TRon

He'll have known all along if they were interested, he was just using us to drive up the fees.

Yeah should still be an interesting choice. Feels like it will be a similar rising star type of striker.

Yeah. You don't stay at at a Guardiola club for multiple seasons unless you are a player. It's as much of a banker as you can get.

Alright then.

You would think they would have learned from the Rick Masters shambles over the takeover. But no, these football bodies just have to force the lawyers to get involved.

I think I read somewhere that Howe is going to persist with the low block/counter attack approach for this season. It might have nothing to do with pace, and more that we just don't have good enough footballers across the pitch to play more possession based stuff.

I'd just take Diaby thanks. I was never sure what positon Eriksen played even before his heath issues. Fabulous talent though.

He could tell his agent to shut the fuck up tbf.

So AC Milan were second best to us even back then? In ya face @Milanista

I'm guessing this is a poor attempt at a Biffa Bacon parody.

Not at this point no. Fuck him and Darwin Nunez.

Who the fuck were Onyewu and Moore? (Double checked the spelling of Moore with a quick google before joeyt pounced on it). The rest were not that bad tbh.

I can't see anyone else offering a bigger one, although I suppose PSG could if he's happy to sit on the bench behind Mbappe, Neymar and Messi. Maybe we could go for one of those on a one year loan if they are surplus to requirements over there.

Klopp's teams do have explosive pace in key areas though, such as wide and up front. I guess it's just how you put it together. I recall Nobby Solano wasn't the quickest, but he was reinvented as a full back because he could pick out a pass to one of the lightning trio of Bellamy, Dyer and Robert during SBR's time. Actually I think it might have been Roeder who first played him as a full back, ironically he wasn't blessed with much pace either as a CB, but he read the game masterfully.

I think he's lost a bit tbf. Looks more like a pregnant middle aged biddy as opposed to a beached whale of NUFC days.

Were those all Mark Hughes signings?

I have a policy of not watching anyone on Youtube unless I know there's a real serious link there. I don't want to start getting excited about a player then get pissed off he's joining Liverpool.

I agree, in the long term we will probably be better off for it, at least from an accounting POV. But I don't think Chelsea or City minded losing money at the time because they did buy their way to trophies. Let's face it, we could do it as well given half a chance. But we'll get there in time, might just take a couple of years longer.

Agree, FFP will slow down our efforts to crash the top 4. City and Chelsea were able to buy top players closer to 30 who they were prepared to lose out on resale value because they were in their prime and could do the job right now. We have to be very careful not to go down that road because the way things are set up now, we'll be hamstrung further down the road, a bit like Everton are now. Villa are playing a dangerous game as well.

The reason we won't get much for him is exactly why we need him replaced tbh. But at least you know he'll run around for 90 mins so I guess if he's here for another season it's not a disaster.

Absolutely.

Thanks man, it was a long time ago.

Man, I wish someone like you wrote the football columns in one of our national newspapers. I could just download it and read it on a tablet in the morning with a cup of tea. Genuinely fascinating stuff re the difference of football culture, especially about midfield. So many different factors can make a difference though: pitch size, climate, local culture regarding acceptable body contact, etc.

That does sound just a touch bitter mind.