Checko

I'm guessing you'll make an offer - and as a free agent he'd be a fool not to wait for all the offers to come in. Do you think the uncertainty around your manager situation is slowing you down here? Both you and Chelsea are more prestigous, can presumably offer more money and the potential of immediate European football, which I'd imagine is a draw for a footballer who's never played in Europe. Chelsea would also basically guarantee him a silly contract and then an attempt to flip him for FFP profit in a couple of years. Our one advantage in negotiations is that we have managerial stability right now & the boss definitely wants him and has a clear plan for him, and has a good track record in improving players. With our CB injuries he'll definitely get a decent shot - he would be the obvious long-term Schar successor if he's good. This is a massive contract & career decision for him though, so he shouldn't rush it.

I've heard Gordon say he prefers the left but I've not heard him say he dislikes the right, just it's not his first option. I've heard him describe his versatility as an asset. Mind you I haven't heard everything he's said. Re: Barnes - I think there was sense in buying him: a premier league proven player in his prime & we took advantage of a relagation. Also, at the time we got him we didn't know Gordon was going to start smashing it on the left wing and squads need quality depth. We lost a LW in ASM & replaced him. For the money I don't think he was a massive bargain or a transformative signing like a Bruno, but he was a solid enough signing IMO. Just a shame he got that freak injury during our toughest part of the season.

Maybe a cheeky little appearence clause or not-getting-relegated fee.

Bored now, when does football start?

From the bat emoji at the bottom I'm taking it to mean that he is actually Batman. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Shhh, don't tell them that.

Wouldn't be surprising if true. Doesn't Pep always leave at the end of contracts and he's been laying the groundwork for this in recent interviews. Feels like he wasn't going to leave Man C till he'd won the Champions League but now he's won that and everything else, what more is there for him to do?

Apparently they do: https://thomaslyte.com/sky-bet-efl-trophies-designers-makers/

Yeah, also people like to focus only on net transfer spend, but wages are another big factor and we're only in 9th on that list apparently, spending about 76% as much as Villa and Spurs, around half what Arsenal does and about 44% of the Manchester clubs: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-13363469/20-Premier-League-clubs-ranked-wage-bills-agree-explore-introducing-salary-cap-2025-26-season.html Or for people who don't want to use a daily fail link below has the same table: https://www.sportbible.com/football/premier-league/premier-league-salary-cap-man-utd-city-wage-813480-20240429

Bring the Geordie Dwight Gayle home!

Just need to keep the band together now, lose a couple of the ageing groupies and maybe get a top notch trumpet player in.

Yeah I think he kind of always wants to play that advanced right-sided 8 role as that's what's been drilled into him. Even when we played more 442 vs Burnley he still seemed to play the exact same way.

Don't know about the last month of the season, but there's a quote where he says 'West Ham on 30th March was "the first time in a while I've been excited to come in and play, just because I know I wasn't going to be in pain"' (https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5404865/2024/04/11/newcastle-injury-nightmare/)

What a bugger, feels like a bit of a wasted season in a way: had a 20 goal striker, a world class CM, our first 10 goal and assist player in decades, fourth best goal difference in the league, highest premier league goal total in our history and didn't even get Europe out of it! With all the cup draws and injuries felt we were due a tiny bit of karma. This was about as tough a year as we could have had. Still, despite that it's been a season where we've beaten Villa 5-1, Spuds 4-0, knocked Man U and C out of the EFL, an 8-0 away win, beat PSG 4-1, there's been some fantastic days and performances for what feels like an underwhelming season. Hopefully we can bring in a couple of real quality additions on top of the frees - we got Isak, Bruno and Botman with no Europe so it can be done. Trim some of the fringe players and the squad's looking a lot stronger and deeper and ready to go for next year.

Fallen on his feet. Good luck to him.

Depends how you want to define 'abysmal' really. I haven't actually said that. I've never watched him play other than a couple of games against us. He produced a lovely dinked last year though was offside. All I can say is that from the stats he has underperformed his xG in every year but one where he was more or less on it and that over the last 7 years he's achieved 76.5% of the open play goals he should have done based on xG, which indicates to me that he's not a very clinical finisher. He's only marginally better than finishing laughing stock Darwin Nunez, who's got a 71% rate for Liverpool (though actually ranks close to expected over his career). That doesn't mean he's not a good player or wouldn't be a good signing. But yeah, he's an abysmal finisher

Nah, Rooney will drink it all.

He was a handful when he played us. I don't know much about his overall game but Everton fans seem to rate him despite him not being particularly clinical so I'm sure his all round game is decent. Wouldn't suprise me if he's another McTominay-style smokescreen though

Assuming the stats are reasonably accurate he's only scored about 3/4 of the goals he should have done based on the quality of chances over a 7 year period. That's not a great finishing record.

Yeah, a striker who's not as efficient at finishing but gets into the right positions to score more often might end up scoring as often anyway.

By comparison Wilson has 77 goals from 75.8 xG / 65 non-penalties from 65.8 non-penalty xG https://fbref.com/en/players/c596fcb0/Callum-Wilson

Tbf, accoring to football reference he has scored 53 goals from 67 xG in the seasons since they've been recording xG and 5 of those were penalties (from 6 taken) https://fbref.com/en/players/59e6e5bf/Dominic-Calvert-Lewin EDIT: 48 goals from 62.5 non penalty xG Everton fans were saying he's not very clinical on their forum

Had a friend who doesn't follow football but she saw him on TV & was like 'where's he from? He looks like he could be Jonah Lomu's cousin'

I don't think DCL's injury record is quite as concerning as first appears: 1. He doesn't appear to have one injury that keeps recurring (see Wilson's constant hamstring niggles over the years for example: https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/callum-wilson/verletzungen/spieler/123682) 2. 18/19, 19/20, 20/21 he missed less than a couple of months combined in those three years - one bruise, one muscle injury and a few days with a hamstring niggle 3. 21/22 - he missed 125 days with a broken toe. Lot of time out but no repeated history of this, probably just one of those things that can happen. 4. 22/23 - Few injuries this year, can't deny it. Following the previous year probably established his sick note reputation 5. This year - only a broken cheekbone keeping him out for a few weeks. No muscle injuries etc. Obviously his injury record still is a bit of a concern, but probably not as much of a concern as Callum's multiple ACLs and constant hamstrings. Had a look on GOT and most seem to rate hm and would be sorry to see him go. Sounds as if he's been left on an island a bit by Dyche this year. Sounds a good lad. One says a reasonably reliable ITK on another forum says a deal agreed and will be announced 1st June, though this could well be internet hearsay bollocks.

After waiting 47 or so years just to finish ahead of them in the league, if they nick our European place quite frankly I want the UN called on him.