david-avfc

I’d say no to Felix in all honesty. I’m always sceptical of these big reputation style players who have actually consistently disappointed and underachieved despite their status as apparent top players. He might have great technical ability but i think typical arguments of “doesn’t fit the system” are often synonymous with just not being effective enough on the pitch.

The problem is there are a few decent journalists out there with credible information, but as soon as it gets reported all of the fake journos, aggregator sites, click baiters and fan pages jump in and start repeating it in an ever loudening echo chamber until no one can tell how legit some of the stories are. Presumably there has been some initial contact at least between us and Asensio’s camp as it’s been reported by decent sources but beyond that I doubt any one much knows what’s going on.

He’s going to do a David Unsworth and we’re all going to riot

I think that’s just how they do it in Madrid, they have player conferences for arrivals and departures, it’s normal for them

Agree he looked very rusty but apparently he was on injections to manage his recent injury which does go in his defence to be fair. I don’t think he’s a bad player, but out of the current back 4 I think he looks like the one who could be upgraded considering he was already struggling to maintain his place over Young at times this season

I read on Wikipedia (so could be wrong!) the Europa League was basically split in two for the inception of the Conference, so effectively the same number of teams give or take overall

I can't see us getting £15m for him, he's done OK for us but never established himself as a first team regular at this level which I think caps his value, as does the fact he's only got 12 months left and doesn't appear to have a place in our squad, plus he's 30 next season so no resale value for whoever buys him. With him being a Luton fan favourite perhaps that could help us pressure them into a few more million than otherwise but I think £5-10m is the most likely outcome, unless we are able to pull their pants down like Bournemouth did to us over Mings (great signing but we paid double what he was worth at the time). I reckon Luton will be looking at the PL money as a means to finance club improvements such as their new new stadium etc rather than to blow all on players, could be wrong though.

There were times this season when he was one of our best players and he usurped Cash as first choice right back at one point - at 38 he needs careful management but he can still contribute and his experience is so invaluable

I don’t think anyone really thinks Barnes is a bad player, just that maybe he’s not going to be a transformative signing which we really need in that part of the pitch. My concern with players with stats like Barnes is goals can very easily dry up and then you wonder whether or not they have enough else in their game to make up the difference to the team. I don’t see Barnes as a dominant player on the pitch or particularly creative, or offering a lot of work rate, I just kind of find him as a decent but slightly forgettable player. Would be a useful squad addition but I don’t think Leicester would sell him cheap enough for it to be worth it

I think we should be aiming higher than Barnes. He has a good goal scoring record but his all round play leaves a lot to be desired, he just doesn’t impact game enough, that might sound counterintuitive but the worry is if the goals dry up what else does he offer? Leicester fans view him as inconsistent / frustrating etc and his stats other than goal stats are very uninspiring. If he was available at a bargain basement price I’d take him as a squad addition but often young English players end up significantly overpriced

Unfortunately I think his injury problems might prove to be an issue. He’s undoubtedly good enough for that level but it would be a risk for a club to take him when they’re not sure if he’s going to be fit or not

The agent visiting bodymoor was already public knowledge, he put it on his own social media so it’s not really a new story. I don’t think John Townley is a transfer journalist so unlikely to have much additional knowledge, which I don’t think makes him credible or un-credible

Great talent but never seems bothered to show it half the time, we should be avoiding players like Martial like the plague

Because it was clear 2 minutes into the first game of the season vs Bournemouth that he was out of his depth, had a whole preseason and came back even worse. Those next 10 games everyone could see the writing on the wall and was counting down the matches until he was sacked, realistically it should have been at the first international break but luckily he got a result vs city just before the break which delayed the inevitable

Brighton are sensibly run and flushed with cash like most other PL clubs so I would be surprised if they were so desperate for the transfer fee that they’d be particularly worried about the small risk of a bad injury and will rest players. Maybe those players will play more cautiously than usual which would be helpful to us but maybe they’ll want to do a bit extra to sign off in style? We have to approach the game as if they’ll be on top form - and if they’re not then it’ll be a good day for us

I think Brighton will be a tougher fixture than some are giving credit for, they have been excellent all season and are high in confidence and will want to finish the season off in style. It also seems like more than wishful thinking to suggest they’re going to rest all of their best players as some sort of gift to other clubs who want to take their best players off them

A Leeds draw sends them down so presumably if it’s looking like a draw they’ll either go for a winner or concede trying. I am not convinced they’ll do us a favour but they have everything to play for whilst Spurs probably can’t wait for the season to be over, which could help us out. Hopefully we win and make it all irrelevant anyway.

The ridiculous thing about the Grealish video wasn’t the imaginary “greed-ish” comment but the whole explanation that we bought three separate players to do the same combined job as Grealish. A great idea apart from the fact your still stuck with only 11 players on the pitch so the three for one swap doesn’t really work, and yeah none of those signings have particularly worked that well anyway. A lesson to all that it should always be about quality, not quantity.

If he goes down with Leicester I think it will be hard for him to get another PL job (unless he briefly joins one of the revolving door clubs), as being associated with their collapse this season and having two relegations in a row on his CV looks pretty poor to future clubs and their fans - even if neither of them were really his fault. Sam Allardyce was always clever in that he never joined doomed clubs and built up a reputation of “never being relegated”. Smith unfortunately hasn’t been as cunning in that respect perhaps to his own detriment. Hope he doesn’t just fade out as he deserves so much praise for what he did here.

The pundits are upset because we are prepared to play with tactics usually only employed by the media favourites, and we’ve been successful with it

#clublegends

Unfortunately I just don’t think Coutinho really fits in, he looks like a player from a different era where there’s more time and space, not the extreme pressing style in the PL we see these days. These things move in cycles and 5-10 years ago it was all about tiki-taka and individual technique, Coutinho was perfect for that style, now it’s more about technique plus high work rate and aggressive pressing, in that environment Coutinho looks lightweight and too often the game passes him by both in possession and out of possession. Add to that fitness issues and being an extreme confidence player… Maybe he gets treated harshly because of the Gerrard connection. I think Buendia is inconsistent but at least offers a lot of tenacity and work rate, even if things aren’t coming off for him, whereas Coutinho is a luxury player who too often hasn’t delivered despite being such a big name and having a big contract.

I think vlahovic’s stock is high enough that if Juventus decide to cash in for whatever reason he’ll easily move to a champions league team. I saw a rumour that he will be allowed to leave if Juve fail to qualify for the champions league and we’re one of the clubs interested… seems doubtful that he’d leave Juve for missing out on CL just to join a team nowhere near the CL to be honest. It’s an exciting rumour but unfortunately I just can’t see it happening at all.

FYI I believe that stat is called “key passes”, a pass which leads to a shot Buendia has 1.1 key passes per game this season versus 2.3 for Norwich in the premier league and 3.1 in the Championship, so the stats are showing he’s not as effective

We were massively overachieving a few weeks ago, unfortunately there are big holes in our squad and whilst Unai has done a good job to cover them over with a good tactical structure and good individual game plans, when we have such an unreliable selection of creative players its bound to catch up with this us eventually. Buendia was excellent in the first half today and came close to making something happen for us but then faded out of the game in the second half and there's no one else in that scenario to step up creatively and we're then out of ideas - Traore and Bailey certainly aren't the answers unless the question is "who can give the ball away to the opposition the most". Probably a case of now of just limping over the line this season, hopefully we have a big transfer window and then hit the ground running for next season.