Shak

It's possible that Howe has decided to build the team to continue with this philosophy of concentrating most of our attacking play down the right hand side. If so, a player like Barnes on the left makes a lot of sense as he'd be less expected to be involved in the build up play but would be a real goal threat from that side. Will be interesting to see if Howe goes that way, the moves at LB will tell us a lot. The added advantage of having a LB that doesn't really push on is it will give us more freedom to push both Tonali and Bruno into advanced positions, knowing there's a bit more cover behind.

Not sure how reliable they are but his transfermarkt profile is interesting. Seems he's played more on the left since joining Juventus. However, he's been more productive from the right on the few occasions he's played there. More goals from the right in less than half the appearances there. Going back to his time at Fiorentina, that was where he played mostly. Again, far more productive from the right side. Christ, the thought of him and Trippier linking up is mega

Sign Chiesa for the right and Barnes for the left? Seems being right footed we'd want Chiesa for the left but looking at his stats on transfermarkt he actually seems to be more productive as a RW. The potential interplay between him, Trippier and Tonali/Bruno is quite the thought.

Chiesa is a risk but that's why he's available to us at all. Would be fucking class.

I mean there's a fair point in there but words like "destroyed" and "suicidal" make it very hard to discuss it seriously Much like we saw with ASM, I'd be pretty confident that in time Howe could develop Diaby into someone who wasn't a liability out of possession. I doubt we'd spend 50+ million on him without having done some very extensive research on what type of prospect we'd be getting, both going forward and defending from the front. My guess is that if we do sign Diaby it'll take him quite a while to start regularly, it is a very important part of how we play and he does seem to need work on his pressing.

Destroyed

Aye Gordon is competition for ASM on the left and Diaby competition for Almiron the right, I assume.

Diaby would make a lot of sense, clear we've been keen on him for a long while and a left footed right winger other than Almiron does seem the biggest hole in the squad right now along with LB. One thing I do like about Diaby is that he's scored plenty of goals the last few years. Obviously there's the worry that the Bundesliga is easier but given our current wide men I do feel someone with some goalscoring pedigree would be a wise addition.

I mean, the only way Isak will ever not be in the team is if he's suspended, injured or being rested.

No it wasn't.

They're just babies, man.

0.52 is more than 0.40, I think.

Bury him, reefa.

No but it's not out of the realm of possibility that he would be up for the move, surely? When you look at the likes of Ruben Neves moving there, it's not out of the question he'd be up for it. The money would be truly preposterous and he'd be able to have a very cushy number taking the piss out of much lesser opponents. By all accounts he loved being here under Bruce in a team that had no ambition whatsoever so it depends on what his priorities are.

Do we have loads of official stores in Saudi Arabia selling official merchandise for exorbitant prices? You'd hope so but I've no idea if that's common it even allowed or what

I wouldn't be amazed if we were waiting on Guler to be the first domino to fall in our pursuit of a RW. Hoping to get him as top target... if Guler had gone to Barca maybe there was something to be done with Raphinha... Maybe with those two off the table we might move on other targets.

Massively torn. Really would love to see him get a chance to play for us in the CL, feels he's fully bought in to Howe and knows he's not likely to be moving anywhere better if he does leave. With our lack of quality on the wings, he seems like a must keep? HOWEVER, if there's a Saudi club coming in offering a generous price for him I don't know how we say no. We're seemingly tight for FFP and selling him would give us some massive breathing room to do business this year. Could probably add two or three very good players and break even this year on FFP from an ASM sale. Give us time to grow our revenue in the next couple of years until we're at the point we don't have to make such moves.

Traitors game has potential to be just full of rage

Aye, nice to see us in there for him but think a prospect like Guler is a bit beyond our reach right now. Was hoping he'd go to Barca and they'd flog us Raphinha, mind

Pray for Ikon.

I'd hope that Tonali would be able to play those passes too but yeah, in general I'd share the concerns. Particularly with ASM being a huge question mark in terms of expecting him to be fit for very long. Personally I'd rather see us buy a winger and use Joelinton primarily as a CM who can play LW when needed, just trying to see the logic in going another way. If the wide players we really want aren't attainable this summer and the value is in building a quality group of CMs, I won't hate it. Go into next summer with fewer holes and better FFP flexibility and you could be looking at adding a Raphinha or a Kvaratskhelia level player instead of settling for a Harvey Barnes this year.

I could see us signing another CM instead of a winger. It depends on where we see Joelinton playing most of his football, really. If we want to play Joelinton on the LW, he and ASM is a pretty good pair of options. Then Gordon and Miggy on the right. You'd also potentially have Isak playing off Wilson in one of the wide roles too. Would leave us with Tonali, Bruno, Willock and Longstaff in CM. Four players for three spots is very thin so spending on another CM makes some sense? Would likely lead to some frustration next year as we'd still lack a bit of guile in our wingers but add a LB too and we'd be solid as fuck at the back and in the middle. Then focus on adding some top quality wingers next summer when we can hopefully push the boat out a bit more financially and won't have so many holes in the squad.

I'm sure they have a very well thought out plan for how to develop him into a crucial member of the first team squad.

I sometimes wonder about the things Adam Schefter has done in life to get where he is

Poor Mike. It was good of you all to leave it as long as you did tbh