Minhosa

I can understand why Howe might have been reluctant to buy younger players with high ceilings (due to lack of time on the grass this year) but I fucking wish it was an approach the club had insisted on because where we have invested money, the liklihood of any of them actually increasing in value is miniscule. The Mitchell appointment has really harmed us tbh. There's just been no strategic thinking around recruitment beyond 'survive/get through each window' since the takeover. We need a recruitment plan urgently and last summer has majorly fucked us. If ever there was a time to call in a favour from our friends in KSA, it's now.

Again, he was the summer signing I was most excited about, couldn't wait to see what Howe would do with his development. As it is, he's in danger of becoming Jacob 'Neat and Tidy' Ramsey. For £45m he just hasn't delivered anywhere near enough as yet. He's the one I'm still hopeful has the most upside potential from last summer but he needs to start imposing himself on games and quickly.

Aye, agreed and I was being as generous as I could tbh. This is where Ross Wilson has to be earning his coin right now tbh. He should be working on the Tonali replacement now, the Tino replacement now and, ideally, should be developing an approach whereby we're bringing them in and through the year before the big sales happen. This is what fucks me off about last summer, the wasted money will almost certainly mean one or two less bodies through the door this summer - they could be the Lewis Hall replacement, the future Bruno replacement because none of the superstars are staying forever. As it is, we'll miss out on those replacements due to lack of funds whilst we've got £110m tied up in dumb and fucking dumber.

Agreed. That’s what is pissing me off. Far more than a transitional season, it’s the sheer waste of the Isak profit last summer. An utterly criminal use of funds. Should have been our opportunity to kick on, strengthen across the board (even if we were a little weaker up top with his loss). We’ve actually created even more problems for ourselves with our recruitment. Appreciate they perhaps weren’t expecting the Isak strike but, fuck me, Wissa and Elanga, were the best you could come up with to use £110m? The failing isn’t in signing dogshit, it’s in not having a plan B or expecting the eventuality that we’d need replacements for players attractive to the top few clubs. We HAVE to have learnt from that this year when the inevitable happens with other players because we simply cannot afford another reactionary window.

If he’s anywhere near fit, he’s got to be starting this lad. - Knows the system. - Knows what Howe wants from a forward - doesn’t drop deeper than the Atlantic - Doesn’t require the use of a zimmer frame - Is the only forward we have with mobility. The minute he’s capable of 60 mins, I’d be starting him.

I think it's hard to argue against giving him a proper summer with a proper sporting director and some structure above him in light of all he's achieved. If we accept that we're all likely to make a mistake at some stage, his transfer success rate has been remarkable and he's probably 'allowed' a fuck up or two (Hello Messr's Elanga and Wissa). I'd like to see him given this summer to have a more planned, thought through and less reactionary window than the last one. I still have a lot of sympathy with him given everything he's had to deal with since his arrival but, there's no question, he's invited far more scrutiny as a result of how last summers budget was spent. He's now under the microscope on every transaction and will be for a while I suspect. Not ideal when you need to transform our GK deparment, striking department and oversee some major sales - all this summer - all in a world cup year.

I disagree on JSL. I think he'd have fitted our style of play from last season really well. He's got a presence, can hold the ball up and can lead a press. I'm not saying he'd have been perfect nor great value at the rumoured £60m or whatever it was but he'd have been a safer bet than either of those we bought in terms of fit imho.

I have a feeling this was why he was so keen on Guehi originally. Perfect age, profile and a PL level captain so an ideal role model for the younger lads.

The issue there being we have at least two departments which require a total overhaul: GK and Forwards. There's an argument to say our midfield does too tbh if/when Sandro goes. Because of the shitshow that was last summer, we're back to having zero room for error again.

I think we'll have no choice but to sacrifice a couple of top players to enable us to have the budget to go again this summer as we'll, realistically, not be able to ship out some of the dogshit we've brought in for anything but a PSR loss.

Is he living back here now? Randomly saw him out yesterday with his Mrs and kids. Looked like he could still be playing. Still in great nick.

Assist for Rayan today…

Awful first half corners tonight.

Miles off it again tonight. What the fuck has happened to his distribution man?

Yep. He’s completely finished at this level now.

Trust me, it doesn’t.

If JSL was fully fit and available, he’s miles more mobile and stronger than the two we signed. IMHO, he’d have been a better buy.

Camera operators knew what they were doing with that shot.

Or maybe we could all just adopt sarcasm after every post, wouldn’t that be wacky? Not at all boring that.

Appreciate this is easy to say with hindsight, but I did call it before the game, I can’t understand starting Trippier over Miley here btw. Even Trippiers delivery is shite these days.

I hope we do.

I don’t think we need a ‘world class’ individual, I think we need a mobile, ball ‘holder-upper’ with a turn of pace. loooooads of them available who are better than what we bought. I’ll be in a minority here I’m sure, but both Calvert-Lewin and JSL would have been miles better for us than what we bought.

I didn’t. He’s nailed on to end up there imho.

We now need a massive summer window 2026 to recover from the shitshow that was summer 2025. The question is, will we have the funds? We basically need to rebuild the front three and sort out the GK department as priorities imho.

Anyone else notice he always turns up against them scouse cunts? The bloke is effectively flirting with them every time we play. His effort levels go up massively every time we play them.