King Kante

Actually Kepa hasn't ever been that good. Go watch some of his Athletic games and look at the stats, he wasn't pulling up trees there either. What happened, in my opinion, is that they did three things with him. These were; 1) Made the mistake and assume that he would improve his game rather than stagnate. 2) Looked at his La Liga cross collection stats and thought it would translate to the PL - surprisingly his cross collection rate was fairly decent at Athletic. 3) Looked at his top saves in isolation a got overly excited by how agile he looked. To be honest, the Kepa deal raises a lot of questions. I say this as he had only played 56 career games, he is clearly tiny for a PL GK, his stats where mediocre when we brought him and his buy out and wages where insane. For me Kepa was most likely brought because someone on the board seriously fu*ked up with Tibo, in that they thought they could get him to stay and hadn't seriously pressed the scouts to look for a GK. I said it a little while ago but Kepa is going down as the biggest waste of money transfer ever for us. He is a complete and utter dud.

I rate Coman so it would be a good signing. However, there are a lot of Utd fans that are absolutely obsessed with Sancho. If this did happen, it would probably mean he wouldn't be going. If that happened you would hear tens of thousands muppet hearts breaking at once.

Problem is Dave is the Captain and super consistent. James does not just need to be better but much better to replace him. In my opinion, if James stays here next season he will only start 20-30% of our games. Hence, why I think he may be better off on loan to get a full season. I am not writing James off, I just want to ensure he gets minutes and I do not think he gets enough here next season. Be happy to be proved wrong.

I agree completely. I think after Harvetz, it is going to be highly likely we are going to need to sell before we can buy again. Personally at GK we just need someone competent atm and it will be a massive upgrade. So, in that position we do not need to be spending crazy sums on Oblak (unless we can get some sort of crazy deal.) At this point, I would just be happy with a Ben Foster on a free if Watford get relegated, even though he isn't amazing. At LB, there are enough going at sub-£30m to make you think we can get something done. Telles, Gosens or even Tags (who I am not that sold on) are an improvement on Emerson. CB is going to be the tricky area. Not many about and a lot super over priced or questionable. Club are going to have to take a risk here i.e. Rice and hope he converts/Gimenez and hope he stays fit/P.Toress and hope he kicks on and adapts to the league/KK and hope he doesn't fall off a cliff in his early 30's/Dunk and hope he can step up to the pressure of a top 4 club/Vertongen on a free and hope he covers for a year. As for DMF, I think this is where Rice will actually be played if he signs. This in my opinion only happens if we sell one of Kante/Jorgi and get a minimum of £40m for Jorgi and £70m for Kante and a cheaper CB is brought. As a result, I think GK can be solved with a free transfer/small fee (£10m'ish), LB can be solved under £30m. After that it is CB which will be anywhere from free-£80m, pick you poison. That means we have to raise between £30-£120m depending on what you want to do. The bottom end is very possible, the top end a stretch. Rice, if he is to go in as a DMF, is virtually impossible without Kante being sold imo.

To be honest, I do not think we will buy a player from AM this year but rather that I think AM need to raise a bit if cash and Gimenez or Partey could be one of the ones that may possibly leave. I really rate Partey but I reckon the club have their sights on Rice.

I do think AM have to sell a player. We are probably in a position where we can leverage them owing to the Morata money. Tbh, I cannot see Oblak unless they have completely lost the plot and agree to no paying up for Morata plus Kepa (not going to happen.) After that, I reckon Gimenez or Partey are possible.

I have been thinking about the RB position for next season and was wondering if it may be wise to loan out James to a PL side for experience and bring back Zappa as RB2. My thinking here is as follows: 1) Dave is the captain and he looks like he will continue to start 70-80% at RB next season. 2) Zappa wasn't actually that bad, he just never got a look in. When he played, I thought he was ok as he offered more pace than Dave but still didn't have any brain fart moments. 3) I rate James really highly but he looks like he still needs more experience. My feeling is that for his own development he is better getting a full season in rather than battling (and probably losing to) Dave. 4) Zappa, as his knee went is essentially a sunk cost, James would pick up a reasonable loan fee. For me, with the consistency of Dave, Zappa may as well sit on the bench for a financial point of view as well as a developmental one.

I wish someone had spoken to this Sociedad fan first.

Yeah, maybe. The defence does need a hell of a lot of work.

Harvetz looks done. Way too much noise around it. Only way he doesn't come here is if he pulls a fast one like Willian did to Spuds. As for Benarhma, surely he is being lined up for the AM4 position if Willian doesn't re-sign.

So far, we have the following squad line up for CM, AM and CF if Harvetz signs (fyi I am predicting him to play No.8/No.10 here): CM: Kante, Kova, Jorgi, Barkley, Mount, Harvetz, RLC, Gilmour AM: Puli, CHO, Ziyech CF: Werner, Giroud, Tammy For me, that looks good but is slightly unbalanced. I know Mount and Harvetz can play wide but I seriously see them in No.8/No.10 positions. That for me means we will still need 1 x AM (Willian extention/AM4) for the squad. At CM, we are way too heavy. I would say with Harvetz in, that will require two to go. My money is on Barkley and Jorgi (or Gilmour gets loaned). Line ups will be: 433 Kante Harvetz. Mount/Kova Ziyech. Werner. Pulisic 4231 Kante. Kova Ziyech. Harvetz. Pulisic Werner My only worry about this team is how lightweight it looks. For me, we may require a more physical DMF/No.4 as I can see us getting bullied even in a double pivot. However, that then raises questions about Kante being sold, which I cannot see happening.

Yeah, you are right. The amount of times I had to tell a certain breed of Kepa supporter that the save against Watford wasn't akin to Banks v Brazil was unbelievable. Honestly, this whole Kepa situation has made me realise how stubborn people can be. All the evidence there is on him clearly shows a poor GK, however because people previously said he was good/great they feel the need to defend the indefensible.

Tbf, the manager by the sounds of it just tells them to go out and sort it out between themselves like Cech, JT, Lord Percy, Ash, Ballack, him and Drogba used to do.

Thing with those stats is that they were before his Sheff Utd I believe, since then he has conceded 8 goals from 11 shots. Further, if you go to top 8 leagues it is sub 145 out of 152.

Yep, you're right. I was reading something on Torres and thought they were trams mates.

Shouldn't we be aiming for a player like Diego Carlos instead, as Valencia actually need to sell and he can stay fit? He is probably the physically strongest CB in La Liga.

Very good player but this is a very high risk transfer with the fee being banded about and his injury record.

Yes, lets see. Personally, I think Willian is gone. Rumour mill has him being offer £200k+ a week at Le Arse for three years. It will be hard for him to turn that down if it is true.

As far as I am aware he plays No.10 whenever. Essentially the No.10 shirt, as far as I understand, in the US is always given to the best attacking player. Although, US sports have a myriad of numbers used, typically US players will revert to traditional numbers for older sports/sports with established numbering. For me, he will get whatever No. He wants as he is by far and away the most commercially lucrative player we have had since I can remember. You may be right in that he will try to make something of 22 but my feeling is that he will go to 10 when it opens up.

A lot of it is to do with Kepa. We have only conceded the 3rd least amount of shots on target. Kepa has statistically let in 13 more goals than an average GK would've done on similar shots. After that, it is the CB's as ours are: AC: Mentally and physically weak. Zouma: Naive with his positioning and clumsy. Rudiger: Very low football IQ and rash. Tomori: Raw and over plays in dangerous positions.

CHO was impressive last night. He showed he still has a good level of pace, which I was worried about due to his injury, he showed good feet and he made the right decisions. I have always maintained that he was over hyped but he should be a good player if he buckles down. For me, next season is very important for him, he needs to at the very least get a good 20 starts and then start to push for a full time starting place by the end of the season/early 2021/22 season. The talent is there for him to be a top 4 club player (and maybe even more) but right now he needs to show the desire and consistency to show he can fulfil that potential.

I am not having any more of this nonsense about Kepa. The guy is 100% dog sh*t. No if, no buts. Dog sh*t. Yet again, we are having people say that all of the goals yesterday were not possible to save. At least two were for a decent level GK. The freekick goes in because of a combination of sh*t positioning, no anticipation and a lack of effort. I mean where exactly was he expecting him to put it? If TAA had put it in the corner like KdB then of course, no way to save it. That one went in about 0.5 meter from the post and half way up the goal. As for the 5th yet again, he gets a hand to something and yet again like the wimpy kid you put in goal when you're 10 years old because he is so crap, his wrist give way like a rent boys arse and in it goes. On the first, we yet again see the problem of having a funsized GK with t-rex arms (although this is not really his fault as he cannot do anything about it.) Then there is the constantly standing on his line like some sort of closet gimp on every single god damn ball into the box, looking like he is petrified of taking a knock. Then lets get to the stats. He is minus 13 goals on an average (note average, not good/great) GK in the league; he has saved 5 out of 18 shots on target since the restart (of those 5 at least two were ones that just rolled to him); his save percentage is now about 52% across a whole fricking season; in one on one's his save rate is about 25% were an average (note average) GK's is 50%. His statistics place him somewhere between 145-152 out of 154 GK's in Europe. He has made something like 57 saves all season (again this includes ones that just roll/flick up at him); he has faced the third least amount of shots in the league. Kepa is by far and away the worst waste of money buy ever. It is not even close. People mention Torres but he was a grafter and did a lot of work off the ball, Kepa essentially needs his defense to bail him out because if a shot goes in, it is virtually 50/50 whether he will save it which is utterly pathetic. He needs to never be seen in a Chelsea shirt again as you cannot carry a GK like you can a Bakayoko.

The problem with signing Rice is that it is pretty complicated. For me, with Harvetz coming in, we already need to get shot of Barkley (which should be possible), however when you get to Rice it means Jorgi. However, with Jorgi is he a very specific sort of player and would require a move back to Italy. However, in Italy the funds are not really there except for Juve (who do not really need him) and Inter (he is not a Conte type player.) Then we get to the issue that WHU do not need/want to sell and he had 4 years left. For that reason, I am not sure it will be possible this Summer.

I like Gimenez but he is both expensive and injury prone.

I really think we are going to lose this one. Wolves as a match up are an absolute nightmare for us as they have: 1) Jota, Traore and Jimenez who are great at springing the counter. 2) A back 3 that are very good at playing the low block 3) Neves and Moutinho standing over set pieces. On top of this, they have had a week off and they need to win to ensure they do not have to play Ropey League qualifying. At this point I reckon we need a Utd win. Before anyone says it, the 5-3 win early in the season came at a time Wolves were completely shagged out from playing Rooey League qualifying all Summer. People need to remember they started the season with 3/4 points out of 18. If they hadn't been in the Ropey League I am certain they would've qualified for the CL this year.