Shak

Genuinely shite couple of hours that.

That's a shocking effort by Wilson tbh, so much empty goal to aim at and under no pressure and just headed right at him. Anyway, good to see us keeping the ball like we have the last ten minutes.

Italians leading the way in accountability and justice as ever

Could play CM or Almiron's spot too. I always wondered why our interest seemingly just fucked off. Wonder if investigations turned up something about the alleged gambling. Would be hilariously ironic given who we spent even more on a year later.

Aye, seems to play like he has eyes in the back of his head, so many clever touches into space. Think he's very much pushed the need for a DM way down the list, reckon that'll end up being his position and he'll be quality there.

I think Raphinha would be ideal.

No, I'm saying we don't spend any money on a DM. Bruno starts there. Miley his backup (Miley can also play the other midfield spots). Spend the money on other positions instead.

I'd be good with it. I mean, it's Bruno's spot, asking Miley to be backup doesn't seem too much to me given how good he's looked. If you're ready, you're ready. Spend the money saved on a new DM and put it towards making Osimhen the new striker addition. Who says no?!

No, it's all still being hashed out. Hence why they're spending hundreds of millions on Jon Rahm as basically a bargaining chip Ultimately what PIF really want from golf is the access to corporate America that comes with a seat at the table. My guess is that it all ends with the PIF being a major investor/stakeholder in the PGA/professional golf. You're right in that money talks and eventually the richest people will get what they want... my point is that it'll come at the expense of the product.

Nobody.

Our next signing for me has to be a player who can pick a final ball better than anyone currently in our squad. My guess is it'll be a winger but could be an advanced CM too.

Miley looks like he can play Bruno's role pretty well IMO. Looked one of our better players against Dortmund in that spot. Good in tight spaces, reads the game very well, rarely caught in possession.

Has Eddie ever really tinkered with the formation since being here? Might be something to be said for a 3-5-2 if Gordon and Isak are still unavailable? Dubravka Lascelles Botman Burn Trippier Tino Bruno Longstaff Miley Almiron Wilson I suppose you could achieve a lot of the same things by just playing Tino at LW and keeping the 4-3-3 but just a thought.

I feel like at this point the move is to not do anything too mad in January. If a deal comes available for a long term target, make the move. Otherwise it's all a bit shutting the barn door after the horse has fucked off, surely? Unlikely any new players are gonna be ready to really contribute until after the City match. If we get to the FA Cup final, we're looking at playing 22 matches in the last four months. Absolute max. After City we'll have played 31 games in 5 months. The second half of the season just isn't gonna be as demanding and we'll presumably have some players back by then so I don't know if bringing in second tier targets just because they're available in January makes a lot of sense.

That midfield trio in those positions was how we opened last season. Think both Joes look much better in the LCM position. Willock in particular is much better there as a big part of his game is running at defenders and getting out left and cutting inside is obviously a more dangerous dribbling position for a right footed player. Think not having Tino at LB over Burn is a bit mental, like. Tino offers us so much more on the ball and I think he's a better defender too. I know we're conceding more goals recently but that's a result of the rest of the team being completely fucked rather than a consequence of Burn being out IMO.

Never had a problem with Joelinton putting the ball in the box against Liverpool. It was 1-1 and we had men forward, we could have won the game there. Aye, it very much backfired in the result but the process always made sense to me. Almiron was basically just giving the ball back to them. You're never scoring from there and we were winning the game. Just so silly.

David absolutely fits the bill as another desperately needed CF option but one who'll get plenty of game time playing out wide too. Young enough that there's some real potential to take a jump forward as a player too.

I actually shouted "ah don't shoot FFS, you dipshit" as I could see him shaping up for that shot. So fucking stupid.

It was a better penalty than I expected him to take, to be honest.

Half-witted cunts on Sky saying he had a good game

We just need to fucking spawn a result here, we're clearly out of gas but sometimes sports are just about finding a way.

I'm also increasingly in favour of pushing to get rid of FFP as it exists now. It's a heap of shite that only exists to protect a few established clubs at the top. Would very much be in favour of having something in place to limit how much clubs with unlimited money like ourselves or Man City can spend on transfers in a given period, I do think that makes sense. However, whatever the maximum outlay is for the richest clubs, the rest of the clubs should be allowed to spend too so long as they can do it without putting their club's long term security at risk.

The bottom line is that he'd probably get paid more at Man United and would have a much easier path to leading his club to multiple trophies. I don't know if people working in the game really care about building a more romantic legacy or being the first person to bring success to a fanbase starved of it. They'll mostly just care about how many medals there are on the mantelpiece and how much money there is in the bank account. That said, Stavely and co have shown they have a good head for targeting talented people for important roles. I'd be confident they'll find someone to replace him that'll know what they're doing.

Ashworth leaving this soon would be pretty shitty but it's a tough business, definitely not beyond the realms of possibility. If he does go I'd be very surprised if giving his role to Eddie Howe's friend is an option that is entertained even slightly by the people running the club, though.

Raphinha would make a lot of sense as it fits the bill of how we do a lot of our business. Getting a long term target at an opportunistic time, he's not played much for Barca this season and they're constantly walking a fine line with their finances. He's also exactly what we need in a wide man as he's leagues ahead of any of our wide men in his ability to pick out a pass while still having the workrate that Eddie demands. Would be an ideal signing in January.