mondonewc

Their own era

Task for anyone with some free time So much hype about the current squad, disgrace if we don't win Euro's etc etc... pick an England 11 choosing players from Italia 90 to now, selecting based purely on ability rather than how they performed for England, how many of the current group are getting in that team? For me back 5 can only really consider Walker, front 6 is interesting...

Fair enough, all gud. I would say the scenario now would be different though given when we made those signings, whilst there was a risk attached, in almost all if not all cases they were always going to be an upgrade on what we had previously whereas now we would be selling our best asset to allow us to manage FFP, and I would expect improve the team in multiple positions, so for me that's not the same as the example you suggested. Time will tell which route we go, hopefully FFP gets changed/scrapped and we can keep Bruno and Isak and build the team around them, one can dream!

Very interesting way you have of communicating with people, would suggest a slightly less arrogant approach rather than factually stating someone's opinion that differs to your own is plain wrong, but you do you! Anyways... Yes, we could sign another unproven Striker who has potential, similar to what we did with Isak, I fully understand that, BUT, it's extremely unlikely they'll be remotely close to his level, as one of the best Strikers in the league. Arsenal want a Striker, Chelsea want a Striker, possibly Man U want another Striker, to name just a few. It's my opinion, just an opinion, that we'll find it extremely difficult, bordering impossible, to replace Isak suitably, but sure we can gamble £80m on an unproven Striker when we are handcuffed already by FFP and hope it works out, it may well do so, but it's not an approach I'm a fan of and would do everything possible to avoid.

Well the discussion I'm having is who would be viable candidates to replace Isak should he be sold, and outside of Haaland, Isak is arguably the best Striker in the league right now with significantly higher potential, in my opinion. You're suggesting that there are hundreds of candidates on a database, albeit with risk, and I think that's a very questionable statement. I think suggesting it would be a risk to find a like for like replacement for Isak who's of similar ability with 100's of other players is inaccurate, I think that number is much, much lower for realistic targets who are even close to the level that he's at, and those who fit the bill will all be targets for bigger clubs than us, and that's the point of concern for me, thus my suggestion he's arguably irreplaceable.

100's who can replace Isak??? Guess we have very different opinions on how good Isak is!

Can you give a few examples then of who we could sign that could replace Isak?

Strikers are just so rare though these days that I think Isak has to be the most irreplaceable player we have, Bruno would be very tough to replace, Isak I think is literally impossible, there's nobody even close to his level that would consider signing for us, too few top class Strikers and too many teams looking for one. Bruno's likely our most important player, but not most irreplaceable for me.

Wouldn't be so sure about that, he's obviously not taking Rodri's place, and he can't do the role Stones plays either, Silva is levels above him in my opinion as well, so not sure how that would fit for Bruno to play every week?

And with Botman's injury surely CB has to be #1 priority now, we are so weak now in that area.

Why doesn't Wilson have a future here as 3rd choice Striker? If he was willing to play the role think it would be perfect for us, much less likely to be injured if he rarely starts and just plays 20-30 minutes, he could score double figures doing that next season.

Whilst I agree with the general point, not sure why there'd be a fuss about the price of the shirts like it's a shock, ours are £70 and there shite, nike's much better quality, sadly it's just standard for the times. And yeah, as @Charliessaid, great job from Nike's marketing team, everyone talking about it and it's a load of bollocks.

Took the piss out of how he speaks implying he was disabled and called him a "fucking mong".

Early days but he seems very good tbf. Maybe that Elliott video mocking Kane's speech, if a remember correctly, from a few years back is playing against him now. Especially to integrate him so near to a major tournament, or Southgate just doesn't fancy him.

Have one ticket available again for Club Wembley for the upcoming Brazil and Belgium games if anyone's London based and wants a free ticket, PM me.

I'm more than happy to concede he shouldn't be part of the future if we want to be a top team, but the criticism and hate towards him is way over the top, same with Burn. They're both living everyone's dream, maybe that's part of the problem, and subconsciously at least, possibly there's some jealousy or resentment towards them for that, regardless the over the top reaction from some is just shit support to be against them so much, there's no need for it! If the price was right I'd be happy to sell him to help us grow, at the same time though he's good enough to be a squad player for us next season with the limitations of FFP.

Does this £20m benefit us FFP wise (sorry if already asked and answered)? If it doesn't I see zero reasons why we wouldn't just let his contract run down given the wealth of the Saudis and we don't want to help a rival.

I don't understand what people expect, we've been battered all season with the amount of players missing, that's not an excuse, it's a fact! People say about us having a stronger squad, nobody could compete to their normal level with this amount of missing players. Man City has 22 players currently (excluding loaned-out players), and 3 of them are goalkeepers, now take 10 of them out for basically the whole season and see how they do, that's what we've faced, and I can assure you if Man City had the same difficulties we've faced this season they aren't winning the league, and likely win nothing. So then it comes down to expectations, anyone with an ounce of sense knows we punched above our weight last season, and knows the main reason we managed to do so was keeping everyone fit which is much easier to do when you play once a week. Anyone who thinks with everything we've had to deal with that we should be expecting to finish higher than maximum 6th or 7th this season then you've lost your mind, or you're just clueless! We're 7th in the league, still in the FA Cup, we were 1 minute and a Trippier basic error from reaching the League Cup semi and very likely would have a final to look forward to next week, and we were blatantly robbed in the Champions League or would've been playing KO Champions League football right now. That in itself it's somewhat remarkable given all the issues we've had. We don't look solid at the back and concede too many goals? No fucking shit, what do people expect with a patched-up team and no rotation given how limited our options are right now, and have been since September. There are things Eddie can improve on, he knows that better than anyone I'm sure, and he will do better, the idea he should be under even 1% pressure is nonsense!

100% yes! What's to worry about? 4th/5th looking very unlikely right now, and I think there's an argument for preferring 8th over 7th since I could see us having a huge season next season without all the added midweek games in Europe. Europe is fun for sure, and it'd be a good chance for a trophy if we come 7th, but hardly going to be devastated if we missed out on 6th/7th and we finish 8th or 9th. Difficult game tmoro but we are clear favourites, hopefully we perform more like the Villa game and less like the reverse fixture against these.

He's 28 in August, so he's likely thinking this is his last BIG contract, and his agents getting greedy. Zero chance he can become the highest earner at the club, Isak should then snap be knocking on the door for a pay rise, likely along with a few others forming a queue behind him. Hope he stays, but if he wants to leave wish him well and be on his way. If there's just one thing I'd like us to copy from City's approach it would be that, anyone who wants to leave can, don't ever get desperate and overpay.

You fucking love to see it!

I agree, they lost 3-1 away to Brentford, 3-1 at Villa, 3-0 at Chelsea, and 4-1 at Brighton, they're one of them teams that come up and get some good results at home and make a fight of it but there's a huge gap in quality between us and them, we'll batter them.

Circa 20 years ago went there midweek by car, we ended up at the same petrol station twice ffs Driver lost all hope and went to the nearest police station for directions haha, took us 7 hours to get back, fun times.

BBC Wales for their game 7:30 tmoro

Crazy to think that we could sell Trippier, Wilson and Almiron, and I have that much confidence in those who are running the club along with the management team that whilst I'd be a little disappointed to see them go, I'd have no worries that it was for the right reasons to hopefully benefit the club and our future plans moving forward.