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That's a ridiculous amount to pay for a loan fee.

Gayle isn't a Benitez type striker, IMO. His hold up play isn't good enough.

We don't. If we can keep things tight at the back, 40-50 goals will be enough to survive. Easily. Let's say it goes something like this: Mitrovic - 10, possible because he's done it Joselu - 8-10 Perez/#10 - 5-8 Shelvey/CMs - 3-5 Wingers - 5-10 Defenders - 3-5 That gets us 35-47 goals. Stoke scored 41 last year, Swansea scored 42, Watford 40, West Brom 34, Palace 39. We'll be in the range. A 15 goal a season striker is almost a guaranteed top 10 place if he's not the only contributor.

I would take a draw from this match. Our squad is still weak, a point will do while we win our home games.

Dembele should be bought with another winger, someone like Lemar. Who's to say Dembele starts out on fire. There's going to be far too much pressure on him because he'll be the only pacy player Barca will have in their front 6.

You should be buying them both. Man, Barca have spent a fuckton of money recently and not got a lot to show for it. They need someone to replace Iniesta, another high quality central midfielder and another winger. It should be Coutinho, Lemar plus another midfielder. That would make them competitive for the CL this year. Messi's slowing down, you need pace around him.

I would still like more pace in the team but Richie's not going anywhere at the moment.

Yeah. This is my feeling on this now. Jovetic plus a LB would make it an acceptable window. Jovetic would be a huge upgrade on Perez.

Barca have lacked forward thinking for the last 3 years. Wasting the end of Messi's prime. Such a shame.

It wouldn't be worth it. Messi is not worth that much to City. He is to Barca, though.

I like Madrid rejects. Madrid have been excellent in the market lately, this guy will be all right for us.

Seems like a smart signing. Now we need more pace in the team.

I don't see what the big deal is in losing to a team that had won 12 of their last 13 games last year. And we had two injuries in the first half. And Shelvey got sent off. We weren't good but it wasn't bad.

I think you are confused mind, Perez is the one Arsenal want 20m for not Wilshere. The mirror article says they want 17m for Perez and 20m for Wilshere.

No one's going to pay 20m for Wilshere. I'm excited if we get the fully fit Wilshere but on the other hand, we don't have the money to pay someone to be injured for half the year. Maybe next year.

Aye. Looking fairly comfortable at 0-0 at HT and quite a few people pissing their pants that we hadn't completely outclassed Spurs and knocked in four or five Yeah, not like anyone is actually basing their opinion on watching us over the last 4 or 5 years is it. Watch every other premiership game this weekend, regardless of the red card we were creating nothing. It's clear to see there is nothing in this team to make us comfortable this year. Going to be relying on moments of brilliance. Even Brighton gave City more of a go yesterday. I expected us to lose today, but I also expected us to have a few corners, see their keeper have to make a few saves. We're exactly the same team as last season. Go back and read match threads if you want a reminder of how poor we actually played. But of course, that means I expect us to be Barca. This has always been the Benitez game plan, though: solid defensively, attack smart but not risky. Relies on creativity. Gayle can't create for himself and Perez is rubbish. Either need a striker making his own chances or a quality number 10. Seen plenty of poorer teams actually playing attacking football and it working. Relying on defensive tactics is one of the hardest tactics to make successful. I trust Rafa to do it but we need 4 or 5 more players, and they're not coming. We're going to play better football than WBA but we're going to have to win a bunch of tight games to survive this year. I think we can do it but we need pace up front. Looking forward to seeing Murphy play next week. Mitrovic will be useful when we're down.

I enjoyed this.

Aye. Looking fairly comfortable at 0-0 at HT and quite a few people pissing their pants that we hadn't completely outclassed Spurs and knocked in four or five Yeah, not like anyone is actually basing their opinion on watching us over the last 4 or 5 years is it. Watch every other premiership game this weekend, regardless of the red card we were creating nothing. It's clear to see there is nothing in this team to make us comfortable this year. Going to be relying on moments of brilliance. Even Brighton gave City more of a go yesterday. I expected us to lose today, but I also expected us to have a few corners, see their keeper have to make a few saves. We're exactly the same team as last season. Go back and read match threads if you want a reminder of how poor we actually played. But of course, that means I expect us to be Barca. This has always been the Benitez game plan, though: solid defensively, attack smart but not risky.

Holding my breath because everyone in my league has captained Kane, not that anyone on here gives a fuck. But still.

We need what Benitez knew we already needed: a LB, pace up front and a keeper.

Really glad we made his move permanent. Think he'll enjoy the space he'll be given this year, seeing as we'll be underdogs for almost every match. Teams will be coming onto us.

Agreed here. Looking forward to Murphy being given a chance in the next game. We're just desperate for pace to support Gayle.

Merino looks good. Not slow, good on the ball. Would be a good partner for a sane Shelvey.

We didn't have time in the second half to give it a go, that dumb fuck Shelvey got sent off first. Pardew style tactic that. Why not try in the first half? It's not tactics though, it's players. No creativity. We didn't defend hopelessly like we did under Pardew, though. There was some semblance of control in our defending. Can't overreact to this, Spurs hammer teams so often and we looked all right before Shelvey fucked up.

We didn't have time in the second half to give it a go, that dumb fuck Shelvey got sent off first.