ponsaelius

I agree that traditionally free transfers are often more trouble than they're worth. Although some big clubs (Madrid and Inter) particularly have used that market to their strength in recent years. I do think you've basically got to be at the top of the tree to really get value out of that market.

You can see why we'd maybe look at moving him on if there's interest when you look at it objectively. Hall is long term left back. Targett is probably unshiftable at this point beyond subsidising a loan. At LCB we now have Botman back Burn in that position. One is a fully fledged purple and the other is great but at an age profile with little to no resale value. Kelly is a useful player who fits into depth in those positions and the cover is comforting given injury issues there previously. But he is probably overpaid given his use to the squad, and is at an age where he can still be actively sold. If we moved him on and it gave us room to move for a long term RCB target you'd have to say it would make a lot of sense.

I'm happy for the lad to stay because he could become a good squad option in time, but equally I think he looks more and more like the next Matt Targett transfer misstep. If you get a solid offer for him, £10m+, I think you seriously consider it tbh. An offer like that might not come along again. I get the impression we're actively shopping around a lot of our squad players this winter tbh.

Indeed - if we could make a move for a RW now that would be ideal given the likely competition. I think we need Miggy and probably one other out the door to have room to do so though, unless it's some very generous loan-to-buy situation.

They have a one year option too, so it's basically 2027. No chance given what he'd cost I'd say.

Not sure I've ever seen something like that. First touch for both subs.

Haven't lost in 10 Bournemouth. That's going to be a very hard game.

Think the reaction would be similar to the Elanga link from some IMO. Stats aren't outstanding. But he's one of those players you see how good he is when you watch him - always tears us apart.

People would probably be disappointed by it but I'd sign Semenyo tomorrow like.

PL at the moment seems to be full of players who were very average in Serie A absolutely balling it out. Since when did Ola Aina become this good?

Jfc man

That'll be any Miggy transfer veto-ed

Yeah he'd be a cunt and I'd drop him in those circumstances anyway. He's under contract, we have no obligation to give him away for nowt just because some tinpot outfit wants to offer him a retirement package. Sorry like but it just makes no sense, I've never heard of a situation like that where a club is effectively giving away money for the sake of it. If we want him to stay the season then refuse all offers that don't meet our value we'd want to sell him.

Blokes under contract tho, fuck that. If we want to offer him a longer deal to keep him around or secure value for a summer sale then OK, I possibly disagree, but understand the logic. But offering him a pay rise so he can walk away for free makes no sense at all. Ultimately if the Saudi club really wanted him now they could pay a proper transfer fee now.

Offering him a pay rise till the summer makes literally zero sense. Why on earth would the club want to do that?

Presume it's Japan, but some of those host cities might as well be suburbs of Tokyo.

Not sure to be honest. Watching the Trippier/Almiron axis yesterday it is quite noticeable the physical drop off when you think how devastating they were for a spell two seasons ago. Full-backs and wingers go first in terms of miles on the clock. I think he's probably done at PL level. I thought Wood was done as well TBF but he's clearly not a player who relies on pace or stamina. He's got 3 players immediately behind him who bring all of that instead.

It was a shame Eddie took him off 8 minutes after scoring, particularly since we ended up with no striker at all not long after. Obviously there's some degree of motivation going on here but I think he'd have benefited playing the full game and maybe getting another.

Hadn't really seen anything to impress me up to now but that goal moved me, TBF. He must have something.

Would take him on a free mind, especially if we move on Targett and Trippier. He's probably one you could convince to be a squad player too, given he'd end up getting plenty of games on either side.

I think it's a bit stop gappy tbh, never been hugely impressed with Malen.

FA Trophy Winners, you'll never sing that

Slightly weak defensively on their goal but other than that was my MOTM.

Me too, can't see when else I'll get a chance to tick either of those off!

No that's true and they were a mess last season. Napoli have generally been very good at finding players and regenerating the squad over the years. This time they'll probably waste the money on a load of midtable PL plodders that Conte wants.