PatrickKluivert

Out of contract in the summer. Do we want to keep him? Would he want to stay? I assume if we want to keep him we will be able to agree a suitable contract. Rejoining Rafa is not an option right now with Rafa out of work. I like to keep local lads/academy products whenever possible. Boiled my piss watching Steve Watson play for Everton and Villa all those years. At the same time, he does not appear to have developed as we thought he might a few years ago and does not really look good enough for where we aspire to be (assuming we stay up).

If he is a player you would expect him to make a real impact in League 2. Appreciate there is the odd Foden who never go on loan but they are rare. Most have successful loans of some sort. Only comment is looking at his wiki page he has sporadically appeared for Scotland youth teams with one England cap at under 19 level. I am sure he would rather play for England all being equal? This suggests that he is not seen as the among the best English players for his age by whoever is running the England youth teams. Looking back at the last wonder kid we had - Adam Armstrong, he was smashing it for England at every youth level (as did Foden). Maybe I’m reading too much into international junior football… This loan should tell us a bit more about him but it’s hard to get excited yet for me. He could be an Adam Armstrong and eventually establish himself in the PL or be another Adam Campbell and end up non league.

It feels like a must win, looking at the few home games we have left. I hope they get knocked out the of the cup at the weekend to kick the wind out of Lampard’s sails.

Agreed. That Delle Ali transfer last night got me thinking. Delle had his best form years ago playing very high, off the striker and scoring lots of goals. He has not made the same impact playing in a deeper more traditional midfield role. Exactly the same last season compared with this season for Willock. If we want to utilise his strengths we need to get him high up the pitch playing off or close to Wood. Everton should be thinking the same for Delle. Disappointed to miss out on Lingard or someone else but as we saw last season we have a player who can make an impact in Willock. Hopefully whatever injury stuff has been bothering him is behind him and he can contribute some goals - which we are desperate for.

What I think is the most likely (not my preferred) team is:- Dubravka Lascelles Burn Trippier Targett Bruno Shelvey Joelinton ASM Fraser Wood Then Almiron, Willock as options off the bench… We need Wood to pull his weight and deliver some goals - and Bruno to make an immediate impact.

I think the best he can hope for is a move back to (relegated) Norwich either loan or permanent next season. Assuming we stay up! Otherwise he would be a good Championship player for us… I have not seen anything in him to suggest he is a player which any team aspiring to be near the upper end of the PL would want.

There is a lesson to be learned in the Ozil and PEA sagas for Arsenal in recent years which NUFC should take note of. You can fuck yourself by giving out ridiculous contracts. Both very talented players but signing them up to hundreds of thousands per week I am sure was more than part of the problem, in addition to any alleged disciplinary stuff. You see stuff about Barcas wage bill too with however many players on 200k to 400k per week - doesn’t matter who you are it’s not sustainable or prevents you moving forward with your squad.