Malick Thiaw

[McCormick]

Honestly, I had my doubts about Thiaw before he joined us. After such a strong debut season, his form dipped quite a bit following that injury, and he started to look pretty shaky.

And let’s be real, seeing Milan fans laughing at us like we’d just agreed to pay 30 million for a hologram of Lloyd Kelly didn’t exactly boost my confidence either.

 

But credit where it’s due; he’s been excellent so far. Hopefully he’ll continue to prove all the initial doubters (like me!) wrong. Lad seemingly has all the makings of a top, top cb.

[STM]

1 hour ago, Optimistic Nut said:

Is this "overpaying" thing not the equivalent of Schar being available for £8-10m under Bruce, then Howe coming in and deciding he rates him a lot, so would cost double if anyone wanted to buy him?

 

Its absolute nonsense. Its essentially people saying we could have got him cheaper earlier in the month, which is not only irrelevant to his current success but its also not factually true whatsoever.

 

Some of our fans want their signings at their imaginary prices and will be critical of the club if it deviates from that path.

 

Weve signed a top centre back, at a relatively cheap price and that should be the end of the analysis of this transfer IMO.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

I think sometimes people get worried when it’s not the first target we’re linked with as well. Like if he’s not top of the list he shouldn’t cost money. 

[nufcjmc]

7 minutes ago, STM said:

 

Its absolute nonsense. Its essentially people saying we could have got him cheaper earlier in the month, which is not only irrelevant to his current success but its also not factually true whatsoever.

 

Some of our fans want their signings at their imaginary prices and will be critical of the club if it deviates from that path.

 

Weve signed a top centre back, at a relatively cheap price and that should be the end of the analysis of this transfer IMO.

For his age and current showing hes been a great purchase and a relatively low fee. 

 

Unfortunately you cant deny it was only a matter of weeks before he was being offered the chance to go for 25m euros (around 22m) amd seems it was the player that blocked it not the club then  weeks later we pay 10m more for him.

 

https://www.transferfeed.com/transfers/malick-thiaw-milan-como/12360623

 

Also going back longer in the hindsight trail of thought how much would he have been getting him the season before instead of wasting it chasing guehi.

 

I for one am pleased hes here now its not my money and is less than some players could have been on the shopping list. 

[SUPERTOON]

Just enjoy him playing well 

[STM]

1 minute ago, nufcjmc said:

For his age and current showing hes been a great purchase and a relatively low fee. 

 

Unfortunately you cant deny it was only a matter of weeks before he was being offered the chance to go for 25m euros (around 22m) amd seems it was the player that blocked it not the club then  weeks later we pay 10m more for him.

 

https://www.transferfeed.com/transfers/malick-thiaw-milan-como/12360623

 

Also going back longer in the hindsight trail of thought how much would he have been getting him the season before instead of wasting it chasing guehi.

 

I for one am pleased hes here now its not my money and is less than some players could have been on the shopping list. 

 

For the first part, isnt it clear that Milan and Thiaw had decided to continue on together, therefore Milan themselves will have stopped any search for a replacement?

 

If Milan had to pick up their search some weeks later, then they are well entitled to increase the fee IMO.

 

And to the second part, theres nothing to suggest he was available last summer and even then what sort of "premium" would we have had to pay then?

 

My wider point is that given the criticism the club get on transfers, those same people go missing when the opportunity to praise the club is at hand.

 

 

[STM]

3 minutes ago, SUPERTOON said:

Just enjoy him playing well 

 

I suppose we should, but then embarrassing those who are overly critical might prevent them from making the same mistake in the future (it absolutely wont).

 

For once id love our fans base just to trust the club. Weve made some amazing signings this summer, especially given the circumstances, at little praise wouldnt go amiss.

[nufcjmc]

1 minute ago, STM said:

 

For the first part, isnt it clear that Milan and Thiaw had decided to continue on together, therefore Milan themselves will have stopped any search for a replacement?

 

If Milan had to pick up their search some weeks later, then they are well entitled to increase the fee IMO.

 

And to the second part, theres nothing to suggest he was available last summer and even then what sort of "premium" would we have had to pay then?

 

My wider point is that given the criticism the club get on transfers, those same people go missing when the opportunity to praise the club is at hand.

 

 

I agree but if hes been in our thoughts for a while, the reports state player wanted to wait for better offers so elected to stay rather than Milan turning down the proposal. I guess the negative there is if we had senior positions in place and were at the table at the time the deal MAY have gotten done cheaper and player had more time with us over preseason.

 

As your rightly saying its all should of would of could of at this point. 

 

On early showing hes been a good buy and only 23. We should be praising the club on its once again excellent talent ID.

 

The money only matters these days in a PSR world where every penny counts. 

[Mole]

14 minutes ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

I think sometimes people get worried when it’s not the first target we’re linked with as well. Like if he’s not top of the list he shouldn’t cost money. 

I think sometimes things just develop naturally, they went for Pedro first because he was high on their list and available but I don’t believe at all that they valued him more highly than Ekitike.

 

On that same token I also don’t believe they rated Sesko higher than Woltemade because they went for him first was simply a case of availability in their eyes.

[Yorkie]

Cba to read back; what were his glaring weaknesses supposed to be? Just error-prone? 

[gdm]

16 hours ago, joeyt said:

 

Money wasn't tight this summer. 

 

We thought we could get Guehi last summer but Palace didn't sell. We went back in for Thiaw and had to pay more. 

 

I think people were just annoyed we were being linked with players we've scouted for a while rather than sexy long haired unknown Italians 

PSR is always tight. I get what you are saying but we will always come up against a PSR wall sooner or later. 
 

regardless you quoted mine & others posts out of context. I wasn’t sold on Thaiw but happy to be proven wrong. I’ve had some terrible shouts over the years as I suspect you have too

 

 

Edited October 7, 2025 by gdm

[Mole]

15 minutes ago, Yorkie said:

Cba to read back; what were his glaring weaknesses supposed to be? Just error-prone? 

More so than that I remember the Milan fan saying that he didn’t really adjust to the tactical demands in Italy but England has a much bigger focus on the physical side.

 

I’ll be honest I think it’s as simple this league suits his skillset better.

[The College Dropout]

48 minutes ago, McCormick said:

Honestly, I had my doubts about Thiaw before he joined us. After such a strong debut season, his form dipped quite a bit following that injury, and he started to look pretty shaky.

And let’s be real, seeing Milan fans laughing at us like we’d just agreed to pay 30 million for a hologram of Lloyd Kelly didn’t exactly boost my confidence either.

 

But credit where it’s due; he’s been excellent so far. Hopefully he’ll continue to prove all the initial doubters (like me!) wrong. Lad seemingly has all the makings of a top, top cb.

We have to take Serie A fans view of transfer fees with a pinch of salt too. All transfer to PL teams have a premium to them.  They’ve bought the likes of Reijnders for less than £30m.  

[The College Dropout]

21 minutes ago, Yorkie said:

Cba to read back; what were his glaring weaknesses supposed to be? Just error-prone? 

That was my impression.  

[John P]

Is it Eddie who mostly coaches the defensive side of things and Mad Dog and Graeme Jones who do the attacking coaching? Whoever coaches our centre backs does a fucking cracking job, think of the improvements in Schar, Burn, Botman, and Lascelles, and now Thiaw has come in and looked great. Even Krafth, when he's had to play centre back due to injuries, has looked good there

[Wallace]

With regards to the fee, I read somewhere that Como were going to pay the fee up front whereas we wanted to pay in instalments hence Milan increasing the fee for us.  And I guess timing came into it as well because by the time we came in for him, the manager wanted to keep him so the offer would have had to have been worthwhile.

[joeyt]

40 minutes ago, gdm said:

PSR is always tight. I get what you are saying but we will always come up against a PSR wall sooner or later. 
 

regardless you quoted mine & others posts out of context. I wasn’t sold on Thaiw but happy to be proven wrong. I’ve had some terrible shouts over the years as I suspect you have too

 

 

 

 

How was it out of context?

 

It was literally the page we were linked with him this summer and we had pages of people going completely OTT

[Fak]

2 minutes ago, joeyt said:

 

How was it out of context?

 

It was literally the page we were linked with him this summer and we had pages of people going completely OTT

 

Alright joey we get it you've never called anything wrong in football before 

[gdm]

13 minutes ago, joeyt said:

 

How was it out of context?

 

It was literally the page we were linked with him this summer and we had pages of people going completely OTT

You were making it out my comment was about his ability when I’ve explained what I meant by it. I also saw another poster (sorry can’t mind which) also say their post was taken out of context.

 

Who cares any way there’s 100 things posted on here daily proved in time to be daft. I argued with countless people convinced Isak wouldn’t be sold. I’m not arsed enough to dig them out over it 

 

 

Edited October 7, 2025 by gdm

[joeyt]

12 minutes ago, Fak said:

 

Alright joey we get it you've never called anything wrong in football before 

 

I'm wrong all the time but the lesson is surely to trust our pretty good recruitment team and manager?

[Fak]

1 minute ago, joeyt said:

 

I'm wrong all the time but the lesson is surely to trust our pretty good recruitment team and manager?

 

They're gonna sign a dud at some point

[Dr Venkman]

15 minutes ago, Fak said:

 

Alright joey we get it you've never called anything wrong in football before 

He has. We all have. Some people in that list of quotes were absolutely insufferable over the summer, everything was a massive drama. If Joey’s post makes them think twice next time, job done.

[Fak]

1 minute ago, Dr Venkman said:

He has. We all have. Some people in that list of quotes were absolutely insufferable over the summer, everything was a massive drama. If Joey’s post makes them think twice next time, job done.

 

It's not that big of a deal if they speak what they think and are later proven wrong

[Fak]

Unless its Kaka getting proven wrong then pile in on him

[The Butcher]

5 minutes ago, Fak said:

 

They're gonna sign a dud at some point