Erikse

He said it was a 20m difference, but it was 10m euros. The moment we are in for him, they turn up the price, because we are usually willing to spend a bit more given the spending power compared to Como. Us having to pay 10m euros more is kind of expected.

I'm seeing that it was 25m euro from Como and we payed 35m euros. Quite a bit different from your numbers. That price difference is to be expected when selling to Como vs Newcastle.

I think Italian clubs charge more when Premier League clubs are in for their players. Especially for Premier League clubs that are in the Champions League.

I do think that we were overly reliant on Isak.. If you look at our stats when Isak was injured or out of form last season, I think our winrate was pretty mediocre. When he was in form we won nearly every single game. Obviously having Woltemade there helps, but he can't win us games on his own to the same degree yet.

Sure, a few games. Then he had to fight for his place when he was back. Tonali also went straight in before the suspension, but then had to get the spot back from Longstaff after. Sure, they weren't fit, but it took a while until they were starting frequently.

I'm not sure what was wrong with the timing of the Thiaw transfer? Elanga is getting the same treatment as Isak, Bruno, Tonali, Gordon, Hall, Livra etcetc. Actually he has shown Elanga more trust early on than many of those. We are rotating him with a Murphy who has done really well for us in the last year. Saying that the recruitment was a disaster, I mean, Thiaw and Wolte has looked fine? The other 2 got injured, which was unlucky. Also, Wissa as winger? What? I also don't think the Isak situation could have been handled that much better, other than that maybe we should have expected it to happen and acted earlier. It seems like it took the club by surprise, and we were probably leaving it too late with the replacements, causing us to overpay a little for Wissa.

We usually avoid the january window (apart from the first one and when Gordon went on strike), but I hope we will do everything we can to potensially get a fullback and a midfielder. Atleast one of those.

Imagine the outrage by Arsenal fans if we handballed it like that and it wasn't given, even if the law says it shoiuldn't be.

1 serious fullback injury, and we are already left with just Hall coming back from a long spell, a 35y old Trippier, a 2m tall 33y old CB, and Krafth, as the options.. In a 2 game per week season.

Meanwhile the €125m "sure thing" needs time to adapt to be able to do anything at all.

Only a few weeks ago people were almost giving up on him.. Oh, forum..

Was a strange one for sure. He even had one of his worst games ever for us at LB vs Arsenal in the 23/24 season. It really does seem like Eddie is struggling with the decision of Botman vs Burn, and tries to shoehorn a bit.

I didn't need to see this today. Christ. Watching Minteh against Chelsea was painful enough.

I agree. Looks like an okayish mid table winger atm, and has looked like that for a while.

I get that finishing was never his biggest strength, but when you look at some of his goals from 2 years ago then it's difficult to understand that this is the same player.

We allways start the season like this and have the same discussions. It's a shame that we allways drop lots of points in the beginning, but we usually turn it around at some point. Happy with the rotation, but a bit surprised about the (seemingly) overly defensive tactics this season, mind. I think we will see some changes to the approach soon, and Howe often gets it right when we really need to turn things around.

Were good in the first half. I also feel like we were too defensive in the second, whatever the reason was.

Christ.. need a right back in january now.

Pretty sure some Arsenal defenders in the background was literally doing worse things in that situation..

Aye, ref is supposed to make a subjective analysis of the nature of the keepers touch on the ball. That would have brought us a lot of consistent refereeing.

Norwegian commentator refused to give up his opinion that it should have been a pen, nomatter how many replays that were shown.

Howe isn't used to experimenting and rotating that much, so I don't expect it all to go right immidiately. However as you say you don't evolve until you start trying new things, and he will learn a lot each time. Squad depth being slightly better also helps.

You can tell that Howe is trying to manage minutes a lot better this time than last time. No doubt he has been analyzing all that went wrong mid season last time we were in Europe. I like that he's going out of his comfort zone, and tries to mix things up a lot more rather than just being stubborn and do the same thing over again.

Joelinton and Gordon behind Woltermade then? Would be interesting.

So the tactic is to get them out wide instead of going through the middle? Edit: maybe it's 3 in the middle and no wingers, never mind.