Jaqen

Could understand the criticism of Barnes being 'boring' if he was a grafter type winger but him scoring loads of class goals being the reason he's not exciting is a bit of an odd one. It think he's actually being underrated a fair bit on here. He's not much of dribbler but he's got decent pace and strength that lets him fly past defenders at times and he's good on the transitions with his quick release passes to the striker or his give and go's.

Would be interesting to see how much we've 'forced' this transfer. Seen a few people claim it's a shame he's off to a dead league and thrown his career away for money etc but I get the impression it's more we've 'encouraged' him to leave. Could be totally wrong like of course.

Steve Wraith.

Isn't Diaby rumoured to be going under £50m to Saudi? £50m is a lot for an injury prone player with 13 goals in 4 years. You'd hope for £35m if that's what we are paying for Barnes. Gives 30+m in profit in terms of FFP which is quite handy for this year.

He's got a shedload of talent and when he's 'on' he's one of the most exciting players to watch in Europe. The reality is though that he's either injured or trying to work his way back to full sharpness for about 3/4 of a season. It's a shame as he has all the traits of what make a great impact sub too but he can't even fulfill that role well. I think it's just hard to make someone like part of your long term plans as a manager. He's one of the only players we can sell for a decent wedge, it makes absolute sense to sell him now before his value drops next summer with only a year left and strengthen the squad overall.

It's got to be a bit awkward to be fair. Just landed in a new country, can't really speak the language getting shown around and introduced to everyone at your new job with a film crew following you.

Pickford was probably the difference between Everton staying up and Leeds/Leicester going down too. Three sides who went down had the worst keepers in the league.

Class

I don't think anyone is saying they are as good overall just they have similar output. All the top sides have wide players who can put up those numbers, we don't.

If you think about how we attack overloading the right side with a lot of balls into the box from Trippier and probably Tonali now taking up that right side 8 spot it makes perfect sense. He's quite tall and wins a fair amount of Ariel duels but more importantly he's got the instinct to get into the box from that left side and finish well. You can go back last season and look at the amount of overhit crosses or ones flashed across the 6 yard box that had nobody arriving at the back post and see it's an area we could definitely get more goals from. I think his simple give and go gameplay actually suits us quite well too. Quite a few of our players have noticeable flaws but they are extremely effective cogs in an effective unit. That's how I see Barnes fitting in well.

Don't even think it's a sideways move. He's probably got close to the same amount of goals in his prem career as ASM, Miggy, Gordon and Murphy combined. Find it a bit odd that there seems to be so much focus on what he can't do and downplaying what he can do. Having a wide player that can put up those sort of numbers is massive.

I know the cry has been we need more 'creativity' but if you look at our numbers last year finishing was actually probably more of a bigger problem. Barnes keeps it simple, fast and direct he doesn't slow down moves, hold the ball for too long or worry about getting it on to his stronger foot. He'd come in and be our third best finisher behind Isak and Wilson I think. There's a good chance his overall game improves here too. Don't think he'll ever by anything too flashy but after watching us consistently waste chances and miss sitters having someone with a bit of composure and that strikes the ball so well is a massive help.

Aye it's Pennant.

Cost over £1k for that pair which is even more wild

Barnes is very direct and good on transitions. Makes some clever runs and has a good strike on both feet. I think he'd put up better numbers for us than Diaby.

She'll have to dig this out when she lands no doubt

Could be another one if Mike can fly over in time.

I think the argument is if we sell him for £30m profit in terms of FFP it would allow us to bring in another 3 players on Tonali type deals where they are valued at 10m per year. We wouldn't actually be getting 3 signings out of the £30m. I'm sure it's more complicated than that and future windows need to be taken into consideration etc but for a club like ours than has the money to spend just are restricted by FFP then it massively favours selling players you can profit on to increase how much you can spend.

He's wearing the fuck out of that polo shirt.

Regardless of her football takes she just always comes across as a twat on social media as well. If you're going on twitter and posting controversial or antagonising views you're going to get some backlash, and she's well aware of that. Even when she made that famous Richarlison mistake in the world cup she could have just had a laugh about it and it would have been forgotten about straight away. "Got myself a First class law degree, 102 caps & a Doctorate but Maths wasn’t always my forte. Nearly 1 in 2 games is the math on Richarlison. But some of you weirdo twitterati knew that already. Might also learn from the rest of the analysis conveniently ignored.” "Couldn't be bothered with all the sensitive negative people on Twitter,' she wrote. 'Should have tweeted how incredible furlough is, that would've elicited a lovely response" Can see why Talksport hired her as she'll just say something daft and then happy to argue all day about it.

Man City are a really ran club and a bid of 90+m has to pass through a load of people before it can be submitted. It's not as if Pep can just throw a bid in himself to help a mate out, if for whatever bizarre reason he wanted to help out his biggest rival from the previous season

People see Jam, and they see the Lonsdale Slip ons, and they go: "you're not fooling anyone"

I guess the biggest problem they have is they have a whole defence suited to 5 atb. That obligation to buy Porro for 40m can't help much either he looks absolutely useless as a RB.

It's a dig at the Newcastle away fans who remove their shirts during games.

Nah I agree the current ruling is daft but things like this should be offside. Someone massive like Haaland can be a couple of yards ahead of the defender but still 'onside' now as long as the very back of his boot is trailing.