Harveys Barn

Howe said the other day that we basically aren't training, we're just managing load due to the mid week games. Howe gets the best results from his teams when he can train them meticulously, IMO. He also likes to recruit players that graft and work and learn. But when you take all midweek skills and match-sim training away, the results really slide, with this group.

What's happened to Park Seung So? Injured? Would love him on the bench.

My boy

Surely isak is #1. Made us a cool $60m profit, AND helped us win a trophy and qualify for UCL twice. What a stunning transfer result. #2 for me is Burn. The sheer value of that trade, and the way he has become a leader, gets him this spot. #3 is Bruno. What a player. We paid so much less than his actual worth, and he has embraced the city. The honorable mentions are Tino, Trippier and Tonali. Love them all.

Elite: Howe, Frank, Glasner Excellent: Emery, Slot, Pep, Moyes, Iraola, Nuno Good: Arteta, Maresca, Hurzeler Bad: Potter, Amorim

Ball comes off his feet like a rocket

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNjcYqstpRK/?igsh=MTBrOXN6bWd3OTRocQ==

I'm an Aussie and have spent my days watching Aussie rules more than the EPL... but to me, Gordon hardly looks like scoring. His shots seem weak. We need him in wide open spaces (wing), running and causing mayhem. He isn't a striker. I'd rather see Osula, Barnes, joelinton, or even schar tried there.

Agree, you've got to moneyball it sometimes

I missed on Wirtz, but got gakpo. Gambled with no Salah and made Bowen Captain. Bench boosted... and ready to be mediocre!

Is there a league we're all joining here? Gimme gimme

Biggest take-away for me is that we have made a heap of moves for players who haven't already been totally convinced to come. It needs to be built on months of wooing them, so they are already coming, in their mind. Then you approach their club with an offer, and by that stage, it's too late for other clubs to move in. This seems to be how Elanga played out. But guehi, ekitike, sesko, cunha, pedro - none of these players seemed care, or have had any real emotional connection being built prior to the offers landing. It makes us look really sloppy.

It's at the point where we need to be pragmatic, and get a few loan deals in. Just survive with coverage and depth till January window. And use the time till then to fix the bloody scouting and negotiation structure.

IMO, 25m for Wissa would have been highway robbery. He is worth 35 and would win us lots of games.

It's unbelievable that suddenly Chris Wood would be so appealing for squad depth.

What would DCL'S wages be? They'd need to be astronomical to make him unappealing as a free. If it's 50k a week, that's 2.5m or so over the year. That's what, 1 or 2 extra UCL wins? Or 1 higher spot in the premier League? Seems a worthwhile bet if it gives us options, some coverage, fresh legs here and there.

Yeah, but we need to be able to multi-task. Create two separate recruiting teams if need be. One is guided heavily by Howe and has an eye on the now. The other is given $30 mil per year budget, and told to focus on making profit. Howe can then hand-pick the ones from this lot that he wants to keep.

Why can't we scout players like Milenkovich, Wissa (when Brentford bought him), Hujisen (a year ago), etc. This is the only way to succeed in our position. The model has to be: - buy one elite player a year - buy 5 players annually in the 10 mil zone each, like the examples above - sell 2-3 of those per year There's no excuse for having a poor scouting network in modern football. The players are out there.

What happened to the talk about Gallagher?

I'd absolutely love wissa.

Look at those quads

Isn't it mad that clubs are prepared to pay 50-odd million, rather than simply wait a year and get someone on a free? It's basically saying that they value the player's impact, for a single season, as being worth at least that. Which could only make sense if that one player was going to be the difference between trophy/not, or CL/not. Craziness.

I'd go super simple: - Whatever the highest-spending club spent in a calendar year, is the cap for all clubs the following year. *This allows for teams to at least aspire to catch up. - if a club's debt exceeds X amount, they then come under 'sustainability' rules, ie something more like what the current rules are. *This prevents clubs from using endless borrowing to try and catch up.

Elanga strikes me as a really nice addition if we can land him. He's already excellent in the PL. He has an elite and disciplined approach. Now imagine him at 25 instead of 23, having had two years of Howe to develop him further. All prices are mad these days, inflation has run amok. What does annoy me is that we don't seem to even really be trying to scout deeply. We should be getting in Elanga, PLUS 4 players who were all scouted well and cost 10-12m each. It seems that Brighton, Bournemouth, Brentford and even Wolves manage to do that every year. The talent is out there.

Lovely, then we should hopefully have 100 of them!