cranna

Let me simplify --> 150m on Tonali, Barnes and Gordon = I can't do shit against teams that defend with 10 players.

Of course, you can achieve results playing direct/high intensity football. But let's wait for this season to see if he overperformed or not. I'm not saying he's a bad manager, what I'm saying is that he has an "underdog Championship style" type of approach. The difference is that he has now a 250m new set of very good players to upgrade his Bournemouth 2.0 model. Choosing players like Tonali, Gordon and Barnes instead of Maddison, Szobo or MacAllister tells a lot about what he's looking for.

Howe is an ex-Bournemouth manager. He doesn't like flair and excitement, he likes tall players that fight for the badge and run like meth addicts for 90 minutes. Pure Championship style of playing vibe.

The point is that there is no governance or accountability for Saudi clubs, the government can print as much money to sign all the players they want. If they are willing to be part of the European football system somehow, it will totally change the landscape on how they deal with finances, FFP will hit them hard, and the party will be over. I don't think most players would prefer a 200k p/w move to a Saudi club (in a FFP scenario) instead of a move to Newcastle or Man Utd for 100k p/w. They will have to always break the bank with offers above 500k p/w, but for how many players they can offer it? Can you imagine 15 players earning 500k p/w, it's chaos.

Not many top clubs have signed more than 2 important first-team players yet.

Also, his stats are not very convincing so far. He might be another Ekitike.

That would a very "hipster" transfer window. A bunch of emerging players that are not on the radar of almost any relevant club.

Considering the stats and what we've seen so far, it looks like Harvey Barnes is what Gordon might become if he achieves his full potential. Which makes his 40m transfer fee outrageous.

So, it's going to be Gordon, Murphy, Barnes and Almiron on the wings? That's a big contrast with the level of the midfield with Tonali, Bruno and Joelinton. Unless Gordon develops into something we haven't seen yet, the midfielders will have to score a good amount of goals to make the team competitive.

Now we can understand why Szobo and Maddison were not gonna be signed, they are mostly playmakers. Howe wants a lot of running/intensity on the midfield and on the wings, that's why he chose Barnes and Tonali.

From McTominay to Tonali, and now from Harvey Barnes to Kvaradona. What's the next big surprise?

Hard to find considering EH likes 1.85m+ players, especially in the defense. Tall full-backs are problematic because they don't have a lot of mobility.

Livramento, Tierney, Tonali and Barnes? Maybe a loan for a CB? And that's it?

Stats lie sometimes. Where are the big clubs looking for this "bargain"? The same can be applied to players like Jonathan David and Milinkovic-Savic. No top clubs looking to sign them, but they have good stats for a long time, so something is wrong there, same with Barnes.

2 superstars in one transfer window (Tonali + a top winger) for a club owned by Saudis that buy everything they want is lunacy? C'mon, don't be so modest.