ponsaelius

Fwiw I don't think getting players from Europe is necessarily that much cheaper. Akliouche was one that was floated as a right sided option (I think this might go by the wayside with Mitchell being pied off) but I think he'd still be 40 million+ Khusanov ended up costing City 40 million euros in the end and he's hardly hit the ground running (another one Mitchell was determined to get). The wages are often less initially - this is definitely true - but recruitment is a small world these days with all the data available.amd most clubs know the values of their players. If you want quality you have to pay it.

Not on the face of it, but you'd be amazed if not indirectly given it's a club that has been bought by, re-named and moved MK Dons style to the new white elephant city.

Apparently Leon Bailey to Neom SC for 25 million

Mbeumo joined Brentford from Ligue 2 for pennies when they were in the Championship mind. He's a class act but it's taken a long time for him to reach this level. I think there's clearly a middle ground between us blowing all of our money on peak age players and recruiting at a much lower price point with what are effectively spread bets. There's of course many players these clubs sign that don't turn into CL level players. At the end of the day while we can say 'trust the scouts' every club now has data and scouts and knows which players are available - but clubs operate in different pools and have different targets. They also have different propensities for risk, particularly if CL qualification is a factor to take into any recruitment model. Paying slightly more and getting them once they've proven themselves is not a bad policy for a club that wants to compete for CL places, IMO. Liverpool basically built their success on doing that.

Don't be daft like, Onana would be an absolute beast in an Eddie team. He's not my kind of player at all but he's a very effective PL player.

Mbeumo for me if it's those two players. I am in the get guaranteed readymade quality camp. I do think 60 is slightly too much for his age and the way the market is right now though. Then again he's the kind of profile we probably could ship off to Saudi if that charade is still going in 2-3 years.

It's worth noting that you also only need to name two keepers in the A list if you want, as long as there's a third on the youth B list. I have no idea who our current youth keeper is but he could be your third choice keeper to free up an extra space too. Overall based on the above I think the need for Longstaff purely for UEFA squad purposes is significantly overblown, given you can effectively name a 23 man squad anyway with Miley and a youth keeper.

For the A list of your 25 you must have 8 home grown players of which 4 must be association trained (we have plenty of these, see below) and 4 must be club trained (currently just Longstaff). If you don't have them then you have to leave a space empty. So for drafting sakes at the moment if we say Wilson is definitely going and we make two outfield signings as expected we'd be able to name an A list of 21+1 of something like this: 1. Pope (AT) 2.Dubravka 3. Ruddy/Gillespie (AT) 4. Trippier (AT) 5. Livramento (AT) 6. Schar 7. Botman 8. Burn (AT) 9. Krafth 10. Hall (AT) 11. Willock (AT) 12. Bruno 13. Tonali 14. Joelinton 15. Murphy (AT) 16. Barnes (AT) 17. Gordon (AT) 18. Osula (AT) 19. Isak 20. New CB 21. New RW 22. Longstaff (CT) 22. Empty (CT) 24. Empty (CT) 25. Empty (CT) With Targett, Vlach and one of Ruddy/Gillespie left out. Miley would be on the B list along with other youngsters that have been here longer than 24 months. So he effectively makes it 23 first teamers and is a bonus player too. As I say I'm not 100% sure if Hall will have been here two years, he might be able to to into this list too and free up a space. If Longstaff goes, you can't just replace him as he's effectively filling one of those 'bonus' CG slots if you want to look at it that way. You'd have to take somebody else out of that first 21 to make room. This is where a CG third choice keeper would be useful, as you can put them into one of the CG slots given they'll never play anyway and then that frees up a space in the other 21.

The U21 homegrown rule is only simple for the PL. You can have as many U21 players as you want regardless of where they're from or when you signed them. In Europe however for the the B list the player also has to have played for the club for at least two consecutive years or three years with one loan away: https://documents.uefa.com/r/Regulations-of-the-UEFA-Champions-League-2025/26/Article-31-Player-lists-Online So I'm not 100% sure on Hall. I think regardless of whether his loan from Chelsea counts towards those two years he won't have been here for a full two years when it comes to naming him in the squad. Osula definitely won't, as he'll have only been here 12 months.

I'd love to know what the point is in closing the window for 6 days.

He would but you have to have been at the club X number of years since your 15th birthday. If it is two years he might qualify now actually. Edit: It's 36 months so he wouldn't qualify. Same goes for the likes of Shahar, Harrison, Alex Murphy etc. This is why our benches were so brutal in the CL last time out, we couldn't even name the decent youngsters we've signed on the B list.

Hall hasn't been here long enough to be on the B list for what it's worth, he'd have to be named.

He absolutely is not

It's from when he's a kid but there's photos of him with a Barca shirt at Camp Nou

I've enjoyed watching PSG this season and they're a brilliantly coached team while actually being entertaining - but there's some weird narrative built around them being almost overachieving(?) just because they've shed Mbappe/Neymar/Messi. This team still has by far the highest wage bill in the world and they've spent 700 million euros on transfer fees in the last two seasons alone

He's a Barca fan, just plays for Espanyol

I'm sure he was on pretty much every club's list.

No doubt the league is miles away from where it was in the past. The economics simply aren't there to compete with the PL and state owned clubs (with no PSR) like PSG. The fact the clubs are still finding ways to get to finals is impressive when you look at the financial gulf and despite everything still second in UEFA coefficient rankings. Which I don't know what that says about the state of play in European football in general TBF. For all PSG's success the level of investment in one club has turned Ligue 1 into a non event. 21 points clear this year. Brest actually did OK this year in the CL but then got beat 10-0 on aggregate by PSG.

Yeah I've made the point quite a bit that he's basically the worst type of squad player now that we've progressed beyond him starting because he really can't just slot in and do a job here and there. And I love the lad for his attitude and the success he had in Eddie's first couple of seasons - genuinely always been a defender of him. Willock is not quite as bad for this but tbh we have the same issues with him needing a run in the team to get going. His issues are more physical than mental/technical but it's the same problem ultimately. We talk about squad depth but for a while we've had a pretty big squad but lacking quality. We'd be much better off moving both Longstaff and Willock on and consolidating the money to bring somebody new who can properly compete with the first choice three, play 40-50 games a season, and slot into any of the midfield roles comfortably. Even if it means on paper we have 5 midfielders rather than the 6 currently. The above is even more viable if we brought in legit competition for Hall so he could become a midfield option too.

The players own motivation will have played into it. He is going to Madrid for the profile as much as anything. This nonsense is only going to be every four years - could be only chance you get to play in it.

That's an absurd deal. Do Madrid really think he's going to make that much of a difference for this CWC nonsense or that it's even important? I suppose what they've probably done is offer him 10 million less across the whole package (6 year wages/signing on fee) and he's happy to do that to secure the move now.

Another point about going in the home end of a European game is obviously where in the ground you decide to buy your ticket. As above you're unlikely to have any issue in most of San Siro, but you'd definitely have a problem if you got a resale ticket in the middle of the curva.

Did it for PSG last time as wanted to go to at least one CL away tie (got to three Europa last time when I had my ST). Glad I did it, and had a great few days in Paris, but wouldn't make a habit of it probably. It's really not enjoyable being unable to celebrate. Think the only ones I'd possibly do it for again would be the Bernabeu or the the new Camp Nou. There's strong tourist vibe anyway in the home end of those stadia.

The current roundabout seems Conte definitely staying at Napoli, Gasperini going to Roma, Allegri to Milan, and potentially either Sarri or Pioli to Atalanta. Juventus might actually be sticking with Tudor with the Conte deal falling through. Palladino leaving Fiorentina and Baroni leaving Lazio.

What were the different rounds?