ponsaelius

Aye she's fine thanks

I am bored shitless now like. Ashworth needs to earn his coin and bring in some players.

Mightn't have bothered me arse going if I knew that was the case like. Dorty bassas.

Just can't see Barnes at all. One of few players at Leicester with a good few years left on his deal. One of their top 2-3 players and homegrown. Don't see Leicester selling for less than 50 million and honestly probably more. And considering where we are right now I don't think he would see us as a step up. Imagine going from their training ground to ours? I think Barnes is a very good player but I think it'll be to Liverpool or City when he does leave.

Always thought with the money they throw around that big Turkish clubs would be better off going with a Shakhtar type model, focus scouting and recruitment on young players in a particular nationality/market, balanced out with domestic players. Similar wage bills and similar restrictions on number of foreign players - meaning resources could be funnelled effectively. Instead they scramble around signing any old washed up players from Europe on daft contracts/loans. The weakness of of the league means there can be some success individually from doing such - but I don’t think it really stands them in good stead in Europe.

I’m not sure the size of the goals is that much of an issue. Height of keepers is offset by the fact shot power is usually lower too. If you make the goals smaller there would probably be a lot fewer goals.

Wonder if Murphy to Boro could be a potential goer as a replacement.

PIF could put their own money in and then take back out again at a far better rate than what they're going to get off HSBC. That's the alarming thing to me - not sure I see any reason to do it this way.

Do find it a bit alarming that they wouldn't just put their own cash in like other club owners do. Unless there is FFP benefits I am missing.

It's basically what Barca are doing. It's either a massive alarm bell or a simple FFP workaround as a result of our very limited immediate cashflow.

Skint?

ASM was by far our best attacking contributor last season. Miggy has barely done a thing of note in the PL for two years. I'm really keen for him to have a redemption arc under Howe, and hopeful for him this season - but let's not get ahead of ourselves. Pre-season has a habit of having absolutely no correlation with the real thing.

Trippier is a ridiculously good footballer like. I'm slightly worried he might physically decline quickly in the coming years and it might cost us defensively - but his ability on the ball is lightyears ahead of what we've had for years.

I've found this quite interesting too. One thing Wenger always used to do with young creative players coming through is start them out wide - even if it was nominally out of position. They'd earn their stripes there long before they ever got games in the heart of midfield or as a 10. Fabregas was the one real exception to this rule. A midfield three is obviously a bit different to a two but I've been surprised that all of his games have been as a midfielder. It's almost the inverse to the above logic - in that he's wanting to see how he copes in the cut and thrust area of the pitch. Or perhaps it's just indicative of the kind of player he wants out wide in this system.

Longstaff was far more involved in the game than Anderson.

Willocks goal away at Brentford I was standing up applauding his assist.

We’re never signing another winger now

Still no Dubravka.

Very clear merging of two different stories for maximum wummage

Hopefully nobody commited to a Premier Sports membership

I don't know. YouTube shows highlights so it will mostly be goals and probably less noticeable. You just need to watch him play matches. He misses so many chances because of simple bad technique in striking the ball. Very little finesse whatsoever - just hit it to get on target in any way. It's incredibly noticeable for somebody playing at such a high level. At Leipzig it was possibly less important because he a lot more instinctive finishes and/or he just got loads more clear chances in open space.

Yeah I was gonna say Heworth too. Good spot for parking on both rail and metro connections straight to central.

Even when Werner was in the Bundesliga it alarmed me that he kicks the ball in a very strange way. It was a red flag at the time and it has carried over to his time in England IMO. I don't agree with the comparisons to Bellamy who I think was a much better allround footballer - although probably less of a goalscorer. I like his workrate as a player but I just think it's astonishing he is on the kind of wage profile he is and that he's basically Germany's main centre forward.

It amazes me that somebody who can't kick a ball properly is on 300k a week.

Not sure there's a great deal between Krafth and Manquillo really. Manquillo can also cover left back - but we're well stocked there and with left footed CBs who could fill in. Krafth is a year younger and can also do a job of sorts at CB in an emergency or in a back 3.