Infinitely Content

yeah but the most likely thing that will happen in the world cup is he sent off so it's irrelevant imo this is getting old. Aye it's also nonsense. "His goals are irrelevant cause in my mind-created illusory footballing future he gets sent off".

That's 15 in 21 for club and country this calendar year. Very good.

Off to Madrid then.

A decent player but apparently would cost £17m - this for someone who managed just two games all season. Bit risky.

God, the more times I see that England squad the worse it looks.

Would be really excited by Ozyakup signing like, I haven't seen him play that much I just know he's really well regarded over there and looks a stylish player.

Phillips seems a far more direct, powerful threat than those two to me though. I'd be much more confident of him coming on and causing problems with his strength and pace than I would Atsu & Murphy (not that either of them have done anything particularly wrong, they sometimes just go way under the radar having a few too many quite/invisible games for my liking).

Yeah would be excellent back-up, always looks a threat.

4-5 million per month us huge! Oh right, I've misunderstood I think. So they're losing 4-5 million per month rather than just owing 4-5 million in a one off payment. Aye, that's a different picture all together if so.

Ah, yes. The day the great Alan Pardew introduced the 'False 9' to the European football stage.

I obviously don't understand the business side of running a football club, but 4-5 million doesn't seem a lot? Can't they just sell one of their half decent players like Kodjia, Grealish or Adomah, make it back to stabilise finances before looking for a buyer? Doesn't seem like dire straits to me...

For about 2-3 months anyway

Or Hayden is moving down to 5th choice, which is probably about right tbf. As it stands, if Shelvey or Diame were to get injured, we would only have 1 back up midfielder in Hayden/Merino (depending on which stepped in). That's not enough for comfort. We had 5 this season with Saivet and Rafa seemed to decide in January he only needed 4 tbf. Yeah well 4 ain't enough and I'm sure he knows that. As I said, if any of the 4 sustain a long term injury, you simply can't get through a full season competing in numerous competitions with 3 central midfielders. It's pretty obvious really.

Or Hayden is moving down to 5th choice, which is probably about right tbf. As it stands, if Shelvey or Diame were to get injured, we would only have 1 back up midfielder in Hayden/Merino (depending on which stepped in). That's not enough for comfort.

Fredericks reminds me of Yedlin quite a bit. Although I think Yedlin is ever so slightly better as he covers the backline pretty effectively when we're being countered on. Interested to see how he does there - they certainly needed pace as Zabaleta's legs have gone.

I think he'll go just because of Ashley. If there was a glimmer of hope that this club would progress I couldn't see him moving for anything than a proper European challenger. But while he watches our sorry excuse of a hierarchy let the best thing that's happened to this club in fifteen years in Rafa slip away, all whilst probably being happy enough to ship him out should they get a good enough offer, why would he stick around? What scares me more than anything is that I really do think Rafa and Lascelles' trust in one another is such that if one of them goes, the other will too. It will fuck this club back to the husk it had become before Rafa's arrival. And there's double the chance of it happening. Can't disagree with any of that tbf. We've no reason to believe Ashley won't be up to the same antics he's become prolific for here. The thought of the pair leaving is just too depressing for me to consider right now though, so I will do all I can to maintain an air of positivity regarding the situation, as once that's gone what do you really have left?

Yeah, not just him, but I reckon about 95% of these ITK stories vanish into nothingness a week or two after surfacing. I'll assume this is another of those for now, as I don't want to face up to the idea of the two biggest characters at the club leaving in one go - we would actually be fucked

For some reason I doubt Lascelles would be attracted to Everton over us. Liverpool or Arsenal for example, yes. Everton? I just can't see it. Might be blinded/naive through adulation for him though, there's always that.

To my knowledge - Slimani is the first player we've signed (loaned) under Ashley that has been on more than 30k at his club. I don't think we even look at players who are on more than that, regardless of their price/age etc.. With the astronomical increase in wages, we can pretty much forget about any popular names or players already established in England. 30k? Must be a quite a few, surely? Kenedy, Shelvey, Clark, Ritchie, Atsu. Some of those must have been on 30k at their former clubs? And they're names just off the top of my head.

Naa thats his brother Cain. Love a good Book of Genesis joke, me. Really good.

Aye true that. I'm sure he's been a good character to have around the squad, experienced player and seems like a sound bloke. That he is Spanish has also likely had a positive implications for Rafa, his team and the Spanish lads in the squad.

Isn't Abel Hernandez supposed to be going to Leeds?

Replacement hopefully He was brilliant for us last season, man. Transformed the team when he played. Don't get this opinion at all. He had a decent end to the season let’s not get carried away. He was also pretty awful for most of the championship season (finished that season strongly as well). More than happy for him to be in the squad of course but prefer not to see him start every week, we need an upgrade. I don't know man, without his goals in the Premier League last season we would have been in a relegation scrap - he was just as important to us as Diame/Shelvey/Lascelles. That cancels out any shortcomings in the Championship for me - and he was also very good in his other Premier League campaigns with us. I personally feel he gets underrated by our supporters quite a bit.

Replacement hopefully He was brilliant for us last season, man. Transformed the team when he played. Don't get this opinion at all.

Attack-minded CM, different to what we have. Also goes by the nickname "Ozzie" for those looking in terror at his name