The College Dropout

Signing a functional pl level FB for £3-5m loan fee + wages is a bigger risk than having 2 fit fullbacks (1 being 35) during a crazy fixture period? Absolutely not true. I do not believe that to be true at all. signing a fullback was the sensible mitigation route for our season.

Like I said - the real loser here is Harvey Elliott. A wasted year of his short career.

True. Fuck Harvey Elliott then. This is why I generally support player power. Clubs feel no way about this type of thing.

I don’t blame him at all.

They signed Eriksen, Lamela with that money at least and had a generational striker come through the academy + signed Delle Alli the next summer.

It’s not an obligation. It’s an option that Villa won’t trigger the obligation for. The little I care about this situation is for the player and not either club.

His replacement was actually the Toney replacement and had an ACL coming from 1 year in Belgium and 1 year in Bulgaria (and the year at Brentford injured). Dango is 5 years younger, bought from another PL Club for less money, also a winger who can play as a 9 - looks a way better player than Wissa. There’s so much quality out there when clubs know what to look for. It’s painful because we used to be one of those clubs.

It was crazy to see. Just ran straight through onto our back line.

No I’m with Emery here. They don’t want to keep him and therefore won’t trigger the 10 games. It’s lose for everyone especially the player. If Liverpool change the terms - at least Elliot should get more minutes - help his development and put him in the shop window. Selfishly I hope there’s more situations like this and players stop going to these clubs so early. Didn’t Elliot come from Fulham? His career would be further along if he had stayed.

The 5th season was seen as a failure and disappointment. When we smashed them at ours - killed their chances - it was bad. It’s Arsenal.

Didn’t think he was any good either tbh but he was badly exposed.

Coaching is critical but quality players and maximising quality is #1. I’ve been a firm believer that this squad lacks quality. I thought to stand still and finish 5th in the league or better we needed to add a genuine purple (and keep what we have) and fill out the squad. We are 2 players light squad wise. Lost our best player and added zero purples. Not made a single signing that markedly improves the first team. No surprise we have seen massive decline.

A lot of it will be fatigue vs rest. A nice reliable team vs a team constantly playing, changing, picking up injuries. Confidence vs no confidence

Plan with checkpoints in place to win the league by 2030 mate.

I think he could be good/great for 70-80 minutes once a week. But he cannot be expected to start multiple games in a week coming up against fast and strong wingers with a weeks rest. It’s killing us.

Painful thing is this was so obvious. 3 first team fullbacks. 1 is 35. Recipe for disaster. It’s such bad squad building and management. It was a major risk in August, it’s outright criminal in January.

The disappointing thing is he showed zero class when he got in those great positions. His confidence is gone.

It’s bang average and not equipped for the demands

Aye.

Sesko so poor there at the end. Man U will finish top 5/6 like a squad of that quality without European football should.

You're not the messenger, you said it.

Doesn't that point to a lot more about PIF, football and us?

You answered your own question. It literally serves no other purpose apart from appeasing the fans and keeping up public image. This is hard to convey. But bullshitting isn't the same as lying. The club may have a plan to win the PL by 2030 but it is almost certainly - not realistic (unless they have a madness planned). As Jordan said - where are we planning to get the recurring £200m/£250m revenue from to get in touching distance of Spurs? If we plan to win the league in 4/5 years, we have to be active in windows even if we are just signing players to sell.

Gordon starts, Bruno and Miley out.

6 points against these last season btw. 63 points might not get you Europa League football, definitely not CL. So 3 away wins doesn't do it. We'll do very well to get 60 points total.