Condimentalist

I don't think I've ever seen him play. I know he was more highly rated than Jacob as a kid but Jacob has come on leaps and bounds and is also very physically imposing (though he wasn't initially). 

Will be very interested to watch his progress and perhaps he'll be a villan again in a couple of years. 

I liked the look of him in preseason. Two footed, hard working, good decision-making, and has a trick or two in his locker.

He looked like he could be ready to have a bit of a breakout season and I'm disappointed he's not getting an opportunity in games like tomorrow.

We have Buendia, Coutinho and J Ramsey all out and seem to be selling A Ramsey too. Do we really need to sell another promising youth player, especially for such a low fee? 

3 minutes ago, calcifer said:

What? He is rubbish! 

We need to push on he needs replacing! He doesn't get into any other top 7 side! 

 

Rubbish is pretty strong. We could upgrade there but he's not a bad player.

8 hours ago, TomC said:

Long article about him in the Athletic...select quote here...

https://theathletic.com/4783519/2023/08/18/nicolo-zaniolo-a-game-changing-talent-but-consistency-remains-elusive/

Sounds like he's more of a carrier than a passer...so not really a Buendia-type player.

That said...if he creates lots of chances but is wasteful with them...that means Delphinho will have someone to be frustrated with in Buendia's absence. 

 

Yes. And given we were looking at him before Buendia's injury perhaps he is viewed as an alternative to Bailey rather than a replacement for Emi.

Coutinho is the only guy who can play how Emi does from his position. I hope he can contribute this season. I actually thought JPB deserved the start past week though.

Will be interesting to see how we line up today. 

8 minutes ago, Made In Aston said:

Torres is similar to David Luiz, in that he is more of a midfielder playing as a defender, and doesn't have possess the same defensive attributes as others in his position. The benefit is that he has the passing ability, which most defenders don't have, and is an advantage in certain systems. 

I think we need to bring in someone who will provide the traditional defensive qualities to pay alongside him, in Mings's absence, as konza is not that guy. 

I think Carlos is that guy. Cost £30m himself. We'll need to give him a few games to get up to speed and not get on his back as he's rusty, and effectively still getting used a new league, new manager and new defensive partner. However, from what I've seen of him he looks fit, fast, strong and aggressive so we need him to step up. 

Clean sheet tomorrow would be lovely - I doubt we'll have many over the next few weeks. 

From looking like our 4th most important CB he may be our most important now. 

Him and Torres is a good partnership on paper. 

2 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

He will be 31 next season so we needed to be looking for a replacement anyway, as harsh as it sounds at this time. He ain't getting any younger either, an he may be back in 9 months, but it may take a season to get fully fit again, he will then be 32, unfortunately I think his best days were behind him anyway. McGinn will have to step up and lead.

The guy is a physical specimen and he came to the game late. He'll be playing at a good standard til 35/36 IMO.

Gutted if this season is a write off but he'll be back next year.

Yep. He starts Saturday IMO. What a moment for him. 

28 minutes ago, HalfTimePost said:

I was against this transfer anyway, but with Buendia confirmed as out - is it now worth keeping AJ around for depth? Ramsey and Buendia both injured, AJ could get some game time

It's definitely an interesting test of what management think of him.

8 hours ago, Enda said:

If you really push it and pretend Wolves/West Brom/etc simply don’t exist, there are three or four million people in the AVFC Academy catchment area. So at a real push the academy should catch about 5% of the population of Britain. 5% is 1-in-20. So only looking at Britain as the talent pool, you’d expect something like one squad player to be from our catchment area.

Thats before including Europe (Pau, Kamara), South America (Luiz, Emi) and so on. So it would be very unusual if our academy had produced more than a handful of our first team squad.

If we want to compete for the top 4, we need a top 4 squad. We can’t have a squad who are bottom-half PL standard, even if that includes some very very good players.

We should get used to selling 90-95% of our academy.

You may be right but I can see why people find it upsetting. There's a romance and an attachment from having your academy players coming into the first team and making an impact.

If we'd have been where we are now rather than where we were a few years ago we'd probably have sold Jacob Ramsey rather than watch him flourish into a future England player here. 

That said, the door for academy players to be involved with the first team is clearly still open as Philogene is proving.

In the end, we've got to trust Unai and the club hierachy on this. We're pretty well run these days. 

Unfortunately for Aaron his older brother has come on leaps and bounds and is an absolute lock in the first team when fit now. Buendia and Coutinho are also ahead of him in that role.

I'd have preferred a loan if we don't think he's going to get the gametime, and agree £12m seems cheap for a permanent transfer, but as others have said, presumably the buyback is also low.  

Very interested to see how he does in the prem, hopefully he smashes it and is back with us in a season or two. 

Winning a cup would mean a lot more than three games in the CL - especially the FA Cup. 

If we could get to the quarters and beyond of the CL then I'd maybe take that above the League Cup, but really football is about winning. 

The wonderful thing is I can see both happening in the next few years if we can keep Mr Emery around. 

Think we'll start with Kamara Luiz at the base and McGinn and Buendia the two ahead of them.

Tielemans could well force himself in though on the basis of what we've seen in preseason - but I don't see hom playing higher otherwise Unai would have tried it in one of these games.

Ramsey will replace Buendia as first choice when fit - I'm expecting a big season from him.

Yeah I have no issue with Digne at all, very solid option for us. Equally, if we can get £15m+ and he's on massive wages I'd back the club to find a replacement. 

Challenge will be the season starts in 10 days and Moreno is out so could only see it happening later in the month if at all. 

Olsen jeez. 

All this investment and planning but one injury to Emi and we are utterly ****. 

1 minute ago, PieFacE said:

It's nice to see us being able to attack down the right hand side. For so long it's felt we've only been able to go down the left. 

Yeah. I like Buendia but when Ramsey is back that front 4 is going to be a massive handful for anyone. 

**** sake Watkins. We could really do with a more reliable penalty taker. I don't have any faith in him but more importantly he doesn't have any faith in himself. 

I'm trying to buy a match pass but looks like the link is dead. Anyone esle having this? 

31 minutes ago, bannedfromHandV said:

He equipped himself well in the US and has shown glimpses in friendlies in previous summers, I hope he is sticking around and gets a chance on the top stage. For all the tricks, the goal against Fulham and the overall attacking threat I think it was his defensive work rate and concentration that swung it for Emery, he showed a good level of maturity and took the games seriously, good signs.

Agreed. Looks like a kid with real application as well as talent. 

Great combo - I'm excited for him. 

Just now, wishywashy said:

Wanted by Burnley, per Nixon.

 

No way worth selling at that price. 

Could loan him there though. 

57 minutes ago, bobzy said:

From the clips I've seen, he doesn't really have a stronger/weaker foot.  Seems equally good on both.

It's true he is pretty two footed, which is hard to defend, but stronger with his left.

10 minutes ago, KevinRichardsonsMoustache said:

Rewatching his goal against Brentford. I love the way he creates masses of space for himself by turning Jensen inside out. Look at how the gap between him and Jensen increases when he shifts it onto his left foot. Jensen starts off facing him, giving him a little space because he is trying to anticipate what comes next. Within less than a second Diaby has turned him 90 degrees. He's like a basketball player in how he can face up with a defensive player.

 

Meanwhile, as the other defenders move to close him down, our players fill the penalty area, pushing back their defensive line (Mings probably gets a little too close to Diaby and blocks Dougie's chances of receiving the cutback and striking from the D). All of this creates space for Philogene on the other side of the penalty area. 

 

Tbh it's dreadful defending, showing him inside onto his stronger foot to shoot. 

Olsen has looked pretty shaky for us and personally I'm disappointed we're not trying to improve that position. 

Even if Dibu stays fit, we're in four competitions and Emery wants to win them all. Olsen does inhibit that because he can't play out in the way Emery likes, and the defence is visibly nervous, which affects the whole team performance. 

Of course anyone is going to be a step down from the World Number One, but I would have liked us to target a decent understudy who can play with his feet a bit too.