Optimistic Nut

Probably Giggs, but Evans leaving this summer means next season will be the first time since the 73/74 season that the Man Utd squad won't have a player who was managed by Ferguson. Albiston 74/88 De Gea 11/23 Evans 23/25

£2m for Martyn and £4m for Southgate from Palace when they went down instead of Hislop and Barton (Watson main RB and could have kept Hottiger as cover). Hindsight though...

Pickford is also 6 foot 1.

I watched him closely during the 1-1 when Dummett cost us and he was absolutely immense. Was constantly shouting over to Dyche about things he was picking up on in-game, organising the defence, all round it was one of the best keeping performances I've seen here. Could only dream of a keeper like that.

Pretty nice.

He's much more of a natural leader/organiser, as good a sweeper keeper, very good shot stopper. I'd have him despite the Mackem links.

Yeah, Pickford is excellent.

Give them £40m plus Murphy. They have a decent replacement and a bit of money, we get our upgrade.

I'm not even sure they're very ambitious tbh. They blew £250m net last summer and just followed the same sort of pattern they have the last 3-4 years instead of using their moment of strength, and ours & Villa's poor transfer position to really have a go at bullying their way in to the top 5 question. They were only a couple of wins away in the end, if they'd gambled they might have hit the jackpot.

He seems the safe bet. Very good chance he becomes an 8/10 keeper. Just feel with Joan Garcia, based on never having seen him play ever, and only even knowing he existed 2 weeks ago, that he could be a world beater.

Have to admit when I first saw this thread at the top, I thought something big had happened in terms of ownership that might have been in another thread I'd not yet read.

Aye. Either wouldn't be a surprise.

Marrallel wavy lines?

Wouldn't be the worst thing in the world for his career to do a Lee Clark for a couple of years.

Promotion one definitely, in hindsight new ownership is open to abuse. You could definitely see someone like Chelsea going from being owned by BlueCo, to BluePlc, to BlueInc, etc every year.

Could see Watson going there on loan for a season. Nowhere near good enough to be a top 10 squad player in the PL yet.

One of the comments in their PSR thread is how promoted clubs should be given the first season as being exempt so that they can have a go at strengthening to stay up. I actually agree with it to be fair, same as I believe a new ownership of a club should be given the same freedom. If they'd not got promoted I bet they'd not have had that thought, though.

I thought they'd come up in a great PSR position but according to grumpy old man, they're already £61m down for the last 2 years so that doesn't give them a lot of wiggle room?

They'll be fine...this guy has it all mapped out.

Gerrard not going to Rangers.

Mixed bag.

Get the feeling we're in safe hands if the two options are Trafford and Garcia. Could have the shirt for the next 10-12 years. Back 5 of Garcia/Trafford, Tino, Hall, Botman & Guehi and we're sorted for a long time.

If they start his gardening leave now we could have him in place for the 26/7 season.

You're probably looking down the Spurs/Kane route of buying experienced strikers towards the end of their career for a season or two like Llorente and loans like Vinicius. Wouldn't really have a problem with that, either.