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GREAT_BEARD_OF_ZEUS

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Everything posted by GREAT_BEARD_OF_ZEUS

  1. Karadona? I wish. I mean maybe there’s a small single digit percentage chance, but PSR does exist and so do many other clubs who would be before us in the queue. I think the best player we have a decent chance of signing is Nico Williams from Bilbao. We’d need to have CL football of course, but the fact he has a reasonable buyout clause means we could afford him and then I think the Basque link with Emery might just help swing it.
  2. Whilst I would normally have no desire to see West Ham go through either, we need them to so that the English teams coefficient rises. So it's cam on you Ammers, up the apples and pears and what not.
  3. This was always coming. It's not that dissimilar to the situation we had with Martin O'Neill in 2009... Just like back then, we simply don't have a good enough squad to sustain the levels we're capable of, across a 38+ game season. Not only that but we've had one of the worst years for injuries I can remember and as a result, the core players who've managed to stay injury free have been over-burdened, both physically and mentally. You look at total minutes played for mids / attacking players in the PL - we have Ollie (who is top!) Dougie and McGinn in the top 7. Add in Europe and the domestic cup games and it's no surprise that some are showing signs of burn out. When I saw us having to play Ajax twice and Spurs in the space of a week, I knew it would be a struggle. CSKA Moscow all over again - albeit we have a better manager this time around and I actually think we'll fare a lot better. Could we have strengthened better in Jan? Maybe, but this wasn't a case of us turning down Falcao for Emile Heskey... we're walking a PSR tightrope, and we have to avoid the inflated winter prices, to make sure we get as much value for our cash as possible. Remember we have a manager who, when most of our players are fit and available, can work wonders. Personally speaking if you offered me 5th place (on the proviso that it's a champions league place) and nothing more, I would take it in a heart beat. The extra guaranteed cash it brings as well as the higher calibre players we could attract being in it would be huge! That is still a strong possibility, so yes the future is still very bright!
  4. They've only won back to back once this season, that was Nuno's first two full games (think he was in the stands against Bournemouth, could be wrong)... anyway, apart from me now jinxing that pattern, they do feel like a very up and down team i.e. they get themselves up for a game and win, then foot off the gas and relax a bit too much the next. We didn't turn up at all at the City ground, so that might be in the players minds - plus we've had a weeks full rest. No excuses here and a 3pm Saturday kick off in front of a full house should have them fired up!
  5. He's on £120k per week, so whilst it's not quite the highest, it puts him in that bracket. Add that to the amortised transfer fee and he's second only to Diaby. Selling Digne for anything more than around £5m, not only gets a £12m annual cost off the books, but it then technically represents a profit on the P&L at this stage. If we were to able to shift Digne, Carlos, Coutinho and Dendonker this summer, that's close to 25% of the annual squad cost saved (when viewed as wages + amortised fees). To put it into context, that would give us the room to sign 6 new players on free transfers, each on £140k a week and still have change.
  6. I’d try and sell Cash, Carlos, Archer (post buy-back), Dendonker (hopefully to Napoli as part of the option they’ve got). And send Zaniolo back. That’s ideally £50m in old school money (I know it’s all about amortisation now). Get a refund on Diaby, get the Williams brothers in and hey presto!
  7. Nah. Duran up top with Rogers in the 10 role is a great future strike force.
  8. Half arsed BBC punditry is even worse than the game.
  9. Heck is an absolute wrecking ball, get him out asap. Everything he's done has looked completely amateurish and lacking in any thought or understanding of the club/fans. Doesn't feel like he's done any DD before entering this role at all. Also I know a lot of very good people on the commercial side have left the club as a result of his tenure so far, which has led to huge set backs with the existing and pipeline sponsorship.
  10. We're a long way behind other PL clubs when it comes to growing and engaging overseas audiences, therefore we need to play the cards we've got... We have a huge geographic advantage domestically. Middle of the country, with no elite competition around us in terms of clubs or venues. Therefore we need to become the events destination of the midlands and beyond. The best way to do that is build a new state of the art stadium, which shits all over everything between London and Manchester. I'm pretty sure stadium build costs don't factor into FFP (I think Everton's fine was to do with interest payments on the new stadium, which for some reason do count) so we'd be flexing our financial muscle in a way which won't hinder us on that front. Villa Park is iconic and we all love it, but it has too many limitations - not to mention any development of it will be slower and detrimental to the playing side of things. Times change, this is a new era, let's not let sentimentality hold us back.
  11. To a man they've all been completely awful. Every last one of them, bar perhaps Duran. Subs have done zero.
  12. I can’t recall him doing anything? But that’s probably enough to earn ‘best performer’ from the first half so yeh
  13. Agree. I have no doubts we'll bring in a right footed, left winger. Of all our 7 forward players, only Watkins and Buendia are right footed, it's an absolute must. Also interestingly, only one of our 6 midfielders is left footed (McGinn), therefore I would bet on a lefty coming in who can play both central and attacking mid. My bet would be Lo Celso.
  14. If the right right back isn’t available now, then I’d be ok going with Konsa and Cash as our two options until Jan. Torres is a certain starter now, we need the aerial presence of Carlos in both boxes, and to be fair to Konsa he’s a very good player when he’s got a strong commanding centre back next to him, which Carlos is. I think we’ start regularly with: konsa - Carlos - Pau - Moreno with the option of switching to: Cash - Carlos - Pau - Digne See if Cash can get back up to speed like he did in the few games after his injury last season.
  15. TalkSPORT had their European football expert on the other day (Andy Brassell?) and he was talking down Kudus, saying that he was ok but not worth anything like £40m. Said it’s the Ajax factor inflating the price.
  16. Lucas Digne is having a good game yes, but let’s not forget the opposition. Most PL left backs would thrive in the space he’s been afforded in these last two games. If he was on half the wage he is, then he’d be perfect, but he’s a top earner and likelihood is he’ll be on the bench most of the season.
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