Memphis

I think based on preseason it would be difficult not to have Anderson in the starting XI. He's been consistently excellent, shows a lot of desire, plenty of creativity and vision, energy for days. I actually think the front 3 is going to be these three for Villa - Gordon, Isak, Almirón. All full of running, obviously Gordon missed two great chances but his link play was good, he was covering a lot of ground. 

I would say Tonali is probably going to start on the bench. Patchy play. Very composed, as you'd expect, and some moments of brilliance, but still figuring out how to play in this style.

My guess for Villa is:

Pope

Trippier

Schar

Botman 

Burn

Bruno

Joe

Anderson

Gordon

Almirón

Isak

Very strong bench as well. 

I completely understand why he is being sold and yet I do hate to lose a true *character*. They are rarer and rarer in these days of milquetoast footballers, he was different, he was a brilliant guy off the pitch and truly seemed to fall in love with the club, the fans, and the area. There is always more to the story and I'm sure it wasn't all perfect in the changing room, but from a fan's perspective, what a beautiful footballer and there's no doubt he will be missed. 

Lots of players have left clubs they've been at for decades and haven't put together a goodbye like his. Special guy.

Looks as good a prospect as we've produced in quite a while. Composed well beyond his years. He seems to have an extra half-second on the ball, that's the mark of a class player. He's going to push for minutes all season long and that's going to do nothing but make our squad stronger. 

I certainly think the Ruben Neves deal gives us all the cover we need. ASM should be worth at least as much as him given age and potential. Once again, the PL clubs are all fart and no shit when it comes to dealing with these issues. It's going through just fine.

On 18/07/2023 at 13:05, Memphis said:

Remember - there's going to be a massive outcry if and when we sell ASM to a Saudi team. So there's no doubt that publicly we will want the price to appear as low as possible, but privately I would assume that there will be a sale for as much as we can possibly justify when the books are eventually revealed.

This is exactly what I was talking about several days ago. We will have to publicly take a bit less than maximum value because everyone is shitting themselves. But I suspect that the terms.of the deal privately will be just fine for us.

We do love a good interminable wait to officially announce a signing, don't we?

There's no AI in the world that could come up with nonsense like that, I truly feel more human now than ever.

Personally I still think we need at least 20 more pages of debate about ASM vs Barnes. We haven't solved it yet but I bet we all agree by page 430.

If he's healthy - and presumably we have determined he is - he is talented enough to make this an incredible deal. You do not get the chance to buy 20 year olds of his ability very often. This could be a perfect situation for him to ease back into regular action. I have full confidence in our medical staff to maximise his capabilities. He could be worth 3x this amount in 2-3 years if he stays healthy, his ceiling is that high. I'll never be upset with taking a punt on a player of that quality.

this video sums it up really well for me - forget the clickbait title, the actual content is really well-thought out. 

Few players have been as good in theory - yet quite a bit less so in reality - as Allan Saint-Maximin. The idealized ASM would be worth 150m. The actual one is not.

Regardless of whether you rate him or not (I'm kind of in-between, fwiw), he's signing. I don't really see the point in going on and on about how he's shit, we'll all find out soon enough.

It is important to point out how Howe's coaching has consistently gotten the best out of a number of players, especially those with the profile of Barnes. Barnes likes a 1-2, keeps it simple, has a good finish on him, that's it. That will be perfect for the link play we like to execute on the wings. 

I think he'll do quite well. If he doesn't, he'll be gone. Hope he's a huge success.

It's totally understandable to be a bit upset that ASM is being sold. He's such a talented player, so much fun to watch. 

But there has to be a ruthlessness in terms of finding a group of 15-20 players that play exactly how you need them to play as a team. Look at Pep last year with Joao Cancelo - he was an undeniably huge talent at LB, but he wasn't playing the way Pep wanted. He let him go and replaced him with Nathan Ake (and sometimes the young Rico Lewis). That's a drop in skill level for sure, but it led to a better run of form and ultimately they won the treble. 

Sometimes you have to move past pure talent in search of a proper team fit. And on top of that, if his sale allows us to be more flexible in acquiring new players, all the better.

You can imagine Tonali and Bruno working together so well. So much tactical versatility because both can do so many things. Both love to pass and move, love to make themselves available, combine that with the physicality of Joelinton, there won't be many that can compete with us in the middle of the park.

We look incredible considering how early this is in preseason and who's not actually out there. 

That little first time chip ball over the top for Wilson was special, not a lot of players would even have seen that as a possibility.

Hilarious that we're pressing the 41-year-old keeper starting because it's his testimonial. Poor guy is going to tear a muscle.

Tonali is tidy as fuck. So smooth, completely unrattled. Set up Anderson for Almiron's goal with a terrific, quick slotted pass through traffic. 

Listening to Lovenkrands on commentary for Rangers TV and he was just beaming about Newcastle, going on and on about the supporters, the fans, you could hear how much he cares about the club, it was lovely actually.

Remember - there's going to be a massive outcry if and when we sell ASM to a Saudi team. So there's no doubt that publicly we will want the price to appear as low as possible, but privately I would assume that there will be a sale for as much as we can possibly justify when the books are eventually revealed.

It would be incredible if we did all of this posturing about FFP only to then go and spend 100m on Kvaratskhelia.

https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/37996709/usl-set-vote-promotion-relegation-august-source

The USL - the second-tier league in the US behind MLS - is set to vote next month on adding promotion and relegation. Right now there's a 24-team Championship, a 12-team League One, and a disparate League Two that's sort of like a National League, still regional and with a lot of relatively small teams. Apparently there's enough support that observers think it could be implemented in 2024. I do broadcast work for the USL team in Memphis and I'd love to see the league adopt it. All of us in soccer in the US have been trying to get promotion/relegation incorporated into our leagues, it would be such a gamechanger for the sport. It's a tough sell in the franchise model that MLS uses but if it works in USL, there might be a chance. Keep an eye out. 

Why is this Barnes thing even being discussed at this stage? Surely we have registered interest - whatever the fuck that even means - with a number of clubs and a number of players. And since that seems to be it, what the fuck are people banging on about? This is nothing. 

"Thank you for calling the Leicester City transfer hotline. Your call may be recorded for quality purposes. To register interest in a player, please press one."

"Your interest has been recorded. Thank you for calling."