The College Dropout

I think the club want to avoid the Burn, Targett, Wood type transfer which is why even down the list - it's young players with lots of room for improvement and will likely retain or increase value. Highlighted - But seemingly well down the list. I don't think he significantly improves the first XI. And we desperately need an attacker to improve the XI. As you say, even when we haven't got our primary targets, the back-ups have largely succeeded.

To go from Diaby and Maddison to Joao Pedro will leave people dissappointed. JP could go on to be better than them both but today it looks like we've lowered our ambitions.

The best players tend to overperform Xg. Messi, Kane, Son etc. Funnily enogh Messi & Kane underperformed their Xg for the first time in a long time last season

I think we only want 1 but may be in for both currently. As many have pointed out - both seem ST's, not wide players.

De Gea is awful on the ball. And regressed his command of his area. SO much so Thibaut Courtois had to go on twitter and make sure people know he's nothing like DDG

Good question. Not sure about the timing but Chelsea have gone from Ake, Kounde to Koulibaly and Fofana. I think they moved down the list rather than at the same time. And they need multiple CB's so going for multiple at the same time makes sense. Although our Ramos bid isn't confirmed.

It's all relative. A shot from 30 yards likely has a Xg of 0.03 or so. So cumulative it's not that high. Shot volume is a factor to take into consideration. For example, there's this idea that Luis Diaz is a high volume, low quality shooter. As in he takes a lot of shots from difficult to score positions (like he did last night and scored). Cumulative he may end up at 0.6 Xg per match but that's from 5 low chance of conversion shots. Someone like Mane was great at getting on the end of big chances but not a volume shooter. He may end up with a 0.6Xg match but he had a single 0.5% chance and 1 other shot for example.

Doing a Chelsea, hedging our bets. Not mad at it considering where we are in the window.

Mostly - we are after players that clubs don't want to sell. And then we're haggling with ourselves as the other parties aren't interested. JM and Harrison - we don't have them because we haven't negotiated a decent price. This is my working understanding of how our clubs thinks and operates. I'm not crying every time another clubs spends some money.

This is why I call you slow. You're desperate to disagree and be right. It is my opinion that some of the money spent on the LCB position would have been more effectively spent on attacking positions. I think the money spent there has contributed to limiting our attacking options. You disagree. Fine. Move on and stop quoting me.

Tbf Manchester United are a complete shambles. I think dicking around on a transfer makes sense for buying clubs if the selling club actively wants to sell. Because they might get desperate and take a lower price than ideal. The clubs looking to do 2+ Big deals at this point are the ones with the questionable transfer approaches (excluding selling clubs and recent injuries). Man Utd, Chelsea, Forest…. Us.

I think that's the case with Jack H. After selling £100m worth of players - Leeds will only sell if the price is too good to turn down. That can happen when you are doing business late in the window.

I think this is highly likely to be the case. This is what i've been saying about value/finance trumping raw ability/football impact in terms of priority.

Also - if my understanding of our FFP situation and transfer policy is correct. We'll not bid £50m unless we panic and do something against our general policy. Same thing with Harrison.. I think £38-40m would seal it. But we wouldn't go that high.

This isn’t true. If I’m rude it’s only in retaliation of people making disengenious points time and again and a reaction to outright insults. Take that poster I’ve just muted. I’ve not directly engaged with his posts (as far as I can see) and this is the 3rd post in the last few days where’s he’s had a dig. Of course I’m going to retaliate. You’re missing the point again and I’m tired of repeating myself so I’ll keep it brief. Burn is a good signing. Botman will be a good signing. I’m not sure about both of them right now from a FFP and squad building standpoint as of today. We shouldn’t sign players permanently that we aim to replace within 12 months (because they lack quality) and who we will struggle to recoup from now. The Zaha thing is simple. I rate him as transformational, you don’t. That’s really where the conversation ends. But I’ve not contradicted myself regarding Zaha at all. Zaha is generally regarded as one of the best players outside the top 6. He has been heavily linked to Arsenal and Spurs in the past. As much as you might personally disagree he would be considered a statement signing. He is not the same type of signing as Dan Burn. I understand that as a strategy you prefer spending £20-30m on some young player from Ligue 1 than paying a premium on an established PL performer like JM or Zaha. I understand that thinking and why - it has value and if done right can be successful. Personally I think it’s overly risky and the flops will outweigh the hits unless you are getting the top talents. I don’t feel the need to follow you around thread to thread misunderstanding your perspective or wanting to prove you are wrong. It’s an easy to understand valid opinion with pros and cons. Me too, I also have easy to understand opinions with pros and cons. This is it. Twisting my points.

It’s a shame that he’s not much cop as a back up either.

By all accounts Leicester actively want to sell Tielemans. They don’t want to sell Maddison.

Got an extension as well right? He's a great agent. Btw - this shows (Shelvey) why it's a good idea for a player to move to a top club early. They usually get good money and then when they move down the league - they get even more. That's how you end up with Alex Iwobi on gigantic wages. Callum Wilson's agent let him down. How's he earning similar money to Ritchie? Assuming this is all true

He wasn't a pre-planned target, it just doesn't make any sense. I think value is crucial. We don't want to pay more money than we want - for the ideal player ability wise. Agreed on the head of recruitment. I said at the time - the Maddison bids actually annoyed me. They were never going to be accepted. I was told it's negotiation, we'll go back in small increments or that Leicester were asking for a crazy fee and they would come begging to take £40m. Same with the Harrison bid (which I think we might revisit). Honestly, the type of bids that don't make sense because they ae so low. I think we may have had bad tips from agents or something.

Checked your activity. D grade poster. No thoughts, ideas, an interesting perspective. Nothing. No wonder I don't recognise your username. Muted

Wolves is an open market place though. West Ham will lock him in a 4-5 year deal and ask for crazy money if he's a success. Wolves will let him go for a decent price if he's a success. They seem to have an agreement to do this.

This is why I say you're not the most intelligent. I've never said Dan Burn was a poor signing. Show me where I said that. I said he was a short-term signing and a stop-gap signing in the first team. What I questioned - is going back and signing the plan A in his position for top dollar in the very next window when funds are limited because of FFP. Having signed Burn, I would've kept him as first-choice for another season and prioritise RW, CM & ST. And if we were so determined to sign Botman, just push the boat out a little further in January. Because I think we are now after players a level below what i was hoping for (Harrison, Joao Pedro) in the attacking positions or falling short for fees for players at that ideal level (Maddison). In part, because we've spent £50m on LCB's over 2 windows. Zaha is more akin to the Trippier signing. It's a quality signing, a statement signing, someone that is meant to come in and lift the quality of the team. You're not going to get your money back but what you are hoping for is genuine quality for 2-4 years and for him to make an immediate impact that gets the team up the league. That's not the same as Dan Burn. Dan Burn was signed to stave relegation. We would sign Zaha to try and get into Europe asap. This is a really simple point.

Elegant player. I’m not sure if he’s that effective over 90 minutes or a season. But when it clicks it is sexy.

You quote me and fail to understand simple points day after day. You’ve called me a hypocrite. I’ve not contradicted myself once on Zaha if you would bother to engage your brain. I’ve realised it’s not a discussion in good faith - you and the same others just want to disagree with me. It’s tiresome.

Aye I like him. But he’s far from the end product. I think it would be an intelligent signing. But I don’t expect him to come in and immediately be a massive upgrade on what we have. Honestly, without another more established attacker coming in - it’s a little underwhelming. Much prefer him to Dennis mind. You can tell he has real footballing ability.