Laughable Chimp

When did he have the most assists in ligue 1?

Nah, same here. Especially if its anything close to the 40m being reported

Honestly, yeah. He only had half a season in the championship and he wasn’t that good. Could definitely do with proving himself further. For example, you say balogun struggled in the championship? He had a goal or an assist every 150 minutes in the championship. Archer had a goal or an assist every 200 minutes.

He’ll be 30 by the end of the season and will still have 3 years left to go on his massive contract. I can see him just sticking around and be content with less gametime as his career winds down unless we try and force him out. Which we shouldn’t be doing anyway. I’ve been far from the biggest digne fan but after the investment we’ve put in him he really should be kept around in the squad in some capacity. I was critical with how gerrard was all too happy to get rid of some players for shiny and expensice new ones instead of trying harder to make it work with the ones he already had and I’d be critical of emery for the same too.

People have been saying all kinds of stuff about emery recently that I’m pretty sure is made up. Like they imagine what traits their idealized manager has, and then apply them to Emery. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a quality manager. But I’m sceptical about the sheer breadth of claims I’ve seen people make about him and all his positive qualities.

He got into an altercation with the current marseille manager too.

Nah, this isn’t 2020 anymore. You’re looking at 20-25 for him. Honestly, I don’t want to be too much of a downer on this but Arsenal let him go for only 10m for a reason. I don’t expect him to even make are starting 11 over Luiz and Kamara. Probably good rotation option though

On the left back being more adventurous and the right back being more stay at home tactic that emery apparently likes to use, if he is going to reuse it here, I’m sure he’s not so rigid about it that the roles are stuck to these positions. Like, there’s no real difference between the left side and the right side of the pitch. If the players he has at right back is better suited to be more adventurous and the left to be more defensice, surely he isn’t going to force them to play ill suited roles or just bin them off and get new players?

Damn, wasn’t it just last year when we had one of the youngest squads?

My guess is that Lange, Purslow or whomever aren’t actually involved much in choosing which youth players to sign. They don’t know who the hell these kids are, so they just leave it up completely on what the scouts say is a hot prospect and must be signed. That’s not so much the case at first team level.

Yes. Currently joint number 2 in the scoring charts in the Bundesliga. His all round stats look good too. Heavily involved in play. Good in the air. Been good for at least 2 seasons now, albeit last season was in a lower division. Might not be the best defensively is the only concern aside from his age. Honestly, I remember you disagreeing with me on this but this is exactly the kind of player that I said we should take advantage off. These late bloomers that never got their big break for whatever reason. Fullkrug has spent a decent amount of his career in the lower divisions and never played for a big club. Only now he's been able to show his quality but because of his age, normally most people wouldn't care. Had he not had that world cup showcase, most people who don't watch the bundesliga wouldn't know he is. We can get these players for relative cheap

I don't know if people remember, but this isn't really any different to how we were under Gerrard at the start of the season. We had a lot of posession, just couldn't carve out any chances for whatever reason.

All of those players cost that much because of their potential and may have still been overpriced regardless. Brighton and Brentford have never even paid 25m or more for a player and look at wherr they are. Fulham have only paid that fee for 2 players in their history and none of them are even still with them. Most clubs outside the big 6 only have 1-2 players on their squad who cost that if at all. Don’t try and tell me that 25 million doesn’t get you anything when the majority of the starters in the league don’t even cost that much. with the money we’ve spent, our players should be good enough to get us between 7-10th. But they’re not even that good are they?

Wasn’t this the exact same thing people said when we replaced Targett with Digne last year?

I'd take 20 if they offered it.

I don't think its a lack of awareness from Dendocker. He just makes an absolute mess of his first touch. On one hand, I feel like we shouldn't have our keepers make these kinds of short passes in case of scenarios like this. There was a longer pass available to Olsen on the right that he could've made. But at the same time, Olsen isn't exactly the best with his feet so maybe he told specifically to lay the ball off to the closest player. This worked fine when it was Luiz or Kamara, not so much Dendocker who also isn't the best on the ball.

Mate, I’m looking at this guys stats now and he has the stat profile of a poacher except he doesn’t even score goals most seasons. Can’t pass, can’t create, can’t assist, can’t dribble, can’t finish and never even touches the ball.

He'll actually get gametime here.

Maguire wasn’t part of the Leicester team that won the pl.

The xG for that game was something 2.7 for us and 1.8 for them. Weird game that for a lot of reasons. We benefited a lot from the deflections that allowed us to score goals we shouldn't have but at the same time, we also missed some good chances.

I thought being good on the ball was supposed to be one his better attributes. I know a hull city fan who keeps talking about how its one of his good points. Pep wanted him to join City too, and I doubt he'd want someone who was terrible on the ball.

Part of me thinks this is Emery overhauling the squad with his own players, same way Gerrard did last year. If true, expect to see quite a few of our previous players being thrown to the side.

If he comes here, he’s starting. No doubt about that.

He was already earning about that much at Wolves.