Joey47

Kvaratskhelia is the Georgian lad. He was actually already a wonderkid on FM for at least a year before Napoli bought him. Don't know why no other club took a chance on him, except for the fact that premier league clubs would have struggled to get him a work permit. Maybe the 100m price tag on Mudryk is reflecting that clubs don't want to miss out on the next player like Kvaratskhelia.

I think Mudryk is the next player up for a Haaland/Kvaratskhelia type rise straight to the top. Would be my number one target personally, over Maddison or Diaby.

I know this has been posted elsewhere but does ASM offer the same tactical flexibility as Joelinton on that left side? I'm not sure ASM would be dogmatic enough to keep making that same burst infield all game long that Joelinton did or if he would even have the stamina to do so.

I know Barnes has been injured a lot but not sure on the details oh his injuries. Have they been injury prone type injuries or unlucky ones?

Do we have the best press in world football right now? One thing Eddie Howe mentioned about his time at Bournemouth was having the mentality of us against everyone else. It's clear he has instilled that mentality in our squad here as well. The first part of this thread mentions the body positions of Wood and Almiron crouched and ready to sprint. Not only are we doing everything with such immense commitment but it's perfectly coordinated down to the last man. How many other teams have either our level of commitment or coordination? Let alone combining the two. We look like the real deal right now, we are controlling games without even having the ball. Eddie Howe, what a man

I think I remember reading a post on here saying that he probably pissed off Van Gaal for opting out of a youth team game recently as well.

Would love to know more details about all this stuff, I find it fascinating. Although understandably managers and sporting directors won't be giving away their trade secrets. I feel like it also speaks to Howe's character that clubs like Liverpool and Atletico Madrid welcomed him in.

I also feel like we have some similarities with the way Liverpool played in Klopp's early days. We've never really switched from the 4-3-3 formation since Howe implemented it and each position has a specific role and all the players know their roles perfectly. Klopp didn't have the best players in the league at the time but he found success with sticking to one style of play against any opposition they faced. I think although we stick to one formation and high intensity pressing trying to win the ball high up the pitch, managers still haven't found a way to specifically counter that. It reminds me of liverpool at their peak (obviously we are not on that level yet) in that no teams really had any specific way to counter their play style, even if teams would manage to win against them at times.

One thing I was curious about after listening to the podcast. In the podcast it gets mentioned that during his time out of management, he spent time at about 8 different clubs to learn. We know Atletico Madrid was one of them, do we know any of the others?

Disagree with this. Although the system and players knowledge of this system is a factor, players form and general ability should definitely matter. It's why a lot of people think Maddison should be starting for england, while Southgate is unlikely to even take him in the squad. Anyway, I agree that for Joelinton his form probably came a bit too late. Also as others have said, we don't really know if he fits in to a system that plays 2 holding midfielders as he has never played that role before. I personally think he could be a beast sitting next to a classic defensive midfielder like Casemiro.

I admit I was actually disappointed. After it looking so likely that Emery was going to be the man, I was blinded by the pedigree. Emery also had Villareal playing some fantastic football at that time and had them in the champions league. In my defense I think even the people excited about Howe didn't expect at the time how amazing he has actually been.

What do you predict the starting 11 to be? Seems insane to me that Bruno won't be starting, I understand to some degree the whole heirachy thing even though I disagree with it. Southgate is similar in that sense and it's probably the reason Maddison won't be starting for England this world cup.

It's a snippet of Jake Humphrey's podcast episode with Eddie. The full episode will be released today, if it hasn't been released already (I haven't checked yet as at work).

Seems like he had a good amount of influence. I remember being excited back when we were being linked to Emery, really rate him as a manager, similar to Eddie in that he can make a squad perform better than the sum of its parts. Still very very glad that Emery bottled it and we ended up with wor Eddie instead

Good point. Hopefully we'll be able to operate more like a Liverpool rather than a Manchester United with regards to wages. Liverpool have their wage structure and they stuck to it for as long as they possibly could. Until Salah and Mane were (rightfully) demanding wages that they would get at clubs like Real Madrid. Liverpool then had to make a choice to sell Mane in order to give Salah that massive contract. Salah hasn't been on the best form since his new contract, also I remember when Aubameyang was on fire and signed a massive contract with Arsenal, then his form just completely fell off a cliff. I wonder if it could be anything to do with players losing motivation after signing these insane contracts?

A fit and motivated Shelvey will be such a big boost to our squad, especially because it will allow Bruno to be able to play that number 8 role again. Really interesting and kind of excitng that Howe said he's as fit as he's seen him. I remember when him and Diame had that period under Rafa when they were bossing the midfield and keeping Mikel Merino out of the team. That was also during the time when Shelvey was as fit as I remember seeing him.

Hopefully he's forced to run out the rest of his contract without getting paid off. You just know that's the worst case scenario for him, actually having to work to get paid.

From the Athletic Article. It's still surreal to me how much has already changed since the takeover. Before we were the club that didn't want to compete for any player, now most clubs (apart from the elite) don't want to bother competing with us

My 12 foot ladder appears to be broken

Anybody watch the turkish league and has any insight on how he got on at Besiktas?

Accomplished at being shite

Don't say it, don't say it, don't say it..... WHY THE FUCK DID WE GIVE DUBRAVKA TO MANURE

Same way wolves are signing Diego Costa after the window closed. Not sure exactly why it's allowed though.