The College Dropout

For a full-back, it's kind of old. We don't need a RB for this season. But we should start looking for next season potentially. It's called succession planning. Especially if we have European aspirations.

I don't think Chelsea have done much wrong. They've missed out on the 2 best managers in the world and are behind them both. Their previous model was a good one. But it has it's limits. Their model wasn't much different to Real's or Bayern's (although they mostly stick to Bundesliga / German managers). Assign a quality squad with some input from the manager but not total control. Get a top quality coach to lead it. Give it a few seasons, when it stops working - replace him with another top quality coach. Rinse and repeat.

Tammy wasn't getting a kick before Lukaku came in anyway. They needed to sell him (because of Tuchel). The Lukaku thing made some sense. Less of a supposed gamble than their other striker options - even at Man U Lukaku scored 16 and 12 league goals - nobody thought he could do worse than 12. Tomori wasn't getting a kick either. They wanted to extend Christensen and Rudiger. They also had Sarr & Chalobah coming through. These ultimately were proven to be poor choices but they all had decent logic behind it.

If we think they are not ultimately good enough for where we want to go.... no. They'll be rewarded by another club. This is my hope. He has another decent season and we can actually get a fee for him next summer.

Considering our first choice fullback is almost 32. We should look to sign a fullback that can push for the first team in the next 12 months or so. I'd prefer to let the wages wind down and go again in the market. Gives him an incentive for this season too.

Why? Not liking these contract extensions for players like this. Either they are happy with midtable or expect to get a fee for them one day.

They keep trying tbf. I would take Werner on loan 100%

Good point. the issue is when you have players of a similar calibre but very different wages. Like at Liverpool the highest wage is an issue because nearly everyone in the first XI is an experienced international, CL level performer for several seasons etc. So if VDV gets 300k, TAA must be close, Salah can argue more etc.

True

Barca will have signed 5 first team players if that goes through. For the team that finished 2nd in La Liga. Some say 5 new faces is too much for us.

I hope they succeed. Tired of the Norwich and WBA yo-yo model.

Are people referring to Nicolas Pepe? Please God no.

Because you have a contract with them now. To incentivise moving them on, the buying club might pay 70% of wages, selling club pays 30%. The player doesn't lose out on wages, selling club spends 70% less on that player. It's fairly common practice when teams want to move on unwanted players on high wages relative to their market worth in wages. We are going to have to do this with a lot of players. A lot are on higher wages than 90% of Champo clubs can afford.

Mentioned this yesterday. Proper weird.

Good move for all that with the Lingard deal. crazy money for Lingard. Back in the shop window. I reckon he wasn’t happy with the offers he got. So he’s taken a 1 year pay day but also has massive incentive to perform.

West Ham been ‘close’ to signing a number of highly rated players. Are the Sullivan stringing the fans along to shift season tickets?

Trezeguet has played in Turkey twice previously and is proven to be a good player in that league. Almiron has no proven track record in league football outside of north America. He could do the loan then sign route

Trick question. We aren't getting a fee.

What price for a 1 goal 0 assists winger?

It's a tremendously slow backline.

Randomly watching a Tifo video about PSG & Gaultier now. They've referred to Lille's central defence as "Jose Fonte is old and Sven Botman is a slow player". I came to that same conclusion via Youtube. Interesting that Lille used a medium/low block and played conservative football. With Botman a cornerstone of our side, will we look to do the same?

Cucu will be rotated. Cancelo is a better LB than RB because he has that midfielder, playmaker attribute that works better playing inside.

Harrison is much better than Almiron.

In a sellers' market, bidding low means losing out to those moving fast and competitively priced.

I'd be dissappointed if we went the full season with the midfield we have, the RW's we have and the same forward line. I'd be happy with a genuine attempt at a good side. For me that's CM, RW, ST. If we finish 10th with what look like solid signings there, we see where we can improve and go again. If we don't strengthen those positions and finish 10th - it would feel like a missed opportunity. We saw our weaknesses and decided not to improve on them. My perspective is we panic in August and get good deals over the line.