Shak

Cherki would be an exciting signing for a number of reasons. Obviously, primarily because he's an absolute joy to watch stylistically. However, it would also show some commitment from Eddie to the idea of evolving our playing style. He's been trying to do it this year to mixed results, fair to say. Bringing in Cherki would be committing to the idea by bringing in a player that is going to offer us a lot more in possession, sacrificing something in terms of work rate to get it. Would be all for it, anyway.

I'll be very interested to see Tonali as DM with Bruno to his right and Willock to his left. You'd presume that will be change with Joelinton suspended.

Adds so much him being the base of the midfield. He does everything so quickly, really helps the tempo of our whole team in attack.

Long time since we had a performance like that. We were on it from the first whistle and played with purpose. Aye Leicester were shite but generally when a team is shite it has a lot to do with their opponents being good enough to take advantage and make them look that way. Plenty of games over the last year we've gone up against teams who were nothing special but we've let them grow into the game and find a foothold. Didn't happen today. Tonali at DM looks transformational for us, he does everything with such purpose and tempo.

Fucking Hall The way he plays that pass was class, zipped in there to avoid it bending away from goal to create a better angle for Murphy to run on to it, then it has a load of spin on it to check up so it's the perfect weight too.

Seems like this is exactly where we should be getting Osula on for a run. Much as watching Isak here is a delight.

Man Isak being class again would be a real help

Could do with a nice cathartic thumping here

What if someone offered 8 billion euros?

Us having to choose between Dubravka and the Greek lad is about as wonderful an example of PSR working exactly as intended as you'll get. Instead of buying an upgrade on or quality understudy for Pope we've had to buy some lad that we don't want instead or else face a points deduction. We'll doubtless drop points in the coming weeks now. Great stuff, brilliantly organised sport.

He looked completely shite in his appearances mind you, not gonna be any loss I suspect. Another resounding failure to move a player on before their value hit absolutely nothing.

We need to start identifying and buying players before they become expensive. Players in the 5 to 20 million bracket that we hope can grow into members of the first team, or at the very least will maintain their value and can be sold on for future PSR contributions. It's very obviously the best way to compete with the current PSR rules yet it hasn't been part of the strategy almost at all. We tried it once with Minteh. It was a massive success and we haven't tried it again. I guess Osula fits the description, maybe? Bakayoko I remember us being linked with for reasonable fees last year. That was the time to move on him, not now when the fees quoted are vastly higher. Elanga I'm sure Eddie could turn into a solid player but he's going to be very expensive, there'll be dozens of players with similar potential around the world who'll cost a fraction of what Elanga will. There's a fair argument to be made that RW is a priority position and we need someone ready to step in and make an immediate impact. It's just very frustrating to me that we haven't moved on fringe players like Wilson, Murphy and Almiron for modest fees and reinvested that money on promising talent. We apparently walked away from 8m for Almiron in the summer. We couldn't have let him go and brought in a youngster from abroad that might have grown into something? Seems the plan was for Miggy to sit on the bench all year, anyway.

I don't think firing Howe at the moment would be a wise move and don't expect it to happen. However, in the event that Howe is let go I would really hope that Mitchell gets a major say in who takes his place as the manager and chief recruiter being on the same page is critical.

I mean there's no way Mike would have been OK with that.

If they play in the playoffs I'm insisting you get tickets and go. I'll be happy for you however the game goes

So yeah, for months myself and @Mike were planning to go over for this game. Mike got cold feet because he decided Liverpool would hump us. I went to the Brighton game instead, while Mike isn't coming over for a game this season. The big cunt.

Good player but fairly obvious why we'd sell him. We've just given Gordon a big extension, he's clearly the future at the LW position. We've got Joelinton who can play there and if we ever get around to buying another striker then the option to use Isak there (particularly late in games) has proven effective. It's also the position Sanusi plays, could see him being in and around the first team next season. If the sale of Barnes funds a purchase at a position of more need it'll be for the best.

Surely it's natural for people to look for problems that we can address, though? I'm not sure what you can do other than hope Isak starts putting them away. There's no other option to take his place, realistically. Definite argument to be made that Barnes could start ahead of Gordon given how wasteful the latter has been in front of goal this season.

Been watching Shogun as well?

Would have been a beautiful goal that.

Do people think we'll see Joelinton on the right to start? Would be my preference, personally.

Quite like the look of that stadium tbh

Huge, not just the result but the performance. We've found something with Joelinton back playing in a wide position, allowing the wide CM to overlap. It's linking the midfield and attack and has got Murphy out of the team. We're seeing Bruno in an advanced position, we saw the second half even before Tonali came on he had Longstaff sitting and Bruno further up. Buzzing like!!

It would be the most Joelinton thing imaginable if he were to step up and solve the RW problem. He'll never be a massive creative force but he has so much more about him than Murphy or Almiron in his general play and if it allows Gordon to play left then it adds so much to our team.