The College Dropout

We could. I just think we won’t. We were only linked with Burn after we dropped our chase with Botman. We now have 2 right footed CBs and 2 left footed CBs.

I doubt he’ll play with Burn. But I’d love a CB partnership with that height. I don’t think we’ve had 2 really tall centrebacks that can play as well as long as I can remember.

£40m for a CB that can't run. Ok.

Well no. I do follow Real Madrid. And you clearly do not. Those players cost Madrid well over £5m a month in wages. I’m sure Perez told Carlo to waste that money while chasing a CL. He probably told Carlo to select them for the bench but don’t bring them on if you really need 2 goals in the semi’s. Can you name 3 things the Real Madrid board have done in the last 10 years to save their face to the detriment of the football? It’s a tired cliche. You keep ignoring the fact that Spurs and 2 of their managers - didn’t fancy Bale either. Often left him on the bench too.

I’m concerned he doesn’t get much playing time. funny - many on here thought that would be too much money for Phillips to come to us.

You don’t follow Real Madrid. You don’t know what has happened. You’ve quoted a journalist speculating with zero insider knowledge of Real Madrid. Hazard, Isco and Jovic barely got a kick after Christmas. Was that instruction from above as well? Real found a groove and Ancelotti used his trusted players. Bale hasn’t been trusted by any club manager for 3 years now. At 2 different clubs. Including a manager he had great success previously with. There has been widespread speculation that he may have retired if Wales didn’t qualify for the WC. He’s done with the rigours of regular elite football.

That happened long before FFP was introduced. Like decades. The reason Perez wants the super league is that Real Madrid can’t compete with the PL and oil clubs. Real are a smartly run club (stadium renovations aside). I suspect the cost of the players on the field vs Liverpool were cheaper in terms of transfer fees than Liverpools.

I’m genuinely not too concerned with how much We spend this summer. If the Saudis genuinely want to challenge and win top honours. We’ll have to trouble FFP eventually and spend some big money. If not we can be that top 8 side people always wanted us to be under Ashley.

Real Madrid?

Arsenal rumoured to have offered 40. Leeds want 50m.

We'll spend more. Hugo's brought in to be a an attacking option off the bench. We'll sign another attacker - maybe 2. We'll sign 6 at a minimum imo.

We've got loads of room for FFP and will increase with better commercial deals. I'm confident we'll panic in a good way and get a top 8 squad by the end of the wndow.

Strange phrasing. None of Zidane, Ancelotti & Mourinho trusted him to play regularly. He did to himself. You have to consider Real paid the same fee for Cristiano as they did Bale. And his astronomical wages. They don't think he's earned his £200m in wages. He did great things but people at Real Madrid and the fans don't consider him value for money.

I hope their replacements are on the bench Bruno style.

What's your point? Bale scored (and assisted) when fit. We know that. The problem is that he spent lage portions of his time injured which was a problem even in the early years. Mane cost Liverpool probably £70m all in, £35m net after sale. Bale cost about £250m all in. In terms of massive transfer signings and wages - Madrid still sign him again but don't offer the 6-yar megabucks deal and cut their losses after the overhead kick.

If only life was this simple. We won a lot of key games by the odd goal. Everyone kept it at 100% once we were safe. Conceded a lot of possession. Lose a bit of confidence and atmosphere and points get dropped. Those lads played at 100% for that second period. Everyone brought their A game. That won't happen again without added quality.

2012 team had a lot more talent and match winners. Give me HBA, Cisse and Ba upfront. I'd take Cabaye and Tiote in midfield with Bruno. Colo & that seasons Krul for sure.

We had a lot of intangibles going our way 2nd half of the season. Momentum after that first win, exciting signings helping the atmosphere, lots of players playing for new contracts, players playing for a future at the club. If we line up with Schar, Shelvey, Burn, Fraser, Wilson all first XI members a lot of that will dissapear.

He's 20. I think this is generally true of older players. We are so unproven. The whole project is unproven. And we've been shit all his memorable life. He may think it's a good idea but I can see him leaning on an agent / parents for a final decision. Also apparently he's agreed his own terms. So it's just agent shit knocking about. Agent could be telling him all will be resolved, he's just getting his own money right.

I think we need 3 Bruno signigs to trouble the top 7. Pope Trippier Schar Burn Targett Bruno Shelvey Joelintion Fraser Wilson ASM With Wood, Willock, Krafh, Lascelles, Almiron backing it up. Thoroughly midtable team. Aggresively midtable. One thing I don't like about the Botman deal. Is that defence is already slow. None of the players there are quick for their positions. We need a defender that can run so we can sometimes play a high line. Likewise we need a Joelinton that can play a bit more.

Mitro had a track record of regularly scoring. Broja doesn't. He looks like a player when it all clicks. But most of the time when I saw him - it didn't click at all. He didn't look any sort of player in the secod half of the season. Maybe it's better the devil you don't know. But I prefer Hugo E.

Bale was there for 9 years, he only managed 8 seasons because they loaned him out for being a waste of space. Mane was at Liverpool for 6 years and seasons. You haven't argued against my point either. Don't quote me to (1) not make an actual point and (2) get your facts wrong anyway.

Nope. The only reason he didn't manage it is because of injuries, you missed out the 30 games thing. It just shows he didn't have those dominant seasons at Madrid. Bale was at Real for 3 years longer than Sadio Mane was at Liverpool. Mane scored slightly more goals and managed more appearances. Sadio managed 20 league goals once. In his best seasons - he still missed loads of games. Big game player. He starts and bookends one of their most successful eras and his was decisive in many of those bigger games. But he was never a convincing success because of consistency/injuries. Anyway - Vini's got now. He doesn't seem to be as good a finisher as Bale (Bale still has that ability to whip a ball into the back of the net once every 4 shots - no matter the angle - like he showed at Spurs - some great goals there). But Vini seems hungrier and more physically robust than Bale (and Neymar for that matter). He's about to turn 22 - we have Ballon D'or dreams.

Bale was always injury prone for them so even his best seasons came with a level of frustration over his fitness. He never managed 20 league goals for Real and only managed 30+ league appearances once - in 8 years. Btw Bale signed a mega-deal in 2016 which got him on the super megabucks. He was injured a lot in the prior season but scored a lot of goals. He signed the mega-deal and spent most of that season injured. He only had 1 good season post-mega contract and even then he was often on the bench or injured. He did score twice in the CL final - so there's that. Point is - Bale was often decisive for Madrid and scored a lot of goals. But he was never dominant the way they might have hoped - spending a lot of time injured. After the megabucks deal - he only really turned it on during 1 season - after being red hot the season prior.

I think Saka can be a great inverted winger / attacker. But he would be a dynamite left back for City under Pep. I can never shake what Yaya said about Pep and people of African origin so I don't think it will happen.