Harvey Elliott (signed on loan)

[Villan82]

Harsh, maybe, but I would play one of our own youth players before I would play Elliot.

[TheToffnar]

I like him, he's relatively self assured with a decent eye for a progressive pass and get's into decent space, but I said on the day we signed him that 35m was a ridiculous overvaluation. Nothing he's done since that day has proved me wrong.

He's got no pace or physicality, fine, but he's not good enough technically to cover for those weaknesses either, so what does he offer?

[Sexual Ealing]

Yeah, he's quite rubbish.

[TheToffnar]

It's not even that he's rubbish, just way too expensive. It's absurd to me that the club thought that was a fair price, especially with such an insanely tight obligation clause.

[aj2k77]

£20m seems a fair valuation. Everything on top is just SKY6 hype tax.

[PeterWithe]

Harsh, maybe, but I would play one of our own youth players before I would play Elliot.

And it seems a bit odd that we didn't, and sent a feasible option on loan to WBA instead if playing him in this game.

I agree that Elliott doesn't offer any more than Buendia when we have the ball and perhaps a little less when we don't, but there is something about him I like from the brief glimpses I've seen. He seems to inject a little 'busyness' and pace into our forward play, he's a bit impatient to make something happen. So maybe he's not all that great but seeing him play answers some of the mild frustrations I have watching us at home at times.

[N'ZMAV]

I think Elliott is a good player - he's busy, and he looks forward - if he's not up to speed or rusty at the moment it's because we've dicked him about for months

[Bent Neilsens Screamer]

It's not even that he's rubbish, just way too expensive. It's absurd to me that the club thought that was a fair price, especially with such an insanely tight obligation clause.

Given the market his valuation isn’t that crazy imo. We spent somewhere in between £22m -£28m on Guessand, we spent £38m on Buendia however many years ago. Forest spent similar amounts on McAtee and Hutchinson, it’s the going rate.

[Dante Lavelli]

I was going to write that £35m is the going rate for an U21 player of the tournament, however having checked the previous winners, its not the illustrious list of superstars I’d imagined it would be:

2023 - Anthony Gordon - Jury still out?
2021 - Fabio Viera - MISS
2019 - Fabian Ruiz - HIT
2017 - Danny Onions Ceballos - MISS
2015 - William Carvalho - MISS
Tiago and Mata - HITS
Drenth, Berg, Huntelaar, Gilardino - MISSES

[PeterWithe]

Tom Collomose in the Mail reporting that we and Liverpool are now discussing the terms of the loan with a view to amending them as at present, it suits no party.

Which kind of begs the question of why has it taken so long as presumably, these discussions have nothing to do with the transfer window.

[Dave]

Harsh on Gilardino. Over 200 goals in 600 games across a twenty year career, winning the Champions League and World Cup.

That's not bad.

[PeterWithe]

Aye, Carvalho has also had a good career, Drenth and Huntlaar also played CL regularly, I think, I cant be arsed to look at the stats to prove it mind.

[Dante Lavelli]

“Miss” might be harsh but I don’t think they became the generational talents that they would have hoped to be (admittedly I had no idea Gilardino had won a World Cup).

[PaulWinch again]

I think it’s crazy to make any sort of judgement on him now - he’s essentially not played for 6 months, and I suspect that will not only have impacted him physically but his confidence will be low. The fact he managed 90 mins on Thursday and was useful enough is pretty remarkable in itself.

If we can sort a situation whereby he can play more for the remainder of the season I suspect it’d be a big help.

[Crown Hill]

Tom Collomose in the Mail reporting that we and Liverpool are now discussing the terms of the loan with a view to amending them as at present, it suits no party.

Which kind of begs the question of why has it taken so long as presumably, these discussions have nothing to do with the transfer window.

Not surprising. This was why i said it would be interesting to see if he was used against Salzburg and then Brentford.

Clearly some sort of gambit ahead of deadline day.

I guess its now completely up to Liverpool how they want to play this one with a CL rival.