Now That's What I Call Transfer Rumours! 7

[Rich]

Aye. Get the glaring weak links sorted first, then Pope definitely enters the discussion for an upgrade, along with almost everyone else in the team.

 

No player is perfect, which is the point I've been trying to make, but you can build a team to cover for each individual's deficiencies. Howe's already done that brilliantly but he's had a lot of individual deficiencies to cover. As he gets better players, the job gets much easier and everyone else is elevated as a result.

 

If Pope's deficiency is just his technical ability in possession, that is coverable, and we did a good job of doing it throughout the first half of the season. We barely used him as an outlet.

 

A bit of athleticism in at left-back and a top-class defensive-minded midfielder make a world of difference to our overall solidity, not to mention what they'll offer going forward when combined with an exciting right-winger.

[SUPERTOON]

All this discussion shows is how far we still have to improve and yet we are already 3rd in the league. That’s massively exciting ahead of the summer window.

[Rich]

8 minutes ago, Smal said:

Botman’s passing was very, very good yesterday fwiw.

 

I do actually agree, he's always looking to move the ball forwards, plays it off either foot, and more often than not picks a good option.

 

It's more the time he takes to get the ball out of his feet and get his body into a position to play a progressive pass that he needs to keep working on. He's clunky in that regard, but will improve. He's also got fuck all to his left, which doesn't help.

 

Thought he struggled in almost every other respect, though, unfortunately, but I don't think Schär was much better. Tough day at the office, while both fullbacks defended pretty well.

 

Still, there's only one of the back four I'd be trying to replace with any urgency. Then you're into Pope territory with Schär and finding someone who has all of his good parts but can score a few set piece goals and run faster than 5mph.

[r0cafella]

5 minutes ago, SUPERTOON said:

All this discussion shows is how far we still have to improve and yet we are already 3rd in the league. That’s massively exciting ahead of the summer window.

Absolutely, I wrote the same in the match thread yesterday we have areas in our team as outlined by rich where we can make huge gains. 

[Matt1892]

While there are areas to upgrade it is a nice problem to have when we are sitting third in the league and we deserve to be there.

LB, CB, CM and an attacker and we are cementing our place as cracking the sky big six.

[Rich]

It's why CL is so critical, isn't it? It feasibly allows us to address all of the weak points with Botman/Bruno/Isak-esque signings in a single summer, and probably even more besides.

 

It's hard to see us dropping off at all with that sort of business, especially with the way Howe works and the mentality we have.

 

Comparing this to where we were just two summers ago when signing Willock and doing nowt else is an absolute madness.

[SiLvOR]

8 minutes ago, Rich said:

He's also got fuck all to his left, which doesn't help.

Read that quickly and was all "but isn't he left footed?"  

 

Fuck me. Anyway, yes, a new LB is the priority position for me followed very closely by RW.

[Dr Venkman]

26 minutes ago, Keegans Export said:

An absolutely elite keeper seems like a "last piece of the jigsaw" kind of signing to me. Once the rest of the squad is pretty much where you want it then you drop £50m on the best all-round GK available. 

Rich makes good points but yeah, that is what I’m asking for, but it doesn’t have to be NOW. If we want to win things regularly, that’s what we need. There might be an element of opportunism in how we acquire that keeper and we might get them earlier, you never know.

[Rich]

1 minute ago, Dr Venkman said:

Rich makes good points but yeah, that is what I’m asking for, but it doesn’t have to be NOW. If we want to win things regularly, that’s what we need. There might be an element of opportunism in how we acquire that keeper and we might get them earlier, you never know.

 

Mike Maignan if AC Milan don't qualify for the CL next season?

 

(That's the extent of my knowledge of non-PL keepers.)

[Dr Venkman]

1 minute ago, Rich said:

 

Mike Maignan if AC Milan don't qualify for the CL next season?

 

(That's the extent of my knowledge of non-PL keepers.)

It’s more extensive than mine.

[Smal]

16 minutes ago, Rich said:

Thought he struggled in almost every other respect, though, unfortunately, but I don't think Schär was much better. Tough day at the office, while both fullbacks defended pretty well.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the two games where our CBs have looked most exposed this season have also been the two games that we’ve had no Sean Longstaff.

 

We can’t play that midfield 3. Just doesn’t work structurally in terms of defensive protection or playing out from the back.

[ExiledGeordie]

1 hour ago, r0cafella said:

If we stick to this system I couldn’t agree more. Neither, Bruno, or big and little Joe are defensively inclined imo. 

I watched Caicedo against Man U and the combination of his pace and covering ability would be ideal for us or a player of that ilk anyway. 

[r0cafella]

Just now, ExiledGeordie said:

I watched Caicedo against Man U and the combination of his pace and covering ability would be ideal for us or a player of that ilk anyway. 

Definitely but likely too expensive for us. 

[Ben]

18 minutes ago, r0cafella said:

Definitely but likely too expensive for us. 

Our owners spend £400 million on old golfers 

[r0cafella]

1 minute ago, Ben said:

Our owners spend £400 million on old golfers 

Expensive with regards to FFP. 

[ExiledGeordie]

43 minutes ago, r0cafella said:

Definitely but likely too expensive for us. 

Agreed 

[Kimbo]

1 hour ago, r0cafella said:

Definitely but likely too expensive for us. 

People are talking about signing £120m Rice tbf.

[The Prophet]

 

[SUPERTOON]

1 hour ago, ExiledGeordie said:

I watched Caicedo against Man U and the combination of his pace and covering ability would be ideal for us or a player of that ilk anyway. 

He would be my number one target but think he will be to expensive.

[r0cafella]

13 minutes ago, Kimbo said:

People are talking about signing £120m Rice tbf.

Yeah those people are getting ahead of themselves.  

[Ben]

1 hour ago, r0cafella said:

Expensive with regards to FFP. 

Fuck FFP, everyone else does 

[Ghandis Flip-Flop]

1 minute ago, Ben said:

Fuck FFP, everyone else does 

With the exception of Man City, they don’t though. The teams spending loads have a much higher revenue than us, because they haven’t had 14 years of an owner only being interested in having Sports Direct signs plastered everywhere. We will get there in terms of commercial revenue, but it will take time and require an element of sustained "success" on the football side.

[ExiledGeordie]

2 minutes ago, Ghandis Flip-Flop said:

With the exception of Man City, they don’t though. The teams spending loads have a much higher revenue than us, because they haven’t had 14 years of an owner only being interested in having Sports Direct signs plastered everywhere. We will get there in terms of commercial revenue, but it will take time and require an element of sustained "success" on the football side.

This

[Yaron]

29 minutes ago, The Prophet said:

 

 I think no one will be satisfied with 

 

Szoboszlai Thuram Kelly Tosin Alex Scott

 

[Jack27]

1 minute ago, Yaron said:

 I think no one will be satisfied with 

 

Szoboszlai Thuram Kelly Tosin Alex Scott

 

I'd be over the moon