Nine

Personally I think his ethos and footballing identity mesh pretty well with Brighton, could be a shrewd appointment

Not sure why anyone would turn their nose up at this, his attributes are more suited to our style than Popes are (Trafford actually has feet) and in goalkeeper years he’s pretty much still a child. £16m for the potential return for years to come from him is a no brainer and he will have been identified as a player that has a lot of room to grow into here. Just look at how deep we had to stay with Dubs in, how many points did it cost us? At the very least if Trafford doesn’t come in and start then he’s good competition for Pope next season, and if Pope goes down we won’t have to drastically adjust our system again. It’s an absolute must have signing imo.

Imagine back in summer 2019, Joselu leaves for Alaves and someone tells you in 5 years time he will be holding up a champions league winners medal in a Madrid shirt Football is mental.

He will never forget that..

Joselu header 88th minute

Dortmund transitional kings

They are exposing Madrids lack of pace across the back line well mind

We were never matching their offer, and they are going through a massive rebuilding project so it’s understandable that he might have seen joining them now as good timing and a big opportunity. Good luck to him.

I was hoping we’d be linked to Mbeumo, he is made for our system as far as the wide positions go. And bonus he can play centrally as well.

They are playing the long game, their transfer strategy is nowhere near as scatter gun as people tend to make out. At the end of this summers window they will have assembled an near entirely new squad over 2 seasons, it’s a massive project. Yes some of those players won’t make it, but they have extreme quality throughout the youngest squad in the league.. if you zoom out a bit you can see that they have every right to believe they will be serious players again in 2/3 seasons time. Being ruthless with managers is nothing new to that club, and it’s never seemed to stop them winning things either.

We won’t match their wage offer and a huge project is underway at Chelsea as it is here, it’s understandable if he ends up there imo.

Spot fixing has to be a multiple year ban if he is found guilty, at 26 it looks long for him.

A keeper with feet is the obvious next step of development for our side, this would be a great signing.

Kompany cruised to promotion playing a good, positive style of football. He could have gone out and signed players to adapt to a less attractive more pragmatic system in an attempt to stay up, but where’s the longevity in that? His ethos and identity were clear.. I get why he stuck to his guns, you can’t really storm the championship and then go backwards on your style in an attempt to stay in the league. Long term it’s just not going work. Also just to make the point, we see good players often look bad in bad teams. Why don’t managers get cut the same slack? Good managers can get relegated with a below standard group of players.. I think Kompany will go on to be successful with better players at his disposal. He has all the tools, and his ideas are good.

Obviously there’s no shortage of false loyalty or dirty underhanded shite in football to better your position/salary. But this guy has well and truly flushed his good reputation down the toilet.

Their form in the second half of the season was impressive for a club that had just ripped up its foundations management and squad wise, they basically signed an entirely new next gen group of young players. He had them functioning well recently, you’d assume they’d have only got rid if they have someone who is potentially better lined up but who?

They arnt the same, Ramsdales attributes would contribute more to our high line/press than Popes do. A keeper that is able with his feet is massive boost to our style. Im getting the same vibes on here that we saw when we signed Pope, lots said why? Hes no better than Dubravka.

He is capable of at least having a go at a top club, he’s highly rated for good reason. I get the feeling he’s been burnt out with the Brighton project this season as there was no longevity there.

I think we will be signing a new GK this summer, having a keeper that is capable with their feet will instantly improve our play by a decent percentage. Allows us to stick to that high line/intense press and a sweeper keeper with good feet would be a big improvement on Pope (as good as he’s been for us), it’s gotta be one of the next steps.

The bigger issue is not the difference in shot stopping ability, it’s that Dubravka is not fit for our first choice style of play. Hes the furthest thing from a sweeper keeper, so we have to stay deeper to counter act that.. and then the press suffers. Top teams have the luxury of having two high level keepers that can always come in and not force a change to their teams style of play (Ederson, Ortega. Raya, Ramsdale. Alisson, Kelleher). We arnt able to do that yet.

Nowhere near fit, again a case of an injury forcing us to play players we wouldn’t be otherwise

A few moments of individual sloppiness away from a result here tonight, fine margin stuff. We had the better chances to win.

There is no chance Howe is not aware of the difference between Pope and Dubs to this system let alone raw GK ability, if he’s fit without risk he starts

The Pope injury was the real injury crisis

It’s almost like he has access to training every week and Popes medical record, no way on earth does he start Dubravka if Pope is ready