Shak

Debut off the bench against Wolves perhaps if it's as far along as it sounds.

Jesus Christ monkeyballs.

On the face of it I could see the logic in selling while he's in a bit of form and using the money for a young player with a bit more potential. However, given we're clearly not operating with an unlimited budget and aren't finding it easy to get players in I think selling him now would be madness. He's grown into his role so well and you feel confident he's gonna go out every game and work his huevos off. Ideally we sign someone to ultimately be first choice RW and Almiron isn't part of our strongest eleven, however our squad is super thin and he's shown that he's capable of doing what Howe wants and I'd be confident with him starting on either wing or even in the centre. When he doesn't start he's going to be a great option off and bench with fresh legs, which is the role we're asking Murphy to do and he just hasn't been up to it. Just as much as that though is that he seems to be such a popular guy around the dressing room and club in general. Along with Joelinton, he's a testament to the incredibly united squad that Howe has built and the idea that someone who is completely out of form can work their way back into a key role in the squad. Really does seem like a great group of people we have now and just selling someone off who epitomises it for a quick buck doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

If this does turn out to be something serious then you'd hope the people in charge would be willing to bring in a striker now, assuming one Ashworth and Howe really like is available. Seems inevitable that we'll bring in a big money striker at some point in the next couple of years, I have to believe it's financially feasible to do it now if the desire is really there. Haven't really followed the transfer stuff too closely, anyone able to give me a summary of what the assumed reason is that we're not spending really big this summer?

Any chance this is who we're signing instead of Paqueta/Maddison? Perhaps we see him as the most advanced of our midfield three with Bruno and Joe behind him? My impression was always that we see him as a CF who can play on the wing a bit but sounds like that may not be the case necessarily?

I dunno, with the talent in the squad it would surely be very difficult for any English manager to turn down a chance to lead his country to a World Cup win. Surely the absolute ultimate achievement for anyone is to lead their country to a WC win? Fucking hope not, obviously

Imperative that we sign another CM who's top quality on the ball. If we have another player in there who can match Bruno in terms of quality on the ball then Joe's limitations in that regard won't matter much at all. I go back and forth on whether I want Bruno to be the holding midfielder or put back where he was last season when Shelvey was in the team. With how much Joe gives us defensively I think we can get away with a Maddison/Paqueta type and not be in much danger of getting overrun, so at present I lean that way. But yeah, quite incredible the player Joelinton has turned into.

Build this man a squad and he'll take us where we need to go. Incredible what he's turned us into in less than a year. We went out there and stood toe to toe with that City team and could have beat them. Extend his contract again I say!

Forgot how stressful a great game of football is when you give a shit about the result. This is great

That's a yellow card, happens thousands of times every season and never red.

I'm gonna go against the grain and say I like this thread and Mike isn't a cunt.

Where, where?

Yeah, I do think if we added a quality CM, RW and striker/winger type and then got reasonably lucky with injuries we could make some pretty decent waves this year.

Aye sounds like the guy can play on the wing and if he's got anything about him at all you'd like to think he'd offer more than Murphy did today coming on for ASM.

Really surprised to see Wilson with a 4, don't think he was the worst of our players by any means at all.

Good point. We were pretty shite but it's a testament to the job Howe's done that we weren't exactly run ragged. We're at least capable of keeping the ball and keeping relentless pressure off ourselves these days. Brighton deserved to win but they didn't exactly create a hatful of chances either. Desperately need someone on the right that we can play most of our attacking football through. Almiron has turned into a good squad option but not sure he will ever offer much threat. ASM is too unpredictable to be our main creator, would rather we played down the right more often and created space for him to be the outlet on the left.

Bruno has been really poor, don't think the pass he tried wasn't even on there.

Does seem like this guy makes a lot of sense. Much like Ekitike, you suspect the long term plan is for him to be Wilson's successor but his ability to play multiple positions will mean he'll get plenty of game time while Wilson is still the main man. Hopefully we get this one done, looks an exciting talent.

I've convinced myself that we've just been slow playing this shit all summer and we're gonna absolute drop trou over the next couple of weeks and sign three really exciting players. Imagine the buzz on here if we brought in something like Ramos, Pulisic and Maddison/Paqueta over the next few weeks. Would be so fucking immense

Two Brazilian students in my class got into an argument about the correct pronunciation of Paqueta when I asked them btw. Sounded to me like they were both saying more or less the same thing

Was gonna mention you specifically in my post but forgot if it was you or @cubaricho who's always pulling the balls of themselves about Pulisic

Would be amazing just for all the new American posters we'd get

Just imagined what the reaction on here would be like if we signed Maddison and Paqueta. God, it would be immense