The College Dropout

I've said this all summer. 2 good attacking signings away from being a really good team

This is not true like.

As a talent - Anelka was super. He’ll go slightly under rated because he’s not a legend at any big club.

I believe he didn’t do enough for the team. Too selfish. Teams had to be setup for him to score. I don’t think it’s a complete coincidence that RVN was at Man United for the weakest period of SAF’s last 15-20 years at Man Utd. Never came close to being in a CL winning side either. Take out penalties - is his record substantively better than the primes of Cole or Ferdinand?

He means more to the PL than Suarez. In terms of ‘legendary’ he’s top 10 for me as a striker. His impact on this league can only be rivalled by a few. I’m not just talking ability. Even half the players I would rank above him in terms of ability, couldn’t do what he did with Leicester. I think RVN has the same amount of league titles and FA Cups as Vardy in stronger teams.

He has injuries and was probably rushed back for the CL final when he was poor. But Thiago was excellent last season.

I agree it's always a concern. You have your flops but you also have your Zlatan, Cavani, Thiago Silva, Cristiano return even Moutinho.

Shelvey's short range passing is excellent too. Great weight on them. His issue goes back to his mobility. He doesn't / can't pass and move. It's just pass. So he can't manoeuvre himself into better passing positions or get involved in combination play. He's also not got great feet, so while he can shield a ball you can pressure him into a safer pass or a pass he has to force. Someone like Bruno can use quick, skilful feet to evade that and play the pass he wants to play. It's one thing I first noticed about Kroos when he replaced Xabi at Real Madrid. At the time he had better mobility and he has quicker feet. It meant he could play passes he wanted too far more frequently than Xabi. You could press and harry a Xabi out the game - he didn't have the mobility or the feet to get out. Kroos did. Kroos has dramatically lost his mobility since but he still has those skilful quick feet and can withstand a heavy press much better than he should.

Kroos legs have gone. He should be the first out the door. He's only got 1 year left on his contract and rejected a new contract. He's as likely to re-sign as he is to flat out retire or go to MLS. Modric is turning 37 next month. Casemiro is the last one they should be selling. Real Madrid have to pay for those stadium renovations. But they've sold lots in recent years and haven't spent heavily on transfer fees. They should have a good amount of money to spend already. They should still have most of the Mbappe money.

Kroos. Modric. Valverde. Touch. Cama. That lad that had 2 years at Arsenal Valverde is first choice RW. The Arsenal lad isn't good enough. SO that's 4 for 3 positions. Bernardo Silva gives them another option at RW and CM.

He would be a different type of player I assume. Even in his own era - his teams always suffered a bit for his selfishness.

What are Real going to do with the money? I want them to go for Bernardo Silva. Those French lads aren't ready to take Case's position.

I'm also not that frustrated by a striker. I would priortise RW & CM. Hence why I like JP.

So glad to have muted Vinny on my balls too. I just know he's on my nuts. No tbf - I think I do. We want to mainly sign youngish players on the way up who can grow and improve with the team. Whose value will increase and we want to pay what we consider good "value". Bruno and Botman are the benchmark imo. I think the "plan" in May would be to have at least 1 attacker already signed by now... and that hasn't happened. I don't think any team plans to not have key business done by 18/8. In terms of particular players and such. I don't know. But I don't expect us to sign a 28 year-old for £50m. I assume the plan is to sign JP and at least 1 other player. This is not to sound like a know-it-all, it's just what they've tried (or not tried) to do all summer anyway according to the media.

But ultimately - it's 18/8 and we haven't filled our 2 priority positions. So like... things haven't gone to plan so far on that front. It's like how Man Utd don't have any new central midfielders. Something's gone wrong there clearly. My perspective is clear. We are on the up. We have an opportunity here to strike while the iron is hot and we may miss it. But we'll be stronger year on year. Doesn't mean I can't show displeasure at things not going to plan. I like JP and I hope we sign him but I have a hunger for more.

My forum experience has improved immeasurably since muting Hanswhathisname

I've not said "we must not have the money we thought" - I know it's because of FFP. We are 2 quality players away from being a really good team. It's 18/8, we are still 2 quality players away from being a really good team. As much as I like JP, I don't think he's one of the players to take us to that level either. No.. i've not said we are aiming too high. I'm simply stating there's no Newcastle tax.. but we have been willing to pay more than other teams off our own accord. That's it. I've said that because of what happened with Botman and Etikite. Neither player are too good for us, one actually joined. Being smart is not 1) wasting time on players that are clearly way too expensive (Isak & Diaby) and 2) wasting time bidding well-below asking price for more realisic targets (JM, JH). At this point, we are a fair way down our list. I am a bit fearful that we end up with JP + whoever we can sort a deal for at Chelsea. It could work out tremendously but that wouldn't be a great window on paper. Beign smart is what Arsenal have done. Key signings in for pre-season that stick to their transfer strategy. Now it's just teh final pieces. We on the other hand, are leaving the 2-3 most key positions to fill, to the last 2 weeks of the transfer window.

Maybe. I don't think either player is really up for sale anyway so the clubs are choosing their selling price. Like Fofana - if you want to sign someone they don't want or need to sell, bring the premium price. And the JM & JH bids. I knew they were silly low, they didn't make sense at the time. And they don't make sense now.

Dallying over sacking Bruce. Messy hiring process for Howe. Naive with Etikite and not having clear back-ups. Embarassing bid for Maddison. Similar weird low-balling for Harrison. I'm not sure we've allocated the transfer funds across the squad in the most optimal manner. But nothing fatal. We are bringing in good players who are good characters and are being pretty risk averse.

The reason we aren't making the signings is we aren't prepared to meet clubs (fair) valuation price. That's the reason we haven't landed Maddison & Harrison. Diaby & Isak too. If we don't land JP, it will be because we won't meet his clubs valuation of him. There's been 2 occasions we have been more than happy to meet a clubs valuation and seem happy to pay more than other clubs would (probably because we are paying over longer instalments, with the other clubs paying more upfront - I assume). We priced out Milan for Botman (or they didn't want to invest so much in defence) and offered more money for Ekitike than PSG. That's not a contradiction. I mean, it's not even an opinion. It's what has been reported in the media.

There’s this idea that there’s this Newcastle tax. There’s not. There’s a tax for signing players teams don’t want to sell or feel like they should sell. We have willingly outbid teams for targets when a lower fee could’ve secured the player (if the player actually wanted to come). That’s the biggest tax, the ‘don’t play for the champions league club - play for us’ tax.

I said very early, unless we had some insider knowledge. These bids were crazy low. NO told me it was the art of negotiation.

@Fantail Breeze you’re on a roll. When you really analyse our transfer approach, there are some things that just don’t make any sense and show ineptitude. It’s early days for the entire regime though.

Seriously - surely £28m gets this done. We aren't going to £30m though. Surely?

IF I SPEAK.