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14 hours ago, TRO said:

Are we ready for Champions league?.....missing out on the Europa, is a huge step up.

Don't get me wrong, I want to achieve it, but I wonder, if we are actually ready for it.

If we secure top 4 in the premier league we are ready for the champions league.

3 minutes ago, rodders129 said:

Remember Mourinho’s Porto went Europa and UCL back to back. It can be done 

We can dream!

30 minutes ago, rodders129 said:

I think some of the wild overreactions are being driven by a feverish desperation to qualify for the UCL on the basis that it’s the promised land and will suddenly transform the club and and team into a title chasing outfit.

Qualifying one year for the UCL is not a magic bullet. We have living proof this season from Newcastle.

The way we transform this club is by getting behind Unai and the lads for every game and enjoying the process/challenge. The players and staff will learn and level up as they go. There’s no rush here. Of course I want us to hit 4th this season but if we’re in Europa we should be grateful and there are upsides. It’s another great opportunity for a European trophy next season and a great learning experience. Im so glad we’ve had conference this year as preparation.

As much as I want us to get 4th place and qualify for the UCL this season, how good would it be to win conference this season, Europa next and UCL the season after?!

7 hours ago, VillaChris said:

They're not as good as Lille.

Looking at their squad and plenty of experience. Vicente Iborra as DM in midfield is 36. El Arabi their main CF is 37 and Jovetic comes in at a youthful 34. Their main danger will be Podence on loan from Wolves who caused us issues at VP last season.

I think we can take a 2 goal lead to Greece and that should be enough.

Mendilibar is their coach so it will be a very very low block for this leg so we'll have to be patient. Really hope Unai just dosen't treat it like a chess match due to facing a compatriot as he overthought the Wolves games last season facing Lopetegui and that played into their hands more than ours.

Can see us winning this 3-1.

I know little about how they play but we sometimes really struggle against the low block/park the bus type teams I  hope this isn’t going to be one of them, we need to take goals and a clean sheet to Greece.

I really can’t decide what I like looking at most us sitting in the top 4 or them sitting in the bottom 3. 
 

I feel like putting a bet on to have them stay up at least it’ll be a little compensation to the joy of having them get relegated win/slight win situation!

Strange appointment his CV is very average has to be an interim thing while they wait for Alonso, all for it though hate that club and their whining supporters!

A win would be MASSIVE psychologically, us having a 9 point lead would heap so much pressure on them regardless of the games in hand!

On 22/04/2024 at 07:14, spiezels said:

I still think he needs a leader next to him to do the organising but the guy is an absolute rolls royce. Just got better and better and better. 

A couple of seasons ago I would have completely agreed with you but not so much now, he matured into a leader in his own right. If he wasn't so versatile in being able to play RB  with such ease and had spent all season as a CB I think some of the top clubs would be falling over themselves to try and sign him come the summer, thankfully he doesn't seem a fashionable choice outside of AVFC!

2 hours ago, CVByrne said:

Hopefully this is a boost to the players. I think Emery seeing how the off field elements are catching up to his ambitions.

I think this is the owners putting off Emery poachers!!

If he gets us 4th he must be a strong contender for manager of the season, if he gets us 4th and silverware he has to be manager of the season surely?

3 minutes ago, Pongo Waring said:

70 Points secures 4th. 2 wins and 1 draw needed. 
We can get this done in our next 3/4 games

Most years I’d agree but I think 72 points will be needed this year so 3 wins for us or 4 for spurs, I realise they have a game in hand but regardless psychologically knowing you have to win 4 is harder than having to win 3 so I think we have the edge.

2 hours ago, villaglint said:

Why arent Spurs playing next week? Seems really odd at this stage of the season. 

Could be a good things gives them 2 weeks to dwell on that defeat at a crucial time in the season going into a North London derby, plus it means they end up with a couple of mid week games in the run in, evens thing out with our mid week games in the run up our conference league final.

2 minutes ago, ender4 said:

I want to know whether Mr Sarah Louise is a man, woman, trans, just likes female names, or what?

Pronouns are ‘they/them’

The most disappointing thing about this match is I have to listen to Lee Hendrie

7 hours ago, wilko154 said:

Annoys me as with a lot of injuries we’ve then gone ahead and rested some of our most important players in Torres, Tielemans and Bailey. Maybe Emery knows best and they needed resting but it feels very much like a game thrown away to me.

Shouldn’t be our starting LB next season, good back up but not the same player as when we first got him.

3 hours ago, paul514 said:

So I am doing an updated list which will be much the same but for the moaners who think Frimpong isn't a right back, I know who you are already, yes, YOU!
I am also removing the Watkins sale from the initial sales..... more on that later.
I have also been reassessing the midfield so I will copy/paste/edit my post from page 21 - after all it is sunday night during an international break.


These are the players I would sell/release in the summer all figures are in euros and from Transfermarkt.

The amortized value is what he costs us per year on the accounts and the book value is the total amount of amortization left until he he has a value of zero for FFP. This means for an FFP profit on a player he must be sold for more than his book value.

I also think it is worth mentioning how these values are worked out.... lets say we sign a player on a 5 year contract for 50m. After 3 years we sign him to a new 5 year contract this means for the first 3 years he is with us he amortizes at 10m per year making his book value 20m when he signs a 5 year extension to his contract.
He will then amortize at 4m per year for the next five years. I hope that is simple to understand.

Lenglet - End of loan

Zaniolo - End of loan

Chambers - 29 in the summer, 1 year left on his deal brought for 0m, 

House - 29 in the summer, 1 year left on his deal brought for 3.4m, I don't have exact FFP figures for him as I didn't know the length of his first contract with us but it will be a negligible amount of amortisation left

Carlos - 31 in the summer, 2 years left on his deal brought for 31m
He is amortizing at 7.75m per year and his book value in the summer will be 15.5m

Digne - 31in the summer, 2 years left on his deal, brought for 30m.
He is amortizing at 6.66m per year and has a book value of 13.33m

Cash - 27 in the summer, 3 years left on his deal, brought for 15.75m
He is amortizing at 1.58m per year and has a book value of 4.74m

Dendonker - 29 in the summer, 2 years left on his deal, brought for 15m
He is amortizing at 3.75m per year and has a book value of 7.5m

Sanson - 30 in the summer, 1 year left on his deal, brought for 15.8 million euros
He is amortizing at 3.95m per year as he only has one year left on his deal his book value is also 3.95m

Coutinho - 32 in the summer, 2 years left on his deal, brought for 20 million euros
He is amortizing at 5m per year and has a book value of 10m

 

The total amortization per year of all the players mentioned is 28.69m Euros which is 24.61m Pounds
The total book value of all the players mentioned is 55.02m Euros which is 47.19m Pounds

My aim will be to cut the fat off the squad and then trying to bring in a smaller amount higher quality players as a whole without breaking FFP restrictions and reducing the wage bill as PSR (profit and sustainability rules) is changing meaning we have to bring our wage bill down to 70% of our revenue within a couple of years.

So in short IF you can sell/release all those players and receive 47.2m for them we don't make an FFP loss on their book value and we don't have to amortised 24.6m on next years accounts for owning them

 

So moving on to incomings.

The price tags for my suggestions are from media reported figures
The links are for their transfermarkt profile and their scouting report from FBREF for their data.

Jean-Clair Todibo, 24 - Centre back,  Nice, 35m

I want this player as he is a lot like Pau Torres and we have all seen how much we missed him whilst he was injured taking the ball out of defence and his skill with progressive passes. He will be genuine competition for Konsa and will probably win out in that race.

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/jean-clair-todibo/profil/spieler/605184
https://fbref.com/en/players/88f130ed/scout/365_m1/Jean-Clair-Todibo-Scouting-Report

 

Adrien Truffert, 22 - Left back, Rennes, 20m

I think this guy is already as good as what we already have but he has a high ceiling and time on his side to reach that potential. 

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/adrien-truffert/profil/spieler/654539
https://fbref.com/en/players/5d0e0a1f/scout/365_m1/Adrien-Truffert-Scouting-Report

 

Lutsharel Geertruida, 24 in the summer, Right back, can play centre back too, Feyenoord, 30m

Very good passer and more of a defensive right back, fairly tall for a full back these days too.

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/lutsharel-geertruida/profil/spieler/420210

https://fbref.com/en/players/242e1043/scout/365_m2/Lutsharel-Geertruida-Scouting-Report#all_scout_summary

 

Mats Wieffer 24, - Defensive Midfield, Feyenoord, 25m

Stats are off the charts, nice and tall too for all you heighists out there.

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/mats-wieffer/profil/spieler/415381
https://fbref.com/en/players/4876c9ab/scout/365_m2/Mats-Wieffer-Scouting-Report

Maxence Caqueret - Central Midfield but very similar to Luiz, 24, Lyon, 25m

Great in tight spaces again off the chart stats.

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/maxence-caqueret/profil/spieler/395237

https://fbref.com/en/players/f81ef10d/scout/365_m1/Maxence-Caqueret-Scouting-Report

Jonathan David, 24 - Striker, Lille, 25m (1 year left on contract)

I picked him as he should be relatively straight forward for us to pick up, he plays somewhat similarly to Watkins but he is not a carbon copy. His record last year was excellent and his data for this year is very good. If he had more shooting opportunities then his numbers would be much higher. He is the second highest scorer in Ligue 1 and doesn't get many shooting opportunities because of the team he plays for, you will get a peek at him in our next conference league game.

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/jonathan-david/profil/spieler/533738
https://fbref.com/en/players/ce50fd99/scout/365_m1/Jonathan-David-Scouting-Report

So according to the figures I have used for purchasing these players that is 160m Pounds, NOW is the time to invest.

I can't know if we could get them to sign a 5 year or 4 year contract so I am going to list both and it would probably be somewhere in between.

So the 160m amortized over 5 years would be 32m per year or over 4 years it would be 40m

As the suggested sales/released are amortizing at 24.6m Pounds my suggestions increase amortization by 7.4m to 15.4m per year over what it is currently. Which is why I have taken Watkins off the sale list even though I feel now is the time to sell. I have been led to believe our three year FFP loss is 90m currently after all the deductions so with increased revenue and the wages of the departing players as far as I know that shopping list is affordable.

I think those players would effectively lock off all the positions throughout the team other than our wide midfielders (the Ramsey/McGinn roles). It also brings down the age of the squad significantly, the players are signed for 'modest fees'  so we have better prospects of FFP profits moving forward with the squad

I have also currently left off Tielemans, when signing those two central midfielders he becomes a very high wage luxury player. If you binned him off for 20m you get to save about 7m a year in wages and make an FFP profit off my suggestions, whilst keeping Watkins and having more REAL options all over the pitch. 

How Coutinho has 2 years left on his contract is fkin criminal!!

23 hours ago, paul514 said:

Ramsey is our ball carrier which is what Grealish mainly does and he is obviously better. He clearly fits

No not for me no place in this team for him and certainly don’t want the side show that surrounds him, we have moved on and improved so much since we had citehs pants down for a hundred mil

13 hours ago, Jareth said:

Grealish possibly being flogged in the summer - would he fit in an Emery team?

No!

We deserve to lose today, was going to lose my shit but really not worth it! And they score again!

So fkin poor!

Deserve to lose now!!

Bailey needs to come off.

He wasn't great but he's still learning at this level.

5 hours ago, useless said:

Yes I'm baffled by the reactions, other than mistake before he went off, I thought he had a solid game, won possession back a number of times, and at other times when he couldn't win it back, he was still making sure they couldn't pass it exactly as they wanted, kept it simple in possession, but given the circumstances was probably told to do so. Also as I've stated numerous times, he's not actually used to playing as the main DM, given it was his first start for us, and it was away to Ajax in a European Quarter-Final I thought he did okay,

Was it? I think you are getting ahead of yourself.