Matt1892

According to this he played DM against us in the cup games and up top against us in the league. https://www.transfermarkt.com/carlos-alcaraz/leistungsdaten/spieler/748319

He was apparently lined up by Benfica in January as the replacement for Enzo but ended up moving to Southampton.

Let’s be honest, if he hadn’t gone to Southampton and we were trying to sign him from Racing this summer people would be excited about him as they were about the possibility of signing França, Perrone and Andrey Santos. He scored 4 in 18 for Southampton despite him being played from DM all the way to CF, in what was easily the worst team in the league. That was a good bedding in period for any foreign player coming from South America. Him and Lavia looked really good out of the youngsters they have.

This is an article from just over a year ago when he was still at Racing… But despite his clear ability, the youngster struggled to make much of an impression in a faltering side, looking unsure about what his role on the field was as he was shuttled to and forth between the middle of the pitch and attack. Gago's arrival at the tail-end of 2021, the third coach to sit on the Racing bench in the space of 10 months after Juan Antonio Pizzi and Claudio Ubeda came up short, would clear up much of that mystery. Alcaraz was installed as the most advanced member of a dynamic three-man midfield and given complete license to push forward into the penalty area, while at the same time required to form part of Racing's suffocating high press. It is a position in which he has thrived, catching the eyes of Tottenham, Arsenal and Wolves in the Premier League, as well as Inter and AC Milan over in Italy, all of whom may well be in the chase for his services once the summer transfer window opens. The youngster represents decent value, too: while his release clause is set at €25 million, any bid approaching €20m would likely to be too attractive to refuse for his current employers. https://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/carlos-alcaraz-arsenal-tottenham-inter-argentine-teenager/blte617db2ef01b79c2

I was undecided about putting this in here or the Twitter nonsense thread. https://twitter.com/toonmouthtyne/status/1666102457762566144?s=46

The issue when teams sit deep will be rectified in other areas of the pitch, which appears to be on the right wing and through the middle from the positions we are looking at. I think Joelinton will start wide left and Willock on the left of midfield, the right is in for a makeover.

Gordon is the replacement.

There is a good chance that Joelinton will be first choice on the left next season, Gordon back up and Anderson in the mix as well so we might not even replace him. I wouldn’t be surprised if the money allowed us to sign youngsters to be loaned out to get that ball rolling, presuming we have the finances to sign the 3 or 4 players for the first team.

Chelsea can get away with crazy spending for a few more years yet but every time they do the pressure is on them every year going forward to raise their income. For example if they sell Havertz for £70m that is £40m that is booked as profit due to the remaining time on his contract, which means it will cover this year if they were to spend £200m and hand out 5 year contracts. Whilst this isn’t an issue in the short term they will also need to find another £40m next year to cover it, then the year after etc. That is my understanding of it.

Our press has definitely refined as the season has gone on, we do it less as a team but are much more intelligent when we do use it like against Brighton. The fear going in to that game was that Brighton are excellent against pressing teams, they happily play it around between the two pivots, defence and the keeper and wait for the press which creates gaps for them to exploit. We didn’t allow that as the midfield didn’t appear to press at all, only from goal kicks meaning Brighton had to go long which we could pick up and then go again. It was tactically excellent from Howe. Regarding a DM, I can see the benefit and would allow us to start with a 4-2-3-1 formation against weaker sides or switch it up if we struggle to break teams down. We seem to have very little going for us attack wise through the middle at times and they go sideways to the wide players that much that it become predictable.

https://twitter.com/centregoals/status/1665444345980530690?s=46

Selling off their home grown players so they can keep spending like crazy.

Maybe we are looking to do down the right what we do with Willock and Joelinton down the left, in that we have 2 players that can cover both positions which makes it difficult to pick up the runners.

The conversation didn’t go in to that level of detail but I would presume so. Castore are not stupid, they would rather get around the table and have a conversation about bringing it to an end by mutual agreement than get in to any sort of battle with us over this, considering who the majority shareholders of the club are and the benefits of a good working relationship with them.

Chelsea are particularly aggressive in the transfer market but all that has meant is that they have overpaid in most cases in terms of transfer fees and salaries to cut down on the negotiation time. That isn’t our style and I don’t think it’s Liverpools either.

That’s fine and as I said, people don’t have to believe me and I’m happy to keep titbits around this sort of thing to myself going forward. The source is impeccable. Castore are done after this season and adidas will replace them. All agreed.

I know people don’t believe ITK posts so ignore this if you want but I have it on good authority from a very high level source that we have told Castore that 2023/24 will be the last season they will be our kit manufacturer.

Fucking hell!?

It means that they are close to breaking FFP so UEFA will ask them to submit extra information to monitor how they plan on bringing their finances back in line.

Arsenal were put on UEFAs watch list last summer over FFP so they will likely have to sell to help balance the books if they want to sign Rice and Caicedo. https://www.football.london/arsenal-fc/news/arsenal-financial-fair-play-warning-24919681?int_source=amp_continue_reading&int_medium=amp&int_campaign=continue_reading_button#amp-readmore-target