Pez1974

11 minutes ago, useless said:

Morgan Rogers, Adam Wharton, Viktor Gyökeres, Nathan Tella, Alex Scott, have all moved up from the Championship recently and done well, already talk of 'bigger' clubs showing an interest in Wharton.

So maybe the success of those recent examples might mean more PL clubs look to the Championship in the summer, the likes of Jaden Philogene, Morgan Whittaker, Jacob Greaves, Ben Sheaf, Jonathan Rowe, Jordan James, Archie Gray, Jack Clarke, Jobe Bellingham, Leif Davis, and probably a bunch of others could all be in contention for a move

A lot of clubs supposedly watching Ronnie Edwards, Harrison Burrows, and Kwame Poku in League One too, who as it happens all play for Peterborough, maybe the other two will go to the Championship first, but good chance Edwards gets a move to the Premier League

I think you have to be careful though, doing well at Championship level doesn't in itself equal being good enough for the Premier League, and with a club like ours we will tend to go for the younger Championship players if at all, so it won't be just about what they're doing now but also what we think they have the potential to do

There are always good players to be had.
When we signed Ollie from Brentford, they went and got Toney from Peterborough - and I suspect a few of us thought then, why don't we sign him too, as Brentford's recruitment was outstanding.

The issue is that Toney cost £5m (with add on's up to £10m) for a 24 year old League 1 player. The fees from lower league clubs is crazy. With that sort of money - you can't make many mistakes.

4 hours ago, AndyClarke said:

Tonight is absolutely massive, winning doesn't guarantee anything but putting 9 points between ourselves and Spuds with their run in would be monumental. Hopefully Villa can shake off the random terrible performance when it counts (a bit like Arsenal away).

It feels like that sort of pivotal game - but they all do.
Spurs lose to Newcastle, so we beat Arsenal.

If we win tonight, the pressure is really on Spurs to win. If we lose, a draw becomes a decent result for them tomorrow. 

1 hour ago, MotoMkali said:

You say this but look at our team where are you upgrading if not at the full backs? 

We aren't signing someone better than torres, we aren't signing someone better than Dougie, or Bailey, or Watkins. 

So we are talking full backs and DM but only because Kamara is injured and we need more depth there. 

LW as well I suppose is another area we could target but with JJ, Mcginn, Rogers, Diaby and Tielemans all being able to play there in our system it's not an area of concern unlike RB. 

Also Kosta has been injured for the last 9 games and seems like he will continue to be injured. He's also still only 18, I suspect he's more like a Duran signing where if he is going to be in our squad he will mostly be getting minor appearances until his 3rd year with us or so. 

A fair question - but we've beaten Arsenal twice this season, dominated City in a game, and are in the semi's of a European trophy. 
I would counter that perhaps we need more depth in some areas (esp. CDM) in order to compete consistently on multiple fronts, rather than go all out for a better first team.

My suggestion - so may be wrong - is that perhaps Kosta is the new RB. I have never seen him play but it's a lot of money on a 'punt'.
My hope for improvement next year is that we don't have players out either all season (Mings, Buendia) or for most of it (Ramsey, Moreno, Kamara). But if we do, we need to cope.

A lot of people talking about needing new full backs - I'm not sure.

Kosta is coming in, and people saying he's not ready. Do we know this? People said the same about Rogers, and he's done really well, after the first few games. Kosta will get a whole pre-season.
We've also got Konsa, and KKH (who at least is already here) - so perhaps we could look to sell on Cash, who is probably at his peak value now (hopefully after a good summer with Poland), and boost our funds under PSR.

With LB we have Digne and Moreno, who hopefully can find his form again.
As much as Digne's wages are high making it attractive to sell, who is going to pay his current book value of around £12m with those wages, let alone a figure making it worth us selling one of our best players this season.
Give it another year or 2 and hopefully Chrisene or Sousa (or both) will be ready to step up, meaning the best financial decision is to do nothing right now.
It seems Revan has also done OK on loan (although I am not sure he will 'make it' here).
I think the only thing that could change the LB decision is someone like Hermaso on a free, who can cover there.

I think we need to spend money in CM, particularly CDM.
I don't think PSR is the major issue some make out, but we can't be dropping big money on 4 or 5 positions without bringing some major money in.

13 minutes ago, blandy said:

He looks to have done, in a short period, a really excellent job as a kind of Commercial revenue manager. And maybe that's where all his focus has been. But that's only part of  the role of a CEO figure.

The owners may have made it his number one priority, and he seems to have been selected for the role based on his talent in that area. But, there are a whole bunch of things that are not being handled well. These things may be (justifiably) low priority in the short term, but they can't be left unattended for a long period, without causing significant problems down the line.

I thought he was "President of Business Operations"?
This is the Chief Operating Officer in my view; not CEO. His job is the boring rubbish in the background. At least that's my take. He should be relatively invisible.

I 100% agree that there's stuff he should have done better. But it seems like his initial remit was to identify underperforming aspects and improve them quickly, probably with an eye on PSR for next season. The nice may simply have to take a back seat. 

Some of the comments on here are just corporate bashing - not liking what Heck stands for. But successful companies need people in that role - business can be hard.
He might be a **** but he's our ****, and we need him to add £10m's to the bottom line or we're reliant on Chelsea and Man U getting it wrong every season just to compete.

I think we all love our owners. They've chosen him to do this role. 
 

Lots of videos about recently - he seems to absolutely love it when we score. Often in the background jumping around!
It might just be his personality - but he seems to love the club.

If it wasn't for his wages - there is no way I'd want him to leave, despite being 31 in the summer.

Great news

Timing is a bit odd - I wonder if:

a) another club made an approach and this was to stave off that
b) a boost for the squad going into the final games
c) about convincing a new signing that he's committed
d) there is a finer detail clause (such a a release clause, or option) which has been triggered

In any case - great to hear

28 minutes ago, Zhan_Zhuang said:

Cole Palmer injured?

*EDIT, actually just an illness, probably fit for the Villa match.

He's just getting out of playing against us, so he can join us in the summer and play champions league
Good player - deserves to play for a Top 4 team

I want CL based on getting 4th. I don't want the accusation to be of us getting lucky and 5th.

And England not getting 5th place for CL will contribute towards Spurs (probably) having less money next year with CL football, which will hurt them.
It will also likely mean that one of Man U, Newcastle and Chelsea won't have European football next year, which will hurt them (but maybe help with fixtures too). PSR is starting to bite, so these clubs will be affected by the income loss, albeit less so than we'd hope.

I want to win the UECL for a trophy, the prestige, a bit of cash, and the UEFA ranking points (these will help in the coming years with seeding).

All of the above would underline the genius of Emery, and that we are seriously on the up. This will help attract players and sponsors.

So providing we can get the points for 4th - this week has been perfect!

54 minutes ago, CVByrne said:

They obviously are. That's what odds are. Probability of something happening 

No, they aren't.

The are a risk based calculation by the betting company designed to find the balance between attracting people to part with their money, and the risk of the company losing money.
If someone walked into a bookies and lumped a large amount on Villa to win, it's likely that the odds would fall with that bookie, in order to reduce their risk. However, the probability of Villa winning would be unaffected. 
This is why England often have shorter odds of winning things in this country, because people in this country tend to bet on England to win - oddly.
 

15 minutes ago, duke313 said:

Emery would be the greatest manager of all time if he won us a trophy we’re not in

Typical negative VT'er. 
In Unai I Trust 

1 hour ago, omariqy said:

I don’t think Arsenal win tonight so we have to rely on City, ourselves and hope the other two win their ties at the very least. 

Or.....

We'll win the Europa (edit: Conference) league because we have very good players and a genius manager.
We'll get 4th - same reason. Plus, you know, it's Spurs.

And then Spurs, or Man U or Newcastle will not get Champions League, costing them money and prestige, which is also to our benefit. 
And the reason why 5th won't get CL football is because Man U and Newcastle didn't get out of their groups in this seasons CL. 

And all of the above makes it a brilliant season for us, and very funny too.

23 hours ago, the_sun_never_sets said:

No disrspect to them but we need to work on the basis that Lille would be one of the weaker standard of teams if we qualified for the CL....and we were pretty evenly matched last week. Need to plan for that. 

I think RB is our clear priority. Cash becomes backup. Squad would be v healthy then.

After that just avoiding as many injuries would strengthen us. Plus replacing anyone we sell.

 

Agree that RB is a priority, probably alongside another CDM.

Don't agree that Cash becomes back up - at this point he is as sellable as he will ever be, so it's time to move him on. He's coming up to 27, and hopefully will get games at the world cup. 
Transfermarkt.com have Cash valued at around £25m. For FFP,  given his contract extension, he is probably worth about £5m in our books now - £20m profit would be very nice. 

IF (big IF) we get a new RB, we still have Kosta to come in (£7m!) plus Konsa can clearly do a good job there. 

8 hours ago, briny_ear said:

He is learning so quickly and obviously benefiting massively from having Emery as coach.

One of they real bargains of the last transfer window.

I think this is a key aspect of what Unai looks for in a player

There are better players (maybe, maybe not) but an ability to improve, and follow a system is key to our signings now. 

Looks a very good player already; imagine him after a full pre-season.

4 minutes ago, Lochheads twin said:

There is a whole topic in it’s own right on which combination is our best centre back pairing. There so many factors, maybe even the opposition and competition.

Early in the season it may have been Torres, of late he has not been at that level and looks jaded and is not the most commanding figure.

Hopefully, yesterday’s Diego is seen more often and looks like the player we all hope we had bought.

Konsa is still the Rolls Royce of the back 4. Wasted at right back but needs must.

and last but not least the mighty Mings. Our most vocal and commanding centre half. We all want to see a fully fit Tyrone next season.

from the above, a wealth of riches and we still have Longlet in reserve.

for me it’s still Konsa and Mings but we all have our own favourites. 
 

onwards and upwards!

 

I think next season, Unai will work miracles because he has choices.

Torres does look jaded, so will benefit from a bit of rotation, but it's his first PL season.
We'll definitely need to use Konsa at RB for some games.
And with Carlos and Mings both being 30, and having had massive injuries, both will need to be managed or risk them breaking down again.

Hopefully the benefit of having 4 very good CBs will mean we can keep them all fit and happy.

4 hours ago, Adbo9 said:

Id take Werner if Spurs didnt complete a deal for him - be a good option

Not for me.
Ollie is absolutely first choice. Duran is developing nicely, as is Rogers, who may end up in a slightly different role.

I don't think we need expensive squad players. Countinho, Dendonker, Sanson, etc do us no good, except hurt PSR.
Squad players (i.e. those who would not start regularly) generally need to be developmental younger players who are improving, or low cost players who getting rid of would require money to be invested in a replacement.

Werner would not challenge Ollie; is not young (28), and is not cheap (about £10m a year salary, and probably £20m to buy?). 

18 minutes ago, StefanAVFC said:

Which top class CDM is coming in to sit behind Kamara on the bench? If we have a limited budget why would we blow all of it in a position where have a legitimately world class option? 

I don't think modern players look at it quite like this (Digne and Moreno have swapped a lot and it worked, despite the injuries). 
IF (big IF) we get CL football, we could have 60+ games next season. Given Luiz and Kamara's tendency to get booked too - we really need 3 players there who can rotate seamlessly. There will be games where 2x CDMs would be a help, with Luiz playing slightly further forward. 
We'd then have McGinn, Youri and Tim who can also fill in. 

We are conceding way too many goals this season, and it isn't all the defenders fault - we get overrun too easily sometimes. 

7 minutes ago, DakotaVilla said:

Some wishful thinking going on in this thread. Jack’s transfer was the rare deal that worked for all three parties and all three would do the same deal again 100 times over.

Jack will make over 150m from the deal (including the endorsements he’s since signed) and will get another mega deal no doubt when he leaves for Saudi or whichever club can afford him next and he played a key role in winning the treble.

Man city won the treble and marketed the crap out of Jack. They’ve made a lot of their outlay back in commercial deals and shirts etc.

We were desperate for the money in hindsight and had to sell or we would have had severe PSR issues. 100m was a kings ransom and allowed us to rebuild. 

Good luck to him but we probably couldn’t afford him back even if we wanted him and the reality is that there are better value deals to be done.

Unless he changes character massively, I suspect the alcohol free Saudi league is not going to be seeing Jack. 

Horrible to hear - at 65
I hope he finds a level of calmness and peace that many with this awful condition don't.

A true legend.

I love EmeryCam
Celebrates more than the fans
I would love him to be my boss - I would keep looking over at him when a spreadsheet balances to see whether he's give me the clap  

I don't have the worries that some do about FFP.

We've got good money in for Ramsey, Archer, JBP, and I don't think any of them would've made a difference to us this season.
We've also managed to shift on, either temporarily or permanently, Nakamba, Coutinho, Dendoncker, Sanson, Davis, Traore and Wesley. 
Going back a bit - add Targett, Ings, Trez,  and AEG. I could add Chukwemeka given the fee.

We've brought in young players, and now have quite a few players out on loan in the Championship, whereas it used to feel like they were in non-league.

We have professionals looking after the club now; they know what they're doing.

Conversely, I have seen Newcastle fans moaning that they can't afford to keep Joelinton, whereas they're stuck with Matt Targett for another 2 and half years on £100k a week. We're doing OK. 

So often in these games, an early goal sets us up for a good win. 
It means they have to come out, and we are so good at breaking with pace.
It also means that can't just sit deep and try and nick one from a corner!

I think we go at them like lunatics from the whistle and just try and swamp them early. I know Unai likes control, but an early goal (or 3) will give us so much control in these games.