The College Dropout

It’s a concern that he didn’t even get 15 minutes. Or the 10 that Ritchie got.

This is what I was getting at. Willock, ASM, Burn there’s a massive gap in talent. And I think all 3 could have a role for some time to come but Isak could be the boy of boys.

Some lovely link up with ASM and Willock. But I would love to see him link up with a player like Maddison, Foden or Bernardo Silva. He’s got that beautiful touch, link up and movement. Him and ASM have some chemistry. But ASM will always do ASM things, he’s a linky player and ASM isn’t really.

Not thinking about top 4 today. Taking it one game at a time. If we rediscover some form, we’ll challenge.

Looks a massive talent. You can tell he’s got bags of class to his game. In the post Shearer era we’ve had a good few strikers that are good to v. good. I think Isak has a higher ceiling than them all.

Smart Opposition will see that as a weakness in his game. Even if he’s 70/30 favourite really go at him he might cock it up. He needs a good stretch of games no issues like this and he’ll be fine.

Happy for him.

Finished 3rd in a 2 horse race. They were never winning the league that year. People just expected Leicester to collapse. Leicester won the league with 84ish points. I think both Ole and Jose got close to that. Arsenal could’ve won the league that year. But they capitulated after a last minute winner against Leicester in like Jan or Feb iirc

Olise has been so poor and just given away a weak penalty. Been awful.

Brennan Johnson would cost a bomb

I like Dan Burn. But I don't think this iteration at left-back is considerably better than what Manquillo might be able to offer to that point Burn must play every week if he is fit. Burn is also a weak point defensively 1v1. Considerably worse than Trippier who I always thought was poor defensively 1v1 prior to joining.

Manquillo is fit - no?

On a small evidence pool. This is lip service. He's been loyal to Wilson and a few others.

Di Zerbi or a genuine forward thinking manager from abroad. Levy has been a brilliant Leader for Spurs but he's unimaginative in his manager hires. He's hired 3 ex-Chelsea managers over the last 10/12 years iirc. Roman had some misses. But Mourinho, Ancelotti, Hiddink the first time, Conte, Tuchel.... even the smoking dude was an interesting choice. AVB. Like they take the gamble.

Yeh all fair. Although I think only Pope is certified top 6 material from the players signed from English clubs. Bournemouth aside. There will be some good to great pickups available from relegated teams this season.

You think Ashworth has come from Brighton where you get 4 Ecuadoreans for the price of a Solanke. So I hope there’s a blend in our approach. Your Milners, Barry’s, Bellamy, Lescott, even the evil lad contributed a lot to City climbing the league. But it’s the Yaya and Silva and Aguero signings that took it over the top.

Solanke was a dud for Howe. Looking at his transfer record: benik afobe - €14m Mings - €12m (massive shame for Howe) Max Gradel - €10m Ibe - €18m Ake - €23m Begovic - €12m Lerma - €31m true forrin solanke - €22m Rico - €15m true forrin Mepham - €13m Brooks - €12m Billing - €17m Danjuma - €17m true forrin Kelly - €15m It’s a patchy record man. Strong preference for British football experience. Willing to pay that premium. Most of these are pretty talented tbf. The foreign signings mostly flopped too. Gordon and McTominay for £70m combined isn’t a massive jump away from the above.

You're a big man that has watched football for a long time. You're entitled to your own opinion without throwing tantrums.

Reports i've seen suggest Howe is the main admirer. Which is a little worrying. I feel like (noted, not seen in reports) that Howe was big proponent of the Gordon signing which I never liked. It's me looking at his Bournemouth days. He seemed to spend big money on youth from the PL which didn't work in the main. Solanke, Ibe spring to mind but Ake did. But it seems to be some type of transfer team / committee with multiple inputs and sign-off and price points etc.

It's a massive gap man. If we even half-way play by the rules. We will need to sell star players at some point. And at some point, we'll have to risk getting sanctioned. Arsenal are close. I think Arsenal needed a CL spot this season to avoid being curtailled in spending by FFP for next summer.

Unfortunately, common sense is applied.

I like players with PL experience. But our signings from abroad have been much better in that top category. Unless we can get great deals like Pope, we shouldn't spend big money on PL players. I like Barnes a lot but not for anything Leicester would want in the summer.

Aye. It's clear McTominay is at least liked by some in NUFC and we are "monitoring" his situation. He's no better than Longstaff imo.

Persistent rumours usually have some credibility don’t they?

Being in Europe is a tangible sign of progress to the wider football community. 8th is not. Not sure how much difference that makes but it is a difference. Leicester aside. Teams don't go from regularly not qualifying for Europe to then qualifying for the CL. Because you need a deep squad to even finish 4th and even 5th these days. The Conference League would be good for us to have a proper development squaad / players. I want us to sign highly rated teenagers and youngsters and Europe is a great way to get them first team experience. Those Europa games were great for the development of Saka, ESR, Martinelli.. even Rashford, Dalot & Garnacho. Kane.