OhForAGreavsie

I think clubs selling to the Premier League have learned that if they hold out for the buyout clause they have a good chance to get it. Torino will certainly play it that way.

If I read it correctly, the reported bid was £51m + £34m bonuses. That's just over €100m.

As usual, we can't know for sure but there have been reports. As commented upon in the previous page of this thread, The Mirror and The Express say that we had a bid worth €100m, including bonuses, rejected by Torino. According to those stories, Torino want the full amount up front.

James Peter Greaves was better than either of them. A matter of opinion of course, but Greaves was an unbelievable finisher and a wonderful footballer.

It wasn't serious. If you look back to the post which it quoted you'll see where the reference goes.

Fascinating if true. 1. No way that amount would be offered for a backup. This would imply that the club expects Diego leave. 2. In any case, it's hard to imagine Belotti would join any club where he is not expecting to be the starter. The club would be able to work that out as well as we can. Even if they hoped to persuade him to compete with Diego, the lad's representatives would quickly rule that out. If, despite this, the bid is true, this implies again that Diego is moving on. 3. Is Belotti the right choice to replace a departed Diego? As a direct replacement, yes he definitely is in my opinion.

Fair enough, a straight forward difference of opinion. If Nemanja is still starting for us next season I'll feel we've missed an opportunity to make an important improvement.

That Conte will manage Spain later in his career?

Exactly this.

Yes, I think I could get behind that idea. Not so sure Antonio would be worried if I didn't get behind his decisions but you know what I mean.

Some because, as you rightly imply, they thought he was already the finished article. Some of us however just didn't, and don't, share your view about his promise. He will undoubtedly sharpen up his game but I can't see him ever reaching and maintaining £89m performance levels. I'm not saying he won't do extraordinary things from time to time, every footballer does, but to justify the expectations he needs regularly to be a decisive factor in the biggest games. If he has that potential then I have missed it so far.

It's not the man who is crucial, it's his role. There are a whole lot of people who can play that role better than Nemanja does. Ditto Victor Moses. Edit to expand a bit on what I'm saying: It's clear that Antonio feels Nemanja is his best option for that role. The boss sees the alternative options in training most days, so his judgement is good enough for me. We may, however, learn more about the manager's long term thoughts on this when the window opens. I say 'may' because, even if we do not reinforce that position (or Victor's), it won't necessarily mean that we didn't try.

I'm saying that the description of Barcelona which you gave here sounds like you could just as easily be describing Man City. That's probably no coincidence. This plays into an argument I often gave in defence of Jose when his brand of football was being attacked by people expressing opinions which I felt were 'illiterate' in a footballing sense. When people railed at Jose to play full on front-foot football with our squad, I would point out that there was no way our players could win playing like that. I argued that you can only win championships that way if your players are miles better than everyone else's, that otherwise tactics were necessary, and that it was tactics which make football interesting. Antonio has a better squad than Jose did but he's no fool, he uses tactics. Pep is "so so happy" that his players dominated possession against us. Lot's of pleasure for him, not so many points for his team. He won everything playing his way at Barca because he had a great team, some say the greatest team ever. It was an extraordinary collection of players but, now that Barca are slipping back from those superhuman levels, they are going to have to play smarter if they want to continue winning titles. City, of course, have not approached those levels yet. Let's hope they never do, and that their coach never mends his ways. Let's hope that we will be able to trust in Pep for as long as we have been trusting in Arsene. Edit: We may not get our wish because City's owners, unlike their Arsenal counterparts, are determined to collect the very best players. If they manage it, then Pep will deliver trophies by the bucket load. If they don't however Pep will have to learn to give more thought to to the way he sets up his team, and to the qualities he looks for in his players. I'm not sure if Pep has yet suffered from the fact that it's less easy to attract the tip top players to Manchester City, and to England in general, than it is to entice them to Barcelona. If he hasn't yet, he will soon enough. Maybe we can put our hopes in that.

Man City?

I predicted, correctly, that Alexis would not be a success at Barcelona. Then I went and spoilt it all by predicting that he would not succeed at Arsenal either. :-) I based those predictions on games I watched him play for Udinese. My observation was that, when his space was closed, Alexis ran around in circles, going nowhere, and only passed the ball as a last resort. Even then his passes often missed their target. Both Arsenal and Barcelona are built on passing, but passing is the worst part of a Alexis's game. Hence my feeling that he would not be a good fit for those teams. The contribution Alexis has made to Arsenal is undeniable and has appeared to prove me wrong but I'm still suspicious about what he might do for Chelsea. I don't mean that I think he would achieve nothing for us. This isn't a Torres situation where I woke up the next morning, saw that he had been signed, and went into a deep depression. No, this is a belief that, however well Alexis might do, there are others who would do better for us.

Agreed.

What's an OG?

Was just about to post the same thing. Officials do not, in my opinion, deliberately set out to favour Barceloana. It's just that they are in sympathy with the Catalan club and its living legends on the pitch. Officials are subconsciously seduced into seeing things Barca's way. A brilliantly talented Barcelona player, a paragon of the beautiful game, makes contact with a brutish player of that other team. Of course it's a foul. Of course it's a free kick to Barca. Unless it's a penalty of course. This nonsense has been going on for too long. Barcelona must not be allowed to cheat their way through another round of the competition.

More depressing evidence of the urgent need for the club to make good player assessments and act on them quickly. When some of us were recommending Dybala as a transfer target two summers ago, the usual objections were raised here; not proved in the Premier League, not proved full stop, not sure he's good enough. Our club cannot afford to wait until footballers are established superstars. If we do that, clubs higher up the food chain will always take them, and we will always miss out.

Exactly, which is why I wanted Arsenal to win last night. I wanted them to go to White Hart Lane with their top four hopes still alive, and their confidence high. Arsenal's motivation should always be set to maximum for the North London derby, but now it looks like they are going to limp into Tottenham with their tails between their legs, and their heads all over the place. A fixture where we might have hoped Spurs would drop points, could turn into a goal difference boost for them instead. (Not that goal difference is going to matter much. We aren't going to win the league on goal difference. If Spurs close the points gap, they will automatically also improve their goal difference relative to ours.)

Yes, I saw it. Sad. Sadder still is the fact that the way he is now is an improvement. A stroke is a tough thing.

Just seen the score. Ah, those lovely popcorn and Arsenal Fan TV moments. Would have been better for us if Arsenal had won so that was what I wanted. Still can't help smiling though can you. 😊😊

Never forget that, according to The Oxford Encyclopedia of Underwater Life, "There is no such thing as a fish"!

Well we fully agree about Marcos. I'm a big fan of his. I replied as I did because you asked, "I'm sorry b[o]ut how are we not talking more about this skill", so I hope you see why I thought you were talking particularly about the skill.

Because in the scheme of things it's meaningless. An ability to do it doesn't make a player good. An inability to do it doesn't make a player bad. There are an awful lot of footballers who are way short of professional standard but who can do stuff like that. It's an irrelevance.