The College Dropout

I would love Raphinha. I keep saying it - we should eat Arsenal's lunch whenever it looks good. Bid £10m more and £30k p/w extra for the lad.

We sold Mitrovic to a promoted club for £28m in 2018. He had scored 9 PL goals in his only PL season. People are saying £30/40m is too much for DCL. Ok.

I think he would be an excellent signing if fit. He's athletic, good in the air and a decent finisher. If not Jesus or Abraham, I would have him in the team for sure.

Find the DCL thing weird. He's had 1 bad year of injuries. Shearer did his ACL, ankle and had other injuries that meant he had 3/4 seasons of less than 30 PL appearances. DCL hardly has a Sturridge like injury record

Agreed he loses the ball far too often to be the CM we need. Unless that improves he should be a squad option, not a nailed starter.

Agreed. We don't need to do tiki-taka but we need to be able to hold the ball at times. 46-50% even. I think we are low 40's now and it's hard to sustain top 6/8 position consistently getting 42% possession.

Joelinton gives the ball away loads. We need more football in midfield.

I think he looks class in the clips. If he can develop physically he'll be a massive problem.

Arteta's done well to get the wage bill down and get a functional team together. But as a manager there's massive question marks - at least in terms of the top level. Arsenal would do well to trade him in for any of the top 4 managers (if it was possible). I'm not sure he's any better than the likes of Rodgers or Howe either.

This lads words are seemingly gospel regarding West Ham. We should add him as a reputable source.

Those stats lead me to believe Pope may be better than I’ve given him credit for. especially command of his box and rushing out of the box.

Dubs is average. Doesn't drop many howlers for us. Shakey from crosses and general box generalship. relatively poor with feet.

Luca Jovic? Seems like he's going back to Serie A.

Zouma-Aguerd sounds a very good CB duo. Would allow West Ham to play further up the pitch

Body was done. He didn't manage 30 appearances in a sinle season in his last 5 years of football. Even Callum Wilson has managed that 3 times in the last 5 seasons without European football.

There's not enough "football" in that midfield 3.

Agreed. I mean moreso if England beat Belgium in the WC KO stages that would be the most significant win outside of England in a major tournament.

Can sub out Belgium for Italy atm.

We should be prepared to pay a small premium if he's the right player. 5m more than whatever the next team is offering.

PEH would've been a good Ashley-era signing.

Son and Kane are late 20’s. Got a top 5 manager in the world who has done it everywhere he’s gone. give Conte what he wants and CL is guaranteed. Full house in the new stadium, big commercial deals. Lots of issues at other big clubs. This is the best chance Spurs will have to win it as long as Klopp and Pep are around too. They have a comparable manager.

I think Spurs will get 80+ points in the league next season.

Love that.

Lots of these kids are excellent technically. With increased professionalisation you get players less capable of thinking autonomously and less mavericks. When the minimal professional bar is so high - you exclude a lot of people. I think pure athletes get less far these days. Again, the bar is so high, it's much less of an advantage. I was talking to a friend the other day about that German striker for Chelsea. He seems rapid.. but somehow not as fast as a prime Craig Bellamy. And I thought that's probably because a prime Bellamy was up against some real carthorses week in week out.

PSG have had a a lot of success. They just don't win the CL. Neither have City and they've done things "the right way". Chelsea have won it twice with 20 years of oil money,