ponsaelius

I just don't see why would he regret it if he went there over us? He'll possibly win the league, play in CL, have a great lifestyle. Then still only be 25 in a few years and could move to a top PL team if he wants to. The door is hardly going to be shut. Our project is going to be a hard sell over that. It's likely to be 5 years of gradually pushing towards CL.

Going to Milan is guaranteed CL football from next year, more likely to win trophies in next 5 years, and getting to share your life between a flat in Milan and a house on Lake Garda/Como. As much as the PL is obviously stronger that's also a barrier for us because we cannot promise European football or trophies right now.

Hope we do have some lower league sides away tbh, good excuse to easily tick off some grounds

Must have been agreed as part of the Nunez transfer

Something to the tune of Chiquitita

From the videos I was getting young Zlatan vibes tbh, just a bit quicker and less technical, but similar languid style.

I don't think swapping Lascelles for Tarkowski would really make much difference in FFP terms once you've took into account signing on fee, agent fee and wages.

Depends what kind of patch it is like. I'd rank it: Embroided badge directly onto shirt > Embroided patch >>>>>>>> stick on badges of any kind With old shirts you can pretty much guarentee that rear lettering and sponsors are gonna deteriorate over the years - but at least you could bank on the brand and badge staying. Some of these new shirts with stick on club badges simply aren't worth buying imo.

BBC's documentary on the European Super League is a really decent watch btw. If you can put up with all the same talking heads that hate NUFC now.

Ha - yeah we watched it a few weeks ago and I had a great time spotting the various places it was filmed. The Civic Centre doubles as the football stadium in Belgrade and the airport in Munich.

Is DCL injury prone or has he just had one injury last season?

Portugal is more variable depending on positions IMO. Midfielders, wingers, full backs - yes. Centre forwards and goalkeepers I would be more cautious. CBs hit and miss. France and Brazil have big depth across all positions. Loads of good players who don't even come close to breaking their national set up. The former ends up providing half of the talent at AFCON.

I'm on board with signing any player who is an England international and still has room to improve tbh. 10 years ago I would have said there was no value at all as they were usually massively overpriced but I don't think that's the case anymore. In fact other than France and Brazil I donk think any other country is producing the same amount of depth in all positions. You can see that depth and competition for places in the fact that very decent players with dual citizenship are now opting to play for other countries.

Agree that a loan deal (with a fee) with an option to buy next summer would be ideal. As funds are probably better spent elsewhere. Whether Man United or the player would be happy with that is another question.

I watched highlights of all our games in order recently. Obviously we improved for lots of reasons (mostly rightly accredited to Howe and the positive shift at the club in general) but it was noticeable that early in the season we had Woodman playing, then Darlow and then Dubravka when he came back. You can timeline our improvement in results along these changes. Dubravka is a decent mid-table PL keeper and that definitely makes a huge difference compared to the other two who are for me essentially Championship keepers. But Dubravka is injury prone and probably unlikely to improve much from now. Whatever happens we need direct competition/backup in the immediacy and ultimately a reliable replacement going forward. Along those lines Henderson for me seems an obvious signing to compete directly with him. He's got decent pedigree, room to improve, and is good with his feet.

Looks shite imo

Perisic is a brilliant athlete, adapted so well to wing back. He will be fine for another good couple of years.

There was fake tickets being sold on social media before the game, used to get through security so you can get to the barriers. There will have been loads of Liverpool fans trying to jib in - always is.

I thought it came off a Madrid tackle first then Fabinho, which I could have understood to a degree, although still bollocks. However that last replay shows Konate onto Fabinho. Absolutely clear goal.

No Madrid player touches that ball on the replay. It's a goal.

To me if you're sliding in to get the ball then you've intentionally played it, even if technically the Madrid player gets their first. It's not like it's randomly pinged off you from a shot. Unlucky yes, but still should have been a goal IMO.

He's played left wing back last two seasons. Adapted to it very well. But would definitely be a forward option too.

Romagnoli is probably leaving on a free and Kjaer is coming back from injury. They still probably need a CB - but true that Kalulu has thrived since being moved centrally so probably opens up other opportunities in the market for competition rather than first choice.

Won everything here so can go somewhere new and win different trophies? Already lived in Austria so probably an easy enough transition linguistically.

I thought that at the beginning but have changed tact now tbh. I think it's got a good balance of opening opportunity to small clubs (EG Bodo in this one) but also less successful big clubs from major leagues. Makes it feel a bit more prestigious. Probably a good chance you'll get some outsider runs to semis and finals from clubs from smaller leagues.