WilliamPS

Glad Fernandes isn’t available, but sometimes losing a couple of players through injury and suspension from a misfiring team can jolt some of the rest into life - or prompt the manager to try a new system.

Stone cold from Emery there. He isn’t defending his player so you can tell what he thought at the time .

Well the price has to reflect his season so far and contract situation. More like £25m. Even £50m is steep, and the £70m odd is now complete fantasyland Parish will also have to eat the humble pie, which he might not be able to do, even if he knows it’s the reality

Is this true? Pope, Burn, Botman, Trippier, Targett, Isak, Tonali, Barnes all went straight into the team, or were in after a couple of games. Gordon played regularly (every game?) in his first months, especially off the bench. Tino was straight into cup games but Trippier was first choice RB and captain at the time. Bruno was in after maybe 4 games? The only two who have been eased in are Tonali post ban, and Hall. Hall was learning a new position and could have been horribly exposed positionally if dropped in early. A striker is a different prospect Goals are flowing at the moment, Isak is fit and so it’s not a concern for the team but you’d have thought a 6”4 striker could offer something for ten minutes at the end of games and the player would be better for it.

Sighing a £50m player on £100k a week would only cost £7.5m in this seasons PSR account. Am sure that’s within headroom, and if it isn’t it only needs a relatively small sale. IMO a bigger factor will be player availability

You need to rewatch the games from the wenger era. Gentlemanly my arse. Fabregas, Robin Van Persie, Overmars et al would like a word. Not that Wenger ever saw it.

I’d prefer not to play Liverpool at any stage - record against them is abysmal.

Rashfords other option is a Sancho or Lukaku style loan deal, where he gets the money and a second chance on the pitch. Would mean Germany, Spain or Italy, doubt they’d do it for a PL club Id support that as Man Utd would still get rinsed for at least 200k pw.

You’re probably right, but I was hoping he was thinking I’m going backwards as a player, how do I sort that out and get playing vs how do I get even more money when my insane Man Utd deal doesn’t get renewed at the same level

With Rashford he’s going to have to get used to a massive salary cut and not being the club man. Both of those have held him back as a footballer but it wouldn’t be a shock if his first move was a disaster, then after an expectations reset he does well somewhere else

The FA totally bottled the England team wearing the rainbow armbands in Qatar so it would be a bit two faced of them to punish someone else for what they do with it. They had their chance to make a stand and decided it wasn’t important enough for them.

Bruno will be on the shortlist for every top tier club looking for a midfielder, as he’s elite level and not already at a club challenging for the CL. Just the way it is I wouldn’t want to sell at all, but certainly not in January as v hard to see any replacement coming in at the right level. Anyone who wants to cash in needs to reflect on whether they think the clubs recruitment processes are where they need to be yet to get quality in, Brighton it ain’t

Very much agree, his importance to the teams general play has been understated. Even his ability to cross from open play is a huge asset. The issue is even if he gets his head straight, he’s 34 and in the premier league, he isn’t going to be able to cover the same ground, it will lead to gaps and mistakes, I think we’ve started to see that. For me, he’s still the best RB at the club on his day, but you’re not going to get 2 games a week out of him at his 2022 form, that’s gone now. Whatever happens transfer wise in January, Howe needs to figure out how the team can better function without him.

Gerard got a standing ovation from sections of the crowd in 2009. Personally I couldn’t bring myself to join in but fair enough to those that did.

If he participated in the second half of the season and scored say 8 goals would people not even give him a one year deal on 20k? He will have virtually zero PSR impact or cost. His transfer value is zero on January, and was probably zero over the summer too. Can’t undo the decisions from 1-2 years ago now.

Don’t believe for a second the club blocked his exit when Howe is doing everything he can to avoid having to play him, especially not at that money

Signed Osula. It’s more that the Osula transfer didn’t come off (or hasn’t yet)

They are not going to build an 80k stadium for hundreds of millions to sell a load of concessionary season tickets at reasonable prices, like £300. The economics just don’t work. Any new build or extension would cap out at 70k max, and you’ll still be forecast in the business plan to spend £300 on taking each kid per season, but the plan is for that to cover 3 visits at £100 each. You’ll get a scarf and a programme chucked in though.

This was always the risk with not getting a CB over the summer. Teams can fall to bits without two CBs starting so fingers crossed Schar, Burn and Kelly stay fit and suspension free…

If his surgeon and physios have said he’s ready to play be mental to randomly decide not to play him regularly until next season. The club always said 9 months, and December/January is ~9months post surgery. So far his recovery is all going to plan - course he may pick up niggles which delay him. Hes now back in training but my guess is he won’t be doing the full contact sessions yet, hence it’s another 2 months

Barnes is a great asset for the team, but yes increasingly difficult to justify having 3 options at LW and none at RW. It’s a bit of a depressing sign of how FFP constricts everything if he goes, as Chelsea have about 12 RWs and NUFC can’t afford to have a single spot on the team with genuine top level competition Howe seems to have gone totally off Miggy so he’s a goner. I think people need to set reasonable expectations for January. It’s a better time to buy potential (as those players are less likely to be integral parts of competitive teams). There are exceptions, but I’m not sure if a RW of sufficient quality will be available

Big test of the away form. One of the oddities of the fixture list is pre Christmas are all of the ‘easy’ away games, and it’s been a poor return so far. After Xmas have Arsenal, Villa, Brighton, city, spurs and Liverpool away, so it’s quite possible the second half of the season will end up with a lower points tally than the first Need to get a good se rod results from the next five away

Back to the future with this team. Aim will be for Joelinton to be a physical presence down the left and to beat them through sheer graft. Barnes and Tonali give something off the bench too. However my critique is it shows how the team hasn’t really evolved successfully over the past two years. Fine for today, but then IMO time for a rejig to build a midfield partnership of Tonali/Bruno. I’ve not been a fan of the 4231 calls but after midweek I think it’s time. Not for this game and not for today though.

Based on what? Wilson has always been fully committed, he’s just incredibly injury prone

Takes out an attacker when the problem currently is goal scoring