Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: Somniloquism on November 17, 2025, 09:07:09 AM
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Less then seven weeks before this opens so might as well start a new one and have Londonvilla traipsing the rumour depths of the internet and boost tuscans post count. Also the first transfer window without Monchi/ with Olabe so will we be changing tactics and buying players who can fit straight in more. Do we still have to be cash-positive in the market for Europe this window? Will we remember we can only make three changes in the Euro squad this window (two if you include Barkley going back in on a permanent basis for the second half of the window).
Key areas to strengthen is central defence, the ever present right back and a forward if Ollie doesn't improve.
Anyway
Real Madrid are considering offers in the region of 20m euros (£17.69m) - from Sunderland, Aston Villa and Wolves for 21-year-old Spanish forward Gonzalo Garcia. (Fichajes)
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Real Madrid are considering offers in the region of 20m euros (£17.69m) - from Sunderland, Aston Villa and Wolves for 21-year-old Spanish forward Gonzalo Garcia. (Fichajes)
Looked him up on Wikipedia. Is he not a bit old?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonsalo_Garcia
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Less then seven weeks before this opens so might as well start a new one and have Londonvilla traipsing the rumour depths of the internet and boost tuscans post count. Also the first transfer window without Monchi/ with Olabe so will we be changing tactics and buying players who can fit straight in more. Do we still have to be cash-positive in the market for Europe this window? Will we remember we can only make three changes in the Euro squad this window (two if you include Barkley going back in on a permanent basis for the second half of the window).
Key areas to strengthen is central defence, the ever present right back and a forward if Ollie doesn't improve.
Anyway
Real Madrid are considering offers in the region of 20m euros (£17.69m) - from Sunderland, Aston Villa and Wolves for 21-year-old Spanish forward Gonzalo Garcia. (Fichajes)
The restriction still applies for this window but so long as we are within the targets at the end of 2025 we will shift to the 'normal' rules for next summer.
As such I can see it being a fairly quiet window and I'm ok with that because I don't see many gaps.
Keeper - Strong
RB - Depends on Garcia fitness
LB - Strong
CB - Depends on Mings fitness
DM - Very Strong
LM - Strong
RM - Guessand and Elliott have work to do
10 - Strong
ST - Watkins form may become an issue
I'm not too worried about either Garcia or Mings so I don't think we need to be looking to add defenders, We do need a long-term replacement for Mings in the summer though, maybe that can be Ozcan coming back though. I'm happy to give Guessand time and if Ellliott is wanted long term then he needs that as well, they're both cover right now anyway so it's not urgent. Which all means that someone to support Watkins and Malen is probably the most likely incoming. Gonzalo Garcia looks quality for that price and he's another one who sort of plays all across the front rather than an out and out centre forward, which I like.
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I think if Elliot goes back to Liverpool there will be activity. Otherwise it’ll be quiet. Maybe one or two youngsters but not much more than that.
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I think if Elliot goes back to Liverpool there will be activity. Otherwise it’ll be quiet. Maybe one or two youngsters but not much more than that.
Unless they plan on using him (and the probably wouldn't have punted him out to us if they did) is there any reason they would want him back?
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I think if Elliot goes back to Liverpool there will be activity. Otherwise it’ll be quiet. Maybe one or two youngsters but not much more than that.
Unless they plan on using him (and the probably wouldn't have punted him out to us if they did) is there any reason they would want him back?
Maybe a hint of protecting his value as additional cover, in as much as he might as well go back if we're not going to consider playing him, but otherwise no.
I will say it's a shit situation for the player to find himself at his age, and it doesn't reflect very well on those that set the deal up.
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Still have two massive holes at right wing and centre forward. Look to the loan market, if we can afford the wages, to fill the gaps and then fill them effectively if/when we can spend in the summer.
We're 100% bang on everywhere else.
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As such I can see it being a fairly quiet window and I'm ok with that because I don't see many gaps.
Agree Paul. If we are spending money, I think it should be with the longer-term aim of reducing the age of the squad. If there is a new Duran out there get him in and give him those 15 minutes run-arounds like we did in January '23.
Or if there is a brilliant young goalkeeper somewhere playing at a decent level, sign him and loan him back with the idea of him and Proctor fighting to be #1 in a few years or to plausibly come in if Emi moves.
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We need more options up front. If we can magic a couple of top quality loans liner did last winter, that would be great.
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Is the form of Watkins not a problem already?
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Yes.
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Players should be tricksy, sexy and full of goals. Ideally they should also be from exciting countries where we haven't had players from before.
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If we sign someone, then they are either good enough for our Europa squad, in which case there will be existing players who have their nose put out of joint when they're dropped from it, or not good enough, which will be pointless.
On the first point, we'll already be in that situation when Mings comes back fit, as someone will need to make way.
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Who are the Europa League versions of Asensio and Rashford, that we might be able to attract?
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Andy Carroll and Tim Cahill.
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Who are the Europa League versions of Asensio and Rashford, that we might be able to attract?
Sancho and Elliott
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Is the form of Watkins not a problem already?
It is, but we're not really in a position to go out and spend the amount of money that it would take to buy someone who would come in and replace him both now and in the long-term.
There's also the possibility that his form might no longer be a problem by January.
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There is also the possibility that it’s even worse.
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Andy Carroll and Tim Cahill.
The former lumbered around the Bath City pitch a couple of weekends back for Dagenham & Redbridge.
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Who are the Europa League versions of Asensio and Rashford, that we might be able to attract?
Sancho and Elliott
Great. They sound good, get them signed.
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There is also the possibility that it’s even worse.
[smirker]
Not sure that it is actually
[/smirker]
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There is also the possibility that it’s even worse.
[smirker]
Not sure that it is actually 😎
[/smirker]
FTFY.
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There's a lad at Udinese that's doing ok...
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There's a lad at Udinese that's doing ok...
Ah, yes. Get Zaniolo back.
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We obviously need another striker and that has to be the priority, even if a miracle happens and Ollie does start scoring consistently, we still need another.
I'd be happy with just bringing one striker in and I'm sure we will do. And it needs to be someone who can hit the ground running, not a young prospect. Toney would be ideal.
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Hahahahahaha
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If Toney comes back he will be off to some rules don't apply team like Chelsea or Liverpool, not us. If we sign a striker I expect it to be a project, like when we signed Durán.
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I’d go all in on Evanilson. I know we stuffed Bournemouth last week but I thought he was superb.
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Evanilson is a better shout the Toney, especially for Emery.
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I don't think we'll have the financial headroom for a move like that. Theoretically we'd receive about £40m for Watkins and we'd probably another "£20m" to buy a decent replacement.
I cannot see that sort of shuffle happening in January.
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I would like us to sign Mateta. He's already shite at penalties so it seems realistic.
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I don't think we'll have the financial headroom for a move like that. Theoretically we'd receive about £40m for Watkins and we'd probably another "£20m" to buy a decent replacement.
I cannot see that sort of shuffle happening in January.
Agreed. What I'd like to see early next year and certainly before the World Cup is an agreement to sign Gonçalo Ramos from PSG. He's not getting the number of minutes his talent deserves, price wise I reckon PSG would be happy to get their money back (£57m) though there is a question of bonuses (£13m) though I've no idea if they've been reached.
If we're to cash in on Watkins next summer, we really need him to finish the season strong otherwise we can kiss goodbye to the £40m sale. The great thing about Ramos is he's very similar to Watkins but with far superior technical ability and he's only 24. The reason I want the deal done before the World Cup is his value could dramatically increase with hopefully him replacing Ronaldo in the Portugal side.
If we want to attract top players it goes without saying we have to be in the CL next season. A trophy wouldn't do any harm either. Over to you, Unai.
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We're not getting anywhere near £40m for Watkins.
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We're not getting anywhere near £40m for Watkins.
I don't know, there's always West Ham.
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£25m to Everton would be my guess (unless they're not letting Moyes near the signings).
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We're not getting anywhere near £40m for Watkins.
Yeah I really don't know where the £40m figure comes from. Not even the Saudis would pay that. We might get our money back on him but not much more.
I like the idea of Ramos.
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Agreed. What I'd like to see early next year and certainly before the World Cup is an agreement to sign Gonçalo Ramos from PSG. He's not getting the number of minutes his talent deserves, price wise I reckon PSG would be happy to get their money back (£57m) though there is a question of bonuses (£13m) though I've no idea if they've been reached.
If we're to cash in on Watkins next summer, we really need him to finish the season strong otherwise we can kiss goodbye to the £40m sale. The great thing about Ramos is he's very similar to Watkins but with far superior technical ability and he's only 24. The reason I want the deal done before the World Cup is his value could dramatically increase with hopefully him replacing Ronaldo in the Portugal side.
Surprised you've not mentioned him before. Anyone else you're hiding from us? Maybe a Turkish winger or two?
(wink)
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No flies on you, Dave. The reason I mention it (again) is I think there's a realistic chance next summer. Previously I've just been dreaming. ;)
The Turkish lad we were linked to has fallen off the radar. Not sure what happened to his form?
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I can't even remember his name. I always get him mixed up with the one at Juventus.
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I can't even remember his name. I always get him mixed up with the one at Juventus.
Vlahovic?
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I can't even remember his name. I always get him mixed up with the one at Juventus.
Vlahovic?
Definitely not Turkish.
Kenan Yildiz
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I can't even remember his name. I always get him mixed up with the one at Juventus.
Vlahovic?
Definitely not Turkish.
Kenan Yildiz
Was it Kolicsoy?
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That rings a bell
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I’d go all in on Evanilson. I know we stuffed Bournemouth last week but I thought he was superb.
He was good - gave Konsa a hard time especially as Torres/Digne muted Semenyo. Tim Vickery said there is huge snobbishness in Brazil so those playing for 'lesser' PL teams don't get a look in at national level. Problem is he would cost about 70m
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Talking of Semenyo, so lovely of the BBC to reveal to the scum 6 that he has a 65 mil quid release clause that can be activated in January. W*****s!
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Talking of Semenyo, so lovely of the BBC to reveal to the scum 6 that he has a 65 mil quid release clause that can be activated in January. W*****s!
Hardly an exclusive.
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Talking of Semenyo, so lovely of the BBC to reveal to the scum 6 that he has a 65 mil quid release clause that can be activated in January. W*****s!
Hardly an exclusive.
It isn't, but what it does hint at is the propensity of the BBC and other media to see playing for the top 5 + Spurs as the be all and end all, and the sort of thing that excites football fans.
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Not really, anyone that would be interested will have alraedy spoken to his agent and know exactly what the clause is so nothing is really being given away by anyone making it public.
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Talking of Semenyo, so lovely of the BBC to reveal to the scum 6 that he has a 65 mil quid release clause that can be activated in January. W*****s!
Hardly an exclusive.
It isn't, but what it does hint at is the propensity of the BBC and other media to see playing for the top 5 + Spurs as the be all and end all, and the sort of thing that excites football fans.
That in general, is annoying.
But in this case (and without diving into the horrors of Twitter to find out) I bet that the BBC haven't "revealed" anything . Without much actual football for their bbc.co.uk content slaves to write about in an international week, they've just repeated something that someone else revealed somewhere else about three days ago.
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A young centre forward, well scouted, that can actually run, head, score and generally be a useful striker please.
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We're not getting anywhere near £40m for Watkins.
West Ham was the club i was thinking of, but assuming you’re right, there’s even less justification for shifting him this January.
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There's a lad at Udinese that's doing ok...
There's a guy works down the chipshop, swears he's Elvis.
Saw a Kirsty MacColl tribute night in Brighton last Friday. No sign of Keinan nor Nicólo sadly.
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We're not getting anywhere near £40m for Watkins.
I don't know, there's always West Ham.
They spent almost £30m on 31-year-old Fullkrug last season, and gave us £15m for 31-year-old Danny Ings the year before that. I think we could expect a decent chunk from them for a 30-year-old Ollie Watkins (he's 30 next month).
Not that I want Ollie sold (not yet, I still think he'll find some form this season), but I think sometimes people miss what the going rate is for a proven goal scorer in the Premier League. I just don't think he'd be willing to take a step "down" at this stage of his career, and certainly not before a World Cup.
Next summer, who knows?
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I imagine there is about 0% chance that we're selling Watkins in January.
Flip of a coin in the summer depending on what competitions we're playing in next year, who might be interested in him and who we might be interested in as a replacement.
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I imagine there is about 0% change that we're selling Watkins in January.
Flip of a coin in the summer depending on what competitions we're playing in next year, who might be interested in him and who we might be interested in as a replacement.
Yep, and next summer feels like a good time to start considering it given we should have a bit more scope to spend on his replacement than we have for the last couple of summers. For the rest of this season I'd also be working on finding ways to use Malen and Guessand up there because if they can be good options for next season then we can take a bit more time finding the right long-term solution and maybe even opt for someone more like Duran who can grow into the role over a year or 2.
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A young centre forward, well scouted, that can actually run, head, score and generally be a useful striker please.
That Redmond kid we signed from Feyenoord, wasn't he supposedly all of this? How's he getting on at Huddersfield, any good?
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A young centre forward, well scouted, that can actually run, head, score and generally be a useful striker please.
That Redmond kid we signed from Feyenoord, wasn't he supposedly all of this? How's he getting on at Huddersfield, any good?
Out until the new year with a serious knee injury.
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Strikers wise I always liked Youssef En-Nesyri when he was at Sevilla…scoring a few at Fenerbache now
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Beckford's still at it.
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Benni McCarthy ?
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Why not Rory Wilson? we tried hard enough to get him to re-sign. He's 19, so a season with the u21s and on the bench for the occasional game, save ourselves a shed load of cash
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Benni McCarthy ?
I say we play hardball a little longer to get the most favourable terms.
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Do we have a buy-back option on Jhon? I know he drove his colleagues nuts but he was magick and I miss him.
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Benni McCarthy ?
Insteresting. And maybe that Unsworth chap from Everton to bulk up defence. I heard he is dead keen to join. Wants to finish his career here.
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I’d go all in on Evanilson. I know we stuffed Bournemouth last week but I thought he was superb.
Evanilson is what i hoped wesley would have been for us. Definitely a good shout. Obviously semenyo would be all of our preferences but with FFP zero chance that happens sadly.
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I wouldn't expect Evanilsen to come cheap, either.
Good player, mind.
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Inter Milan want Martinez according to football insider (via BBC Gossip). Also Elliot is wanted by various clubs in Europe.
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I’d go all in on Evanilson. I know we stuffed Bournemouth last week but I thought he was superb.
Agreed.
Forest also have a Brazilian striker who I saw playing in a Europa game whom I thought would be a good fit in Emery's system: Igor Jesus. Having just checked his striker-stats, they're not fabulous, and he's only 5'11"...
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Inter Milan want Martinez according to football insider (via BBC Gossip). Also Elliot is wanted by various clubs in Europe.
I expected that would be from Football Insider being as Elliot can't play for anyone but Villa or Liverpool this season, unless he signs for a Nordic club where he won't play a match until end of March.
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Inter Milan want Martinez according to football insider (via BBC Gossip). Also Elliot is wanted by various clubs in Europe.
I am sure i read that Elliot cannot play for anyone else this season - even i Europe due to a 3 club rule?
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Did you read it in the post directly above yours?
(wink)
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You can sometimes get FIFA to agree to ignore that rule, I think.
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I reckon Infantino would let it slide for a fiver.
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I reckon Infantino would let it slide for a fiver.
Organisations like FIFA are incorruptible.
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You can sometimes get FIFA to agree to ignore that rule, I think.
I can't find any exceptions - they brought in the "overlapping seasons" thing in 2008 (with a minor Villa link, as Gareth Farrelly was the player who was stopped playing for Cork City, resulting in the rules change).
The only exception I can find is they let it slide during Covid to try and avoid out of contract players being stuck without a club when those leagues had to be rescheduled.
Can't find any examples of them just ignoring it.
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I thought you had to seek written permission and they would overwrite it in certain circumstances. This does seem pretty unfair on the player, an England international being denied the chance to play football in a World Cup season through no fault of his own. I don't think the rule is intended to bring about circumstances like that, but, then again, expecting any sort of common sense from football authorities may be hopelessly naive.
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Exactly, the sensible answer is to remove the 10 game clause…
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If the rule didn't exist you'd most likely have clubs exploit it far more often than it would help a player like Harvey.
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Yes that's why I think it was on a case by case basis not just a free-for-all. Thought I'm buggered if I can find a link now so maybe I imagined it.
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If January could be a Rashford/Asensio type window, and not an Elliot/Sancho/Guessand window...please.
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swap asensio and rashford for elliot and Sancho . We win the league. Damn Manc game .
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Wondered if maybe a cheeky loan for Asensio could have be on the cards again, but looks like he's found his feet in Turkey now and is starting and scoring.
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I think it’s safe to say that other than Bizot, the net return from the players signed this summer has been little to nothing (at least in the short-term). Lindelof, signed as a back-up is basically as expected. But the impact and output of the attacking signings have been virtually nothing. Now fortunately Emi B’s resurgence and Malen settling in has covered the gap, and perhaps the attacking players may kick on in time, like Malen. But at this time, they don’t look great.
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And people said the same about Tielemans, Bailey and Malen; yet they all came (are coming) good the following season.
Guessand just needs to get going a bit. Sancho has the ability, can Emery and Ayesteran get the most out of him? Elliott, well let's see, he has ability, and his attitude has never been in question before, I do wonder if there's a masterplan from Emery and we suddenly see him burst on the scene in the New Year (I'm hoping rather than expecting).
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Well yeah, but I would say it’s suboptimal to have a situation where there has to be a long embedding period for pretty much all your intake. It’s ok for one or two players to take some time, but you really need some players to hit the ground running. Worked out so far fortunately, but it’s not really sustainable especially as not all players will end up being effective.
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Transfer windows are about the players you sell and keep, not just the ones you buy.
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Edit to say this is in response to Mr Winch.
That may be the case, but is that down to the manager rather than the players?
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For me Rashford and Asensio came in and were instantly two of our best players, with regular first teamers being dropped for them. Guessand looks miles off it in this league. Elliot, a complete mystery and not making matchday squads? Sancho and Lindelhof on megabucks and getting a few minutes here and there is not ideal.
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Asensio and Rashford are though, absolute proven top quality and their wages (and/or fees) were astronomical. We couldn't' afford them for this season.
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For me Rashford and Asensio came in and were instantly two of our best players, with regular first teamers being dropped for them. Guessand looks miles off it in this league. Elliot, a complete mystery and not making matchday squads? Sancho and Lindelhof on megabucks and getting a few minutes here and there is not ideal.
Is Lindelof on megabucks?
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Probably decent but not obscene wages. Decent because he was free, but not obscene as there was hardly a long line of clubs trying to throw money at him.
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Probably decent but not obscene wages. Decent because he was free, but not obscene as there was hardly a long line of clubs trying to throw money at him.
I imagine he'd be earning the lowest of our four centre-backs, befitting his role in the squad.
Albeit "lowest" still resulting in him getting millions of pounds per season.
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For me Rashford and Asensio came in and were instantly two of our best players, with regular first teamers being dropped for them. Guessand looks miles off it in this league. Elliot, a complete mystery and not making matchday squads? Sancho and Lindelhof on megabucks and getting a few minutes here and there is not ideal.
Is Lindelof on megabucks?
For minutes played yes, £100000 a week was rumoured. Sancho £160000 a week. Guessand and Elliot won't be on peanuts either. £ per minutes for this lot must be frightening. At least Rashford / Asensio delivered and didn't need bedding in, expensive as they were
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Seems about the going rate tbh.
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Transfer windows are about the players you sell and keep, not just the ones you buy.
Absolutely, but the point stands around sustainability. You do need some of the players you bring in to make a quicker impact.
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Edit to say this is in response to Mr Winch.
That may be the case, but is that down to the manager rather than the players?
Yep that’s fair. It’s a combination, but I can’t imagine any of the attackers has done what was hoped.
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Transfer windows are about the players you sell and keep, not just the ones you buy.
Absolutely, but the point stands around sustainability. You do need some of the players you bring in to make a quicker impact.
I think the sustainability cheat codes are picked up by integrating youth players and having fewer players like Barkley and Lindlehoff. We’ve not done great here, with the exception of Bogarde. Some of that is Emery (I suspect) but equally most Monchi players of that ilk were quickly sold for an instant profit.
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For me Rashford and Asensio came in and were instantly two of our best players, with regular first teamers being dropped for them. Guessand looks miles off it in this league. Elliot, a complete mystery and not making matchday squads? Sancho and Lindelhof on megabucks and getting a few minutes here and there is not ideal.
Is Lindelof on megabucks?
For minutes played yes, £100000 a week was rumoured. Sancho £160000 a week. Guessand and Elliot won't be on peanuts either. £ per minutes for this lot must be frightening. At least Rashford / Asensio delivered and didn't need bedding in, expensive as they were
There's no chance we're paying that much for Lindelof.
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For me Rashford and Asensio came in and were instantly two of our best players, with regular first teamers being dropped for them. Guessand looks miles off it in this league. Elliot, a complete mystery and not making matchday squads? Sancho and Lindelhof on megabucks and getting a few minutes here and there is not ideal.
Is Lindelof on megabucks?
For minutes played yes, £100000 a week was rumoured. Sancho £160000 a week. Guessand and Elliot won't be on peanuts either. £ per minutes for this lot must be frightening. At least Rashford / Asensio delivered and didn't need bedding in, expensive as they were
Some myths have grown legs around Rashford and Asensio's impact with us last season. The fact we signed both on loan when we had just signed Malen highlights why we are in the financial straightjacket we are currently in. Malen and Buendia looking at the raw numbers are well on their way to displacing their impact in any case.
Agreed on the three new signings. Guessand looks poorly scouted. Deadline day deal for Sancho was always going to come with a high risk warning. Similar to Rashford really, the question wasn't to do with ability but application. Rashford from his first appearance at least gave the impression of a guy fighting for his top level career. Sancho has missed that memo. Elliot is the one I thought would work best, particularly if compared to Asensio. Tactical flexibility and we do need to lower the age profile of the squad. I guess in time we will find out what's really going on there.
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For me Rashford and Asensio came in and were instantly two of our best players, with regular first teamers being dropped for them. Guessand looks miles off it in this league. Elliot, a complete mystery and not making matchday squads? Sancho and Lindelhof on megabucks and getting a few minutes here and there is not ideal.
Is Lindelof on megabucks?
For minutes played yes, £100000 a week was rumoured. Sancho £160000 a week. Guessand and Elliot won't be on peanuts either. £ per minutes for this lot must be frightening. At least Rashford / Asensio delivered and didn't need bedding in, expensive as they were
There's no chance we're paying that much for Lindelof.
We also aren't paying a loan fee for him like we were for Lenglet or Disasi. He's centre back pollyfilla.
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From memory Lindelof was going to Italy, either Lazio or Napoli, for €107000 a week supposedly, and then we stepped in at the last minute. No Man Utd players come cheap, as we've discovered with Rashford/Sancho. When Radcliffe had a clear out of stadium staff it turned out the shithouse cleaner was on £20000 a week : )
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He wasn't a Man Utd player. He was out of contract.
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He wasn't a Man Utd player. He was out of contract.
Who, the shithouse cleaner?
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?
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Didn't we "out-salarize" Everton to sign Swedish ace Lindelof ?
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Everton boss David Moyes wants to hang on to English midfielder James Garner amid interest from Manchester United, Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest in the 24-year-old, who is out of contract at the end of the season. (Talksport)
Isn't he a bit of a Maverick?
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Everton boss David Moyes wants to hang on to English midfielder James Garner amid interest from Manchester United, Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest in the 24-year-old, who is out of contract at the end of the season. (Talksport)
Isn't he a bit of a Maverick?
...File that under 'Rockford'....
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Everton boss David Moyes wants to hang on to English midfielder James Garner amid interest from Manchester United, Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest in the 24-year-old, who is out of contract at the end of the season. (Talksport)
Isn't he a bit of a Maverick?
So I've gathered.
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No doubt looking for his Great Escape.
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Marcus Rashford last January; Kobbie Mainoo this time around?
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We can't loan from other Prem teams as we already have two.
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Based on our summer signings, I kinda hope we don't sign anyone. Waste of wages that we badly need to save.
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Marcus Rashford last January; Kobbie Mainoo this time around?
It's not really a position we need cover for even if we were allowed.
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Apparently we are interested in Igor Tiago from Brentford for 50m, according to the gossip page.
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Tiago can score those elusive centrally positioned shots from around 12 yards.
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Has the technique and strength to hold and move the ball well, as he showed against us in August.
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Shocked to see he's 24. Looks at least 30.
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We’re going to need something in an attacking sense in January. Ollie is obviously struggling and Guessand, Elliott, and Sancho have offered little to nothing. We’re doing very well, but we need much more in attack.
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Been linked with a 17-year old Belgian midfielder for about £20m.
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We’re going to need something in an attacking sense in January. Ollie is obviously struggling and Guessand, Elliott, and Sancho have offered little to nothing. We’re doing very well, but we need much more in attack.
I have faith Olabe will have a much more successful incomings window that shambolic one monchi left us with.
Striker has to be main priority. Still think we need a right back also. If a a good offer comes in for buendia too i would take itehile the irons hot
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Been linked with a 17-year old Belgian midfielder for about £20m.
I've been scouting this lad on the new football manager game, think he's Phil Tuffnel's love child, Nathan De Cat.
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Great name. Sign him up!
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I agree, we should sign him on the basis of his name alone. We need to cover the full range of names, from 19th century greengrocers (George Hemmings) through to Kids TV characters (Nathan De Cat). Otherwise we're doing it wrong.
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De Cat looks like a superb prospect but I'm not sure I can see us spending that sort of money in a position where we have Onana still only in his early 20s, Bogarde and Hemmings already breaking through and then have the likes of Borland and Kone who look like very good prospects as well. We just seem to be pretty well stocked on young defensive midfielders.
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I agree, we should sign him on the basis of his name alone. We need to cover the full range of names, from 19th century greengrocers (George Hemmings) through to Kids TV characters (Nathan De Cat). Otherwise we're doing it wrong.
He looks about 35 at 17 which is another reason to sign him, you don't see players like that anymore.
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We can't sign him until July when he's eighteen so this should really be in the yet-to-be-started Summer 2026 transfer window thread.
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I agree, we should sign him on the basis of his name alone. We need to cover the full range of names, from 19th century greengrocers (George Hemmings) through to Kids TV characters (Nathan De Cat). Otherwise we're doing it wrong.
He looks about 35 at 17 which is another reason to sign him, you don't see players like that anymore.
That reminds me of a thread on Twitter, the world cup of players who look older than they are..
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https://x.com/80sAging - a corker.
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80s Footballers Aging Badly. From 4-5 years ago.
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https://x.com/80sAging - a corker.
That's absolutely outstanding.
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It was the best thing on Twitter.
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https://x.com/80sAging - a corker.
Some shocking barnets there, clearly hair products and moisturiser hadn't been invented.
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https://x.com/80sAging - a corker.
Some shocking barnets there, clearly hair products and moisturiser hadn't been invented.
Life was just harder back then.
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Surely Jimmy Leadbetter cannot be just 33 in that pic, did he kip on a sun bed?
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https://x.com/80sAging - a corker.
My favourite is 32 year old Ayr Utd goalkeeper Hugh Sproat:
(https://images.wsj.net/im-266334?width=700&height=700)
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https://x.com/80sAging - a corker.
My favourite is 32 year old Ayr Utd goalkeeper Hugh Sproat:
(https://images.wsj.net/im-266334?width=700&height=700)
..looks like Des Lynam went mad for the buffet..
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32! Ha.
I did like that on Twitter, it was ace. I just won’t allow myself to reload the app to my phone.
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https://x.com/80sAging - a corker.
My favourite is 32 year old Ayr Utd goalkeeper Hugh Sproat:
(https://images.wsj.net/im-266334?width=700&height=700)
..looks like Des Lynam went mad for the buffet..
At first I thought it was old Des.
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Alexis Mac Allister's dad I think
https://x.com/80sAging/status/1400520371376476161?s=20
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32! Ha.
I did like that on Twitter, it was ace. I just won’t allow myself to reload the app to my phone.
Here you go:
https://xcancel.com/80sAging
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32! Ha.
I did like that on Twitter, it was ace. I just won’t allow myself to reload the app to my phone.
You're not missing anything, the account stopped posting photos last year.
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https://x.com/80sAging - a corker.
My favourite is 32 year old Ayr Utd goalkeeper Hugh Sproat:
(https://images.wsj.net/im-266334?width=700&height=700)
Looks like he could be a long lost Chuckle Brother.
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https://x.com/80sAging - a corker.
My favourite is 32 year old Ayr Utd goalkeeper Hugh Sproat:
(https://images.wsj.net/im-266334?width=700&height=700)
Looks like he could be a long lost Chuckle Brother.
Bob Carolgees 😃
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Pretty sure I flipped his cardholder in Guess Who? circa 1991.
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https://x.com/80sAging - a corker.
My favourite is 32 year old Ayr Utd goalkeeper Hugh Sproat:
(https://images.wsj.net/im-266334?width=700&height=700)
Looks like he could be a long lost Chuckle Brother.
Bob Carolgees 😃
Yes, where’s Spit the dog?
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Benteke back for the craic for a few months ?
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Benteke back for the craic for a few months ?
Not for me and I loved him. He's not the player that left a decade ago and i'd hate to see my memories of him tarnished.
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Bet he'd scored more than 1 goal in 19 games and have at least one assist.
It's a yes from me.
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He's 35 tomorrow and playing in a pub league. That would be insane.
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Yes, not a good move.
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He's 35 tomorrow and playing in a pub league. That would be insane.
Yeah, it's all getting a bit silly now.
Can you imagine the nonsense that would be posted if we were 4th from bottom?
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As a squad member, I'd definitely add him. Cheap wages, pay as you play. Bet he'd do it.
Another body in.
It's not a bad idea guys.
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Name another 35 year old forward who peaked a decade ago who'd be another body in. One we have no particular memories of.
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Well it seems to be getting all nice and silly on here early :)
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Danny Ings is only 33...
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Berni Inn has thousands.
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I really don't see how anyone would think that a 35 year old not wanted by his MLS club would be a good addition.
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Look if we don't get in quickly, Birmingham City will buy him and if that happens I will not I repeat will not go to Villa Park ever again, so the club now needs to grow some balls
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Look if we don't get in quickly, Birmingham City will buy him and if that happens I will not I repeat will not go to Villa Park ever again, so the club now needs to grow some balls
Or at the very least, incorporate them in our crest.
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Name another 35 year old forward who peaked a decade ago who'd be another body in. One we have no particular memories of.
There can’t be many and anyway, if we’re going down that route a Bid for Raúl Jiménez or Danny Wellbeck would be more preferable to Benteke.
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Nathan Delfouneso is still only 34, just saying.
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Nathan Delfouneso is still only 34, just saying.
I've still not quite given up on him being the new Drogba. Given enough time and opportunity.
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As a squad member, I'd definitely add him. Cheap wages, pay as you play. Bet he'd do it.
Another body in.
It's not a bad idea guys.
No, it’s an abysmal one.
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From now on, Smirker isn't in charge of ideas.
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Everyone is missing the obvious, the answer of course is to bring Special K back himself, Keinan Davies, and honestly bring his mate Zaniolo back as well over Sancho, Elliot or Guessand
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Danny Ings is only 33...
And I would take him on a free until the end of the season.
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From now on, Smirker isn't in charge of ideas.
haha
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It's obviously a terrible idea now, but I reckon we should have definitely chucked £10m at Palace the season we came back up instead of £20m on Wesley. He wasn't that important to them and left on a free the following season.
Some players just fit a club - and even at 30, Benteke, with Grealish, McGinn, Mings et al, with a back-in-the-Premier--League Villa Park instead of Palace's mob fully behind him - I reckon it would have just worked.
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I’m still hoping we can get Asensio back in the summer.
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I like him but at nearly 30 he's hardly a good long term investment.
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Danny Ings is only 33...
And I would take him on a free until the end of the season.
Hahaha, now I know you're on a wind up. Danny Ings with zero goals (or assists though we don't count them) in the Championship this season... And the grand total of 2 goals in the past three seasons...
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So for the last six months or so you’ve been jumping up and down ranting about Ollie and your answer is Benteke or Ings?
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Bring Keinan home.
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If we're still around 4th after our usual hard as fuck December do we have the wiggle room to go for it like we did last January?
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I doubt it. And if we do, they'll change the rules so that we don't.
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I’d imagine we can and will look to do loans. We need a Rashford style impact.
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I’d imagine we can and will look to do loans. We need a Rashford style impact.
I was trying to think of someone in a similar situation to what he was that needs rescuing but I'm struggling.
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I’d imagine we can and will look to do loans. We need a Rashford style impact.
I was trying to think of someone in a similar situation to what he was that needs rescuing but I'm struggling.
And unless we're going to pay Liverpool a load of money to send Elliott back, they need to be from abroad as we can't have more than two domestic ones.
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Chiesa? Sterling?
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I’d imagine we can and will look to do loans. We need a Rashford style impact.
I was trying to think of someone in a similar situation to what he was that needs rescuing but I'm struggling.
And unless we're going to pay Liverpool a load of money to send Elliott back, they need to be from abroad as we can't have more than two domestic ones.
Surely we won’t keep Elliot - it’d be mad to carry on like this for all parties.
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Sancho needs to go too. Complete waste of space. Elliot and Sancho to RBL & Dortmund.
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Elliot can't play for anyone other than us and Liverpool.
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I’d imagine we can and will look to do loans. We need a Rashford style impact.
I was trying to think of someone in a similar situation to what he was that needs rescuing but I'm struggling.
And unless we're going to pay Liverpool a load of money to send Elliott back, they need to be from abroad as we can't have more than two domestic ones.
Surely we won’t keep Elliot - it’d be mad to carry on like this for all parties.
But unless Liverpool want him back in order to play him (which I accept, is obviously possible in their current state) why would they agree to have him on their bench paying his wages rather than him being on our bench with us paying his wages?
Unless we basically pay them at least the equivalent amount of money, I just don't see what's in it for them to have the deal ripped up. And if they planned to use him they wouldn't have sent him to us in the first place.
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But Elliott knows Liverpool and they like him there so he should just go there or to somewhere else that's convenient and financially beneficial for us. It's the only thing that makes sense.
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We will have to come to some agreement. Pointless the way it is. He should also sack his agent for agreeing a deal that discouraged his new team from picking him.
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But Elliott knows Liverpool and they like him there so he should just go there or to somewhere else that's convenient and financially beneficial for us. It's the only thing that makes sense.
He started only 2 x PL games for them last season. Don't think he gets that many more minutes with them if he goes back, they are struggling to keep their wide forwards happy as is.
Just seems very strange that Emery continues to freeze him out with Guessand and Sancho struggling so badly. Would he really be shying away from physical contact like Sancho does?
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We'll end up paying the same regardless of keeping him or sending him back. So, do we want to send him back so Liverpool can play him and get his value going back up, or keeping him, weakening them financially as his value goes down and using him in training and as back up in the event of us encountering more injuries. You'd think that Barkley being out opens the door for him as a sub, given Barkley has been coming on as a 10.
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Renegotiate the ten game rule and start picking him. Better for Liverpool if he plays than sits on the bench, regardless of whether they intend to pick him next season or sell him. His value will only go down otherwise.
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Not sure we can just send season long loanee's back on a whim from us without full agreement from their parent clubs. Neither club will suddenly want extra wages on their books for players they don't want or need. Sancho might go if someone decides to fully buy him in January but Elliot is in limbo.
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Renegotiate the ten game rule and start picking him. Better for Liverpool if he plays than sits on the bench, regardless of whether they intend to pick him next season or sell him. His value will only go down otherwise.
But what about his time at Villa suggests Emery would start picking him? If we thought he was going to fit into the team, he'd already be playing and we'd be looking forward to buying him, just as we'd planned to.
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We can't afford to. Literally everything that has happened off the pitch since the Man U game has screamed "the rules won't let us spend any money".
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I’d imagine we can and will look to do loans. We need a Rashford style impact.
I was trying to think of someone in a similar situation to what he was that needs rescuing but I'm struggling.
Sancho?
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Not sure we can just send season long loanee's back on a whim from us without full agreement from their parent clubs. Neither club will suddenly want extra wages on their books for players they don't want or need. Sancho might go if someone decides to fully buy him in January but Elliot is in limbo.
Sancho is out of contract in the summer so Dortmund for example might have to pay Man United a small fee to make that a permanent deal in January if all parties agreed. Not sure where that leaves us from an FFP/PSR perspective, if we paid a loan fee to Man United that's already gone I guess. Getting his wages off the books should be a positive.
RBL were interested in Elliot before, could that move happen in Jan?
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No. Because he can't play for anyone other than Villa or Liverpool this season.
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I’d imagine we can and will look to do loans. We need a Rashford style impact.
I was trying to think of someone in a similar situation to what he was that needs rescuing but I'm struggling.
Rashford's form, combined with Barcelona's financial situation might mean a player becomes available. Raphina or Torres are the names I know but there could be more. Endrick at Real Madrid is available but likely heading to Lyon according to reports.
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We can't afford to. Literally everything that has happened off the pitch since the Man U game has screamed "the rules won't let us spend any money".
There's nothing stopping us from selecting him on the bench ahead of youth team players.
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Ferguson from Brighton via rome seems to have lost his way a bit so would be cheap. strong, knows where the net is, technically better than the likes of strand-laursen
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Knowing where the net is doesn't mean he can ever find it, as evidenced by his record since 22/23. He is already on loan as well so not sure why Brighton would want to loan him elsewhere, especially with our record of playing loanees under the age of 25.
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We can't afford to. Literally everything that has happened off the pitch since the Man U game has screamed "the rules won't let us spend any money".
There's nothing stopping us from selecting him on the bench ahead of youth team players.
What's the point of putting someone on the bench that you don't want to select?
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Ferguson from Brighton via rome seems to have lost his way a bit so would be cheap. strong, knows where the net is, technically better than the likes of strand-laursen
Not sure he'd be as cheap as all that. Roma's option to buy him is apparently €40m. Which is a lot for someone who's scored two goals across the last season and a half.
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No. Because he can't play for anyone other than Villa or Liverpool this season.
What about Fiorentina, could he play for them?
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Maybe we’ll recall Bailey.
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No. Because he can't play for anyone other than Villa or Liverpool this season.
What about Fiorentina, could he play for them?
The rules don't specifically mention Fiorentina so it must be fine, I imagine.
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We can't afford to. Literally everything that has happened off the pitch since the Man U game has screamed "the rules won't let us spend any money".
There's nothing stopping us from selecting him on the bench ahead of youth team players.
Well apart from we had multiple players who would play in the positions Elliot might play already on the bench but no player in a position to come on in a more of a DM role. But if Emery picks Jimoh-Aloba on the bench ahead of him tonight then we are not ever having him.
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We can't afford to. Literally everything that has happened off the pitch since the Man U game has screamed "the rules won't let us spend any money".
There's nothing stopping us from selecting him on the bench ahead of youth team players.
What's the point of putting someone on the bench that you don't want to select?
This is feeling a little bit circular now. We can "afford" to select him in another four matches, regardless of what happens in January or beyond.
So if we think he's going to be more use than Hemmings, or Barkley or Sancho, there is no reason he shouldn't be on the bench to give us the option of using him. Regardless of whether we then call it there so we don't hit the ten matches that triggers the automatic purchase.
If we "don't want to select" him because we don't think he's good enough to be in our team, there's no reason to think he'll be in our team in the second half of the season ahead of Buendia, or Tielemans, or McGinn or Rogers either, even if Liverpool agree to take the clause out.
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We can't afford to. Literally everything that has happened off the pitch since the Man U game has screamed "the rules won't let us spend any money".
There's nothing stopping us from selecting him on the bench ahead of youth team players.
Well apart from we had multiple players who would play in the positions Elliot might play already on the bench but no player in a position to come on in a more of a DM role. But if Emery picks Jimoh-Aloba on the bench ahead of him tonight then we are not ever having him.
Yep, saved me having to type it out again.
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We can't afford to. Literally everything that has happened off the pitch since the Man U game has screamed "the rules won't let us spend any money".
There's nothing stopping us from selecting him on the bench ahead of youth team players.
What's the point of putting someone on the bench that you don't want to select?
This is feeling a little bit circular now. We can "afford" to select him in another four matches, regardless of what happens in January or beyond.
So if we think he's going to be more use than Hemmings, or Barkley or Sancho, there is no reason he shouldn't be on the bench to give us the option of using him. Regardless of whether we then call it there so we don't hit the ten matches that triggers the automatic purchase.
If we "don't want to select" him because we don't think he's good enough to be in our team, there's no reason to think he'll be in our team in the second half of the season ahead of Buendia, or Tielemans, or McGinn or Rogers either, even if Liverpool agree to take the clause out.
Even so, might as well save the four in case we get an injury crisis and have no choice later in the season, rather than bringing him on with ten minutes to go and wasting one of his eligible appearances.
Also possible we are trying to prove some sort of point to Liverpool in the hope of forcing their hand to drop the clause.
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We can't afford to. Literally everything that has happened off the pitch since the Man U game has screamed "the rules won't let us spend any money".
There's nothing stopping us from selecting him on the bench ahead of youth team players.
Well apart from we had multiple players who would play in the positions Elliot might play already on the bench but no player in a position to come on in a more of a DM role. But if Emery picks Jimoh-Aloba on the bench ahead of him tonight then we are not ever having him.
"No player in a position to come on in a more of a DM role", except Bogarde and Barkley* who were both on the bench alongside Hemmings against Leeds.
*who, while playing further forward this season has spent most of the last two seasons playing a DM role, so it's seems a stretch that in an injury to Kamara or Tielemans he's left on the bench while Hemmings comes on.
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Ferguson from Brighton via rome seems to have lost his way a bit so would be cheap. strong, knows where the net is, technically better than the likes of strand-laursen
Lost his way would be an understatement. Can't or won't run seems to be his biggest issue.
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We can't afford to. Literally everything that has happened off the pitch since the Man U game has screamed "the rules won't let us spend any money".
There's nothing stopping us from selecting him on the bench ahead of youth team players.
Well apart from we had multiple players who would play in the positions Elliot might play already on the bench but no player in a position to come on in a more of a DM role. But if Emery picks Jimoh-Aloba on the bench ahead of him tonight then we are not ever having him.
"No player in a position to come on in a more of a DM role", except Bogarde and Barkley* who were both on the bench alongside Hemmings against Leeds.
*who, while playing further forward this season has spent most of the last two seasons playing a DM role, so it's seems a stretch that in an injury to Kamara or Tielemans he's left on the bench while Hemmings comes on.
Bottom line is irrelevant really, Barkley is being used as a 10 currently and that's what he was covering on the bench. Bogarde is correct but he'd just been sent back from international duty with an injury. Aside from that if we'd put Elliott on the bench we'd have had 5 subs covering 4 people, which is just weird.
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Ferguson from Brighton via rome seems to have lost his way a bit so would be cheap. strong, knows where the net is, technically better than the likes of strand-laursen
Lost his way would be an understatement. Can't or won't run seems to be his biggest issue.
No thanks - a bad idea. Sure he may be 80m in 4 years time but he is more likely to be playing for Plymouth
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Ferguson from Brighton via rome seems to have lost his way a bit so would be cheap. strong, knows where the net is, technically better than the likes of strand-laursen
Lost his way would be an understatement. Can't or won't run seems to be his biggest issue.
No thanks - a bad idea. Sure he may be 80m in 4 years time but he is more likely to be playing for Plymouth
I took a punt on him in the new Football Manager and he took us to the title scoring a goal a game.
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Sorry if this has been said , but do we have someone lined up in January that needs to be paid for with the £35 million if we have for Elliott and that is why we are holding up on games
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Sorry if this has been said , but do we have someone lined up in January that needs to be paid for with the £35 million if we have for Elliott and that is why we are holding up on games
Think it is more that Unai doesn’t want to spend £35m on him at all and would rather have that money to spend elsewhere be it in January or next summer.
It’s an odd situation…you’d presume Liverpool don’t want him back but if he stays all season and doesn’t play again we won’t have triggered the £35m and his value will have plummeted for others to buy. On the flip side if they lift that clause so he is an option to play for us and he does well we are a direct competitor to them now as they are in the gaggle of clubs for whom 3rd is the best can do. Tricky one.
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The new DoF has probably been given the budget to go and prove himself.
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No. Because he can't play for anyone other than Villa or Liverpool this season.
Any idea why Barry didn’t take the penalty?
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The new DoF has probably been given the budget to go and prove himself.
WARCHEST!!!!!
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Think it'll be a Duran-esque punt this Jan if we do any business at all - and that's regardless of whether Elliott goes back or not.
I'd rather have better cover than Lidelof for the £ we're forking out there n'all. But expect that might be one for the summer.
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Ferguson from Brighton via rome seems to have lost his way a bit so would be cheap. strong, knows where the net is, technically better than the likes of strand-laursen
Lost his way would be an understatement. Can't or won't run seems to be his biggest issue.
Got too comfy and fat in Brighton. I can empathise.
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Jacob Tanswell reckons we'll be in for Kaio Jorge in January, a 23 year old Brazilian striker at Cruzeiro. Scored 21 goals in 32 games this season and has recently been called up to the national team.
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Jacob Tanswell reckons we'll be in for Kaio Jorge in January, a 23 year old Brazilian striker at Cruzeiro. Scored 21 goals in 32 games this season and has recently been called up to the national team.
Cruzeiro bought him off Juventus in the summer window last year for £5.5m, he's been on loan alongside Enzo Barrenechea at Frosinone scoring 3 goals in 22 games. Previously he'd played 9 games for Juventus without scoring before being out injured for 15 months. Now at Cruzeiro he scored 7 goals in 23 games in his first year and this year he finally found his scoring boots with 26 goals in 43 games. He's played 20 minutes for Brazil recently without scoring.
Now Cruzeiro want/dream of £30.6m for him. We've been linked with him for some time so no surprise his name has come up. If we do sign him I hope 50% of the deal is made up with clauses. He's 24 in January so still young enough to learn a trick or two.
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Jacob Tanswell reckons we'll be in for Kaio Jorge in January, a 23 year old Brazilian striker at Cruzeiro. Scored 21 goals in 32 games this season and has recently been called up to the national team.
Big fan of signing Brazilians with first names as surnames. Igor Thiago, Carlos Alberto, Taff Pharrell, Roberto Carlos, Ronaldo, Ro Mario, were all pretty decent.
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Wagner Love had two.
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No. Because he can't play for anyone other than Villa or Liverpool this season.
Any idea why Barry didn’t take the penalty?
I feel like I'm in some shit Black Mirror episode where all anyone suggests is which club Elliot could go to.
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No. Because he can't play for anyone other than Villa or Liverpool this season.
Any idea why Barry didn’t take the penalty?
I feel like I'm in some shit Black Mirror episode where all anyone suggests is which club Elliot could go to.
I've heard he wants Ross County, and he wants them now. They're prepared to let their best shearers at him and the finances work like fuck. Just what I've heard.
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I feel like I'm in some shit Black Mirror episode where...
Pfft, there's no such thing.
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No. Because he can't play for anyone other than Villa or Liverpool this season.
Any idea why Barry didn’t take the penalty?
I feel like I'm in some shit Black Mirror episode where all anyone suggests is which club Elliot could go to.
I've heard he wants Ross County, and he wants them now. They're prepared to let their best shearers at him and the finances work like fuck. Just what I've heard.
Would his hair be acceptable there?
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No. Because he can't play for anyone other than Villa or Liverpool this season.
Any idea why Barry didn’t take the penalty?
I feel like I'm in some shit Black Mirror episode where all anyone suggests is which club Elliot could go to.
I've heard he wants Ross County, and he wants them now. They're prepared to let their best shearers at him and the finances work like fuck. Just what I've heard.
Would his hair be acceptable there?
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No. Because he can't play for anyone other than Villa or Liverpool this season.
Any idea why Barry didn’t take the penalty?
I feel like I'm in some shit Black Mirror episode where all anyone suggests is which club Elliot could go to.
I've heard he wants Ross County, and he wants them now. They're prepared to let their best shearers at him and the finances work like fuck. Just what I've heard.
Would his hair be acceptable there?
Sorry, reading comprehension has gone to shit.
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It's so frustrating. A few good results this month and we would be all set for a real tilt at getting back into the Champions League and winning tne Europa League if we could add a couple of real quality players in January.
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Abut ambitious but i would love us to try get gapko in. What a player he would be here
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No. Because he can't play for anyone other than Villa or Liverpool this season.
Any idea why Barry didn’t take the penalty?
I feel like I'm in some shit Black Mirror episode where all anyone suggests is which club Elliot could go to.
I've heard he wants Ross County, and he wants them now. They're prepared to let their best shearers at him and the finances work like fuck. Just what I've heard.
They've got a sponsorship deal in with Wahl to fund the move.
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Ivan Toney and Conor Gallagher on loan? Can we loan more players?
Width we need someone, Diaby back on loan?
Say loans as I have no idea if we have money or if we do how much we can spend.
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We are allowed four loans in total and currently have used up the domestic ones so only two more left. God knows what a loan for Toney would cost in wages though, and I'm not sold on Gallagher as that is one place we are stocked up.
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We need a couple of fast wingers.
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We need a couple of fast wingers.
We need two but equally I dont see the point in jettisoning both Guessand and Sancho, so one should is enough.
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Given where we are in the league can we attract quality players for our tilt at the top 4 and not include them in the Europa League squad?
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Gallagher has turned us down once already. Striker and winger for me.
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What does Gallagher add that we haven't got already? If we have any money to spend, do it on something we really need, a pacy winger.
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What does Gallagher add that we haven't got already? If we have any money to spend, do it on something we really need, a pacy winger.
Can play on the flanks. The mini McGinn we thought we were getting with Elliot.
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We absolutely don't need Gallagher. We absolutely do need a pacy, tricksy and goaly winger who can also cover at centre-forward. Basically, this year's Rashford, whoever that may be.
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I don’t think Gallagher is good enough for our strongest eleven and wouldn’t be happy being a squad player.
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I’m not at all up on anyone who doesn’t play for the Villa, who the fuck is Gallagher?
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I’m not at all up on anyone who doesn’t play for the Villa, who the fuck is Gallagher?
Ex Chelsea midfielder now at Atletico Madrid.
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Ah right. Doesn't he have a man bun?
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A good point, well made.
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He did but think he might have reconsidered his life choices since moving to the Spanish capital.
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He turned us down last time when he was supposed to be Emery’s preferred replacement for Luiz, I think. Imagine he regrets that life decision now.
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🚨 NEW: Brighton are monitoring Aston Villa midfielder Lamare Bogarde.
@mcgrathmike
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Go away Brighton.
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Chukwueze played for Emery at Villareal, right? Wonder if we're watching that one. Started well at Fulham.
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Go away Brighton.
🚨 NEW: Brighton are monitoring Aston Villa midfielder Lamare Bogarde.
@mcgrathmike
they will probably lose Baleba soon and planning for it
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Chukwueze played for Emery at Villareal, right? Wonder if we're watching that one. Started well at Fulham.
I’m sure there have been links to him.
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🚨 NEW: Brighton are monitoring Aston Villa midfielder Lamare Bogarde.
@mcgrathmike
Well they didn't do enough before Wednesday! And they can sniff about all they like, I very much doubt he's going anywhere, especially a downgrade.
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🚨 NEW: Aston Villa have added Borussia Mönchengladbach goalkeeper Moritz Nicolas to their shortlist for the summer.
@berger_pj
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We've already used our quota of goalies with Zs in their name.
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Fer a striker in January and we are really going to fuck some shit up.
This is our chance to really do something.
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You never know, a couple of big signings like Jan last season may be on the cards.
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As long as we don't completely screw the next four matches, anyone who is available that we want and we are able to sign is going to be willing to crawl over broken glass to join us.
And I can't remember a time when that was ever the case for us.
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As long as we don't completely screw the next four matches, anyone who is available that we want and we are able to sign is going to be willing to crawl over broken glass to join us.
And I can't remember a time when that was ever the case for us.
So can we strengthen the premier league squad without impacting our SCR limits for Europe?
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Send Elliott back and loan Salah? 😜
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Send Elliott back and loan Salah? 😜
Beat me to it!
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Send Elliott back and loan Salah? 😜
Beat me to it!
Ahem.
Elliot back to Liverpool, Salah to Villa.
Everyone's happy.
(Except Liverpool and quite probably Salah but, pfft, who invented the bloody league?)
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Need to move heaven and earth to find a way of giving Emery some reinforcements next month, we have to make this season count.
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Need to move heaven and earth to find a way of giving Emery some reinforcements next month, we have to make this season count.
Agree, but I find it difficult at the minute to see where reinforcements are required given the kind of money we are likely to have available. I suppose the picture to look at is one where we potentially have a few injuries and where that might leave some holes.
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Similar plan to last year, no? Couple of high profile loanees looking for World Cup fitness and exposure.
Would be helpful if we don't have any off-radar departures for PSR/SCR (Diaby, Duran) and the senior players (Ollie) are on-board with it.
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Need to move heaven and earth to find a way of giving Emery some reinforcements next month, we have to make this season count.
Agree, but I find it difficult at the minute to see where reinforcements are required given the kind of money we are likely to have available. I suppose the picture to look at is one where we potentially have a few injuries and where that might leave some holes.
New accounting period for UEFA SCR in January, money we’re unlikely to pay for Harvey freed up. Enzo cash? So we might have some wiggle room.
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Or we start playing Elliot now we can actually cover him in the accounts from Jan for UEFA.
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He won't get near the team ahead of Rogers and Buendia. He's too much money sank in to a poorly thought out panic signing by Monchi to try to appease everyone and paper over his summer of failure. He will go back and Emery will target a position that does need strengthening, out wide with pace.
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He won't get near the team ahead of Rogers and Buendia. He's too much money sank in to a poorly thought out panic signing by Monchi to try to appease everyone and paper over his summer of failure. He will go back and Emery will target a position that does need strengthening, out wide with pace.
Buendia’s form has really put a spanner in Elliot’s future for us.
Nasef could always have an Egyptian to Egyptian chat with Salah. He could be good for half a season
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He won't get near the team ahead of Rogers and Buendia. He's too much money sank in to a poorly thought out panic signing by Monchi to try to appease everyone and paper over his summer of failure. He will go back and Emery will target a position that does need strengthening, out wide with pace.
Buendia’s form has really put a spanner in Elliot’s future for us.
Nasef could always have an Egyptian to Egyptian chat with Salah. He could be good for half a season
Maybe they could go for a walk together, like.
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Our squad
Goalie
Martinez
Bizot
RB
Cash
Garcia
Konsa
Bogarde
RCB
Konsa
Lindelof
Bogarde
LCB
Torres
Mings
LIndelof
LB
Maatsen
Digne
CDM
Kamara
Onana
Bogarde
CM
Tielemans
Onana
McGinn
RW
Rogers
Guessand
McGinn
Elliott
LW
Sancho
Buendia
Maatsen
McGinn
10
Rogers
Buendia
Tielemans
McGinn
Elliott
CF
Watkins
Malen
I'd say the front line is where we need to strengthen, and we need some genuine pace too.
Mateta would be worth a go I reckon. Thiago perhaps? Toney, no thanks. Ferguson wouldn't get in our team.
Salah would never come and given his pathetic outburst at the weekend, I wouldn't want him anyway.
Guessand
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No Barkley? Would also drop Malen as an option for RW and Kamara for CB options based on who you have placed there.
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Mateta would be worth a go I reckon.
Be very surprised to see Mateta go anywhere in January - if he carries on doing what he's doing, he goes (and probably) starts for France at the World Cup. He'd be daft to come and fight for a place with Watkins and Malen for the run up to that.
Then next summer he has the World Cup and twelve months left on his Palace contract. That would be the time for him to push for a move elsewhere.
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I agree, I'd be surprised, but he won't sign a new deal, and might be tempted (though whether Palace would consider it is a whole different question).
And yes, forgot Barkley. Kamara is someone who can cover CB, as is Malen for RW. Though clearly they are more desperation measures than actual positions.
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Ivan Toney would be gettable I think, as he'd be looking to get into World Cup consideration.
And we could use someone who can take a penalty.
Might cause dressing room disruptions though,as he'd be contending with Ollie for club and country.
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Don't we lose Guessand for a month or so after this weekend?
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Yep.
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The other option with Elliot could be that we renegotiate with Liverpool and remove the 10 game clause. We get an extra body in midfield, Elliot gets minutes playing for the best manager in the country, and Liverpool get a player they want off their books placed in the shop window.
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The other option with Elliot could be that we renegotiate with Liverpool and remove the 10 game clause. We get an extra body in midfield, Elliot gets minutes playing for the best manager in the country, and Liverpool get a player they want off their books placed in the shop window.
That would be ideal or Elliott going back if the shift Salah and need extra bodies.
The only spanner with the clause is that Liverpool can only target Champions League football now, not a hope of title so we are a very real competitor, they would possibly sacrifice Elliott fee depreciation to leave him here not playing
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Liverpool will sign Semenyo if they shift Salah.
Annoying that Liverpool won’t be burdened by his wages for the remainder of his contract. It seems Saudi clubs are happy to cough up his £300k/week, and he clearly wants out.
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Don't we lose Guessand for a month or so after this weekend?
Yes, what will we do
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Bring Jhon and Marco home from Turkiye. Fuck off Harvey and J-dawg, neutral wage position. Let's crack on and win the league.
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The other option with Elliot could be that we renegotiate with Liverpool and remove the 10 game clause. We get an extra body in midfield, Elliot gets minutes playing for the best manager in the country, and Liverpool get a player they want off their books placed in the shop window.
I would still like to see how he would get on down the right side for us. McGinn has got that position sewn up at the moment, but he could be an option there as well.
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Minteh, Bowen or Hudson odoi would be good if we had any money.
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We won't be spending big in January and all those will cost a lot, or in Hudson Odoi's case, not really worth it, in my humble opinion.
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Soccer News Grêmio@soccergfbpa
🚨 Grêmio recebeu uma nova proposta pelo atacante Alysson e está preparando a saída do jogador para um clube do futebol da Inglaterra.
A oferta é superior a 12 milhões de euros (R$ 75 milhões de reais). Grêmio tem 80% dos direitos econômicos do jogador.
Grêmio has received a new offer for striker Alysson and is preparing the player's departure to a club in English football.
The offer is over 12 million euros (R$ 75 million reais). Grêmio owns 80% of the player's economic rights.
Rádio Imortal@rdimortal
🚨 ATUALIZAÇÃO — Aston Villa é o clube que fez proposta por Alyss
UPDATE — Aston Villa is the club that made an offer for Alysson
Stats
Série A · Grêmio · 2025
31 Matches
1 Goals
2 Assists
6 Yellow cards
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Ivan Toney would be gettable I think, as he'd be looking to get into World Cup consideration.
And we could use someone who can take a penalty.
Might cause dressing room disruptions though,as he'd be contending with Ollie for club and country.
Might be advisable to pass on Toney. We could do without his disruptions.
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Grêmio has received a new offer for striker Alysson
Stats
Série A · Grêmio · 2025
31 Matches
1 Goals
2 Assists
6 Yellow cards
So a non-scoring striker. Proper false 9.
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Ivan Toney would be gettable I think, as he'd be looking to get into World Cup consideration.
And we could use someone who can take a penalty.
Might cause dressing room disruptions though,as he'd be contending with Ollie for club and country.
Might be advisable to pass on Toney. We could do without his disruptions.
Hasn’t he just been arrested?
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We're in for a Brazilian called Alysson and the video shows him.in a Liverpool shirt but he plays in Brazil and is a striker, not a goalie....make it make sense.
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We're in for a Brazilian called Alysson and the video shows him.in a Liverpool shirt but he plays in Brazil and is a striker, not a goalie....make it make sense.
His goalscoring record isn’t much better than a goalie.
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Ivan Toney would be gettable I think, as he'd be looking to get into World Cup consideration.
And we could use someone who can take a penalty.
Might cause dressing room disruptions though,as he'd be contending with Ollie for club and country.
Might be advisable to pass on Toney. We could do without his disruptions.
Hasn’t he just been arrested?
I thought he was a Nose?
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Minteh, Bowen or Hudson odoi would be good if we had any money.
We have all the money in the world. We could afford any of those.
We are NOT ALLOWED to spend it.
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Ivan Toney would be gettable I think, as he'd be looking to get into World Cup consideration.
And we could use someone who can take a penalty.
Might cause dressing room disruptions though,as he'd be contending with Ollie for club and country.
Might be advisable to pass on Toney. We could do without his disruptions.
Hasn’t he just been arrested?
yep. In England after Dioning a fellow clubber he was led away in cuffs.
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Minteh, Bowen or Hudson odoi would be good if we had any money.
We have all the money in the world. We could afford any of those.
We are NOT ALLOWED to spend it.
And if we could spend that money I wouldn't want any of them.
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Aston Villa are interested in Strasbourg's 23-year-old Argentinian striker Joaquin Panichelli, with Chelsea and West Ham also monitoring him. (Teamtalk)
Can't see him going anywhere but Chelsea and it is teamtalk.
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Might be advisable to pass on Toney. We could do without his disruptions.
Hasn’t he just been arrested?
Yes, that's what I was referring to.
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Minteh, Bowen or Hudson odoi would be good if we had any money.
We have all the money in the world. We could afford any of those.
We are NOT ALLOWED to spend it.
Are you sure?
We're going to be fine this season on losses because we have all of that lovely Champions League / Duran money in the books and didn't spend anything stupid. We had to finish with a positive transfer balance last summer because that was our punishment from UEFA, and we did so. The new UEFA accounting period begins on January 1st.
I think our settlement with UEFA says that we can't register new signings for Europa League for the whole of this season, so if we did want to bring in a permanent transfer then I don't think we could use them in Europe without an equivalent sale. But if we're sitting in the top four in January, I expect a new signing wouldn't be that devastated. I guess we might not want UEFA to think that we're not really playing in the spirit of that sanction and it could cause us problems with them in future.
As has been said before, we might want to be wary about the books we're presenting at the end of this season with a big wage bill and no Champions League money, but if we're confident that we're not losing stupid amounts, then we should be alright. Not "go out and spend £200m" alright, but not like last summer either.
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If that’s accurate Dave, then hopefully we are in a far better position than I understood.
With Elliot’s wages off the books as well (hopefully) there will be scope for us to do something.
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Aston Villa are interested in Strasbourg's 23-year-old Argentinian striker Joaquin Panichelli, with Chelsea and West Ham also monitoring him. (Teamtalk)
Can't see him going anywhere but Chelsea and it is teamtalk.
I mentioned him somewhere last week and it is nice to be linked to him even if he's likely to end up with Chelsea. I reckon he's going to be special in a couple of years and he's exactly the sort of player we should be looking at to replace Ollie. The other thing of course is they've already signed Joao Pedro and Delap in the summer, they seem to rate Guiu highly and they're already taking Emegha from Strasbourg next summer so do theyeven have space to take him?
If they do then Chelsea will have at least a few forwards going out as well and I think Joao Pedro in particular would do well with us.
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Not least because we'd then have a penalty taker.
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Ivan Toney would be gettable I think, as he'd be looking to get into World Cup consideration.
And we could use someone who can take a penalty.
Might cause dressing room disruptions though,as he'd be contending with Ollie for club and country.
Might be advisable to pass on Toney. We could do without his disruptions.
Hasn’t he just been arrested?
I thought he was a Nose?
I assume you are referencing the Z to the Holte a few seasons back? I believe his agent at the time (and maybe still) was a nose and put him up to it
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Doesn’t Toney has a tax issue if he returns to UK before end of May 26?
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Fuck Toney. If he had any ambition, he wouldn't have gone to Saudi Arabia.
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After what Toney did when he scored at the Holte End a few years ago I don't think he would be a popular signing.
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Aston Villa are interested in Strasbourg's 23-year-old Argentinian striker Joaquin Panichelli, with Chelsea and West Ham also monitoring him. (Teamtalk)
Can't see him going anywhere but Chelsea and it is teamtalk.
Never heard of him but his showreel is pretty complete, the type of player we should be all over, proper striker, does everything. His one weakness is he doesn't appear to be that fast though that may be down to the knee operation he had. He's already been called up for the national side, same game as Emi B.
Do Chelsea own Strasbourg? Sounds like they will have him on loan for a season and if he does okay they take him. Shame.
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Aston Villa are interested in Strasbourg's 23-year-old Argentinian striker Joaquin Panichelli, with Chelsea and West Ham also monitoring him. (Teamtalk)
Can't see him going anywhere but Chelsea and it is teamtalk.
Never heard of him but his showreel is pretty complete, the type of player we should be all over, proper striker, does everything. His one weakness is he doesn't appear to be that fast though that may be down to the knee operation he had. He's already been called up for the national side, same game as Emi B.
Do Chelsea own Strasbourg? Sounds like they will have him on loan for a season and if he does okay they take him. Shame.
They're part of Blueco, so owned by Todd Boehly.
As above though Chelsea are already taking Strasbourg's main striker from last season in the summer (and might even try to trigger that transfer in Jan) which will leave them with 4 first team strikers which is clearly unsustainable. It's not even like they can push 1 or 2 of them to be wingers or 10s because they have loads of those as well. As things stand they have a 41 man squad to go into 26/27 with so they need 10-12 sales/loans just to fit in everyone they already have.
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Grêmio has received a new offer for striker Alysson
Stats
Série A · Grêmio · 2025
31 Matches
1 Goals
2 Assists
6 Yellow cards
So a non-scoring striker. Proper false 9.
His aim isn't true.
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Very good.
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If they do then Chelsea will have at least a few forwards going out as well and I think Joao Pedro in particular would do well with us.
I like him too, really puts a shift in and technically gifted. £60m though, we can but wish. What I don't understand is why any ambitious player would want to join the footballing graveyard that is Chelsea FC?
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If they do then Chelsea will have at least a few forwards going out as well and I think Joao Pedro in particular would do well with us.
I like him too, really puts a shift in and technically gifted. £60m though, we can but wish. What I don't understand is why any ambitious player would want to join the footballing graveyard that is Chelsea FC?
I suspect the 8 year contract on offer might be one reason.
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If they do then Chelsea will have at least a few forwards going out as well and I think Joao Pedro in particular would do well with us.
I like him too, really puts a shift in and technically gifted. £60m though, we can but wish. What I don't understand is why any ambitious player would want to join the footballing graveyard that is Chelsea FC?
I suspect the 8 year contract on offer might be one reason.
I also suspect that the average twenty year old footballer wouldn't really consider the current club world champions and one of the most successful teams of their lifetime as a footballing graveyard.
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To get to the level where Chelsea would want you would require years of self belief and confidence that means players will believe they can make it there.
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Ivan Toney would be gettable I think, as he'd be looking to get into World Cup consideration.
And we could use someone who can take a penalty.
Might cause dressing room disruptions though,as he'd be contending with Ollie for club and country.
Might be advisable to pass on Toney. We could do without his disruptions.
Hasn’t he just been arrested?
I hadn't seen that he'd been arrested when I posted the suggestion.
Bad timing!
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We've supposedly bid £10m for a 19-year-old Brazilian winger at Gremio. The report said it's likely to be accepted. He's one of two players we were linked with last month when we scouted a specific fixture. Alysson Edward.
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I bet he's scored lots of goals.
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I bet he's scored lots of goals.
Knowing our luck he’ll probably be pictured in another English teams shirt, my guess would be Liverpool.
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If they do then Chelsea will have at least a few forwards going out as well and I think Joao Pedro in particular would do well with us.
I like him too, really puts a shift in and technically gifted. £60m though, we can but wish. What I don't understand is why any ambitious player would want to join the footballing graveyard that is Chelsea FC?
I suspect the 8 year contract on offer might be one reason.
A contract signed 8 years ago would be worth 34% less in real terms today. I can’t see the attraction
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We've supposedly bid £10m for a 19-year-old Brazilian winger at Gremio. The report said it's likely to be accepted. He's one of two players we were linked with last month when we scouted a specific fixture. Alysson Edward.
I'd find it more credible if we were linked with Alysson Eduardo.
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Jonathan David and Luis Openda not getting much of a look in at Juventus.
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If they do then Chelsea will have at least a few forwards going out as well and I think Joao Pedro in particular would do well with us.
I like him too, really puts a shift in and technically gifted. £60m though, we can but wish. What I don't understand is why any ambitious player would want to join the footballing graveyard that is Chelsea FC?
I suspect the 8 year contract on offer might be one reason.
A contract signed 8 years ago would be worth 34% less in real terms today. I can’t see the attraction
Edited for reasons of a sense of humour failure.
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Juve seems a dead-end for sexy soccer starlets.
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We've supposedly bid £10m for a 19-year-old Brazilian winger at Gremio. The report said it's likely to be accepted. He's one of two players we were linked with last month when we scouted a specific fixture. Alysson Edward.
Looks decent:
https://x.com/felpcomps/status/1996259012929630646?s=46&t=GdM6cpVxe5IloByNCRheWA
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Hmmm a highlights reel made up of the sort of showboating tricks that make you realise you're playing a twat at FIFA.
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Rapid
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Hmmm a highlights reel made up of the sort of showboating tricks that make you realise you're playing a twat at FIFA.
That reel instantly made me think of Adel Taarabt. All fart, no shit! Obviously still worth a punt for the price reported though.
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If Emery had got hold of Adel Taarabt he'd have been doubling up with his full back and in bed for 9.
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Quick and has a really good touch but the highlights don't show much end product so he'd probably need a while to settle, not someone who'd come in push for a spot straight away.
Looks like he might have a background in Futsal though by the way he plays, similar to a few Brazilians who've come through that way (including Doug).
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Honestly thought he looked a bit clumsy and raw.
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We've supposedly bid £10m for a 19-year-old Brazilian winger at Gremio. The report said it's likely to be accepted. He's one of two players we were linked with last month when we scouted a specific fixture. Alysson Edward.
Looks decent:
https://x.com/felpcomps/status/1996259012929630646?s=46&t=GdM6cpVxe5IloByNCRheWA
Anyone who can do all that playing for Coventry must be alright.
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Quick and has a really good touch but the highlights don't show much end product so he'd probably need a while to settle, not someone who'd come in push for a spot straight away.
Looks like he might have a background in Futsal though by the way he plays, similar to a few Brazilians who've come through that way (including Doug).
In any case the lad’s only 19, think at the price he’d probably be worth a punt anyway.
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I really like the look of Morgan Whittaker at Boro. He’s been excellent in the games I have seen this season.
Definitely one for the (near) future
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I really like the look of Morgan Whittaker at Boro. He’s been excellent in the games I have seen this season.
Definitely one for the (near) future
Looked very good when at Plymouth where I saw him. At the time I thought he might be the next Morgan Rogers
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I really like the look of Morgan Whittaker at Boro. He’s been excellent in the games I have seen this season.
Definitely one for the (near) future
Sign.him up! The last player we signed from Boro hasn't been that bad...😍
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I really like the look of Morgan Whittaker at Boro. He’s been excellent in the games I have seen this season.
Definitely one for the (near) future
Looked very good when at Plymouth where I saw him. At the time I thought he might be the next Morgan Rogers
In his mid 20’s isn’t he?
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Not sure i'd be signing a 25 year old as one for the future.
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We've supposedly bid £10m for a 19-year-old Brazilian winger at Gremio. The report said it's likely to be accepted. He's one of two players we were linked with last month when we scouted a specific fixture. Alysson Edward.
Looks very much like Morgan Rogers in how he carries the ball.
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There's some talk online linking us to Mikel Jaurigizar from Bilbao. He'd be very expensive and I'm not sure where he'd fit, looks like he'd be cover for Tielemans and €60m is a big fee for a squad player.
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^^Unless Tielemans is being fattened for a trip to the big Pure Profit bucket?
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There's some talk online linking us to Mikel Jaurigizar from Bilbao. He'd be very expensive and I'm not sure where he'd fit, looks like he'd be cover for Tielemans and €60m is a big fee for a squad player.
I think it's a load of nonsense. "He's a Basque player, Emery is Basque, obviously Emery wants to sign him" kind of logic
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I agree, but it's a rumour so in here it goes. For me the price alone makes it highly unlikely. The Belgian lad linked a week or 2 back seems like a much more likely option.
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Alysson looks done for around 12m.
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Alysson looks done for around 12m.
Let's hope his aim is true.
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And he doesn't really want to go Chelsea.
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Or join Oliver’s Army at Palace.
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Nah, can't see the attraction.
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Is there any truth in this or is it just a rumour that's been spread around town?
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I'm a bit worried we might end up losing him to the Blose. Heard he grew up a big fan of Jasper Carrott after watching The Detectives.
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🚨💣 NEW: Aston Villa have agreed a deal to sign forward Alysson (19) from Grêmio for €10m + €2.5m in add-ons — he will travel to Birmingham at the turn of the year to take medical exams & sign a contract.
@pdgremista
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🚨💣 NEW: Aston Villa have agreed a deal to sign forward Alysson (19) from Grêmio for €10m + €2.5m in add-ons — he will travel to Birmingham at the turn of the year to take medical exams & sign a contract.
@pdgremista
He looks similar to Rogers in style and stature. More a wide forward from a lot of the vids and seems to do his fair share of tracking back. Might be one Unai converts into a 9/10 but can do a bit of everything along the front.
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Alysson looks done for around 12m.
Let's hope his aim is true.
The first thought in my head when I heard the rumour was: listen close and don't be stoned.
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Feels like we were running a bit short of Brazilians after the departures of Coutinho, DC and DL.
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🚨💣 NEW: Aston Villa have agreed a deal to sign forward Alysson (19) from Grêmio for €10m + €2.5m in add-ons — he will travel to Birmingham at the turn of the year to take medical exams & sign a contract.
@pdgremista
He looks similar to Rogers in style and stature. More a wide forward from a lot of the vids and seems to do his fair share of tracking back. Might be one Unai converts into a 9/10 but can do a bit of everything along the front.
His defensive stats are brilliant, wouldn't surprise me if over time Unai does a Kenny Swain and converts him into a right wing back.
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🚨💣 NEW: Aston Villa have agreed a deal to sign forward Alysson (19) from Grêmio for €10m + €2.5m in add-ons — he will travel to Birmingham at the turn of the year to take medical exams & sign a contract.
@pdgremista
He looks similar to Rogers in style and stature. More a wide forward from a lot of the vids and seems to do his fair share of tracking back. Might be one Unai converts into a 9/10 but can do a bit of everything along the front.
His defensive stats are brilliant, wouldn't surprise me if over time Unai does a Kenny Swain and converts him into a right wing back.
I couldn't agree to that. He's a Brazilian winger. Unai should get him to become Jairzinho. I think that's what I want from my Brazilian wingers ... I want them to be Jairzinho basically. Including the hair. Especially the hair.
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Tap in merchant Fabrizio reporting it as done now too.
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Fabrizio Romano
@FabrizioRomano
🚨🟣🔵 Aston Villa agree deal to sign Alysson from Gremio, here we go! 🇧🇷
€10m initial fee plus €2m add-ons for 19 year old Brazilian winger to join the club in January.
Alysson will undergo medical and sign at #AVFC by the end of December.
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Fabrizio Romano
@FabrizioRomano
🚨🟣🔵 Aston Villa agree deal to sign Alysson from Gremio, here we go! 🇧🇷
€10m initial fee plus €2m add-ons for 19 year old Brazilian winger to join the club in January.
Alysson will undergo medical and sign at #AVFC by the end of December.
can we keep him Dad ?, Please Please Please
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He's got Vitória written all over him.
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He's got Vitória written all over him.
not more shit tattoos
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Guessing this will be another raw player with clear talent like Duran and Rogers and in 18 months time we will all be sucking farts out of his bumhole while the papers try to sell him for £100m.
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in 18 months time we will all be sucking farts out of his bumhole while the papers try to sell him for £100m.
You have some strange habits. I'm just glad I didn't visit the Blarney Stone right after you did.
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Guessing this will be another raw player with clear talent like Duran and Rogers and in 18 months time we will all be sucking farts out of his bumhole while the papers try to sell him for £100m.
that leaves a bad taste in my mouth
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in 18 months time we will all be sucking farts out of his bumhole while the papers try to sell him for £100m.
You have some strange habits. I'm just glad I didn't visit the Blarney Stone right after you did.
Or stayed in Baros/Emery's flat at the Mailbox.
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Good to see threads merged. Toronto going way too early again.
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Good to see threads merged. Toronto going way too early again.
He does go early and get me all excited alot !!
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Good to see threads merged. Toronto going way too early again.
It's the bane of Mrs TV's life.
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Come on, it's his birthday fortnight, give the fella a break.
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TV's premature signing threads always make me picture Harmison's first ball of the Ashes in 06.
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Is there any truth in this or is it just a rumour that's been spread around town?
Winner.
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Newcastle will face competition from Tottenham and Aston Villa to sign Manchester City's 23-year-old English goalkeeper James Trafford. (Football Insider)
Not sure why Newcastle who already have Pope and Ramsdale (albeit on loan) want Trafford. I'm also now sure I would want him either tbh.
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Me neither.
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Newcastle were set to sign him before Man City used their buy-back arrangement, so they clearly wanted him more than Ramsdale.
So if they can avoid signing Ramsdale permanently, it would make sense to get Trafford instead.
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Understandable as I've come to the conclusion that Ramsdale is shite.
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Yeah, I don't get the appeal either.
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Penny for Trafford's thoughts. Re-signed, looks like he's going to be no.1, plays well for them then they sign Donnarumma and he's relegated to reserve.
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Their version of Philogene?
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2-3 bits of business next month
Harvey will go back
Brazilian lad good as done
Club confident they will get a forward - could be another Brazilian
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2-3 bits of business next month
Harvey will go back
Brazilian lad good as done
Club confident they will get a forward - could be another Brazilian
ooooh Vinnie I like that !
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2-3 bits of business next month
Harvey will go back
Brazilian lad good as done
Club confident they will get a forward - could be another Brazilian
A forward to go into the starting line up?
Ball tingling if so.
My balls are tingling for the claret and blue 8)
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Club confident they will get a forward - could be another Brazilian
Or a Brazilian centre-half? https://x.com/FabrizioRomano/status/2000542508439203924
Certainly good looking enough to make it into our team.
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DF slightly Possible - however Mings almost back, plus Bogardes development.
Kamara can fill in also for needed.
Club still want a CB/RB - not sure what long term future Garcia has
Whether this type of move can happen next month, not sure
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2-3 bits of business next month
Harvey will go back
Brazilian lad good as done
Club confident they will get a forward - could be another Brazilian
A forward to go into the starting line up?
Ball tingling if so.
My balls are tingling for the claret and blue 8)
Would be with intention of immediate impact. Despite all of Unais praise publically for Ollie - they know it’s an issue
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2-3 bits of business next month
Harvey will go back
Brazilian lad good as done
Club confident they will get a forward - could be another Brazilian
A forward to go into the starting line up?
Ball tingling if so.
My balls are tingling for the claret and blue 8)
Would be with intention of immediate impact. Despite all of Unais praise publically for Ollie - they know it’s an issue
Cheers Vinnie.
Sounds like they have a little bit of money available then. Is it that other one we've seen mentioned? Forgot his name.
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Can we send Sancho back?
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2-3 bits of business next month
Harvey will go back
Brazilian lad good as done
Club confident they will get a forward - could be another Brazilian
A forward to go into the starting line up?
Ball tingling if so.
My balls are tingling for the claret and blue 8)
Maybe you need a Brazilian ;)
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If Atletico are looking to unload Alvarez, cheeky loan bid from Olabe would be just lovely.
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2-3 bits of business next month
Harvey will go back
Brazilian lad good as done
Club confident they will get a forward - could be another Brazilian
A forward to go into the starting line up?
Ball tingling if so.
My balls are tingling for the claret and blue 8)
Would be with intention of immediate impact. Despite all of Unais praise publically for Ollie - they know it’s an issue
Cheers Vinnie.
Sounds like they have a little bit of money available then. Is it that other one we've seen mentioned? Forgot his name.
Gonzalo Garcia from Real Madrid on loan? I think Unai will want somebody with a bit more experience.
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Endrick
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Off to Lyon isn't he?
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I thought so. But he's a Brazilian forward that's not signed a deal yet....
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Club confident they will get a forward - could be another Brazilian
Or a Brazilian centre-half? https://x.com/FabrizioRomano/status/2000542508439203924
Certainly good looking enough to make it into our team.
But not good enough...was washed out at Chelsea before he left.
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Club confident they will get a forward - could be another Brazilian
Or a Brazilian centre-half? https://x.com/FabrizioRomano/status/2000542508439203924
Certainly good looking enough to make it into our team.
But not good enough...was washed out at Chelsea before he left.
If he's good enough for Fluminense.....
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Wasn't there rumours of liking Thiago from Brentford a few months ago?
Edit: Just spotted it had appeared on the BBC gossip again today.
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Wasn't there rumours of liking Thiago from Brentford a few months ago?
Edit: Just spotted it had appeared on the BBC gossip again today.
I expect that we'll strengthen and I don't think our finances are as problematic as they were in the summer, but I still don't think we'll be chucking £60-70m on a player anytime soon.
And while I'm not suggesting they are the same or anything, a big young Brazilian who made his name at Club Brugge before coming to the Premier League and getting a serious injury feels a little bit "once bitten, twice shy" to me.
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Endrick
As Dave said, already at Lyon, training with them from what I've read. The other point is in the loan agreement, Real have a clause whereby he has to start something like 25 games. I couldn't see Uncle Unai ever agreeing to those conditions.
Oh and for the record I don't want Naymar. Never rated him, too much of a show pony.
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Not happy about Lyon strengthening, they’re one of our rivals for Europa League glory, let’s hope Endrick is absolute shite.
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It’s not often a team has a single glaring hole like we do for a decent winger. One player that provides a similar threat to Rogers and can unshackle Watkins. The impact could be huge.
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2-3 bits of business next month
Harvey will go back
Brazilian lad good as done
Club confident they will get a forward - could be another Brazilian
I watched Corinthians vs. Cruzeiro last night mainly to see Kaio Jorge, but he was pretty underwhelming despite an assist. The Ecuadorian winger, Keny Arroyo, caught my eye instead and looked very good.
Perhaps he thinks a move is coming and didn’t want to overdo it. All speculation of course. ;)
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but I still don't think we'll be chucking £60-70m on a player anytime soon.
If we're still in the mix for the title I think it would be worth rolling the dice, we're 12 goals short of the top two. Goal difference stopped us qualifying for the champions league last summer and Watkins isn't chipping in.
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We could afford it, we just can't spend it due to the restrictions we are under unless we get some money in for some of the other players.
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Their version of Philogene?
Jaden would be so shit in goal.
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but I still don't think we'll be chucking £60-70m on a player anytime soon.
If we're still in the mix for the title I think it would be worth rolling the dice, we're 12 goals short of the top two. Goal difference stopped us qualifying for the champions league last summer and Watkins isn't chipping in.
I do not doubt our owners feel the same but they are restricted by the rules.
Also I don’t think this Emery revolution is about betting the farm on 1 individual, it is a collective approach across the squad of constant development.
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It’s not often a team has a single glaring hole like we do for a decent winger. One player that provides a similar threat to Rogers and can unshackle Watkins. The impact could be huge.
It could be huge. But to find an electric winger going forward who is able to carry out defensive duties is extremely difficult. Watched Semenyo closely last night, electric on the ball but useless and lazy in defence. Eze is proving the same, thanks to him, we got our first goal against Arses.
Not sure Unai likes conventional wingers, doesn't suit his patterns!!
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Barca interested in Pau, according to A Man On The Internet.
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Barca interested in Pau, according to A Man On The Internet.
Straight swap for Raphinha?
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Barca interested in Pau, according to A Man On The Internet.
Given Mings is obviously miles better (see prevailing opinion ten months ago), maybe we should just sell Mings to Barcelona instead and make even more cash from this.
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Barca interested in Pau, according to A Man On The Internet.
Given Mings is obviously miles better (see prevailing opinion ten months ago), maybe we should just sell him to Barcelona and make even more cash from this.
We were getting better results when Mings played 8/10 months ago. That’s not an opinion.
Opinions are fine, but I’ll stick with facts on this one.
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Not happy about Lyon strengthening, they’re one of our rivals for Europa League glory, let’s hope Endrick is absolute shite.
Beware the Lyon in winter.
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Barca interested in Pau, according to A Man On The Internet.
Given Mings is obviously miles better (see prevailing opinion ten months ago), maybe we should just sell him to Barcelona and make even more cash from this.
We were getting better results when Mings played 8/10 months ago. That’s not an opinion.
Opinions are fine, but I’ll stick with facts on this one.
Let's get those Barcelona millions then.
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Barca interested in Pau, according to A Man On The Internet.
Given Mings is obviously miles better (see prevailing opinion ten months ago), maybe we should just sell him to Barcelona and make even more cash from this.
We were getting better results when Mings played 8/10 months ago. That’s not an opinion.
Opinions are fine, but I’ll stick with facts on this one.
We weren't though, were we. We are literally on our best top flight run since 1989/90, mate.
Lindelof has done well but he is a squad player, not someone we want playing twenty-thirty games a season. Top teams have at least three or four high quality centre-halves. We need to stop being in a desperate rush to sell our star players as soon as some European Scab League team flashes a bit of ankle.
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Barcelona don't have a pot to piss in. They're not giving us decent money for Pau.
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Club still want a CB/RB - not sure what long term future Garcia has
Whether this type of move can happen next month, not sure
We have Modou Kéba Cissé arriving in June.
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Barca interested in Pau, according to A Man On The Internet.
Given Mings is obviously miles better (see prevailing opinion ten months ago), maybe we should just sell him to Barcelona and make even more cash from this.
We were getting better results when Mings played 8/10 months ago. That’s not an opinion.
Opinions are fine, but I’ll stick with facts on this one.
Let's get those Barcelona millions then.
Why? The facts have changed.
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Barca interested in Pau, according to A Man On The Internet.
Given Mings is obviously miles better (see prevailing opinion ten months ago), maybe we should just sell him to Barcelona and make even more cash from this.
We were getting better results when Mings played 8/10 months ago. That’s not an opinion.
Opinions are fine, but I’ll stick with facts on this one.
We weren't though, were we. We are literally on our best top flight run since 1989/90, mate.
I’m on about 8/10 months ago. There’s a clue in the post.
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If the current results at the moment are the best since 1989, then they were also the best since 1989 8/10 months ago.
There is also another causality rabbit hole to go down around whether we were getting the results we were getting 8/10 months ago because of Mings, but life is too short for that.
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Barca interested in Pau, according to A Man On The Internet.
Given Mings is obviously miles better (see prevailing opinion ten months ago), maybe we should just sell him to Barcelona and make even more cash from this.
We were getting better results when Mings played 8/10 months ago. That’s not an opinion.
Opinions are fine, but I’ll stick with facts on this one.
Let's get those Barcelona millions then.
Why? The facts have changed.
I don't think anything has changed. My opinion on what our best back five is is the same as it was eighteen months ago, and eight months ago.
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Barca interested in Pau, according to A Man On The Internet.
Given Mings is obviously miles better (see prevailing opinion ten months ago), maybe we should just sell him to Barcelona and make even more cash from this.
We were getting better results when Mings played 8/10 months ago. That’s not an opinion.
Opinions are fine, but I’ll stick with facts on this one.
We weren't though, were we. We are literally on our best top flight run since 1989/90, mate.
I’m on about 8/10 months ago. There’s a clue in the post.
I know. We are on our best top flight run since 1989/90. 8/10 months ago was not longer ago than 1989/90.
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In defence of percy, I don't think he's comparing eras in his post. He's specifically comparing Mings and Pau last season. "Our performances with Mings were better than those with Pau".
Not "our run last season was better than the one this season"
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Ah okay, fair enough. This season, though, we have undoubtedly tended to get better results during the period of the season when Torres was mostly playing than when Mings was mostly playing. I'm still pretty keen on Torres and Mings and we would be mad to let either of them go, especially as we would get next to nothing for Mings given his injury record.
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It’s not often a team has a single glaring hole like we do for a decent winger. One player that provides a similar threat to Rogers and can unshackle Watkins. The impact could be huge.
It could be huge. But to find an electric winger going forward who is able to carry out defensive duties is extremely difficult. Watched Semenyo closely last night, electric on the ball but useless and lazy in defence. Eze is proving the same, thanks to him, we got our first goal against Arses.
Not sure Unai likes conventional wingers, doesn't suit his patterns!!
We don't really play with conventional wingers so not sure why the panic to fix this glaring hole. Bailey did well on the right for sure for a spell, Rashford was tried on the left but eventually pushed up front. Same for Malen. Philogene, Sancho, Guessand, Elliot all signed to compete out wide but failed. Maybe Zaniolo too. The wide positions in our midfield are difficult roles to play, tactically and technically. McGinn excels in it. Ramsey gave us great balance on the left at his best too. That's the kind of profile we need, the next mini McGinn.
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Barca interested in Pau, according to A Man On The Internet.
Given Mings is obviously miles better (see prevailing opinion ten months ago), maybe we should just sell him to Barcelona and make even more cash from this.
We were getting better results when Mings played 8/10 months ago. That’s not an opinion.
Opinions are fine, but I’ll stick with facts on this one.
Let's get those Barcelona millions then.
Why? The facts have changed.
I don't think anything has changed. My opinion on what our best back five is is the same as it was eighteen months ago, and eight months ago.
Obviously, you’re entitled to an opinion. I’m on about facts. Mings and Pau were swapping with regularity towards the end of last season. We got better results when Mings played.
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And this season?
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It’s not often a team has a single glaring hole like we do for a decent winger. One player that provides a similar threat to Rogers and can unshackle Watkins. The impact could be huge.
It could be huge. But to find an electric winger going forward who is able to carry out defensive duties is extremely difficult. Watched Semenyo closely last night, electric on the ball but useless and lazy in defence. Eze is proving the same, thanks to him, we got our first goal against Arses.
Not sure Unai likes conventional wingers, doesn't suit his patterns!!
We don't really play with conventional wingers so not sure why the panic to fix this glaring hole. Bailey did well on the right for sure for a spell, Rashford was tried on the left but eventually pushed up front. Same for Malen. Philogene, Sancho, Guessand, Elliot all signed to compete out wide but failed. Maybe Zaniolo too. The wide positions in our midfield are difficult roles to play, tactically and technically. McGinn excels in it. Ramsey gave us great balance on the left at his best too. That's the kind of profile we need, the next mini McGinn.
Do we know why did we sell Ramsey? Only cause money or might also be not exactly what we needed as well.
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Cos we were skint.
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It’s not often a team has a single glaring hole like we do for a decent winger. One player that provides a similar threat to Rogers and can unshackle Watkins. The impact could be huge.
It could be huge. But to find an electric winger going forward who is able to carry out defensive duties is extremely difficult. Watched Semenyo closely last night, electric on the ball but useless and lazy in defence. Eze is proving the same, thanks to him, we got our first goal against Arses.
Not sure Unai likes conventional wingers, doesn't suit his patterns!!
We don't really play with conventional wingers so not sure why the panic to fix this glaring hole. Bailey did well on the right for sure for a spell, Rashford was tried on the left but eventually pushed up front. Same for Malen. Philogene, Sancho, Guessand, Elliot all signed to compete out wide but failed. Maybe Zaniolo too. The wide positions in our midfield are difficult roles to play, tactically and technically. McGinn excels in it. Ramsey gave us great balance on the left at his best too. That's the kind of profile we need, the next mini McGinn.
You’re right, mostly. My justification for a pacy forward is because they’d be a point of difference. We are well stocked for players like Morgan, McGinn, Youri, Buendia and even Elliot. Ideally we need one of the three to be express pace and looking to get behind the opposition, like Bailey did for 12-months and how Rashford was used.
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We were much better with a really good pacy winger (or two) than without in the previous two seasons. Someone in the Rashford class could make the difference between being top five contenders and title contenders in May.
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Cos we were skint.
It does stick in the craw that we're paying Sancho more than Ramsey wanted.
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And this season?
I can’t imagine we’d be getting better results this season with Mings playing. So I’d rather Torres play. I’m funny like that, I always want the players who get the best results to play. I put it down to me being a Villa fan and wanting Villa to win.
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Cos we were skint.
It does stick in the craw that we're paying Sancho more than Ramsey wanted.
Yes, but it’s nothing to do with being skint, as we all know.
I’m sure we could go out and try and buy the very best players in the world, if we were allowed to.
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So we seem to agree.
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Cos we were skint.
Skint never, Restricted definitely
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It’s not often a team has a single glaring hole like we do for a decent winger. One player that provides a similar threat to Rogers and can unshackle Watkins. The impact could be huge.
It could be huge. But to find an electric winger going forward who is able to carry out defensive duties is extremely difficult. Watched Semenyo closely last night, electric on the ball but useless and lazy in defence. Eze is proving the same, thanks to him, we got our first goal against Arses.
Not sure Unai likes conventional wingers, doesn't suit his patterns!!
We don't really play with conventional wingers so not sure why the panic to fix this glaring hole. Bailey did well on the right for sure for a spell, Rashford was tried on the left but eventually pushed up front. Same for Malen. Philogene, Sancho, Guessand, Elliot all signed to compete out wide but failed. Maybe Zaniolo too. The wide positions in our midfield are difficult roles to play, tactically and technically. McGinn excels in it. Ramsey gave us great balance on the left at his best too. That's the kind of profile we need, the next mini McGinn.
You’re right, mostly. My justification for a pacy forward is because they’d be a point of difference. We are well stocked for players like Morgan, McGinn, Youri, Buendia and even Elliot. Ideally we need one of the three to be express pace and looking to get behind the opposition, like Bailey did for 12-months and how Rashford was used.
Sure, would be good to have the option but is it a priority? Unless they are a very good footballer they will struggle to fit in our midfield. It's rare enough teams press high against us these days for a rapid forward to take advantage of. West Ham dropped off naturally but that left space behind their midfield for the likes of McGinn and Rogers to drive into. Another former player, Grealish, like Ramsey would have been perfectly suited to that setup. That profile of another strong runner with the ball would be better I think rather than a pacy forward. Guessand and Sancho don't fit the bill. Move Malen on and get a younger quicker Watkins sure but not sure that player is out there in January.
We have options in lots of positions but right back and right mid are very light and priorities to address for me. McGinn to Guessand is just a huge drop off in quality. Cash to Lindelof is similar as we saw in the EL games.
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I presume Garcia will get a chance at some stage, unless we revert to Ezri/Lamarre should Cash get injured/suspended.
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Cos we were skint.
It does stick in the craw that we're paying Sancho more than Ramsey wanted.
totally with you there, bro.
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RB seems covered.I'm enjoying the love for Matty Cash but a suitable replacement could also be Bogarde who is developing into an excellent player.
The quandary is a left sided wide player or a central attacker.Our spending limits might restrict the choice of the striker.We do need more goals.
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Cos we were skint.
It does stick in the craw that we're paying Sancho more than Ramsey wanted.
Possibly but we did not pay the £40mil we got for Ramsey for Sancho and we can (i hope) fuck him off back there soon
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Spurs open to selling Brennan Johnson. The solution to our wing-woes? He's probably close-pals with Morgz too (aren't they all?). Might help keep our world player of the year settled for another while.
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I like him, but my Spursy mate he’s dead sound, doesn’t rate him. I think I only ever see the MOTD highlight real of him.
Saying that, I reckon this season must be the most times I’ve ever watched MOTD. What a run!
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I don't think Brennan Johnson is all that good either.
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He's mastered the Raheem Sterling move of turning up a yard out at the back post and make a career of tapping it in.
Not that that's a bad thing. Plenty of Bailey's goals two years ago were that move.
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I think Unai could make him into a great player. I rate him but hes just not clicked at Spurs.
If the price is right and Unai wants him I think it would be great addition.
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Johnson peaked about two years ago. He’s a lightweight who has no further useful marrow left. He will drift to a bottom half team or championship very soon.
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A spurs podcaster said he is an amazing finisher, but not great at the normal winger tasks. So £50m for an El Ghazi.
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Johnson peaked about two years ago. He’s a lightweight who has no further useful marrow left. He will drift to a bottom half team or championship very soon.
My uncle doesn't rate him either.
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A spurs podcaster said he is an amazing finisher, but not great at the normal winger tasks. So £50m for an El Ghazi.
Reading comments online from Spurs fans last year,that is a good summary of him,very good finisher but can't beat a player.
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Emery was interested in him before Spurs came in for him.
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Johnson can't get into a mediocre Tottenham team. Never seen what all the fuss was about with him. He has a bit of pace. What else?
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Barnes from Newcastle would be a better option than Johnson (if it was an option).
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Barnes from Newcastle would be a better option than Johnson (if it was an option).
Doesn't he play on the left ?
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Johnson seems like a player Emery would like, someone who he can get back to his best, maybe this seasons January loan
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I'd take Brennan Johnson over Guessand and Sancho.
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That doesn't seem like the highest of bars at the moment.
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Point is he'd improve us in terms our plan Bs.
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Spurs would want £50m for Johnson. No thanks
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Didn’t realize they paid 47.5m for him. That seems rather a lot.
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Hard no from me, Johnson is shite, like the team he plays for.
The only two players I'd be interested in from them are Van De Ven or Kulusevski, the rest can get fucked.
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Hard no from me, Johnson is shite, like the team he plays for.
The only two players I'd be interested in from them are Van De Ven or Kulusevski, the rest can get fucked.
I like the clarity of this post, which I agree with wholeheartedly.
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Not for the winter, but I wonder if we might not look to bring in a long-term wide-forward in January - with the hope that we are playing in the Champions League again next season and Barcelona having no money, and we haven't ruled out Rashford being our plan / hope for that position.
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Johnson is the epitome of a Spurs signing. That’s all that needs saying. I’d have him instead of Guessand though.
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Wow, Rash coming back... imagine that. He might consider it a climbdown for his brand.
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I always thought he was all huff and puff with no end product and a bit goofy to boot
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Not for the winter, but I wonder if we might not look to bring in a long-term wide-forward in January - with the hope that we are playing in the Champions League again next season and Barcelona having no money, and we haven't ruled out Rashford being our plan / hope for that position.
It's a lovely thought.
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Not for the winter, but I wonder if we might not look to bring in a long-term wide-forward in January - with the hope that we are playing in the Champions League again next season and Barcelona having no money, and we haven't ruled out Rashford being our plan / hope for that position.
Hasn't the Barca coach come out saying something silly like if Rashford isn't signed, he'll leave? He's playing his best football in years, seems to love it there, he certainly doesn't want to go back to Man U, not sure I'd want an unhappy player on our books.
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Not for the winter, but I wonder if we might not look to bring in a long-term wide-forward in January - with the hope that we are playing in the Champions League again next season and Barcelona having no money, and we haven't ruled out Rashford being our plan / hope for that position.
Hasn't the Barca coach come out saying something silly like if Rashford isn't signed, he'll leave? He's playing his best football in years, seems to love it there, he certainly doesn't want to go back to Man U, not sure I'd want an unhappy player on our books.
Stop spoiling things.
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Johnson peaked about two years ago. He’s a lightweight who has no further useful marrow left. He will drift to a bottom half team or championship very soon.
Agree - will replace Grealish at next season on loan en route to QPR or Cardiff should they recover.
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Not for the winter, but I wonder if we might not look to bring in a long-term wide-forward in January - with the hope that we are playing in the Champions League again next season and Barcelona having no money, and we haven't ruled out Rashford being our plan / hope for that position.
Would be a thing of beauty.
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Not for the winter, but I wonder if we might not look to bring in a long-term wide-forward in January - with the hope that we are playing in the Champions League again next season and Barcelona having no money, and we haven't ruled out Rashford being our plan / hope for that position.
It's a lovely thought.
This would be amazing if we could make it happen.
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Try and get a loan in to cover or provide competition for Watkins in January then I can see us going for Nicholas Jackson in the Summer.
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Posted way back at the time prior to his move to spurs. But we were in for Brennan at that time. Unai rates him
Not heard anything about it this time round but if he was available for say £30m mark (is what’s being banded around) and a loan to buy (like Elliott deal) was available then I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Unai was keen for it
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The internet chatter seems to be that Brennan Johnson is off to Palace.
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The internet chatter seems to be that Brennan Johnson is off to Palace.
Thank fuck
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Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool and Tottenham have opened talks with 25-year-old Ghana winger Antoine Semenyo over a £65m move but must wrap up a deal with Bournemouth by 10 January to secure his services. (The i - subscription required)
Those rules eh. Nice and fair.
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The internet chatter seems to be that Brennan Johnson is off to Palace.
Thank fuck
Watch him be a world beater at Palace.
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The internet chatter seems to be that Brennan Johnson is off to Palace.
Thank fuck
Watch him be a world beater at Palace.
I don't really see why people are so quick to write him off, It hasn't worked out at spurs but they've been a mess. A bit of Unai magic and I think he would be a great signing for us. Hes rapid which is what we have lacked a bit on the right hand side and can chip in with goals.
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I don't really see why people are so quick to write him off, It hasn't worked out at spurs but they've been a mess. A bit of Unai magic and I think he would be a great signing for us. Hes rapid which is what we have lacked a bit on the right hand side and can chip in with goals.
I agree. He's tenacious and has some decent skill. Not sure we'd want to pay what Spuds would want for him, though, so I suspect he won't be coming to VP.
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Spurs will ask for silly money.
Around £20m and I think he’d be a good squad option. North of that and the player really needs to be first XI and I don’t think he is that.
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He's not good enough for a shite Spurs team, we can do much, much better.
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I think he'd suit us quite well and I thought he was older than 24. I understand the could do better thoughts though.
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Johnson has someonthinv our team desperately lacks pace. Rather johnson than sancho tbh
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He's not good enough for a shite Spurs team, we can do much, much better.
I think if he gets good coaching and instruction he will improve. I don’t think he’s a bad player. Scored plenty of goals and was very good at Forest. Just judging anyone just on their Spurs career doesn’t tell the full story.
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Wouldn't be disappointed with Johnson at the right price. Spurs paid about £47m though and would try to get most of that back. Not worth anywhere near that.
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Good player, he’ll improve us
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He's not good enough for a shite Spurs team, we can do much, much better.
This. Johnson is lightweight and will not improve us.
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Johnson on.
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He's not good enough for a shite Spurs team, we can do much, much better.
This. Johnson is lightweight and will not improve us.
I mean?, we have a lightweight left winger, that is ineffective and a player on the right that’s not lightweight, but has the acceleration of a freight train. Brennan Johnson will definitely improve us.
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I would rather schade than johnson tbh
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Kev reminds me of a fit Ollie.
Doesn't score that many goals, though.
(Taps fingers while waiting for Smirker's next post...)
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Who’s Kev?
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I would rather schade than johnson tbh
TBF they’re a smooth operator
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Who’s Kev?
The Fulham lad. I doubt he knows his natural nickname.
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Who’s Kev?
The Fulham lad. I doubt he knows his natural nickname.
I’m still lost.
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For this transfer window I think we need a striker and a right winger. Still.
Right back would be nice, but I think Bogarde can do a defensive job there if Cash is out.
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I wonder if - if the stats say what folk say they are, and teams have worked out how to nullify our attacks, and we’ve switched to more long range shots rather than working the ball in to the box … well that might be a bigger cause for Ollie not scoring so much and in fact any striker we play in the centre forward role might struggle to be prolific.
Just a thought, might be miles off of course.
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If we buy someone, we need to make sure we get value for money. From what I can gather, Johnson is a bit of a sicknote.... I think he's an alright player and one that I think Emery could improve, but I'd be concerned that he'd spend most of his time on the treatment table than on the pitch.
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I wonder if - if the stats say what folk say they are, and teams have worked out how to nullify our attacks, and we’ve switched to more long range shots rather than working the ball in to the box … well that might be a bigger cause for Ollie not scoring so much and in fact any striker we play in the centre forward role might struggle to be prolific.
Just a thought, might be miles off of course.
I think there is a lot to this, as well as having no functioning wingers.
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I wonder if - if the stats say what folk say they are, and teams have worked out how to nullify our attacks, and we’ve switched to more long range shots rather than working the ball in to the box … well that might be a bigger cause for Ollie not scoring so much and in fact any striker we play in the centre forward role might struggle to be prolific.
Just a thought, might be miles off of course.
(https://i.gifer.com/oe3.gif)
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I wonder if - if the stats say what folk say they are, and teams have worked out how to nullify our attacks, and we’ve switched to more long range shots rather than working the ball in to the box … well that might be a bigger cause for Ollie not scoring so much and in fact any striker we play in the centre forward role might struggle to be prolific.
Just a thought, might be miles off of course.
This fella might agree with you.
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But in the last three league games we've scored 9 goals. Only the Rogers winner against West Ham was from outside the box.
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Everything we do, however we do it, is apparently unsustainable !!!
Fuck everyone, we will just continue on our march to greatness.
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Everything we do, however we do it, is apparently unsustainable !!!
Fuck everyone, we will just continue on our march to greatness.
Just like the season we finished 4th we just kept catching top teams on an off day seemed to be the narrative.
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But in the last three league games we've scored 9 goals. Only the Rogers winner against West Ham was from outside the box.
So of the 8 goals we've scored inside the box in that run Watkins scored 2, was instrumental in the OG for a 3rd and wasn't on the pitch for 2 more.
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We must sign/loan a striker or improve the service to Watkins.
Depends on what you think the problem is.
Every where else can wait until the summer.
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We need another option at RB, as we do at LB. Hopefully, Garcia can come back and kick-on, I really liked him before his injury.
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All I want for Christmas is a winger/striker like Rashy. So I'm slightly more demanding than Mariah.
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Bring Rashy home…
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David Moller Wolfe being linked from Wolves in the bbc gossip page.
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David Moller Wolfe being linked from Wolves in the bbc gossip page.
Footy insider, so 99.9% sure it’ll be bollocks.
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Left back? Probably about the last position we need.
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I don’t think Wolves have anyone left worth taking. They’ve been completely stripped of anything any good over the last few years. Hence 2 points all season.
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Surely we have some heart, we can’t take Wolfe from Wolves.
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We need another option at RB, as we do at LB. Hopefully, Garcia can come back and kick-on, I really liked him before his injury.
We need 3 first-team ready left-backs?
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I could see Wolfe at 23 being considered as Digne's replacement. However how good is he in the Prem and why would we want him in Jan with a limited spend and more important areas to address?
But I wouldn't rule him out just because he is at the Wolves at the moment. We saw ourselves 10 years ago that young Europeans dropped into a team who had given up across the board from owners down, is not the best time to judge them.
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Maybe trade out Malen and replace him with a more genuine challenger for Watkins?
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I could see Wolfe at 23 being considered as Digne's replacement. However how good is he in the Prem and why would we want him in Jan with a limited spend and more important areas to address?
But I wouldn't rule him out just because he is at the Wolves at the moment. We saw ourselves 10 years ago that young Europeans dropped into a team who had given up across the board from owners down, is not the best time to judge them.
We will need to replace Digne pretty soon so maybe go for him in the summer, to keep the Wolfe from the door.
Ok, ok, its early and I'm hungover.
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We need another option at RB, as we do at LB. Hopefully, Garcia can come back and kick-on, I really liked him before his injury.
We need 3 first-team ready left-backs?
Another option at RB like we have options at LB, just to clear that up. But you may be on to something, a bid for Cucurella in Jan? Ahem.
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We need another option at RB, as we do at LB. Hopefully, Garcia can come back and kick-on, I really liked him before his injury.
We need 3 first-team ready left-backs?
Another option at RB like we have options at LB, just to clear that up. But you may be on to something, a bid for Cucurella in Jan? Ahem.
Ah I see. Soz.
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Maybe trade out Malen and replace him with a more genuine challenger for Watkins?
No way i would keep malen all day. A good squad player to have
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Maybe trade out Malen and replace him with a more genuine challenger for Watkins?
No way i would keep malen all day. A good squad player to have
He's not exactly on squad player wages. He is a useful option to have but poor leading the line by himself.
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Yup. although Malens had a very effective season, I'd reckon his wage to minutes on pitch ratio will count against him whenever we feel a financial squeeze.
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Malen’s goals per ratio though have been priceless, we’d be mad to replace him. He’s a brilliant alternative option or great when up alongside someone. Surely now we’re up with the big boys, we want to keep different options but look for an upgrade on Ollie’s role?
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Maybe trade out Malen and replace him with a more genuine challenger for Watkins?
No way i would keep malen all day. A good squad player to have
He's not exactly on squad player wages. He is a useful option to have but poor leading the line by himself.
I would rather cash in on buendia while his forms good as we can get a higher fee. Ithink malen offers us something different
My other plan is just send sancho back as he has been much worse and more wasted wages
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Hang on, Wolves have a guy called Wolfe? And they're still as scary as David Bowie in a clown suit.
Wolfgang Wolf managing Wolfsburg for five years either side of the millennium remains without equal in footballing nominative determinism. Unless Dave can think of a better example...p
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Hopefully those in charge of recruitment can do the absolute max to help Unai and the squad. We are in an amazing position and the positivity a couple of key signings or loans could be crucial in maintaining our top 4 status and a push for the Europa League.
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Hopefully those in charge of recruitment can do the absolute max to help Unai and the squad. We are in an amazing position and the positivity a couple of key signings or loans could be crucial in maintaining our top 4 status and a push for the Europa League.
If we could get close to the impact we got from Asensio and Rashford we could actually win the league
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Hopefully those in charge of recruitment can do the absolute max to help Unai and the squad. We are in an amazing position and the positivity a couple of key signings or loans could be crucial in maintaining our top 4 status and a push for the Europa League.
If we could get close to the impact we got from Asensio and Rashford we could actually win the league
He speaketh the truth.
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I agree that it might be a good time to cash in on Malen, whilst his stock is reasonably high.
Weirdly* watkin’s form makes this a requirement because we need an alternative yet someone needs to be sacrificed to create the room in the squad and headroom in the wages.
*I wouldn’t sell Watkins as the team has been shaped around his energy upfront which doesn’t appear to be what Malen offers.
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Can we ring a loan player in in the Jan window or are we already full up with them
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Can we ring a loan player in in the Jan window or are we already full up with them
We need to return someone if we want a domestic player, we're fine if we can find an abroad one.
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Hopefully those in charge of recruitment can do the absolute max to help Unai and the squad. We are in an amazing position and the positivity a couple of key signings or loans could be crucial in maintaining our top 4 status and a push for the Europa League.
If we could get close to the impact we got from Asensio and Rashford we could actually win the league
He speaketh the truth.
I wonder what the chances are of getting Asensio on loan from Fenerbahce? He's doing well there, but it's not like Turkish teams don't have form for signing players then letting them go again. He knows Unai and wouldn't need an acclimatisation period. We already know we couldn't afford his wages as a permanent signing, but maybe it's easier to account for as a loan than a permanent signing?
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Hopefully those in charge of recruitment can do the absolute max to help Unai and the squad. We are in an amazing position and the positivity a couple of key signings or loans could be crucial in maintaining our top 4 status and a push for the Europa League.
If we could get close to the impact we got from Asensio and Rashford we could actually win the league
He speaketh the truth.
I wonder what the chances are of getting Asensio on loan from Fenerbahce? He's doing well there, but it's not like Turkish teams don't have form for signing players then letting them go again. He knows Unai and wouldn't need an acclimatisation period. We already know we couldn't afford his wages as a permanent signing, but maybe it's easier to account for as a loan than a permanent signing?
If so, can he bring that mad bastard back with him as well?
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Maybe trade out Malen and replace him with a more genuine challenger for Watkins?
It's the season to be jolly not silly.
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I am on the page with bring Jhon boy back.
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Yes
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Vinnie any news on Forwards before we get bring back Jhon Boy Back Requests !!
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I'm baffled at the suggestion that selling Malen is a good idea.
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I'm baffled at the suggestion that selling Malen is a good idea.
Yep we also need a squad
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Malen’s goals per ratio though have been priceless, we’d be mad to replace him. He’s a brilliant alternative option or great when up alongside someone. Surely now we’re up with the big boys, we want to keep different options but look for an upgrade on Ollie’s role?
Agreed, at least regarding Malen. He has the best minutes/goal stats at the club other than Ross Barkley (121 minutes/1 goal), even better than Buendia (557 minutes/4 goals) with four goals from 541 minutes despite only 4 starts. He's also managed 3 goals in the Europa League. Plus, in response to Dante, he runs around a lot just like Watkins. The only difference I see other than the difference in goals scored between the two is Malen isn't a natural with his back to goal, something that Watkins is generally better at.
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I'm baffled at the suggestion that selling Malen is a good idea.
Yep we also need a squad
I’m guessing it’s on the proviso that another attacking player is signed and selling near his ceiling price.
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No to Duran. He only scored goals from outside the box.
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Re Asensio, are two loan moves in the same season allowed? I guess he didn't play for PSG whereas Harvey Elliott did for Liverpool hence him being fucked.
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Can we ring a loan player in in the Jan window or are we already full up with them
We need to return someone if we want a domestic player, we're fine if we can find an abroad one.
Ok thanks
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Re Asensio, are two loan moves in the same season allowed? I guess he didn't play for PSG whereas Harvey Elliott did for Liverpool hence him being fucked.
He's not on loan in Turkey, they signed him.
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Do we really have scope for these big signings given the financial restrictions?
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Thought about this long and hard. We should just go get Harry Kane. Scored 60 goals for club and country in 2025. Have Nas lash out a fraction of his billions on a league winning forward. Job done. Map out the parade route around the city.
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Thought about this long and hard. We should just go get Harry Kane. Scored 60 goals for club and country in 2025. Have Nas lash out a fraction of his billions on a league winning forward. Job done. Map out the parade route around the city.
I would be on board with this cunning plan
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Would it encompass Sherlock Street?
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No. He wouldn’t do all the excellent work Ollie does away from the pitch.
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No. He wouldn’t do all the excellent work Ollie does away from the pitch.
We should have a look at that Greta Thunberg, only 22 as well.
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Kane? You could have prime Haaland in the team, but without service even he would struggle. The person who passed the most to Ollie yesterday was Martinez and even his distribution was wayward, especially 1st half. Tielemans was anonymous and even his cross for the second goal was poor until Ollie made something of it.
Rogers is on fire atm, so you can't blame him for taking everything on because it's likely to end up in the back of the net.
Any incomings in Jan are going to have to be well judged, especially because of how well placed we are. We don't want another Cascarino situation.
Our team is a well knit group of honest players, who appear highly supportive of each other, whatever the form of individuals. Unai won't want to unsettle this.
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No. He wouldn’t do all the excellent work Ollie does away from the pitch.
Indeed, this needs to be appreciated. In same vein I have pressed upon Lady Olaftab that she should recognise all the good work I do outside the bedroom.
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Our team is a well knit group of honest players, who appear highly supportive of each other, whatever the form of individuals. Unai won't want to unsettle this.
Not sure it will factor into Emery's thinking. Think it was five players we brought in last January with two of them not even making the CL squad. He let Danny Ings go in his first transfer window when he was our top scorer at the time. If there's a deal to be done then history suggests the club won't think twice.
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No. He wouldn’t do all the excellent work Ollie does away from the pitch.
Indeed, this needs to be appreciated. In same vein I have pressed upon Lady Olaftab that she should recognise all the good work I do outside the bedroom.
She is lucky to have you.
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Can we bring in players purely for the premier league and not include them in the europa squad?
Thus giving us more wiggle room?
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Like Donny? Sure, who do you fancy?
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More talk on the BBC gossip page about Johnson as a possible January target.
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From Clubcall? 0898121148
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There was something in yesterday’s BBC gossip roundup linking us to Barcelona’s Ter Stegan. Not sure why we’d need a keeper as can’t see Martinez moving till the summer.
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There was something in yesterday’s BBC gossip roundup linking us to Barcelona’s Ter Stegan. Not sure why we’d need a keeper as can’t see Martinez moving till the summer.
How have Chevalier and Garcia got on at PSG/Barca? have they settled or could we revert to the 2024/25 plan this summer?
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From Clubcall? 0898121148
one of the few numbers I still remember
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There was something in yesterday’s BBC gossip roundup linking us to Barcelona’s Ter Stegan. Not sure why we’d need a keeper as can’t see Martinez moving till the summer.
How have Chevalier and Garcia got on at PSG/Barca? have they settled or could we revert to the 2024/25 plan this summer?
I think they’ve both been pretty steady, although Garcia has only recently returned from injury after been out for around a month. It’s unlikely they’d be available.
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There was something in yesterday’s BBC gossip roundup linking us to Barcelona’s Ter Stegan. Not sure why we’d need a keeper as can’t see Martinez moving till the summer.
How have Chevalier and Garcia got on at PSG/Barca? have they settled or could we revert to the 2024/25 plan this summer?
I think they’ve both been pretty steady, although Garcia has only recently returned from injury after been out for around a month. It’s unlikely they’d be available.
I saw an instagram clip which implied that Chevalier wasn’t working out and he’d been dropped for a Russian (?) keeper.
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Chevalier has been injured, not specifically dropped.
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Can’t say for certain but likely they were just rotating the squad. The Russian played in goal against Flamengo and apparently saved 4 penalties in the shootout. A different reserve keeper played in the French cup at the weekend and Chervalier and the other keeper were on the bench. Seems like two goalies on the bench is all the rage!
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There was something in yesterday’s BBC gossip roundup linking us to Barcelona’s Ter Stegan. Not sure why we’d need a keeper as can’t see Martinez moving till the summer.
How have Chevalier and Garcia got on at PSG/Barca? have they settled or could we revert to the 2024/25 plan this summer?
Not well for Chevalier at PSG. Locals not too keen on his decision making, and he has made a number of gaffes.
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Jarrod Bowen all day. Just what we need, a wide attacking player who is not lightweight and scores goals. Just gone 29 but a 3.5 year contract would be fine. England International. Think he's a Villa fan?
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He is very wide.
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There was something in yesterday’s BBC gossip roundup linking us to Barcelona’s Ter Stegan. Not sure why we’d need a keeper as can’t see Martinez moving till the summer.
How have Chevalier and Garcia got on at PSG/Barca? have they settled or could we revert to the 2024/25 plan this summer?
I think they’ve both been pretty steady, although Garcia has only recently returned from injury after been out for around a month. It’s unlikely they’d be available.
Unless this season drops off a cliff, is there anything to suggest he'll even be leaving in the summer?
The one obvious destination for him decided to buy someone else instead.
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Can’t say for certain but likely they were just rotating the squad. The Russian played in goal against Flamengo and apparently saved 4 penalties in the shootout. A different reserve keeper played in the French cup at the weekend and Chervalier and the other keeper were on the bench. Seems like two goalies on the bench is all the rage!
Deffo not going well for Chevalier.
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It will be interesting to see how much Arse, City, Chelsea and Liverpool spend in Jan having already gone mad in the Summer. Villa will be left window shopping. There is only so much that Unai can get from this squad before the £££ start to make the difference...
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Can’t say for certain but likely they were just rotating the squad. The Russian played in goal against Flamengo and apparently saved 4 penalties in the shootout. A different reserve keeper played in the French cup at the weekend and Chervalier and the other keeper were on the bench. Seems like two goalies on the bench is all the rage!
Deffo not going well for Chevalier.
I’ll bow to you’re superior knowledge, he’s probably got the more difficult task of replacing Donnerumma.
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Can’t say for certain but likely they were just rotating the squad. The Russian played in goal against Flamengo and apparently saved 4 penalties in the shootout. A different reserve keeper played in the French cup at the weekend and Chervalier and the other keeper were on the bench. Seems like two goalies on the bench is all the rage!
Deffo not going well for Chevalier.
I’ll bow to you’re superior knowledge, he’s probably got the more difficult task of replacing Donnerumma.
A lovely kebab for every believer.
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There was something in yesterday’s BBC gossip roundup linking us to Barcelona’s Ter Stegan. Not sure why we’d need a keeper as can’t see Martinez moving till the summer.
How have Chevalier and Garcia got on at PSG/Barca? have they settled or could we revert to the 2024/25 plan this summer?
I think they’ve both been pretty steady, although Garcia has only recently returned from injury after been out for around a month. It’s unlikely they’d be available.
Unless this season drops off a cliff, is there anything to suggest he'll even be leaving in the summer?
The one obvious destination for him decided to buy someone else instead.
Is the suggestion that Martinez could go to PSG? Because I'm not exactly sure he'd be all that welcome in Paris.
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There was something in yesterday’s BBC gossip roundup linking us to Barcelona’s Ter Stegan. Not sure why we’d need a keeper as can’t see Martinez moving till the summer.
How have Chevalier and Garcia got on at PSG/Barca? have they settled or could we revert to the 2024/25 plan this summer?
I think they’ve both been pretty steady, although Garcia has only recently returned from injury after been out for around a month. It’s unlikely they’d be available.
Unless this season drops off a cliff, is there anything to suggest he'll even be leaving in the summer?
The one obvious destination for him decided to buy someone else instead.
Is the suggestion that Martinez could go to PSG? Because I'm not exactly sure he'd be all that welcome in Paris.
Certainly not my suggestion, simply that Man Utd had the choice of him or Lammens in the summer and picked Lammens.
So there's no real reason they'd buy Emi next summer when they clearly had the opportunity to last summer and chose not to.
Take Man Utd out the equation and there aren't many other destinations unless he wants to hit the desert.
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Jarrod Bowen all day. Just what we need, a wide attacking player who is not lightweight and scores goals. Just gone 29 but a 3.5 year contract would be fine. England International. Think he's a Villa fan?
Assuming West Ham get relegated, I’d try and take him on loan until they come back up. Suits all parties but without the risk of spending £50m (?) on a player on his way down.
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Could we swap him for Ollie?
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I’d take Bowen all day long, but it’s a bit arrogant to think we can just snap up a player like that out on loan.
There will be a queue a mile long when he becomes available.
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He's a good player but signing him would be very John Gregory.
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He's a good player but signing him would be very John Gregory.
Exactly this.
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If West Ham go down they'll take a massive financial hit. No way would they be considering loaning their most valuable asset who is only going to decrease in value as he gets older.
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I’d put a bid in for Maguire.
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He's got a great head for high balls.
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He's a good player but signing him would be very John Gregory.
Exactly this.
Yeah agree completely. I’m hoping with our new Director of football we’re going to get so savvy shopping
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Jarrod Bowen all day. Just what we need, a wide attacking player who is not lightweight and scores goals. Just gone 29 but a 3.5 year contract would be fine. England International. Think he's a Villa fan?
Assuming West Ham get relegated, I’d try and take him on loan until they come back up. Suits all parties but without the risk of spending £50m (?) on a player on his way down.
his dad is the Villa fan.
be great in this villa side now to be fair.
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Bowen? I’m not sure if he’s past his best. He’s certainly not looking great and not beating his man like he used to. It might be the system, the poor quality around him, or like our Ollie, a confidence thing.
I wouldn’t gamble on him now though.
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A Bowen transfer doesn't make sense for January. It would mean West Ham have given up, and they're not quite dead and buried yet; and what it would cost for us to get him wouldn't make sense for a player who is nearly 30 years old - even in the summer window.
He'd be great for the team, but not a transfer that makes much sense financially or age-profile wise.
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Not likely a popular view but I’d take a punt on Toney on loan. Anywhere near his brentford form and we’d have a serious striker there. Great in the air, penalties and a killer in front of goal.
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Not for me, we seem to have a great team spirit and he's a dickhead.
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Not likely a popular view but I’d take a punt on Toney on loan. Anywhere near his brentford form and we’d have a serious striker there. Great in the air, penalties and a killer in front of goal.
Toney isn't coming back to the UK anytime soon. The amount of tax he would have to pay if he did means it's not going to happen.
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Oscar Bobb and Marmoush available shortly.
Marmoush would be quality for us
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Get Elmo to have a word.
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I’d take Bowen all day long, but it’s a bit arrogant to think we can just snap up a player like that out on loan.
There will be a queue a mile long when he becomes available.
There will be I’m sure. I don’t think it is arrogant though; West Ham will not want to sell their talisman and I cannot see the player agitating for a move either. We help them out by paying his wages and he gets top level football without destroying his relationship with the fans. When they get promoted he returns.
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Oscar Bobb and Marmoush available shortly.
Marmoush would be quality for us
marmoush and Rogers .. angel delight there
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Marmoush would be quality for us
Would be good for a song too.
I see a little silhouetto of a man,
Omar Marmoush, Omar Marmoush, will you do the Fandango?
His thunderbolts are lightning, very, very frightening....
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Oscar Bobb and Marmoush available shortly.
Marmoush would be quality for us
Would they want to sell to a rival.
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Why would Marmoush be available?
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Guess because the press are saving Semenyo wants to go to Man City there will be a forward available to go out
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I only want Marmoush if he can do the Mamushka.
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Guess because the press are saving Semenyo wants to go to Man City there will be a forward available to go out
Don’t they play on opposite sides? Oscar Bobb more likely to be bumped by a Semenyo signing (I suppose they also need to pretend to balance the books).
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I’d take Bowen all day long, but it’s a bit arrogant to think we can just snap up a player like that out on loan.
There will be a queue a mile long when he becomes available.
There will be I’m sure. I don’t think it is arrogant though; West Ham will not want to sell their talisman and I cannot see the player agitating for a move either. We help them out by paying his wages and he gets top level football without destroying his relationship with the fans. When they get promoted he returns.
What are you smoking?
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Marmoush has only been at city for 5 minutes. They won’t be selling him to us anytime soon unless it’s money + Rogers and that wouldn’t happen in January.
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I’d take Bowen all day long, but it’s a bit arrogant to think we can just snap up a player like that out on loan.
There will be a queue a mile long when he becomes available.
There will be I’m sure. I don’t think it is arrogant though; West Ham will not want to sell their talisman and I cannot see the player agitating for a move either. We help them out by paying his wages and he gets top level football without destroying his relationship with the fans. When they get promoted he returns.
What are you smoking?
Okay, I’ll shut up then.
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Perhaps Savinho or Oscar Bobb might be available - can see Bobb’s versatility being of appeal and we might have been linked with him before?
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I only want Marmoush if he can do the Mamushka.
She sent him scented letters And he received them with a strange delight
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Can’t say for certain but likely they were just rotating the squad. The Russian played in goal against Flamengo and apparently saved 4 penalties in the shootout. A different reserve keeper played in the French cup at the weekend and Chervalier and the other keeper were on the bench. Seems like two goalies on the bench is all the rage!
It's more problematic than this - Zabarnyi (the CB) is Ukrainian, and doesn't really want to have anything to do with Safonov which makes communication in defence a little tricky... so they'll keep playing Chevalier, or play Safonov and drop Zabarnyi.
It's the sort of squad politics that is refreshingly absent from Villa at the moment.
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Marmoush has only been at city for 5 minutes. They won’t be selling him to us anytime soon unless it’s money + Rogers and that wouldn’t happen in January.
Barely played this season though - barely an hour on the pitch in the league since the start of September and seems to be sixth choice attacker, even without Semenyo.
Feels a bit like they've decided they're now getting what he was supposed to give them from Cherkhi.
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Perhaps Savinho or Oscar Bobb might be available - can see Bobb’s versatility being of appeal and we might have been linked with him before?
Oscar Bobb is horseshit. And Savinho hasn't looked all that since they laundered him through their group clubs to get him into C115. Maybe Pep should try coaching the toys he's got into a better team rather than just buying shiny new ones to stockpile and ensure the game stays rigged in his favour.
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Perhaps Savinho or Oscar Bobb might be available - can see Bobb’s versatility being of appeal and we might have been linked with him before?
Oscar Bobb is horseshit. And Savinho hasn't looked all that since they laundered him through their group clubs to get him into C115. Maybe Pep should try coaching the toys he's got into a better team than just buying shiny new ones to stockpile and ensure the game stays rigged in his favour.
There was a bit of tattle about Man Utd wanting a new left sided player as they're not convinced by Dorgu who they bought a year ago.
It used to annoy me but now I just see it as the way we will beat all of them, with their profligacy and endless search for quick fixes.
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Was surprised how good Dorgu looked against us. Strong as an ox with a decent touch.
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I wish I was a footballer and Guardiola tried whispering in my ear on the pitch after a game. I'd love to tell him to fuck off.
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Was surprised how good Dorgu looked against us. Strong as an ox with a decent touch.
Exactly, he may have flaws but he's 21-22, strong, quick and a full international, loads to work with to improve him but no, let's go and buy somebody else has done that with instead.
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Was surprised how good Dorgu looked against us. Strong as an ox with a decent touch.
Agreed and by all accounts they are going to sack him off soon and get someone else in. Mad
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I’d take Bowen all day long, but it’s a bit arrogant to think we can just snap up a player like that out on loan.
There will be a queue a mile long when he becomes available.
I think Bowen would be a good signing for us at this point. Would be able to go straight into the side and would offer an extra attacking threat.
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Marmoush has only been at city for 5 minutes. They won’t be selling him to us anytime soon unless it’s money + Rogers and that wouldn’t happen in January.
Barely played this season though - barely an hour on the pitch in the league since the start of September and seems to be sixth choice attacker, even without Semenyo.
Feels a bit like they've decided they're now getting what he was supposed to give them from Cherkhi.
Cherki looks a great player but so did Marmoush when he first arrived. He hasn’t necessarily looked lacking in any area but then I don’t follow the progress of Man City signings in any great detail. I thought his lack of game time is purely down to Haaland being #1 and always available. Of course, that being the case he will start. Marmoush is a different sort of striker compared to Haaland. Not sure where the 6th choice you mention comes from but I suppose if the team is set up for Haaland then he will be down the pecking order.
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Marmoush has only been at city for 5 minutes. They won’t be selling him to us anytime soon unless it’s money + Rogers and that wouldn’t happen in January.
Barely played this season though - barely an hour on the pitch in the league since the start of September and seems to be sixth choice attacker, even without Semenyo.
Feels a bit like they've decided they're now getting what he was supposed to give them from Cherkhi.
Cherki looks a great player but so did Marmoush when he first arrived. He hasn’t necessarily looked lacking in any area but then I don’t follow the progress of Man City signings in any great detail. I thought his lack of game time is purely down to Haaland being #1 and always available. Of course, that being the case he will start. Marmoush is a different sort of striker compared to Haaland. Not sure where the 6th choice you mention comes from but I suppose if the team is set up for Haaland then he will be down the pecking order.
That there are five attackers who play ahead of him - Haaland, Foden, Cherkhi, Savinho, Bobb and Doku have all had more time on the pitch than him.
Last season he was playing like Alvarez had before him, behind Haaland, a bit like Rogers does for us. Now he's been cut out in favour of Doku (who Marmoush was playing ahead of last season) and Cherkhi.
So it's possible that he reintegrates himself, but them trying to get their money back feels more likely at the moment.
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I’d take Bowen all day long, but it’s a bit arrogant to think we can just snap up a player like that out on loan.
There will be a queue a mile long when he becomes available.
I think Bowen would be a good signing for us at this point. Would be able to go straight into the side and would offer an extra attacking threat.
He would be but he would face some major issues trying to leave because his family connections, then there is the problem that he is probably their best chance of staying up, not to mention the fee to get him.
So , simply no chance.
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How much do we have to spend in January, enough to sign former Sporting right winger, Abdul Fatawu from Leicester?
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How much do we have to spend in January, enough to sign former Sporting right winger, Abdul Fatawu from Leicester?
Fat who?
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How much do we have to spend in January, enough to sign former Sporting right winger, Abdul Fatawu from Leicester?
great player
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Based on Tanswell’s Athletic article today I wouldn’t expect much
Summary is we want a number 9 but won’t be able to sign anyone from a top European league in January
Personally, I’m concerned about the wide position. As we get deeper in to Europe and the battle for top 4 I don’t want to be relying on just Sancho and Guessand.
I’d be tempted to give Bailey another go but he’s been poor at Roma
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So you’d give a player who was below par for us and declined since “another go”?
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Bailey has shown he can be a genuine attacking threat and one of the best players in the league in fairly recent history.
I don't think we'll ever say that about Guessand, whatever other virtues he may or may not have.
If Buendia can bounce back in the manner he has, it's not beyond Bailey at his age to do similar.
But don't think it's a route we'll pursue. personally. I assume we will have agreed a fairly substantial loan fee for the year with Roma. And as Bailey would be one of our highest earners after the deal he agreed during his purple patch in winter 2023/24, we can't have him sitting on the bench or in the stands contributing nowt.
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Bailey has shown he can be a genuine attacking threat and one of the best players in the league in fairly recent history.
I don't think we'll ever say that about Guessand, whatever other virtues he may or may not have.
If Buendia can bounce back in the manner he has, it's not beyond Bailey at his age to do similar.
But don't think it's a route we'll pursue. personally. I assume we will have agreed a fairly substantial loan fee for the year with Roma. And as Bailey would be one of our highest earners after the deal he agreed during his purple patch in winter 2023/24, we can't have him sitting on the bench or in the stands contributing nowt.
According to the Love of Paul McGrath podcast, there is a loan fee (and wages covered obvs) plus an agreement to pay his amortisation cost for the year. Having listened only once and that being quite a while ago now, I can’t vouch for his source.
That sounds quite prohibitive about a return, ie. it would cost us a fair bit, but I suppose anything can be renegotiated.
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How much do we have to spend in January, enough to sign former Sporting right winger, Abdul Fatawu from Leicester?
Fat who?
The most fouled player in the Championship, he had an ACL injury last season so missed half a season. He's only 21 but such a massive talent. Not sure if Leicester would want to sell him now whilst they're still in with a chance of the play-offs but I'd love to see such a talent on our right wing.
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Bailey has shown he can be a genuine attacking threat and one of the best players in the league in fairly recent history.
I don't think we'll ever say that about Guessand, whatever other virtues he may or may not have.
Ever? With respect that's load of bollocks. Most players especially attackers coming to PL from top European Leagues struggle for a season or so.
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Just had a look at players whose contracts are expiring in the summer (and therefore may be available for a lower fee in January) on Transfermarkt.
Forwards:
https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/transfers/endendevertraege/statistik?plus=0&jahr=2026&ausrichtung=Sturm&spielerposition_id=alle&altersklasse=alle&land_id=0&yt0=Show
I don't think we'd be in for the big strikers in there (Gnabry, Lewandowski, Vlahovic); but noticed Harry Wilson in there. Didn't realise he was 28, but would be a great technical player to add to the squad.
Some interesting names further down the list - Memphis Depay is only 31 but playing in Brazil for some reason.
Looking at defenders, Oscar Mingueza (previously linked with us) is also out of contract in the summer.
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Even though I’ve become a big Matty Cash fan this season, I’d still love us to sign Mingueza. That would mirror our left-back strength and maybe give us a bit of cover for Konsa. Also, I was thinking Wilson would be a good signing when I heard some commentator mention his contract situation a while ago. Really good cover for SJM if we’re not after an out-and-out winger.
Depay, I’m not convinced but I could be won over.
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Depay is a decent player.
Although his name always reminds me of USSoccerguy on twitter, with Memphis The Pie.
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I'm not convinced he's the winningest trade we could make.
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Bailey has shown he can be a genuine attacking threat and one of the best players in the league in fairly recent history.
I don't think we'll ever say that about Guessand, whatever other virtues he may or may not have.
Ever? With respect that's load of bollocks. Most players especially attackers coming to PL from top European Leagues struggle for a season or so.
Cheers. Love your work always.
Happy to have a sportman's (or £) bet that the Guessmeister won't have 10 goals and 10 assists between now and the end of 2026/27 (if he even stays that long) for those who truly believe they've seen enough to suggest it's only a matter of time before he tears it up in C&B. There's blind loyalty and then there is just delusional behaviour.
Even on Bailey's debut against Watford away (in an otherwise average display) laid on an assist and looked vaguely like a footballer at times. He was MOTM a few weeks later v Everton at home before disappearing for a while due to a combination of injury and indifferent form. So the signs were there from the outset.
Soon after Unai took over, there was a definite improvement in his impact on games and consistency but he was still patchy. He just needed that consistent run of form to prove to himself as much as his doubters that the PL was the best place for him.
With Guessand consistency isn't really a worry. Misplacing simple passes, running the ball out of play and trying to knock the ball past his marker schoolyard-style and losing a 60/40 race have been consistent features of his time with us so far. Not being consistent and bucking that trend would be a step forward for him.
Though being generous, with a defensive forward :/ It's perhaps difficult to benchmark his effectiveness against the usual measure attacking players are subjected to.
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Guessand should be judged against his forebear, the half-useless Emile Heskey.
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Happy to have a sportman's (or £) bet that the Guessmeister won't have 10 goals and 10 assists between now and the end of 2026/27
Hmm, I think there's a chance he gets these in 18 months - maybe 25% (mostly on Emery's track record, rather than what we've seen of Guessand).
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Just had a look at players whose contracts are expiring in the summer (and therefore may be available for a lower fee in January) on Transfermarkt.
Forwards:
https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/transfers/endendevertraege/statistik?plus=0&jahr=2026&ausrichtung=Sturm&spielerposition_id=alle&altersklasse=alle&land_id=0&yt0=Show
I don't think we'd be in for the big strikers in there (Gnabry, Lewandowski, Vlahovic); but noticed Harry Wilson in there. Didn't realise he was 28, but would be a great technical player to add to the squad.
Only forward on that list who sparks my interest is our good friend El Kaabi. I’m not remotely concerned that he’s the same age as Kane, because his career record is one goal every 1.72 games. Ridiculous.
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The fact that we are even discussing bringing Bailey back shows how limited our options are in this window.
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Guessand will never score 10 goals for us. I haven't wrote him off, he's written himself off being shit. He'll be replaced in the Summer.
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He’s scored two already in quite limited circumstance based on him playing a defensive role. That’s two more than Sancho.
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He's not 'shit'. You apparently have written him off. And he keeps getting picked by our manager, in games we are winning , and is part of our great run.
He might not be what you want him to be, but he's clearly doing a job for the team.
I think we need to remember that Emery has built a team, of players with the right attitude, who work hard for each other and who don't cost the earth.
We're not Liverpool, ManU, ManC or Chelsea who can seemingly chuck half a billion quid in fees at a window; we're on an extremely tight budget and we're not buying the very best individuals out there but we are developing a team.
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Based on my knowledge of footballers I will Emery do the coaching of our players
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He's not 'shit'. You apparently have written him off. And he keeps getting picked by our manager, in games we are winning , and is part of our great run.
He might not be what you want him to be, but he's clearly doing a job for the team.
I think we need to remember that Emery has built a team, of players with the right attitude, who work hard for each other and who don't cost the earth.
We're not Liverpool, ManU, ManC or Chelsea who can seemingly chuck half a billion quid in fees at a window; we're on an extremely tight budget and we're not buying the very best individuals out there but we are developing a team.
Be that as it may but I’m still glad he’s in Morocco and not at Stamford Bridge
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I'd rather we have as strong a squad as possible and all our players available. I'm sure Unai would too.
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Divok Origi-gi-gi-gi is a free agent. We desperate?
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Divok Origi-gi-gi-gi is a free agent. We desperate?
No.
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was he at Forest for a bit ( but then wasn’t everyone)
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Divok Origi-gi-gi-gi is a free agent. We desperate?
If we're going for free Belgian strikers, I'd rather have Benteke back.
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Yeah, ffs we're going for the title, not trying to hit the 10 point mark like the neutered wolves down the road.
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Divok Origi-gi-gi-gi is a free agent. We desperate?
I saw that, and then read that he hasn’t played for Milan for over 600 days, which is probably a bad sign. That and the fact that he’s scored 2 goals in club football since leaving Liverpool in 2022.
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It's a gonzo suggestion at best. Would much rather bring our Keinan home, he's tearing it up. Maybe we have a buy-back for £1.5m...
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Are we that strapped for cash that our best option is Keinan - hopefully we will be able to get far better on loan for a few months
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Actually think Keinan would be a good bench option for quite a few PL teams, not necessarily us but those sides deploying the long throw he’d be useful as a physical option for last 15/20 mins of games
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I think we should base our choices on ability to improve the team and value rather than having player for us before, it’s irrelevant isn’t it?
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We must strengthen this window however we do it.
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I think we need to be smart and build for the future. We have enough to qualify for the Champions League and the title ain't happening. Absolutely perfect time to get some well sourced quality in with six months to get them ready.
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Can I have a striker, please Bob?
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Alysson should be in pretty quickly
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We could really do with someone ready cooked, so to speak, but in Unai we must trust.
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Can I have a striker, please Bob?
Big old lottery isn’t it - for every Woltemade / Eketike who has done ok there is a Sesko, Gyokores, Barry, Delap, Isak, Solanke who don’t hit ground running.
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Even Woltemade hasn't been that good yet.
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Even Woltemade hasn't been that good yet.
I don’t know about that. His header in the Sunderland game was a peach
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who's on our wish list?
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The window is officially open, lads! Enjoy the winter draught from your armchair.
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This guy, Ricardo Pepi (https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/ricardo-pepi/profil/spieler/627207), looks a decent shout as 2nd / back-up striker. Fulham are currently in the throes of cutting a deal but perhaps we might step in to secure him ...
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Can I have a striker, please Bob?
Big old lottery isn’t it - for every Woltemade / Eketike who has done ok there is a Sesko, Gyokores, Barry, Delap, Isak, Solanke who don’t hit ground running.
It is and there have been plenty of strikers who have come to the Premier League for astronomical fees in recent years and completely flopped. I think rather than spending a ridiculous amount on one player, you're probably better off in having 2/3 options sharing the load and rotating them. Has worked well for us with Watkins and Duran and then Watkins and Rashford.
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Any hope of getting Duran back? He's crazy but at his best unstoppable.
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Any hope of getting Duran back? He's crazy but at his best unstoppable.
Doubt it.
Wages would be an issue now as well.
Fuck him.
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And he wasn’t a team player, it’s all about him.
Not an Emery player.
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Oscar Bobb on loan to replace Elliot would be a good one - but not sure City would let him go to us now.
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If we can repeat last Jan in terms of quality then we should finish top 4, and hopefully win the Europa.
Much easier said than done though, I cannot see a Rashford or Asensio coming in sadly.
Elliott will go back, possibly Bailey comes back to us?
Would love a loan for Diaby until end of the season
Plenty of names not playing at their respective clubs, Disasi,Sterling,Bobb,Savinho etc at Chelsea and City to loan in
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Sterling?
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Oscar Bobb on loan to replace Elliot would be a good one - but not sure City would let him go to us now.
Injury risk - steer clear, IMHO.
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Sterling?
Is that some sort of joke? - where even is he these days?
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Plenty of names not playing at their respective clubs, Disasi,Sterling,Bobb,Savinho etc at Chelsea and City to loan in
Disasi is at Roma. There's a reason these players you list are not playing ...
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Just saying who’s available, I doubt we will be buying many (if any) established and currently playing premier league quality players in this window.
Rashford wasn’t playing when we loaned him in, and he had a great impact for us…..
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And Disasi is still at Chelsea, unless he has signed for Roma today?
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Someone up and coming is Agyemang at Derby, quite gangly and has a bit of pace about him.
I think they paid about £7m for him, but looks in the Duran mould
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He's 25, he's not really up and coming.
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Didn’t realise that PWS, he looks a bit of a raw talent still not someone approaching their peak
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Maybe another raid on Boro for Hayden Hackney..
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And Disasi is still at Chelsea, unless he has signed for Roma today?
Sorry - you're right; Roma have expressed interest in him.
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Maybe another raid on Boro for Hayden Hackney..
According to my Boro mate, Everton have had a £25m offer for HH turned down flat.
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Loan Ake and offer Wolves £15M for Strand-Larsen.
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Maybe another raid on Boro for Hayden Hackney..
According to my Boro mate, Everton have had a £25m offer for HH turned down flat.
So Boro are not going to have their pockets picked again.