KaKa

Cannot believe what I am reading over the last few pages about McTominay after the responses over the summer when I argued he wasn't a bad player, and could see how he would fit as an 8 in Howe's system.

Now he's scored some goals this season playing that role it's a different story. Seemingly the case a lot of the time that players are so overlooked unless they are in an obvious rich vein of form.

Gallagher is another supposedly nothing player that is looking strong this season.

Two players that had folks losing it when we were linked a few months back. 

5 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

I don't know if any of them are "really good players". 1 of them can't even stay it. None of them have excellent reputations in the game in comparison to a Nathan Ake.

 

I think we need a top CB/LB. A Nathan Ake would actually be perfect for us especially if Howe wants to stick to the same profile as Burn.

 

If we sell multiple squad players - bringing in cheap squad players is a good idea.

Yeah, I get it. People don't pay attention to most players till they move to better clubs and start doing well.

Spurs and Liverpool look to be snooping around Kelly and Tosin. Let's see how the narrative changes when they end up at one of those and start doing well.

Just now, The College Dropout said:

He went to Bournemouth for £20m in 2017. He's always been a highly-rated player. He's rated higher than Botman to this day. He was a wonderkid at Chelsea. The fact he went to City after relegation says it all about his reputation—a good £40m to boot.

 

His pedigree is higher than any of the Bournemouth players you've mentioned. A lot higher. Ake went for x10 more money from Chelsea to Bournemouth as Tosin to Fulham. It's a different level of prospect.

 

 

I'm not against any of those transfers again. The one I've watched the most I like and don't have strong opinions on the others. But comparing it to £40m Nathan Ake or keeps our star CB on the bench for the NT doesn't make sense to me. 

The point was that not every signing we make has to be a blockbuster signing.

Man City signing Ake was not a major or big signing for them for where they were at the time. Even they make shrewd signings in the market. Similar to Akanji or even Alvarez.

Not sure why this is difficult to understand?

For our current standing, Kelly and Tosin might not be flashy names, but they are really good players that I think would  outperform expectations.

10 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

Nathan Ake was a genuine wonderkid and a fine player. He keeps Sven Botman out the national team and has racked up £61m in transfer fees. I think he's a better player than Sven tbh.

 

It's not the same as Lloyd Kelly or Phillip Billing.

 

I'm not against any of those transfers btw. I have no feelings on Kelly, Billing has always looked like a good player to me and Toney is a great player (and he won't be coming back here). But it's not comparable to Nathan Ake.

Ake was at Bournemouth because he had lost his way at Chelsea who were mismanaging him. Even when Man City signed him there was no big clamour for him and it took him a while to settle there. It was looking like he was going to be sold for a while.

Lloyd Kelly has always been very highly rated since his Bristol City days. Could easily see him moving to a better club and reaching much higher levels.

The freebies I was thinking about for my post were actually Kelly and Adarabioyo.

Tosin again, was a big talent at Man City that left because there were just too many ahead of him.

If we can sign Kelly and Tosin on frees we are absolutely laughing.

2 hours ago, loki679 said:

When the takeover finally happened I was on cloud nine hoping we might just be able to sign the likes of Lloyd Kelly, Phil Billing and Ivan Toney.  It's what dreams are made of.

 

 

 

We're not going to get anywhere with this mindset. 

I remember Man City signing Ake from Bournemouth without too much fuss, another left back/left centre back Howe signed while he was there, from Chelsea. Now look at the impact he has had at Man City.

How about Akanji from Dortmund, who they signed for £15 million or so, again without much fuss, and deemed a pretty solid centre back at the time, but no world beater necessarily. Look at him now though.

Every signing can't be a blockbuster name man. I don't know why this would be the expectation for every signing.

18 minutes ago, Lush Vlad said:

Tosin has been linked with Spurs and Liverpool, hasn’t he? Guessing the former might not be so interested now after getting Dragusin. 
 

 

Yeah, Spurs signing Dragusin probably rules them out and Quansah coming through at Liverpool maybe makes them less likely too.

11 minutes ago, Segun Oluwaniyi said:

They did not have a chance to get forward. Zaidu, Iwobi, and Aina made sure of this. They were abhorrent. The team has potential with a real coach, they will appoint a European nobody or an uncle.

 

Congrats to CIV.

Yeah, our setup was so defensive and unimaginative going forward the whole tournament. We were like an Allardyce or Pulis team. Such a waste of Osimhen upfront. 

Ivory Coast have a lot of talent and they went for it more. Hard to believe they weren't more convincing throughout the tournament really. Adingra was great, cooked Aina every which way. 

Kelly and Tosin on free transfers to add depth to left back/left centre back and right centre back would be incredible business.

Congrats Ivory Coast. Well deserved. They were the better team. Naija not good enough going forward at all.

Moyes really left Cornet on the bench and played Johnson the right back on the wing and still have conceded 6 so far. My goodness.

1 hour ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

I would only swap Howe for Pep in the PL and, given this is meant to be the best league in the world, that means he’s a brilliant manager. 

There's a fair few that just can't see this.

I really think a fair few on here really just ought to go ahead and support Man City and enjoy their lives.

All the talk about our players not being technical enough, how we need more control of games, how we shouldn't be losing to this or that team, us not spending enough money, the squad not being good enough quickly enough, going on about us being the richest club in the world and so we should act like it ... etc etc etc.

They are just so desperate to be Man City and so why not just support them?

Instead they remain and complain constantly about everything that isn't as it is at Man City all the time.

42 minutes ago, LionOfGosforth said:

Great win. But these match threads man, seen EH described as "a fucking idiot" and a "fraud" over the course of 90 minutes. Fucking shocking following these threads.

Not worth following the match thread once all that nonsense starts. I usually just bounce now.

It is just so embarrassing, cringe worthy and clueless.

9 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

No, I’m with you - I’m not suggesting that Howe’s achievements are unimpressive.  I’m suggesting that Howe isn’t necessarily going to ‘peak’ in his 50s somehow.  There’s a good chance he’s at his managerial peak - but he hasn’t had the platform to win trophies yet.

 

His only full season with us so far saw him one game away from a trophy.  He might still win one this season yet. 

Yeah, this is really his first chance to show that he can compete for honours. I think the signs look really good. We tend to play really well against the better teams, with a squad that still needs work.

We have spent money, but a lot of it was to simply catch up, due to the lack of spending under Ashley. A lot of our improvement has been due to Howe turning around the fortunes of players we were stuck with that had under performed or been under utilised.

I want to see what he can do once the squad has been built up a bit more. I also think this year's experience managing things with European football will be great for him. It's his first time ever having to deal with that, and there will definitely be some major learnings from it.

Just now, Ghandis Flip-Flop said:

 Think even last week's result needs some context applying. Luto had just smashed Brighton 4-0 so had their tails right up. And how many other Newcastle teams would have withered away when their 4th went in? 
 

if you’d have said before the Villa game we'll get four points from the next two games, most fans would’ve been very happy with that. Does the fact the three of those four points came at Villa Park instead of at home as expected really change that?

Luton have been playing really well for a while now.

They gave both Man City and Arsenal a hell of a time a couple of weeks back.

And like you said they just came off a huge high of battering Brighton.

2 hours ago, TheBrownBottle said:

I’m happy for him to be here, but 46 isn’t young for a manager tbf.  
 

By point of comparison to some big names, Alex Ferguson had won several Scottish titles and won the CWC with Aberdeen after beating Real Madrid in the final; Rafa Benitez, Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola had won the European Cup; Jurgen Klopp won the Bundesliga and lost a European Cup final; Arsene Wenger was at Arsenal having previously won the Ligue 1 title with Monaco; Brian Clough had won two league titles and two European Cups with Forest; Arrigo Sacchi had won two European Cups with his great Milan side;  Rinus Michels had won three European Cups with Ajax … and so on, and so forth.

 

Doesn’t mean Howe won’t be successful, but he isn’t a young manager.  

Howe took a different route though. He didn't start off at a club in the first division that could realistically compete for honours.

What he achieved at Bournemouth was pretty extraordinary and ended up completely changing the trajectory of that club, and ultimately allowed them to be in a position to be bought by a wealthy owner and now likely become an established premier league club for good.

There's an argument that his achievements at Bournemouth can be held up in just as high regard. Are there any other examples of similar in recent times?

4 minutes ago, Shearergol said:

 

Good luck to him then.

Be interesting to see what happens.

It's a significant wage for us to pay at this moment in time, but in the grand scheme of things, it's not a massive wage in football nowadays.

1 hour ago, Optimistic Nut said:

If the fans start turning on Howe, the Ashley and Bruce days are everything we deserve. I get criticism of tactics, etc but if that happens the fans can get to fuck. 

I said this not too long ago that a lot of fans might just have been getting what they deserved under the old regime.

Howe has only managed to keep us up under dire circumstances, and then get us into the top 4 since he joined. 

His first time in Europe as a manager and learning to navigate all that, and people think he should be turned on.

Howe deserves better tbh.

46 minutes ago, Shearergol said:

Which of those clubs can afford his wage demands then?

£160,000 a week?

I've just had a look at Atletico's wages on Capology.com, and they have 5 players on over 200,000 euros a week. One of which is Morata.

There's an article claiming we bid £40 million for Koopmeiners in January.

https://www.ilbianconero.com/a/juventus-fari-accesi-su-teun-koopmeiners-e-il-primo-obiettivo-ma-95006

Nagelsmann loved him and was going to take him to Leipzig with him before we came in for him I remember reading.

I could also see a manager like Simeone signing him for Atletico, as well as a number of Italian teams.

In a team with more quality around him, where he could keep things simpler he'd look even better.

Joelinton is invaluable. 100% commitment and follows tactical instructions to a tee. If we make him available people would be shocked at the teams that show interest and the price they'd be willing to pay I think.

55 minutes ago, Jaqen said:

Reminder we've beat Villa X2, Man u X2, Arsenal, City, PSG and Chelsea this season alone with clueless Eddie and his terrible system. 

Say it louder please.

Cannot believe the blind spots some people have.

I honestly don't think most people enjoy the sport or supporting the team for what it is.

I could understand it under Mike Ashley because he was grossly mismanaging everything, but it turns out that didn't have anything to do with it after all.

It's just another avenue and opportunity to complain and be angry about something.

Enjoying the sport and supporting the team is conditional on the club buying the players they want, the manager playing the tactics they want, the manager selecting the team they want and the team getting the results they expect, as if it's a video game.

And so you have the constant complaints about players we're linked with, tactics, the manager, team selections, and my personal favourite, complaints about how we shouldn't be losing to certain teams, never giving any credit to how good other teams might have done, as if that is how football works.

I do wish it was possible to have a section of the forum for a more reasoned following of the team.

Gary O'Neill is no joke. Very impressive.

29 minutes ago, Novocastrian said:

He needs to eradicate this blind spot he has very quickly. Elite managers don’t continually make mistakes like that.

As mentioned in one of my other posts, both Mourinho and Conte were keeping Bissouma out of the match day squad throughout their tenures, in teams that had no control over matches, and were playing Skipp and Hojberg ahead of him.

Completely exposed this season by an understated Aussie manager with a fraction of their experience at the top level.

4 minutes ago, Holmesy said:

Literally every top team and every elite manager uses two pacey, mobile, creative fullbacks.
Eddie isn’t better than all of them and doesn’t know something they don’t. There’s a very obvious reason none of them use a 6 foot 7 lumbering giant who moves like a 4 story blocks of flats at full back. Because it’s a shit idea and it isn’t effective! 

We had the best defence in the league with Burn playing there last season.

It also gives us an advantage on set pieces. He has scored goals this season that have actually won us games.

I'd love a more traditional full back, and think that will come next season, but let's not pretend the manager is some dummy and doesn't know what he's doing.