sushimonster85

Aye, feel like even when we were broke/shit we had become a bit of a bogey team for them.

Has Villa written all over him. And will subsequently work out about as well as their other high profile signings.

Yeah, must be honest I had barely seen anything of him till the world cup, but when I heard he was a French forward player who could play anywhere across the front 3 I pictured someone of a similar height/build of ASM or that Kingsley Coman lad. Was surprised by how big he was. Looks like he would have no issues handling himself in the PL.

True, but once Ashworth came in it went radio silent till it was pretty much over the line. Same with Isak.

Would definitely take a draw. The improvement from Leicester already started before the break, think they will be one of the form sides in the second half of the season. ASM looked good when he came on last night. Think if he is ready to go he will start. Without him it's pretty apparent to teams that all our actual threat comes down the right hand side through Trippier and Almiron. Having ASM back and firing would allow us to genuinely stretch teams. I may be wrong, but I think it was only after ASM got injured that Miggy went full God mode. Would love to see some games where they're both bang in form.

He is going to someone who's around the first team immediately. Not one for the future like a lot of the other kids we've signed. £25k p/w is about right for a squad player of his age. Guessing the main incentive for him is watching Trippier. Learning from Trippier. Covering Trippier. Then eventually over the course of 2/3 seasons aiming to become the guy he hands the RB role off to. By all accounts from down south he has a lot of potential.

Haven't seen anything re Maddison, but I saw some talk on Twitter last night that the Harrison Ashby deal is basically done. £500k for West Ham and the kid on £25k p/w.

Wasn't there last night, but was at the Palace game. There is a noticeable difference, but I largely think that's due to the presence of families/young kids. Which I don't think is a bad thing, just have to accept the atmosphere will suffer a little for it. Have to convert the young'uns early. Even if they spend most of their early games (pre-teen at least) bored/sitting on their hands.

I actually think we may see Bruno get a healthy amount of minutes tonight. I know he has been away, but he has barely played over the break. Could do with getting 60 minutes in his legs. Especially as I assume he will be starting v Leicester.

I think their can be a difference in personal feelings of loyalty for a club, and recognising what may have been better for their careers. Gerrard, Totti, and Le Tissier all probably should've moved on if they thought with their head rather than their hearts. Gerrard should probably have gone to Chelsea when all that was brewing, Totti to Madrid.

Also a good point. Especially given he is 28. Harder to sell someone on a 5 year project at that age. He may be 32 by the time we are consistently challenging for the League/CL. If he is happy to take a pay cut he either stays where he is, or goes somewhere he can challenge for top prizes immediately. One of the Milan clubs maybe.

Think his wages would make that a non-starter.

Yeah, pretty sure it all came from Shearer joking around about the possibility after the match last night. That prompted someone to ask Eddie about it at the press conference and now it's somehow a story.

Obviously this would be the best case scenario. In terms of hosting panache he is by far and away the best in the business. Unfortunately he isn't a big enough name, or even in the BBC ecosystem for the MOTD gig. I also feels like he is more at home when he has fellow footy journalists as pundits alongside him, rather than ex-pro's. That BT goals show is the best way to watch the CL group stage games when there's no standout match.

I actually think he will get overlooked in favour of Alex Scott.

Eddie's an ITV man?? #HOWEOUT

I'm not so sure we'll get that this time round. Once Ashworth came in everything got locked down in terms of rumours. Look at the Summer, he came in as there was all the speculation re Botman, it then went dark for a couple weeks and the next thing we heard about it was he was about to fly in for his medical. Isak we were linked with early in the Summer, but when we actually made our move we didn't hear anything from journos till a couple days beforehand when they were suddenly like 'this is going to happen.'

At that price we should be all over that. A lot of others will be as well mind.

In January for sure. Can see him being more open to it in the Summer. But the fee will be huge and there will be no lack of bidders.

Does mention in the piece he is supposedly our target for the next 2 windows. More likely it happens in the Summer. But even then, the price tag is going to be huge.

This would be huge. Unfortunately I just don't see it, especially at that price and especially in Jan. Napoli have a huge shot at winning the league this year and he is one of the main reasons why.

Hate that all the players where Under Armor type thing under their shirt spelled the end for the long sleeve top. Used to love seeing them, and always tried to get the long-sleeved version of shirts back in the day.

Hey, in my defence it was early. Guess I will just have to (seaweed) roll with the punches.

Nah, he wouldn't justify the massive wages he would want. Don't get me wrong, legend in his prime, but asking him to play as part of an intense pressing system at this stage of his career would likely mean he'd need a lot of resting.

Yeah, feels like a bit of a waste seeing as we're not getting either, but I agree Rice is better than Phillips. That being said, I wouldn't rate Rice as one of the best in the world in his position. He's good, but not quite that level. Bruno for one is a far more accomplished/well rounded CM.