Adam2003

59 minutes ago, TRO said:

There was a little moment in that game, where he went on a short run along the bye line......and his quick feet, were on show, it was encouraging...he's got it alright.

I don't think he has lost confidence in himself, I think its more to do, where he should be, in the pattern of the team, he looks a bit unsure to me, where he should be.

I think he will settle in, and when he does, we will be saying " where has he come from".......Personally, I am ignoring him in the sense of expectancy, and just letting him find his feet.....the fee of 50 mill, is not down to him, and it shouldn't be aimed at him, thats the clubs responsibility.

I feel he will be ok, but it might not be as quick as we would like.

 

Agree 100%. First season is always about settling - I am treating the good things we have seen (excellent at times) as a bonus during his adaptation

1 hour ago, Tomaszk said:

Kamara majestic.

Interesting to see you say that - I’m his biggest fan but I thought he was off the pace today (as much as anyone can be in a 5-0 win!).

Overall I’m disappointed not to have scored 5 more to go ahead of Arsenal but let’s hope they get pumped by Liverpool

We need a righ… huh… ok a new backup goalkee… huh. Ok, they changed the narrative!

Impossible to think too much now when we might have CL or might miss Europe completely, but my guess is one or two new signings per window from here unless we are replacing big departures.

1 hour ago, allani said:

Based on the up front fees that we have paid - I'm not quite sure how we would have found guys that could have come in and changed (for the better) what is happening right now for the same money.  It's hard to know the exact structure of any of the deals as they've been "undisclosed" but I can't imagine we've paid more than £15-20m up front for all 4 players and wages wise for the season they probably all add up to below Digne's hourly rate.

And yet (this is not disagreeing with you) when I looked before, Rogers was the second most expensive signing in the country and Kosta was fourth! (Sure that’ll move around today). Low-spending window for everyone.

20 hours ago, Hank Scorpio said:

He needs to sack his agent.

His agent’s negotiated an £18m move to the PL as a teenager and a year later has Chelsea, West Ham and AC Milan bidding for him. He’s probably pretty happy with the job he’s doing!

18 hours ago, GlobalVillan said:

That's fine. And your absolute right to do so.

I just don't see a player there that will ever make the grade. Time will tell, but I think he is a big, clumsy, ill disciplined and terribly overrated player who will end up at either a bottom half La Liga club or back in the MLS.

You might be right, but at this point he’s been signed for £18m, Emery says he thinks he can be one of the best players in the world, other Premier League clubs have tried to sign him and he’s broken into a Colombia side that’s unbeaten in absolutely ages, all as he turns 20. So if he’s overrated he’s being overrated by a lot of good managers. And as I say you might be right, and they might be wrong - it happens!

2 hours ago, Tom13 said:

Giroud was very good in the PL for a number of years though.

He’s a funny one isn’t he. Won loads, France’s record top scorer, but in the PL I wouldn’t say he was ever even first choice at his (any of his) club. 

14 hours ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

It's his agent ain't it... Probably trying to manipulate for playing time

Glad to see Unai has rubbished this

His agent is obviously involved and will always be looking for moves/deals, I don’t think it’s “agent talk” - West Ham definitely put in a bid for one. We probably need to get used to people bidding for our players more!

4 hours ago, HanoiVillan said:

He ain't gonna start ahead of Nkunku, if he thinks he is he's delusional. 

We can all say this but the fact is you don’t make it as an elite athlete without an almost insane level of belief in your own ability.

Just now, Jas10 said:

To repeat myself again, if we had a better option than Dendoncker (who hasn’t impressed under Unai and was clearly not favoured) then that player would have played more…

if Tim was a better option, he would have played more or rather than Leander and he is still young and developing (and also not an actual DM according to many and how he played out on loan)… he has had injury trouble too so could be a bit more involved going forwards but…

I can’t comment too much on Tim but the financial realities of player dealings mean this isn’t always the case. We know that signing middling players blocks the path of potentially great youth - that’s always been the case. If you have Dendoncker as an asset with a relatively large transfer fee, wages etc, sometimes you have to play him with a view to moving him on even if he’s not in your plans - otherwise you end up with a bomb squad scenario. I think that pragmatism is a strength of Emery actually.

44 minutes ago, lexicon said:

Is this what you say down the pub when you compare yourself to Messi? 

Listen who knows what would have happened if Barcelona had taken a punt on me and loaded me full of growth hormones!

18 minutes ago, lexicon said:

There's a massive amount of ground between Mark Delaney and Gareth Bale 

Both Welsh full backs, but we didn’t get a chance to see if Delaney could start scoring overhead kicks in Champions League finals and play up front for Real Madrid because he stuck to his position at full back and did his job. So it’s just impossible to say if he might have been the best striker in the world or not unfortunately.

2 hours ago, useless said:

Kosta Nedeljković has gone on loan to FK Crvena zvezda (Red Star Belgrade)

Saw this one coming 

1 hour ago, paul514 said:

Mate it’s realism, an injury to any one of four players and we are screwed.

also 5th might not get CL this year it’s more precarious than many think

All comes down to the second point for me - I think we will finish 5th (comfortably, by a distance from 6th) so time to support all the English teams in Europe this season!

13 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

He left because he wanted the same wage as Digne.

Pff, good luck buddy! 

Yeah was told there was a cat’s chance in Hell and misheard apparently.

10 minutes ago, VillanousOne said:

Fair enough, not saying there hasn't been interest, just think us wanting to sell in the Jan window seems extremely unlikely. A loan maybe. Obviously only Unai and the club really know what their plans are.

To be clear I DON’T think we want to sell. I said the fact West Ham are actively bidding for him means he is unlikely to end up in the Championship, which had been suggested in the post I responded to.

2 minutes ago, VillanousOne said:

But that is most likely b*llocks

the gutter press have hooked onto this narrative he is unhappy and difficult and Emery didn't sign him and has issues with him, there maybe some truth, but more likely it's just the dirt sheets trying to create a story that isn't there.

It’d be a big shout for e.g. The Guardian to report today that West Ham had made an offer and we had knocked it back if they hadn’t actually done so. Especially given the journalist who wrote the piece is Jacob Steinberg who is as connected at West Ham as it gets.

He got to play with Finn Azaz this weekend so can’t see him wanting to move now 

2 hours ago, calcifer said:

2009 says hello wasn't we 7 points clear of Arsenal who were 5th. Finished that season 6th... 

I’m still bitter about Arsenal being allowed to sign Arshavin two days after the January window closed and him firing them to CL that season.

5 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

Maybe he can, but if the blokes a dick it isn’t going to be easy. Balotelli was going to be the best striker in the world at one point too. 

Pretty sure if (hypothetically) he’s a dick he won’t be the first 20 year old PL striker already playing for his country to need a bit of maturing/managing so he can achieve his potential. And to your initial point, I absolutely trust Emery to do that (if he sees that potential) rather than just bin him off.

1 hour ago, Delphinho123 said:

Funny isn’t it. Every single thread on this forum is ‘whatever Emery wants’, ‘in Emery trust’ and yet when it’s quite clearly obvious from quotes and reports that he isn’t a fan of Duran’s attitude, it’s ‘based on absolutely nothing’, and ‘there’s nothing going on with Duran’. 

Which one is it? Is it not absolutely 100% clear that the Duran thing isn’t working behind the scenes? Hence all the reports, the bids, the media reporting on him moving. 

Emery don’t like him. Therefore he can f*** off as far as I’m concerned. 

Emery said a week ago he thinks Duran can be one of the world’s top strikers so he is all good as far as I’m concerned

22 minutes ago, The Fun Factory said:

A season-long loan at a decent championship club would test his development

Given that West Ham and AC Milan have tried to sign him in the last fortnight, I don’t think he’ll be off to the Championship any time soon

1 hour ago, Pinebro said:

West Ham getting uncomfortably close

They’re closer to Wolves in the bottom half than to us!