Tiresias

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lucky there, he had waaaaay too much space

He hasnt trained most of week with slight injury according to the commentator

I look forward to one day attending his statue unveiling

I think it's hard to be critical of de zerbi for treating brighton as a stepping stone club when that is explicitly what they are, that's how they are run and how they make money and they are brilliant at it. As long as they can keep digging out gems they will be fun to watch and competing for europe, I understand why the fans are very loyal to bloom he has managed to run it as a business in such a manner it is fun to watch as well. The big however comes, there is a ceiling on how far they will go, which may be a very good ceiling, maybe they can crack top 4, but they relentlessly will have to be selling and buying, and managers will never ever love that, they can buy into it knowing its good for their career doing well under the model, but if they've done well going to a club that will keep hold of players for them and let them make more transfer decisions they may well take that (even if actually their transfer decisions will be worse...) My point being De Zerbi has clearly been agitating for a move. I think he was probably hoping that Arteta would implode and that would come up, or maybe even spurs. He is in with a shot of Man City when Guardiola walks but not sure on that. I don't really know what Brighton fans would be upset about though, that's kinda the deal, and the club will find another manager who will do similar so noone will lose, except possibly de zerbi when he replaces Ten Hag at Man U and everything goes wrong. (I also think some of Brightons success has been a bit inflated by Todd Boehly flinging money at them for players worth waaaaaay less)

Kinda feel whoever takes over may be on a hiding to nothing. Suspect Salah and other aging players will see Klopp going as a good time to leave as well for one last payday, they feel midway through that transition anyway which is a bad time to take over. Will he get the patience as suspect the change will mean a season or two adapting and changing and that means fighting for champions league place rather than title, if that isn't good enough will he be shown door as soon as Alonso is actually available (suspect he will go to Real Madrid anyway but that never lasts forever in fairness). Having said that could be seen as a can't lose on his behalf, either he establishes himself well at top end of premier league immediately, or he fails because noone could succeed after Klopp and will no doubt get chances at other premier league clubs. I just feel a little for De Zerbi clearly auditioning for top premier league job by making a similar move but to brighton and gets skipped over, having said that I think De Zerbi has had a fairly mid season with Brighton so can see him being passed over a bit.

Lot of guardiola signings struggle first season. Hell Ake looked a baffling signing for a long time and now seems a mainstay. (albeit was Ake signed under guardiola? feels an age ago that one). The price tag is eyebrow raising is the thing, no chance of making anywhere near that back if it isn't just adapting and he really isnt up to it

Yeah fine for backup, in an ideal world shouldn't be a starter but there is also a combination of things making him look worse, he's not that great defensively, he's not some ultra positionally aware disciplined defensive mid like Rhodri, but because he's most physically capable since Joelinton's injury he's being asked to be the deepest midfielder. Even under Benitez he played best next to Hayden rather than Shelvey. He's good at pressing high as he will win the ball back in opponents half and will score goals causing chaos in opponents half, but he offers no control and equally because he is all action he's a bit positionally suspect so may over commit and then leave defence exposed in a way a 'true' defensive mid wouldnt

RIP

Considering he's a world cup winner and one of the outstanding players in that win shouldn't be, but i agree he's class

Agree but don't think they're that good either. Would he a weird season they have been far from the usual standard, city have been a bit off it. Arsenal have been as good as they have been since peak Wenger and yet they still can't win it. Strange season.

The only question mark on captaincy for me is his discipline but had managed to avoid that second yellow so far...

Just depends on clubs judgement over summer see how he compares to first team in training and then will trust howes judgement. If he's a real talent but not quite there yet probably would be better if he plays a lot of games than occasional sub here

Oh man wish ol lego head didnt make it so hard to root for arsenal cos i am bored of city winning everything and can't stand klopp don't want that fucking 'fairy tale' media talk on him winning league in last season with 'klopps kids'

Presumably get him back for training over summer see if he can impress howe and decide whether to loan him out on that. Players take a little ring to get up to fitness for Howe so suspect about loan out to more physically demanding league

Make him captain, make him mayor, make him manager just please stay

He's also by far most creative quite happy for him to prioritise dinked through balls to isak

Rice would rightly be worth more. The thing is, Isak's injury record means we probably wouldn't get as much money proportional to how actually good he is as a footballer so would never feel reasonable.

defence isn't working at all, and doesnt show sign of improvement, albeit also so disrupted by injury there are reasons but would still expect some more improvement than there has been. It's also so weird considering how good we were last season. I do think Joelinton and Pope are huge losses and maybe just impossible to replace at all in terms of their defensive contributions, however I do think Longstaff is playing below his level, he gets slagged off a bunch on here sometimes justifiably but he has played better than he is right now, maybe for lack of help but still. He has muscled the ball off teams pressed well and worked well in transition before and here he is giving ball away waaaay too much, i know technical stuff never his game but feels too eager to take risks sometimes.

I can't believe i went round York air museum with my dad as a nice thing for him instead of watching this

Well good news in terms of jinxes is going to miss this out of family obligation stuff, and normally if i cant watch us we end up winning a fun one. (i still take responsibility for that Spurs thrashing last season, was sat with non football mate catching up outside cluny and swear i could hear the goals going in)

Suspect it will be but I am not sure. A lot of the coaches coming through like Potter seem very much systems managers with excellent tactical knowledge etc etc but you just don't get the time with the players at international level to drill them into a particular model. This is why Southgate has done fine, he's well short on the tactics and it's shown him up a bit and yet he's got us to a final and reasonably close another. Look at Potter's struggle to get Chelsea playing how he wanted, and by internal accounts it wasn't like he was disliked by players even it just never clicked. I'd be looking for an astute in game tactical manager as an upgrade, and frankly if it is an English manager (and I am about as far from a tubthumping engerland type as you can get), which i think in an ideal world would be just as the players are all english kinda makes sense if we are doing this national teams thing, I just can't see any candidates now? Potter I think wouldn't thrive in international set-up, Howe makes more sense but he wants his players super fit, he would then have to pick from teams that play that style, City and Arsenal players would be fine but would any others?

I honestly think he's bad for tactics great for vibes, why cant we have him to man manage the squad and someone else to do subs and tactics?