OhForAGreavsie

Matic can pick a pass, like most players, when he is facing up and around the edge of the box. That's not the issue however. When in possession in the middle of the park he simply doesn't have the right combination of technical quality and speed of thought. Throw in his chronic one-footedness and he is almost always compelled to play the ball backwards. Momentum negated, potential attack killed. Swap Matic for Dembele and our improvement would be huge.

Summer if it must be, but as soon as possible is the right answer.

I hope we are working hard to recruit one or more CMs this window. Without Cesc we have no one in there who can get turned and move us forward. Personally, I would have started Cesc today. The way things are going I think we will need him before the end. Matic is absolutely not the answer in there.

On the contrary they've done very well for themselves. Like Oscar, they are not good enough to play for top-level clubs and so they choose to cash in. Fair enough, I for one do not blame them. Agents will tell all kinds of lies and gleeful media will publish almost anything, but the truth remains the truth. Witsel turned down Juventus? Laughable. If the Old Lady really made him a serious offer, he'd have taken it.

I don't want this fella at all, so the price doesn't come into it for me. In my opinion he is reasonably sound defensively but overrated in possession. Koulibally has signed a new contract, and is presumedly more out of reach than ever now, but van Dijk is a poor alternative.

No, but there must be a reason. It's not something I'm worried about in any way. I'm sure the club will make the best arrangements possible within the terms of the loan contract. Beyond that, the reality is that Pat has no future at The Bridge.

Play whoever he likes but DO NOT LOOSE. If he plays a squad team and looses I may never forgive him. I can't abide these managers who decide to throw The Cup away. Instant sacking offence in my book.

I agree that the two lads from Monaco are good options and would represent genuine upgrades. By the start of next season I would ideally like to see upgrades down our right flank as well however. Pedro and Moses are working fine but if we are able list those two as squad players, rather than automatic starters, our group will begin to look extremely powerful. I like the idea of a high quality addition at centre back but do not believe that Van Dijk is the man we need. He is sound enough defensively, but I don't share the widespread opinion that he adds quality on the ball. If City see him as an upgrade for them it would surprise me because I certainly don't see him as one for us.

There is a thread here.

I cant say that I've seen him performing with that degree of quality often enough to believe that it is his standard level, and not just a flash of peak form that all players exhibit at some moments. I certainly think there is a gulf of quality in possession between Kessie and Badelj. If you haven't already seen these performances, check out the videos. I felt his best display (of these) came against Roma. See what you think: -

Dembele is very unlikely to move again so quickly. Worse, if he does move it's likely that he would turn us down once more as he did two summers ago. I don't know if we bid again this summer, but he made it clear very early on that Dortmund was his chosen destination. Granted, when he turned us down in 2015 it was probably because he didn't fancy becoming a part of the loan army. Now that he would be recruited for the first team that might change things for him, but I still doubt that he would give up on BVB after just one season. He certainly won't give up after half a season and move in January.

Kroos is a great player but no one should get carried away by the passes in that video. Most of them have three things in common; they are easy to spot, easy to complete and they occurred after Kross was given all day to decide what he wanted to do and then to execute his decision. Of course there are occasions when Kroos earns time and space for himself and it is that ability, not the passes themselves, which set him apart as a top level player.

I thought that was what I said. :-) Paying premium prices for premium players is the right way to use financial muscle. Paying premium prices for sub-premium players is the right way to waste a lot of money, and make your rivals better.

True, but then that's always the case with every opportunity and every penny spent.

Yes it would be allowed. Players may represent a maximum of two clubs in a single season. He joined Monaco during the off-season so they have been his only club so far this term.

If the player concerned is not worth the cost of his transfer, then let them. You know what will happen if we allow our rivals to waste money on sub-premium players? They'll end up in the same fine mess Premier League clubs have dug themselves into. Never have Premier League clubs spent more money than they are doing currently, yet, relative to their continental counterparts, they are nowhere near as good as they were 10 years ago. If you simply keep spending more and more money on the same calibre of players, how do you expect to improve? In fact, over time, you will end up spending more money for worse players. This is because the clubs to which you are shelling out all of this transfer largess will use that windfall to increase the wages of the good players they want to keep. The pool of talent which is available to you will shrink and you will end up paying higher transfer fees for a lower rank of footballer. Money works for football clubs if they invest it wisely.

The point I was making is that if our squad builders share your opinion that James is worth £60 million then, fine, go-ahead and make the deal. If however, they think that the man is overpriced for what he offers, then that shouldn't change simply because they have a load of Chinese money they weren't expecting.

I think that the presumed Oscar money is a non-argument. If James wasn't worth €70 million before we had the Oscar cash, then he isn't suddenly worth it now. What's the point collecting a good fee, if all you do then is blow it on a player you don't consider to be worth the cost of his transfer? The primary factors to consider are; does the manager want the player, and does the player warrant the size of transfer fee likely to be negotiated. The only way the Oscar deal should come into the equation is if we always believed James to be worth his fee, but we could not previously afford it. If that's the situation, then fine. I say again however, if James wasn't thought worth €70 million to Chelsea before then he still isn't worth it now, no matter how much we get for Oscar.

If we are looking at him, I hope we are looking at him for the first team squad. Kessie is about 50% of my ideal squad upgrade. The player I want might be out there but if he is, I don't know him. I do know what he plays like however. He has the power and athleticism of Kessie along with the two-footed poise and technical quality of Badelj. Sadly, even if we found such a player, we wouldn't get him; Real or Barça would snap him up.

Depending on the role he is projected to play, I think there is room for debate on his skill level. He is quite clumsy at times and occasionally misses even the easiest passes. I do like him though.

ME gets far more criticism that he deserves. None of us (not even me! 😊) has perfect football judgement. Anyone who accepts the responsibility for squad building decisions will make mistakes. People who believe, or pretend, otherwise are mistaken. What is easier to control, and what people who get it wrong are more quickly to be blamed for, is building relationships with their work colleagues and subordinates. Just because it pleases some internet bandits to imagine that Eminalo is a fool does not make it so. I would bet every penny I own that he would not be so stupid as to force a first team squad member on a manager who simply does not want that player. Adding a young player to the loan army, in the hope that he might develop and impress the manager at some future point, is one thing, but imposing an unwanted footballer on the first team is quite another. If Antonio is adamant that he does not want a player, that player won't be foisted on him. For example, it is quite clear that the club believed in De Bruyne, Luiz and Lukaku. Jose did not want to use them however so the club, against its own wishes, acceded to the requests of the players and allowed them to leave. What goes on around the first team squad the club can, and should, control. Rather than forcing first team players on a reluctant manager however, you'd be better off just sacking him. No one is going to sack Antonio any time soon.

Spot on.

Interesting. If this is true then it should be the decisive comment on the Rodriguez to Chelsea story.

The disagreement I would mention here is over what you say about his technique. To me it seems better than decent. In fact I would call it outstanding. As I said earlier, if he joins, I think he would instantly become the most technically able player in our squad. Have you watched any all touches videos of Laxalt? I definitely think that is worth doing and there are some available. From watching him, I have formed the opinion that too many of his involvements come to nothing because of the decisions he makes. You may see this differently of course. If his technique was less good I might argue that he should be ruled out for that reason. With such excellent technique however it's hard to avoid wanting to take another look.

That's hard to determine without knowing the details of the accounts and the club never release those. The public accounts tell us virtually nothing about what's really going on, and more importantly about why it's going on. For example, we are buying ourselves out of one kit deal so that we can sign another, more lucrative one. Has the club decided to pay some, or all, of the buyout fee during the financial year being reported? If so, these figures actually strengthen our position in the transfer market, because our future results will be improved, and the costs of any January transfers will be spread over those future results. Of course the possibility I've described above is just speculation on my part. It does show however that the profit and loss accounts don't really give the information needed to make a judgement about the strength, or otherwise, of our club's transfer muscle.