Holmesy

We literally have a senior player group, of which Trippier is just one. It’s not a secret

Agreed, to an extent. But this post was in response to a comment saying we have been consistently progressive down the right hand side, which isn’t actually true. In fact, we’ve been fairly easy to tame down the right and Trippier has single handedly cost us goals and games. That absolutely isn’t a reflection on his whole time here, and it would be grossly unfair to say otherwise. But in our current state, for whatever reason, he isn’t our best creative outlet. And maybe, for that reason, the management team feel sacrificing him for investment elsewhere is a risk worth taking ??‍♂️

Serious question - how many of those assists came in the past 10 games, say?(I don’t actually know the answer to this, I’m just assuming). And how many of them involved a dynamic move with Almiron in the exchange? If my assumption is correct, that creative outlet isn’t as creative as it was at the start of the season, and with every injury, he becomes less effective, we become more toothless, easier to play against and more at risk of total season collapse. If I’m wrong, and Trippier has still been our most creative player even in the past 10 games, I apologise. But I still believe sacrificing him is worth it, if we can sign another dimension elsewhere. Pretty unscientific way to answer my own question, but looking at Fantasy Premier League, Trippier got over 2 points once in the past 10 games, and that was 12 points against ManUre.

Almiron has already crashed. The Trippier/Almiron attack died a long time ago. Maybe we’ve got designs on a right winger with some end product, and to get him we need to sacrifice Trippier. That would take some of the pressure off Gordon and allow our RB to sit deeper. Maybe Eddie would prefer us to create more through the middle ??‍♂️ Taking Trippier out only weakens us if we don’t bring anyone in, and if our intention was always to have our RB being our most creative player, which I doubt was the plan.

Straight outta the Steve Bruce book of player scouting.

If it’s true, I couldn’t agree more. Mctominay and Billing would be awful signings for a team with CL aspirations.

We have 3 right backs for 1 position and 3 fit CMs for 3 positions, only one of which is of the required quality. One more midfield injury and we’re royally fucked! If selling Trippier allows us to bring in a decent CM it‘s sensible business. It’s hard for everyone to swallow but it also makes sense given our plight

The simple facts are we need attacking reinforcements and CMs more than we need Trippier. if we can bring in a CM and an attacker by letting 33 year old Trippier leave, as much I would hate to see him leave, it makes business and footballing sense.

If the personal problems are to be believed, it’s not hard to understand why he would want a change of scenery. But even from a footballing POV it’s not hard to see why he would want to go - last chance to play CL football, 2 English players there already, who would make it easier to settle, likely no European football here next season etc.

Keeping any player who can only give us half a season max. makes less sense. It’s not like he’s going to get less injury prone as he gets older

Which is why i said not those players but that sort of player. To be fair though, £30m for Joao Pedro looks like a solid investment now. Once they've got their 'big' move to or in the Premier League there's no value left, as you say. You could argue Solanke hasn't had his 'big' move yet but he'll still command a stupid price. If our move for Ekitke had come off, he's the type of player who could challenge for a first team place, wouldn't have cost the earth and could potentially cut his teeth out wide ala Joao Pedro, before shaping into a #9. And we could more comfortably sell Wilson with someone like that in the squad than now, where he's literally one of two strikers we have. There must be plenty more Ekitikes out there?

I see what you’re saying about Chris Wood and you're absolutely right. He was nowhere near good enough. What I should’ve added is someone a level below but younger and with the potential to improve. They’re more likely to stay fit and more likely to accept not being a guaranteed starter. There aren’t many out-and-out no 9s in the Wilson mould as a like-for-like replacement, but someone like Joao Pedro, Solanke, Cunha would give us a hell of a lot more options shape-wise. I’m not suggesting we sign them, but that sort of player and profile.

Getting him fit isn’t the biggest problem, keeping him fit is. How valuable is a player you can only get half a season out of? We’d be better off with a player a level below Wilson, who can stay fit for most of the season. He’s like having a classic Ferrari you can only look at but can’t drive because it overheats every time.

Am i right in thinking we can now be sponsored by companies associated with our owners? That was a short term thing when we first got taken over, right? So where are all these lucrative sponsorship deals? Sell the naming rights for £200m FFS and get Eddie some players!

I know nothing about this Ederson fella but our other Brazilians have turned out ok, so i'm in

Reluctantly, i'd add Willock to that list as well. We just can't rely on him because he can't stay fit. If we could sell him and sign a similarly dynamic player with better end product, i'd put sentiment aside and go for it.

Really interesting chat about Jordan Henderson on Ben Foster’s podcast. ? Look at this post on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1eWjDb53HPHBNTyb/?mibextid=WC7FNe I’ve never really been a massive fan of Herderson’s but I love hearing about stuff like this. Makes you realise why Southgate never leaves him out (even though he should).

He’s one of the fastest players in the PL and a bit of unit. If he can fully recover from his injury, £35m could turn out to be a bargain. Long term Wilson replacement possibly. We’ve been strongly linked with him before haven’t we?

End product is typically the most expensive to buy, which puts Gordon above Joelinton by my reckoning

Spurs have paid pretty low wages historically so he'd probably fit into our structure. Apparently Spurs don't want a loan, so it would be a straight transfer. Seems like a much lower risk option to Phillips, without a huge drop-off in quality.

Surprised Hojberg hasn’t been mentioned as a possibility. Spurs looking to get rid, 18 months left on his contract, pure #6 but still contributes going forward. What would he cost? £10m?

?

Liveramento should arguably replace Trippier now tbh

You could argue that even Mikel Merino didn't really fulfil his promise after he left us. He's gone on to play for Spain but he was being touted for greatness when we had him

He might actually be a bit less frustrating playing as a DM. Maybe Eddie can turn him into the new Claude Makelele