is a stupid argument. You pay footballers to play football. A player missing 90 games is a much bigger problem than a player missing 50 games. Tierney has managed 30 league appearances once in his entire career. ASM has done so in 4 seasons. But now we have all the facts out there, Let’s agree to disagree.

Good point. I did read somewhere that he’s had stamina issues before.

This is more G/A than he’s got in his entire career. His age mate Olise, slapped that in a single Champo season as a teenager. Aye. At his age 90% of good players have shown something somewhere at a professional level that they can produce. Honestly. I would have liked to have seen that. It would’ve given me a lot more confidence in the lad. Iirc he’s got something like 11 professional G/A. Agree with Kaka that he’s very inexperienced despite his age. He doesn’t have a track record. so for me, he doesn’t pass the eye test. And there is no evidence he can produce. So I’ve been worried about him from day one. I think we got him because he’s younger and they thought he had a higher ceiling than someone like Jack Harrison. 2 footed, tenacious wide man. While he is tenacious and quick, I don’t think he has great stamina and doesn’t know how to press effectively imo. There are some ingredients that I like, tenacious, quick, pass and move, uses both feet.

He’s providing himself a crook again by taking the money.

Interesting how you’ve come to your conclusion. I’ve used the same site and seen that ASM has missed 50 games through injury. Tierney has missed 90. Tierney has missed what, 90% more games than ASM?

Leeds are ruining it. Their players can’t play Sam ball and Sam ball is dead.

He’s 19. Plenty of room and time to develop. Gordon is 3 years older and he’s a kid apparently.