King Kante

Tbf, I hadn't realised Reece had played so many minutes. If someone had asked me I would've guessed at sub-1400. Well, it looks like that idea was shot down. My idea was based on best long term benefit as I just do not want to see Reece wasting a season only getting half the minutes he could else where as Dave will play all the time still. I understand Dave is getting on a bit but he is one if those people you know will still be able to run marathon at 50, so I do not reckon his decline will come as early as most RB's.

The thing with the States though, is as a club we only need an incredibly small proportion of them to start becoming Chelsea/Puli followers to absolutely coin it in. This is owing to their income levels and also the nature of advertising income in the States. Just out of interest, as I have recently started in the past 5 years or so to get into the NFL, what is your feeling about participation in A.Football at junior/youth level? Is it starting to tape off or has the whole concussion thing been overblown? If it hasn't would you say football/soccer participation is starting to increase?

They must be. They haven't even got CL next year unless they win it this year.

Kepa is on record as saying that he only got contacted by Chelsea about two weeks prior to the transfer. That tells me he wasn't fully planned for. When big transfers happen they are usually ongoing for months so the player can prepare themselves to move country which involves new house/new schools for children/new cars etc. The rumour was Oblak turned us down due to us only going to him so late and he didn't want to go through the upheaval (although this is only a rumour.) Further, Kepa in January 18 had an £18m buyout, so he was clearly not a target for us or we thought of him that highly at that point as otherwise we should've done one of our buy to loan specials. Further, at that point he was apparently on under €10k a week. Everything about the Kepa transfer points to a panic buy and a particularly insane one at that.

Needs a two year loan to a PL side. This season was an exception. What you really need to do with the young boys is to try and get them to about 100-150 games by the age of 22/23. Gallagher looks like a good player but the worst thing for him is to end up only playing 10-15 games a season for the next two years.

We cannot play 442/424 with our midfielders. To play that formation you need hardcore runners to play in there who can intercept. Kante is virtually the only player we have that could do it, Mount and Kova are maybes if they adapt their games and improve their physical build and learn to tackle/intercept better. If we switch to that then: Jorgi, Gilmour, Barkley and RLC are all virtually redundant.

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.