Nine

At the same time we shouldn’t totally judge a player from select data in a below average, inconsistent team. He was voted their player of the season for 22/23 also.

There’s this assumption that people seem to be running with that our hands are tied and we NEED to sell to balance FFP, yet we are signing 18 year olds from Man City for fees? Or the plan is to get rid of our depreciating assets (Trippier is hardly) mid season? Doesn’t make sense. I still think it’s nothing more than Bayern pushing for it and seeing what happens on the players side.

Pretty convinced of this to, it’ll be up to the player. I just can’t see how we’d agree to sell a crucial player mid season unless we felt obliged to, what we’d gain in FFP wiggle room doesn’t balance out the loss on the field/dressing room for me.

One of the worst semi final showings I can ever remember here from Boro

Anyone made the Haaland from Wish comment yet?

I’m guessing we’ve assured him we can give him a decent amount of minutes before City can.

It depends on what said player offers, for Trippier yes definitely.

Miggy has far more value to us than ASM ever did under Howe, but ASM brings more value to the Saudi league than Miggy would. We didn’t get robbed for 28m imo, at 35m it wouldn’t have been steep but I’m not sure if any of the serious sides from the top 5 leagues would have shown any interest in ASM at that point.. I think the fee was reasonable.

He has played right wing a hand full of times, but he is not a Miggy replacement I agree. More suited to a central position for sure.

He is more often than not crucial to the press and the system in general, if we are serious about selling we must have something for RW lined up. Will always be grateful for his time here regardless, he’s probably the most under appreciated player of the Howe era so far.

But then again you know they say that all men are created equal, but you look at Steve Bruce and you look at Eddie Howe and you can see that statement is not true.

Dovbyk 6 min hat trick.

Not sure anyone is suggesting that it would be the end of the world? There’s upsides to him staying or leaving, and it will ultimately come down to the player.

The issue with using the last 10 games is that its a small sample size and would be during the worst of our fitness issues. You cant make decisions based on that run as it doesn’t represent the side as a whole, and every aspect of our play has suffered since the injuries piled up not just our attacking outlets. Let’s be real, Trippier especially has had a pretty horrific run of form lately but it’s silly to let that skew what he has consistently shown he delivers for us.

Barca collapsing again

Absolutely it frees up some FFP, and management will have weighed it up. Next few days will be interesting, think he stays for now though.

This isn’t a fact, please look at the data and you’ll change your mind. We are consistently progressive down the right side, +8 assists from Trippier alone. Of course some of them are from set pieces.

The biggest loss with selling Trippier is not only the mentality in the dressing room, but we’d lose so much going forward down our right side which has been our favoured attacking move since January 2022. Not just his assists alone, look his progressive pass data as well.. him and Miggy on that side just benefit each other so well.

If Nunez had that killer edge mentally in front of goal he’d literally have it all, literally a drop of composure away from being one of the best strikers in the world imo. Almost everything else about his game is elite.

Not a chance did we fancy Calvert Lewin in this system over a player like Isak, doesn’t make sense at all. His legs would have fallen off in this press

I’d say finishing in any European spot in back to back seasons is pretty linear success, considering 4 windows ago we were on the edge of relegation.. you need to zoom out and see the bigger picture here. The point remains there is absolutely no guarantee that you finish top 7 with our current squad and as has been shown - an increased schedule, injuries and lack of depth can derail your season. They would have calculated the risks in far more detail than is available to the likes of us, and I just can’t see that this management would play it that way. That’s just a mad assumption, gambling on bringing in funds during the winter window to balance the books just doesn’t make sense. I know this is cliche and I hate saying it, but I can’t help but feel you are making this out to be far more football managery than it needs to be. Sorry like

Because they have the sense to not gamble our financial restrictions in a sport where success rarely moves linearly, especially having just qualified for Europe once in the last 10 years. These guys are seriously invested long term, not some chancers that risk point deductions for short term gain.

No way we let any winger go this window imo, Gordon and Miggy especially. The amount of minutes they’ve put in over the last 2 months is ridiculous especially in our system.

On paper maybe, but this is football and our management know enough to know that success is not linear and things can change quickly. I just cannot see them gambling like that, as it happened we were an injury crisis away from it being a big ask. We just don’t move that short term, no evidence of that attitude at all. Everything is geared towards a steady build with long term success.

This is a good point, but Id really like to think that management would not take a risk as silly as we must qualify for Europe again to be FFP compliant. They don’t strike me as incompetent, but we defo stretched our limits as far as we could.