alexf

No one is getting near the top 4 this year. The gap for the rest will be vast. The likes of us, spurs, man u, villa, forest, brighton, fulham etc will all be fighting it out for the remaining 5th place, if it happens to be CL again, might depend on how badly/well we do in it. Surprised Villa have done nothing so far even with their PSR issues. Wouldn't be surprised if they do something sneaky in the final days of the window. Our issue as always when we have Europe will be depth. Our players will burn out/pick up injuries and the slightest slip up will allow others to overtake us easily.

Interesting to look through old posts and realise I was already foreshadowing all of this for myself as early as December last year. and

I think the Isak shit has been a bit of an easy get out for the club on our incomings. It cannot be allowed to be used as an excuse for not getting the bare minimum that we needed. Sure it's an annoying distraction and it's shit that most of our targets we got blown out by other clubs. But if we get to the end of the window and don't have at minimum; a Wilson ST replacement, a Longstaff CM replacement, and a Kelly CB replacement, then it's been a colossal failure. That's just for filling squad depth and not even first 11 level quality and forgetting goalkeeper as Pope might be serviceable for 1 more year, but not ideal. Eddie would be left completely unequipped, and that's even before any notion of an Isak exit. That is unacceptable reward for the man who brought us our first domestic trophy in 70 years, delivered champions league again for 2nd time in 3 years and did all this whilst barely buying a first team player for 3 windows and working with a fraction of the wage bill of some of the cartel clubs we're competing with. Sure some will say this is partly on Eddie as he is helping pick the targets but I'm sure he is willing to compromise. He probably wouldn't have let Wilson or Longstaff leave if he knew he was getting nothing in return.

What would be the benefit to him not to rehab at the training ground? He needs to stay fit/get fit if he wants to move. There's no players or management around for it to be awkward at the moment and there's no need for him to go scorched earth on something as simple as where he's doing his training. Total BS.

I'd have thought that too going into this summer. But players see $$$ and that's all that matters if we're honest. Especially when they have pushy agents who want their cut.

Gyökeres looks the best of the 3 from what I have seen but no idea if it will translate to PL.

That's just a Real Madrid shirt.

That's very true. But then again for the fee they signed him for then compared to what they want now would reflect better value for what he gives you.

This whole thing is just shit. Finally fell back in love with football after the dreadful Ashley years. Had a team and manager could be proud of and we finally won something in my lifetime which I was starting to wonder if it would ever happen. Then despite having a great season last year we are about to lose our best player in a generation. Even though the club were telling us we're in a good place this summer, have funds and that Isak still has 3 years to run so under no pressure to sell. The idea of us wilting under abit of pressure from the mighty Liverpool is really depressing and sets us back years.

He hasn't even come out to confirm or deny the quotes that he wants to leave. So it will be incredibly easy for them to PR this with a straight bat if he stays. "Alex had an injury as we announced and unfortunately couldn't join the preseason tour. But he's been working hard back at the training ground to recover quickly and is hopeful of being fit for the start of the season. Alex is aware of the speculation around him but just wants to focus on his football." There. easy as that.

Coutinho left in what 2018? For £120m? Grealish in 2020 for £100m? That would be the equivalent of people offering £200m-250m now in today's valuations. You don't turn down that money and neither would we. Both players went for way above their realistic valuations at the time. We're talking about Isak being sold for under his true valuation even with 3 years left on his deal just because he allegedly said he wants to explore options. Nah. He stays unless the pay up what we value him.

Best for the team is keeping our best players and not going into a season with champions league football with only Will Osula as a recognised striker. There is no evidence we are going to be able to secure the players we need to offset his loss. So yes even an unhappy Isak in our squad is better than no one. We work out a compromise give him our blessing he can move next summer with hopefully more suitors and bidders to drive the price up and we spend the next 12 months scouting and negotiating for his replacement rather than desperately bidding in the next few weeks for over priced average players that we probably haven't scouted as deeply as Howe would want.

Can't go along with those saying "rather just get rid and move on" it's such a defeatist weak mentality. As we have mentioned in this thread before, there is plenty of precedent of players staying after going scorched earth to try and leave. Suarez, Ronaldo, Tevez etc. it can be done and absolutely should be done if the circumstances don't suit the club, i.e. no replacement signed, bid doesn't match valuation. If he's the top player he claims to be like those above that I mentioned, then he will still give his all on the pitch when asked to play. Knew a % of our fans would wilt under pressure as soon as it was hinted he wants to move ofcourse he wants to move, we are not one of the elite teams yet and he has developed into an elite player

This guy's history alone, if the football "authorities" followed the breadcrumbs would probably find all sorts shenanigans. Absolute farce and as usual Chelsea are in the center of it, and no one ever seems to give a fuck.

Heard so many, especially that cunt Alex Crook, keep calling it "the saga of the summer". They haven't even fucking bid for him yet.

Said it plenty of times but doubt we're even in for him and it's all media/agent BS and just another chance to mock us for being "rejected" for other clubs.

I did wonder if all that talk mid season about how contract talks will wait til the summer as he still had 3/4 years on his deal, might just have irked him slightly, and his agent of course. I don't disagree with the clubs view at the time. But there is an alternate reality where if he got a little bump and reward sooner, he may have been happier going into this summer. It's possible he and his agent may have demanded a release clause aswell but we possibly could have negotiated something that we would be happy with. We (maybe Mitchell) sort of left the door ajar for all of this to possibly happen this summer and had to rely on him being happy and not pushing for a move if someone came in which put us on very loose ground. There was also a bit of a theory last season that he raised his game in those Arsenal cup ties and was almost trying to show off his value to the "bigger" teams. However I dismissed it at the time as just him happening to be in good form in that moment.

We're so allergic to buying from abroad these days.

So we want to compete with the likes of Arsenal. So we are gonna sign the guy they binned because he wasn't good enough and couldn't play out from the back like they wanted. To replace Pope who is superior in every other department other than with his feet. If we already had signed all the other positions we need then wouldn't care. But this feels like a waste of time and resource.

The green kit is honking. Could just about stomach the previous green white efforts but it's getting ridiculous now that we have it every year to sportswash Saudi. Probably doesn't help that my mood around pif owning us is at a low point this summer

Don't believe any of this. Seems very little evidence we are actually in for this guy and just media guessing.

There is zero depth to the squad in CM and ST. Osula and Miley are useful young players but if want to achieve anything we can't be relying on them for extended time. Willock has offered nothing for 2 years now.

Yeah first touch and everything was severely lacking in the Celtic game. Not that it's fair to judge anyone on one game and he looked capable in previous cameo's. But yeah would imagine it's likely never going to make the step up.

Yeah I'm of the opinion that we aren't going to be able to get in what we need and certainly not replacements of the quality needed to offset the loss of Isak. So I'm hoping we refuse to sell at any price below £200m now and just take the hit of him being a grumpy fucker for a few weeks and hope Bruno the the rest slap into action once the season starts. Fuck Liverpool.

Joelinton is gonna smash some cunts in the second half. Oh dear Murphy