King Kante

Honestly, he should be sacked for style alone.

Benfica won't be easy if we decide to keep playing sideways and backwards all the time.

Can turn a lesbian straight, I have heard Vesper 😉🫣😅

I fucking hate 'Marescaball' with an absolute passion.

I did and thought he was in and out of the game and got handled pretty well by the Porto defence. The POTM seemed a bit weird to me. The Porto teenager Moira was much more involved in the game and Palmires had other players that where better - Gomez for me was their best player. However, I saw that at this tournament POTM is out for public voting. Felt a little like the social media fanatics all voted for him. *Although I do want to say I am not shi*ing on the kid, just that he still seems quite raw. Additionally, he didn't have a bad game, just that there were clearly players better than him yesterday.

Well knowing the kind of players they target I won't be surprised if he gets an injury in the next couple of weeks that rules him out for most of next season. Not that it will stop them from buying him of course...

Sanchez Gusto Trev Colwill Cucu Lavia Caicedo Palmer Enzo Jackson Delap That can switch to a 4222, a 433 or a 4231. Obviously a bit risky throwing Jackson out to LWF but I think he played there a bit before he came here and I would like to see him playing with Delap. If he doesn't play, then make it Neto. James I left out due to his England minutes. Palmer and Trev may also need to be rested/rotated. Noni I expect to see later in the tournament or as a sub for Palmer.

Gila looks like the profile that would work well for us. However, I haven't seen him play. Anyone know if he is actually any good?

Not really expecting Messi off the bat - I really did not say that. However, the Porto players where able to deal with him easily from a physical point of view. My concern is he comes here and gets the Reyes treatment and decides England isn't for him if he comes too early more than anything. As I said, he looks like he needs to work on the physical side of the game still from my limited 60 mins of watching him - additionally I always say I need to see a player for 10 full games before I make a judgement (although I did not reiterate that above tbf) so my above post of heavily caveated with seeing how he goes over the next three games (as I suspect they will get to the last 16) and any preseason games we have(?) He is clearly talented. However, minutes to develop are always important at 18-21 years old so it is an important consideration.

Estevao did not look PL ready to me. That is the first time I have seen him in action but it looked to me like he still needs to fill out and get more of a feel for the game. I would be tempted to send him to France, Germany or Portugal for a year first if he continues like this is the CWC and pre-season. Not saying he looks shit of anything but he looks like he will physically be pocketed by a lot of FB/WB's in the PL on today's viewing.

Uptake at the lower costs is still not pulling people in apprantly. The pricing I do not feel is an issue as the reductions have clearly not done enough in terms of pulling people in. Real are apprantlly the only team with expected uptake. Some of the minor teams/games of teams that aren't in Europe or South America are also meant to be really poor. Rather as this is a new tournament it should've been held in a location where the locals would've been most up for it to fill the stadiums and build the spectacle. This is pretty much what happened in 1930. The European teams weren't keen and it required Uruguay to step in.

This tournament really should've been held in South America. Especially the first edition where a lot of people aren't sure about it. Every game would've sold out and had a good atmosphere.

For me the most important thing this window is to get two starting level CB's. For me, Colwill is the only starting level guy we have and Trev is good as a rotational option (although he is almost certainly going to be sold.) For me, our single biggest issues are that Caicedo isn't a proper DM (as he plays best when he has Lavia next to him as he can then go hunting the ball. and our CB's aren't good enough when we don't have enough of the ball. As for CF, I am quite happy with Delap. I know a lot of people want someone with puffed up numbers in other leagues but I just don't see the risk with the likes of VO, Gyokeres and Etikeke being worth it. Gyokeres when I watch him makes me realise why Brighton cut him loose at 21-23. He cannot really head and he needs a lot of space to score. For me, he has disaster written all over him. VO for me also has a lot of red flags. One thing with Conte is that he is pretty pragmatic with players unless he feels like they love money more than the game or are difficult in training. From all accounts VO is both and his stats aren't even great when you consider the level of opposition he has faced. Etikeke on the other hand looks like a typical Bundesliga striker that is good with space and not having much contact. If anyone is doing big money for a CF the only people I see worth the risk is Alverez or Isak and they're both impossible. As for GK I am not so sure why so many people have gone on suicide watch over it. I still think a deal for Mike will be done. We are just playing hardball and need to shift Kepa, Petro and find loans for Jorgensen and Penders (unless Penders does enough to justify a 2/3rd role where he can get some experience in the domestic cups and play U21.) After that, we can revist Mike, as if we do that it gives us a little more leeway with the books and if he really does want to come to us he can spend the next few weeks in the Milan boards ear. As for AM, I am just not seeing anyone out there that I am thinking we have to sign. Firstly, Gittens to me feels like a bullet dodged, Garnacho feels over priced and problematic, Williams and Rodrygo would smash the wage structure. For me, I personally want Rogers but that is a tricky one that will likely involve various swaps. My hope is that can be done a bit later in the window. At the moment, I think people just need to see how things go. There are still two months to get stuff done and this small window was always going to be problematic in getting players in as other clubs knew our CWC participation whilst they have nothing. Only real current arguments that can be had for this window is that the bloated squad leaves us with a lot to do with regards to trimming the squad.

Penders is 20 in July.

I perfer Garnacho than Gittens. Gittens has another Bundesliga bust written all over him. That said, I also don't want Garnacho either but if it has to be one of them, I would rather him.

Sanchez isn't good enough but I do understand why the club refused to go higher on MM. Essentially, they're drawing a line in the sand with regard to PL tax. I think this will be revisited post-CWC as Milan now have a GK who doesn't want to be there and the £10-£12.5m is the best they're going to get. Additionally, from my reading of the Tournament we have a fairly light ride to the QF then most likely run into PSG. Sanchez or Petro aren't costing us that game as Enzo will have us camped out in our 18 yard boxes pasing sideways and backwards all game. As the speed PSG play at will give him hives. As a result, playing Petro or Sanchez at the CWC kind of makes sense. If they won't cost us and ideally they can raise their profile a bit so we can shift one of them before revisiting MM later in the Window. As for Gittens. I am glad that hasn't gone through.

Anyone who has seen my posts about Sanchez knows I am not a fan. But equally fuck Milan. If I were the board I would just roll into the CWC with our current set of GK's and tell them we'll take Mike next year on a free like Madrid would do. If they came back I would say £18m but you buy Jorgensen for £17m.

Quarters should really be a minimum with the draw we got. I am actually quite interested in this competition. It will be fun to see some us play new teams. My only concern is how it affects us next season.

I think him and Trev will be the 'money makers' this Summer.

Great, but we will need to sell at least two more GK's after Kepa. Petro looks like he will go as he had a good season in France and has a couple of teams interested, but after that we need to have one of Jorgensen or Sanchez go as well as we can't be carrying so many as if they end up GK3 their value will plummet. Maybe send Jorgensen to Strasborg?

Gittens to me looks like someone who flatters to decieve. Firstly he strikes me as a player who is best when he physically out matches people, but can do a good step over and dribble reasonably well so people overrated his technical skills when it is more to do with being faster and stronger. Second, he looks like he needs a lot of space to be effective which is not not happening in the PL. Third, he is an AM who got dropped in the Bundesliga for not producing enough. For me, he has too many red flags and seems similar to a RLC type character where because he 'looks like a player' everyone thinks with a bit more experience and maturity he will 'fulfil his potential'. If he is something like £30m plus some add on's and takes a reasonable wage, I will be fine with it as he always has the English tax we can leverage later. However, I don't see why we would replace him with any of the AM's we have on the payroll already with the exception of Mudryk. For instance, I rate Noni above this guy and half suspect Noni is going to be flushed for a profit but have a better next couple of seasons and we hope we can have him follow a similar projection to Noni so we can flush him in two years time.

Not really.

Good to see Kepa going. Even if the fee is low. However, we still have to shift the following: Disaster Badi Hall D.Fofana Nkunku That is before we get to players like: Jorgensen/Sanchez Tosin W.Fofana Who should go if we get any sort of decent fee/loan option. As for transfers, I want to see more CB's being linked. Overpriced AM's and CF's can wait. After that it is GK.

Kepa is still up there for me. £74m for a funsized GK who is mid-to-low level PL standard.

Liked the Delap signing. Liked the links to the Benfica CB. Liked the Mike M link. Hate the Bundesliga links.