The College Dropout

Nesta is one of those players that's in everyone's list. For me he's one of those I only ever saw on those big CL nights or in International competitions and he was every bit as good as his reputation suggested. I remember thinking "what's all this noise about this Seedorf fella?" And he just had everything. You never really saw such a clean technician in the PL at CM those days. Looked like he was built of granite. Controllling balls dead that came at him at weird angles. Silkiness on the ball like a 10. Pass it short, one touch, long, all there. I love a skilful, powerful, quick central midfielder. Very rare. I always thought Pogba was a spiritual successor, Camavinga too.

Nesta is one of those players that's in everyone's list. For me he's one of those I only ever saw on those big CL nights or in International competitions and he was every bit as good as his reputation suggested. I remember thinking "what's all this noise about this Seedorf fella?" And he just had everything. You never really saw such a clean technician in the PL at CM those days. Looked like he was built of granite. Controllling balls dead that came at him at weird angles. Silkiness on the ball like a 10. Pass it short, one touch, long, all there. I love a skilful, powerful, quick central midfielder. Very rare. I always thought Pogba was a spiritual successor, Camavinga too.

England are also fortunate he didn't make the Nigeria move. Tuchel didn't rate him at all which I think put a few clubs off. They should have secured Christensen & Rudiger contracts before letting Zouma and Tomori go. Shocking moves. I think he'll leave Roma this year. Clubs know Chelsea can activate a buy-back clause in 2023 so will need to act fast.

What else are they meant to say? IMO if we sign a 40-60m attacker they will be our highest earner around the 120-175k mark. I definitely believe we’ve enquired for Coutinho and Nunez and that’s what they would expect.

I'd like to see him at PSG too. He's a brand name manager which suits. He doesn't play attractive football which doesn't suit. His team play with intensity which doesnt suit the personnel. He'll have money to spend which suits. Has a poor European competition record which doesn't suit.

For a long-time we struggled against physical players. Fast or strong. Lukaku Walcott Long Anichebe Ate very well.

I rate how barefaced Conte is about the money. 1. I need to be the top earner at the club 2. And I need a massive net spend 3. And i'm playing 5 at the back 4. The second i'm not happy with 1-2, i'm gone

Terry's weaknesses were often exposed when not in a deep block. But his reading of the game was great. When you're a deep block defender, inevitably you're going to have to make a lot of last ditch challenges and blocks because the danger is so imminent. You don't see VVD in those situations often because he's marching his team back up the pitch at the first opportunity. But with Terry, that low-block was often a lockdown of the game. He & Jose were so good at it. You weren't going over or through that low-block.... unless you did something special.

You can't have watched the Ronaldinho era in real-time and say he was over-rated. For about 3 years, he was the most electrifying man in sports entertainment. I've never seen a player that good and that entertaining. He was such much fun and so entertaining that people forget that he scored more freekicks than Beckham, Messi, Ronaldo etc... pretty much everyone except Juninho. At his best he was everything the sport should be. Stepped up in big moments, entertaining, physical, technical, seemed a good sport and looked like he enjoyed himself.

We weren't a bad side for a lot of that era too. I'm just saying Shearer's memories are likely shaped by Sol's earlier days at Tottenham. It's not like he consistently had Sol's number.

This is not true. Terry was never particularly impressive for England (less so than Ferdinand & Campbell). He didn't look good for good spells under AVB, RDM & Rafa because of his weakness on the turn. Terry was a fantastic player and maybe under-rated by some football hipsters. But he had too many glaring weaknesses in his game to be considered the best anything. There's a very good argument Carvalho was better than Terry. His exploits in Porto and in Madrid.

Shearer scored 1 goal in 8 apps against Campbell's Arsenal team in the PL. I think Shearer had a much better record against a young Sol in a Spurs shirt which is leading his judgement.

Who?

Van Dijk's arguably the best CB i've ever seen tbf. A lot of it is tactical because the plan involves leaving him 1v1. Fast, trickery opposition players don't want to see him 1v1 on the half way line. That's crazy. His intimidation to the opposition is crazy. Deep defending is a piece of cake. Leadership. On the ball. Everything.

Always played in medium to low block teams that protected him. Always had a partner alongside him that greatly benefitted his style of play. But he was a top, top player and under-rated by fans on the ball. I think Rio & Sol could play for Guardiola and Klopp. So I have them above Terry. Sol Campbell was slightly under-rated too. He could really play on the ball too. Was a leader on the pitch, Massive weirdo though.

John Terry was behind Desailly too long as well.

West Ham pay Zouma 125k and hav offered Rice 200k. Rice won't sign for anything though unless there's a reasonable release clause if he's smart. He can stay another year, get another season of Europa football under his belt and move on for a more reasonable 50-70m fee at the end of next season. I would be all over that. I think they have to take the money next season. They may even offer him a Delph type deal at some point. Anyways point is West Ham can afford to pay Lingard the 100-150k he'll be after. He might be worth the 6 additional points or the odd win in Europe that might get them into CL the following season.

Pulis job there was more impressive tbf. Palace were also a Champo side at the time. Not even a proper yo-yo club. We are a bigger club with higher expectations. And we spent a lot of money on players that won us points. Trippier, Bruno & Wood all have match winning goals. Best part of £80m there.

I think it's Frank. Start of the season a good season for Brentford is 17th, most would've expected 18th-20th. They'll finish higher than that certainly. Otherwise aye it's Moyes or whoever wins the league.

I would think it's a bit of both, At 50k per week, Lingard's a very good signing. Almiron and Fraser will be on similar and Lingard is a step above. At 100k... not so much. Especially if we have targets at decent buy, sell and wage values.

Fingers crossed - they don't see Lingard as a "blue chip" player so we won't give him the 100-150k he might be after. He's a good signing for a West Ham. Likely to be in Europe so need the squad depth. Only need to sign 2/3 players of sufficient quality so can take this risk. Don't think it's greed. Lingard should get as much as he can. I just don't think we have the luxury of signing him on 100k+. Don't want him. This is an Everton transfer. We should look for the next Coutinho. I like Arsenal's approach to trying to get back into the top 4. Going for the likes of Odegaard. Arsenal are fortunate that their academy has pumped out 4-6 decent to elite premier league level footballers though.

This is my thought. Every player we are credibly linked with is going for at least half of that and most around 50m.

Aye it all depends on investment. A lot of the player links are for £40m+ targets so I think we'll spend big. The club are putting out "modest" budget so we don't get fleeced imo but we'll see soon enough

Get results or move on. They want to make elite football a closed shop. I like Howe too - hope he does well.

Not guaranteed to sign Targett because we think we can do better and I love that for us. Fundamentally - in practically every department we could do with an upgrade to make the top 8. Dubs - don't think he's top 8 quality but not far off Fullback - Targett isn't Central defence - absolutely not. At least 1 needs replacing. As a back 5 - it has zero pace. Central midfield - nope. I think neither of Bruno's partners are top 8 quality. Either they have it physically but not technically. Or vice versa. At least 1 needs replacing. Wide players - nope. At least 1 needs replacing. Striker - Nope. Need a new one. Would happily bring in 6 to start as a minimum.