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I'm in the halfway house on this. I agree they're probably going to spend money not knowing exactly how they're going to cover it further down the line. But they can still be considered competent despite that - even if it did get them into a sticky situation this summer. If you prepare with 10 solid escape routes in mind, but for various reasons - e.g. very bad luck with injuries, including to decent candidates for sale like Lascelles - they all fall through, it doesn't necessarily mean you've fucked up if you resort to the "break glass in case of emergency" plans. Even if it is a very uncomfortable experience.

That's fair comment. But it's still funny to see people wanting to live in a magic world where everything we do is right, and yet anyone who chooses not to join us becomes shite.

So, just for fun, does this suggest that our recruiting choices possibly aren't impeccable? Seeing as we were inches from signing this guy, and casting doubt on any of our strong links is pretty controversial.

Basically. @KaKa debuted the phrase on here in 2011, according to the search function. But more popular since 2020.

It's a good question, but we've got to be saying something decent to be attracting all these kids - they certainly weren't signing for us a couple of years ago.

I think we created a lot of those goals by playing like drunken sailors a lot of the time though. It's good to know we can do it, but I wouldn't say we had controlled aggression for big chunks of the second half of the season - games like Luton and West Ham, which did wonders for our statistics, but aren't really what an attack is supposed to look like if it's functioning well.

This is part of what I call the Ashley trap. A negative outlook creating a doom spiral.

*2 significant signings - we're spending something like £28m on Hall too. I sometimes forget this myself... But yeah, them combined I'd say is at the very upper limit of what we can do without a big sale/s before next June. Or some surprise new sponsorship... Think the loans point for RW is a very good one. There's still ways and means for us to play the game, and I'm sure the club is examining every angle. I think you're partly right, but the flip side is people having dickie fits over the shock of us selling someone like Bruno next year and how it speaks badly about the club's management. We're better off having our eyes open about what's going on. Doesn't mean we shouldn't be looking to invest and expand, though.

That's more like it.

Still wonder what could've been

Hmm. I guess all England based kids are on our radar to some extent, though.

Thought so. But don't follow the links that religiously so wasn't sure!

Does anyone recall when we started being linked with him? I.e. pre or post-Mitchell?

Well, not exactly strange given how weak we've been at youth level, but it has been a big weakness for us. Gives us an extra option in difficult situations and, to put it bluntly, puts another player on the financial conveyor belt.

Well, we'll need cover for Barnes

I'd rather him than DCL. We have a good hit rate on identifying talent. Excellent, in fact. Considering that history, plus Mitchell, plus our financial situation, plus the players we can't seem to push out the club - let's give one a shot.

Sure but we're still essentially talking about one shit season in a career, in a season where a suspiciously large number of his teammates went down and stayed down with reaggravated injuries too. Botman's record is going to look awful by Christmas too. Just seems unfair to single out Willock as being cooked when we've got players like Targett around.

Could you imagine 4 millionaires being made to fly across the world, stand and sing for 6 supporters

For those who think he's intrinsically injury prone. It's a big season for him to prove he's sorted out, but it's not like he's always been like this.

https://archive.ph/aOUf5

Yeah, culturally speaking, him and Tottenham feel like chalk and cheese. I was shocked at the appointment, really.

Don't know what it feels like to be the aggressor in this situation.

I like whatever I've seen him say in press conferences, but it's always felt like it would end in tears at Tottenham.

That's the key part of that whole article. Easy for me to believe Liverpool is his 'Bruno to Real Madrid'* destination, but if he's also happy to stay here and playing ball with our club in terms of whatever happens, it doesn't need to be a big deal. *Not that I'm convinced RM is Bruno's dream home.

I thought the same thing. Not sure if I'm misremembering something or what.