Andy

All of our midfielders are shite in front of goal tbf. He's probably the best of the bunch and that's arguably his worst attribute.

I'm sure it'll get sorted, but if not, it would be a huge misstep to let Big Joe go. As well as being the embodiment of the club's rise from the dust over the last few years, he's easily our most dynamic player. It'll be difficult to find a player who adequately replaces what he brings.

Aye. "We won't get £20m for him so we should sell him for £12m". Erm, how about we just keep him instead?

Frankly can't believe we've laughed off £13m for a 33 year old Kieran Trippier and allegedly want around £25m for Miguel Almiron. Do our owners think they're playing football manager?

The market has changed since then, and he is worth far more to us both on and off the field than he was to Atletico.

You're referring to my post in the Almiron thread which you quoted earlier, which I'd like to correct you on - it was in Euros. £25m from Saudi is fair value for a player who hit double figures last season and is a regular premier league starter. If you think £11m for Trippier is good value you're clueless btw.

I don't know what's more laughable, the idea that we'd want £11m for him or the idea that Bayern wouldn't instantly stump up such a small fee for a player of his ability. He still has a good 2 or 3 years left in him tbh, 33 isn't as old as people make it out to be in the current game; it's not like he's had an injury plagued career. People are completely blinded by that dip on form he had in December, prior to that he was playing the best football of his career.

I don't rate Miggy, but in the current market, £25-30m to a Saudi club isn't unrealistic like, when you look at what they've spunked on other players. In terms of contributions, he's been far more valuable for us over the past 12 months than ASM ever was for example, and he fetched a similar fee.

I don't think he does fuck all else on the pitch and never said that, you created an argument where there wasn't one I was assessing him on his output as a wide forward with the "purple patch" comment. My comparison was also directly with Murphy, who works almost equally as hard so the more relevant point of comparison was their output.

I don't disagree with that, but at some point you have to replace graft with consistent end product when it comes to wide forwards. The only way we'll ever be able to do that is by selling squad players like Miggy when their stocks are as high as they're going to get.

If you remove that spell from last season where everything he hit was going in, it's a different story though. It's not unfair to say it was a purple patch given that he's never replicated it before or after. Wingers back in the day were more the traditional cross early/beat a man and cross type too. Not inverted forwards as they are now. Someone like Robert for example was far more effective than Miggy even though he scored less goals for us.

That says more about the standard of wingers we've had for the majority of that time to be fair. The few decent ones we've had have been moved on far more swiftly than Miggy.

The problem is, Miggy should also be a squad player, not a starter. But of all the players you could define by that sentence, he's by far the one you could get the most money for. If the club HAVE to sell someone, he is the best option imo.

Thanks Ian, I wasn't aware of that Murphy would start on the right with Gordon as a back up on that side, assuming we bring no one else in. You lose far less than you do selling literally any other player IMO. Murphy is no less a PL player than Almiron either tbh, they're both average. Miggy is dining off one purple patch in his entire time here.

He has a reported market value of around €30m, so if you can get between that and €40m for him as "fair value" then it's a sensible transfer with Murphy and Barnes due back. His energy is unparalleled but at some point you have to trade that in for actual quality.

This is my thinking too. Our entire attacking setup is built around Trippier, unless you can replace him with someone else creative in midfield, we would basically be throwing away any hopes of a European push imo. In fact I think we'd drift further down the table if anything, taking the injury crisis into account too. I get the long term side of it, but as a January sale I'm certainly not thrilled to see him go.

In fairness, the club will push this line to the local press for any player who large chunks of fans like, even if they were actively trying to shift him on. It just makes for better optics. Local press for both clubs are often the least reliable sources in deals like this.

The problem is that £25m doesn't replace the goal contributions we'd immediately lose. Our entire attack is structured through Trippier's overlaps. We could deal with that in the summer, and would obviously have to deal with it eventually anyway, but with the finances as they are, and other positions being a priority, it's hard to see how you replace those assists between now and the end of the season.

I reckon Spurs fans probably said similar about Kane tbf. Bayern are a massive and extremely difficult club for a player to reject, the only saving grace is that Trippier has previously been abroad and returned due to home sickness.

As I said in my previous post, severe loss of form, reacting to a fan and arguing with him which was completely out of character, looking rattled as fuck against Chelsea.. And, well, accepting a deal to leave the club to move to a foreign country when he previously left Atletico because his family was home sick abroad. It could all be coincidental, but to me there has been something going on with him

Where did I mention anything about the rumours regarding his extra-marital activities? Is the burglary at his home not a personal issue as and of itself? It could certainly warrant him wanting to leave if his family don't feel safe in the area. There could also be other issues going on behind the scenes that involve neither of these things. There's clearly something up with him.

It seems like something has happened with Trippier behind the scenes, the signs have been there a while - leaving the England camp, his proceeding massive drop off in form, the argument with the fan.. As hard as it is to take, it's entirely possible he's asked us to find him a move. He's shown in the past that he's willing to make sudden career changes for personal reasons.

Would obviously be mental to let him go. At 33, no club is going to make an offer that matches the value of his influence and leadership, as well as how vital he is in our system. I'd rather see pretty much any other player leave, except for maybe Joelinton. Pretty jarring how much this transfer window has felt like an Ashley-era one like, complete contrast to the last few.

He had a few good moments and a handful of half decent games, and that's probably about as much as I can really say about him. The definition of a forgettable player. Was surprised to see how many games he'd played for us tbh.

I think this is absolutely the case. Pope is very good at "sweeper keeping", and it's definitely one of Dubravka's weaknesses. In his first few games back in the team, it was exploited massively, and since then we have visibly played with a deeper line.