Checko

Looking at Pickford stats at https://fbref.com/en/players/4806ec67/Jordan-Pickford they're actually surprisingly poor in some measures, at least for most of his Everton career. His first five seasons with them (2017 - 2022) he only had one season where he conceded fewer goals than expected based on xG. And that year was only +1.3 over a season, so not a great year. Last 2 years have been much better mind with +3 and +4.4. His crosses stopped % has always been below average as well. So basically his tiny T-Rex arms appear to have hampered him. Decent sweeping distance though and obviously he's comfortable with the ball at his feet. Feels (just from stats) like he's improved a bit with experience over the last couple of year & probably in his prime now. It is interesting though that England's longstanding No 1 with a big reputation, and who as a ball-playing keeper would seem to be quite a modern-style keeper has been playing in a bottom-half team for the last 5 years.

Southgate might obviously just prefer Eze to him, perhaps he fits the mould of a more patient, posession-based team. But you'd think Gordon's pace and directness would be a nightmare for defenders to be up against, especially when they're in extra time and already tired. Being honest in his interview probably didn't help his case, but he also only had 5 mins of game time anyway and Eze was given first dibs. I do wonder if there's an element of 'Everyone's calling for him to play and I've refused, and we've been underwhelming again, and again, and again. If I put him in now and he does well then I look like a fool for being seemingly the only person not to spot it.' so better not play him.

Makes me think a bit of this George Graham line: "It's just not true I don't like creative players. I do. But, in future, I think we'll stop talking about 'creative midfield players'. All players should be all-rounders." https://www.theguardian.com/football/2000/feb/12/newsstory.sport

They gave Bowen a 7 year deal as well didn't they? Wonder if it's actually something like 5 or 6 years with an optional extension.

Schar vs Burnley as well

Oh yeah I forgot you did some designs. Shame they didn't use one of your home ones!

Looking at their logo history those Napoli buggers sure love an 'N'. https://www.footballkitarchive.com/ssc-napoli-logo-history/ Love the donkey one from 82-4:

Have you seen the video he did where he designed some toon kits for fun? Super nice retro yellow and green third strip (though didn't like the choice of badge used). Acually used one of the fonts we've used for lettering.

The guy who was a consultant on our kits?

Probably not. But he would be class. Plus it's a friend for wor Sandro. And he speaks excellent English. And I used to like seeing his dad play on Football Italia.

Chiesa's FB ref stats are pretty damn good over the last year tbf: https://fbref.com/en/players/b0f7e36c/scout/365_m1/Federico-Chiesa-Scouting-Report How does 99th percentile for shot creating actions sound? 94th % for expected assists 97th for progressive carries 84th for progressive passes 91st for progressive passing distance 96th for passes into penalty area 97th for key passes 97th for crosses into penalty area Above average for tackles, blocks and interceptions Fucker's finished.

And the bloke in the picture looks fucked off by every single one. They do look smart though.

Neither has Foden tbf and he's generally quite good.

Think Ashworth was probably exactly what we needed at the time. Ashley left an empty husk of a club, the void filled only by Bruce and Charnley and the ever-present squelching of bacon sandwiches being munched and farts slipping out greasily. Ashworth came from a well-run club and will have basically told us how a well-run club operates and set things up for us. Now he's gone we've got another very highly rated guy who focuses more on the recruitment side, which is exactly what we wanted seemingly. We heard about Freedman and Spors - Freedman was more recruitment focused, Spors was more operationally focused and had experience of Europe and multi-club model. We've got a guy who's basically both. Now let's hope he can still spot a bargain.

I doubt his head's a mess, he'll be focused on England and he's matured a lot since Everton. That said, watching him on the Overlap and his sheer naked ambition to get to the very top I don't expect any sentimentality at all from him if he gets a chance to go to a Champions League perennial.

Literally every article I've read about our transfer plans has said Neto is one of the players we like.

Someone better comfort Mike

Tbf seems like he might be a fan!

Uh oh, think he was at Spurs when they bought Sissoko off us for £30milion. ABORT, ABORT ABORT!

Yeah, feel quite a lot within this role will come down to how you click with the manager / chairperson. He seems to have got on with Poch well as he followed him to Spurs. Then seems to not have got on with Levy, which is probably also a plus.

Little video of him from a few years ago in Monaco. Speaks quite well, but mainly... what a place to train!

Good signy signys for MK Dons. Good signy signys for Southampton Good signy signys for Spurs Good signy signys for Red Bull. Did overall technical work for Red Bull Organisation. Good signy signys for Monaco and big club rebuild. We should be excited because good signy signys are good.

From what I gather Ashworth was an organiser, sets up structures, departments, ways of working etc. Was probably exactly what we needed after Ashley, partuclarly with new first time owners, and presumably what Man U need given they've been so badly run for a while apparently. [source: Froggy] Hopefully we've got our organisation a bit slicker over the last couple of years and this guy is now the right guy to do whatever the fuck a sporting director does going forward.

Perhaps we put the PSR struggles out there to dissuade top clubs from buying Bruno and helping us out!

If you didn't I'm sure you'll nick him off us in a couple of years!