Erikse

Bruce was also world champion at denying responsibility. We were just lucky that it was Howe that came in to clean up his mess. With another manager we could have been relegated that season, and not had anywhere near the same success after.

It's okay, everyone has a different way of processing things. Personally I don't really get strong emotional connection to individuals in our club, with the excpetion being the likes of Howe and Bruno, for reasons of personality and passion towards the club (with the contribution towards our success still being a factor ofcourse). II mostly just care about our success as a team. I don't think losing Isak will hurt us much given that we signed 2 presumably solid strikers. We didn't need one of the very best striker in the world to gather some more points from the games that we have played so far. We only needed a solid one. We've won games through having one of the best, but also lost a lot of points due to not having a solid one when Isak has been out or unfit. Selling Isak alloweded us to get good depth up top without using any of our budget, which in turn means better depth in other positions.

I don't let myself get too wound up by these things. I couldn't care less about Isak anymore, and we are better off with 2 solid (hopefully) strikers where neither of them seem injury prone. Last season our form was highly dependant on whether Isak was fit and in form. I don't think we will be worse off, and we might be more consistent this way. Sure, the Liverpool fans are be annoying, but they love to see us whine and be emotional about this. Lets not give them that joy.

I expect us to get some troubles with the midfield. We have 3 CMs who are somewhat injury prone. I'd say we have 4 quality players in that position, and 2 of them are amongst the injury prone ones. As we saw last time a Champions League season is very demanding of our midfielders in terms of fitness. If we are unlucky even Bruno or Tonali could get a longer spell out, and that would be awful.

Not sure I'd rate Trippier that highly. Capable back up for me. He doesn't make a real impact all that often anymore, and it doesn't seem like Howe trust him as much in a back 4 as he used to do. Could even say the same about Gordons impact these days, but I still thinks he contributes a bit more with his runs.

So net spend was around 98m GBP? Or €113m if you like. We didn't spend massively on transfer fees when you factor in sales. Hopefully we won't get into trouble next summer then. A midfielder in january would be nice still, we might be forced to do so even.

Not convinced about Thiaw or even Elanga yet. Woltermade is exciting, but so was many other players from Bundes who turned out to be flops.

That's what happens when we are a club with less pull and can't offer the same type of wages.. We need to be a bit more creative if we want to be price efficient, but that also comes with more risk.

They weren't selling him. It would have been a silly fee, more silly than that.

We all know what impact Wilson had in his prime. The 18 goal season that got us 4th. Wissa will probably be similar, but with less injuries.

Wissa for £55m is the deal of the century compared to this..

Would have been amazing if we got a surprise signing of midfielder today aswell, just for the sake of depth. I doubt it though.

Wasn't it £125m + the £5m? I thought that they included the loyalty fee in the £130m figure.

He is way older than Elanga, but also a safer bet in terms of quality this season. This season is really important. We went big on Livra and Hall last time we were in the UCL, and while they were brilliant signings, they didn't play that much in that season (especially Hall). It hurt us that year. Villa went even further than this when they blasted money on loan deals just to be able to compete on all fronts.

We might make some of that money back by finishing higher up the table (or advancing further in other tourneys) thanks to playing Wissa over Osula/Gordon upfront. I have the feeling we could've gotten him for £50m earlier in the window, but I suppose we wanted to explore other options first.

It's kind of fine.. Half the season we were struggling due to Isak being injured or playing with injury. At the end of games we had noone to replace him when he gassed out.

So, now that Donnarumma is in, what was the point of the Trafford deal? A £30m GK backup?

Imagine having so much money to spend that you can spend £30m on a backup goalie.

This is why they did the whole lowballing, not bidding, and waiting for open door thing.. £125m would've been rejected before, and then it would be difficult to expect the same bid to get accepted now.

They even signed our replacement just to bully us even more..

What is Ameobi doing these days? We have a derby coming.

Guehi on the bench. Bloody hell.

Swap deal with Haaland anyone?

Almiron was much better at running with the ball, and did a lot of great defensive work. Osula just loses the ball right after he recieves it most of the time.

We allways start the season with not so many points under Howe.. especially if you look at the table around 7-10 games in. Getting some tough games early along with our slow way of doing business doesn't help (probably to get the prices down because FFP).