Checko

Not very. Seems to be his weakest attribute.

Whenever I've seen any quotes from Poch recently he's been doing his best not to commit to another season. I think he wanted out as well.

Speaking to another club about a potential job opportunity is fair enough. Speaking to someone you know shouldn't be working for another club about that job and [if true] passing over confidential information is, to use a technical legal term, well dodge.

Though presumably he knew Berrada was on gardening leave at the time so wasn't supposed to engage in discussions. That sort of thing could be an additional rule breech in it's own right I presume. Certainly not a good look.

Home kits are always not imaginative enough and not traditional enough.

Yeah, plus if we allow Bruno to wander up field and do his thing (which we want to do) it helps to have some CMs with genuine pace who can get back and cover if we lose the ball.

Or maybe the club have got wise and are feeding him fake info. They let him have some unimportant real stuff to give him credibility so he can pass on fake info convincingly. They're Juan Pujol García-ing him!

That first loan spell aside WIllock's not exactly been a prolific goalscorer for us mind: 7 goals in 88 games

If we go a bit daring for once and get rid of all the black stripes then the white patch on the back wouldn't be as noticeable

I'm going to say Marmaduke's a bit like Nick Pope [big, good shot stopper, deals with crosses], but presumably a bit more comfortable with the ball at his feet (he can hardly be worse), and probably not as proactive at rushing out to clear (very few are). I don't know that he transforms the way we play, but given his age could be a very good keeper for a long time. Anyway, that's my assessment based on never having seen him play.

Looks like a good old-school keeper to me: big guy, good shot stopper, deals with crosses.

Checked Marmaduke's stats for 22-23 and his sweeping stats are much better then tbf, around average to slightly above. Goals conceded seems to match expected xG against. Stopping crosses 3rd highest, compared to 4th this year. Launched pass completion % still pretty low. High launched pass from goal kicks. https://fbref.com/en/comps/12/2022-2023/keepersadv/2022-2023-La-Liga-Stats

Yeah me too, Pope's sweeping was a massive miss, fundamentally changed how we could defend. It does look a bit from the highlights I saw that he does like to stay close to his line (eg a couple of times there are through balls played through and he stays quite close to his line before coming out quite late in the play), but yeah - stats can give some indications but really need supplementing with a proper eye test.

Haven't seen him play but as I'm off sick did some Dennis Wise scouting with some extra stats googling https://fbref.com/en/comps/12/keepers/La-Liga-Stats From basic LaLiga stats 73.8% save percentage which is rougly average/a little above average https://fbref.com/en/comps/12/keepersadv/La-Liga-Stats From advanced stats - has the highest 'post goal expected shot minus goal allowed'. Meaning (I think) he did a lot of good saving. Also saved 3 out of 5 penalties, which probably bumped the previous stat up a tad. Passing: Has the lowest completion % of launched passed in the league (passes over 40 yards). Also one of the highest long ball attempted percentages [dunno how much of this was down to team tactics, he was playing for a weak team, but I presume he's not that great with the ball at his feet or they'd play short more] - *Bear in mind Alisson and Onana don't have much better completion % than him this year (Alisson much better last year) and are both good with their feet so could be a little misleading. https://breakingthelines.com/player-analysis/giorgi-mamardashvili-valencias-georgian-goalkeeper/ Suggests passing is a weakness, though it's something best judged by the eye test IMO. Crossing: 3rd Highest crossing stop percentage in the league Sweeping: Well below average actions outside penalty area and 3rd shortest distance to goal of defensive actions [By comparison, Pope's been in the top 2 furthest distance to goal in the premier league for this last couple of years]. Of course being in a weak team may influence this as you play more low block. EDIT: In Pope's final Burnley season 21-22 he was still 3rd furthest from goal in the league. Based on that and a couple of highlight videos: He's a big fucker and agile with it so a good shotstopper (makes very asthetic dives) and good on crosses. Basically very good close to his goal but probably not a good sweeper keeper. His beard is decent but not Alisson good.

I've seen Craig Hope say we've scouted him this season, though given his crazy start to the year I imagine everyone scouted him. I haven't seen anything more concrete than that.

athletic /aθˈlɛtɪk/ adjective Having sufficient speed and agility to perform a complete kneeslide

I love that he's so phenomenally shit at knee slides and still insists on doing them. I just find it so endearing.

I feel like you're maybe not taking into account the value of just being a good football team. Successful teams get more TV money, sponsorship money, prize money, merchandise money, might be able to charge more for tickets etc. Just more supporters in general, which is how teams make much of their cash. If the extra Villa spent on some of their guys with relatively low resale value [assuming this is the case] gets them Champions League then it's money worth spending. Same as Trippier for us. His resale value isn't what made him such a good transfer. Actually just being good and making your team better now is also quite useful and has indirect financial benefits.

With frees I guess you accept you pay over the odds in signing bonus/wages, but of course you save on the big upfront cost of a transfer fee. When selling you then might get less to subsidise the player losing relatively high wages (assuming they leave to take a step down), but you've already benefitted from a lower initial fee. Even if you're paying an extra £50,000 per week on wages, say, that's still only £10,000,000 over 4 years. Can probably more than offset that on a good players by selling them, even if you take a slightly reduced fee due to the high wages. Basically, if you sign someone decent on a free you're probably fine. If you sign Jeff Hendrick god help you.

Just think of the profit from shirt lettering going from Pope to Mamardashvili. I mean yeah, there's not going to be that many buying 'keeper tops, but still, enough to offset much of the fee probably.

Ultimately it's a Football Manager world and every player over 30 needs to be sold before their physical stats tank.

If we really want him then I'm sure PIF could offer him two private toilets. Or even a toilet and a urinal for extra efficiency. He's a hard worker by all accounts one account I read, so that might really appeal to him and show that we're suitably ambitious.

Palace have been outstanding recently and looks like they've found a system that really suits their players. Wouldn't surprise me at all if he thought, 'you know what, maybe I'll just stick around and see if this squad I've helped build can really go somewhere.' On the other hand, perhaps because of the above, his stock's particularly high at the moment and it might be a great time for him to get a new job. At the very least he's probably given himself the leverage to negotiate his own private toilet from Parish, and who wouldn't want that? Well played Dougie, well played.

Pretty sure you're thinking of Alisson tbh

No idea tbh, all I know is that I'm team tram all the way. Trams are what happen when model rail enthusiasts decide to do something productive with their time and build some actually useful transport infastructure instead.