King Kante

My money is on AC being his partner. I say this because a) AC is the only one of the three that knows how to play the offside trap and b ) it looks like the club think he has a lot of potential and don't want to lose him. Of the current unholy trinity of Zouma, Rudi and AC. My money is on Zouma being sold as he would still command a decent fee and I am not sure he has any chance of developing further as he has essentially been playing the same way since he was 19.

I think Merson as a person is actually all right, he obviously had his demons but I reckon if you met him in the street he is someone that you would be able to have a bit of a laugh with. However, he is a very bad pundit.

Not too sure about two years but on a free and if he is dropping his wages to circa 70k a week, it won't be a disaster.

Yeah, I think from our perspective it is not that Chilwell is a bad player, it is more that he is overpriced and there are a number of other players out there that could do a similar job for a lot less cash.

My policy when it comes to Paul Merson is to do the opposite of what he says. In other news some Italian sources are saying their may be some sort of Skriniar and Kante swap in the works. Not sure if it is BS but thought I would report.

Yeah, a few of us have watched him quite a lot and been on Foxestalk to see what LCFC fans think. This pretty much sums it up.

Is this bloke reliable? Either way, Chilwell has looked done for the past few days so hardly out of the blue reporting.

Why would Sarr sign for us then go out on loan? Further, why would we sign another CB who needs loaning when we have just got the Dutch kid from Barca and we have Tomori and Ampadu that look like they will be loaned too. Sounds like nonsense to me.

Agree. What needs to be considered at the moment is that there is no real CB where we can all go, 'yes, let's get him and we're sorted'. At the moment, the two expensive options are Rice and Upa. However, as you say Rice hasn't really played at CB and Upa can still be rash, whilst he has a €42m buyout next season. For that reason, Upa has to be seen as a Summer 2021 signing and Rice is just plain difficult owing to his contract situation, nationality and because he is playing for Wet Spam. Waiting another year on both of those two make a lot of sense as both can continue to develop and waiting a year isn't going to raise Rice's price much, whilst Upa actually becomes cheaper. After that, we have the situation were finances need to be thought about. For sure, we have some money because of Hazard, Luiz, Morata then the sale of loan players like Pasalic, Hector, Da Silva, Kalas etc. However, we also have a lot of dregs that are bleeding us. That means we cannot go completely crazy as Werner (£47m), Chilwell(£50m), Ziyech (£37m) and Havertz (£80m) is £215m'ish. For me, after Havertz and Chilwell we need 1xCB and 1xGK. Obviously in an ideal world it would be Oblak and Gimenez/Upa or something but it isn't realistic. For that reason, I would be ok with Silva and say Foster and say Summer 2021 is when we fix CB, GK and possibly DM as the problems with the squad atm are so vast, it was never being done in 1 window.

The PL is so popular because it is competitive not because it has individual teams that are the best per se. However, having a league where one or two teams that crush the rest of the league isn't popular outside of its own market as it is boring. That is why the PL rakes in serious ££££ in comparison to every other league.

I Oblak is virtually impossible. As Vesper has pointed out if he signed a four/five year deal and we couldn't shift Kepa, then we are looking at close to half a Bill on GK's alone. That is madness.

I see Pope getting mentioned a lot, however I think it is more hassle than it is worth. I mean seriously, does anyone think having him in a changing room with so many young men is a good idea?

I am not really worried about Silva for a year and think he makes a lot of sense. I say this because as a CB pace isn't actually all that important if you're positional play and reading of the game is good (this is also partly the reason I give AC some leeway compared to Rudi and Zouma who are poor at this but have pace.) The only time it causes real issues is when 1) You play a high line (this could happen next year) 2 ) Your pace completely drops off, this happened to JT at the start of the title winning season but I think he was 36/37 (however as Silva was a quicker player this shouldn't be as drastic.) 3) You get caught in 2 on 1 situations, however these normally lead to shots on goal anyway. Obviously this isn't a medium or long term solution but with the issues we have it isn't a bad band aid. As for the other signings, Chilwell looks like he is coming. I know his reported fee is lower (£50m) than it looked at one point but, boy, I just do not rate the kid. Sure, he is usable but there isn't anything about him that makes me think 'wow' so at the reported prices of others I would've just gone for one of the other LB's on the market. That said, I will shut up about him now until October and hope he proves me wrong in that he is a slightly above average PL LB. Hopefully Havertz will get over the line as that signing will be the most exciting since Hazard. After that it will need to be GK without any question. Here I am also happy to roll with someone like Foster if it means we can get someone better down the line. That said, if Martinez's situation at Le Arse goes south, I think we should make a serious play for him as he wouldn't break the bank and was seriously impressive once he came in for Leno. After that the concern will be the dregs, there are now so many. Hopefully we will get some takers as I would put it at about 11 players that need to go: Kepa, Emerson, Baba, Zappa, Moses, 1 x Rudi/Zouma/AC (pick your poison), Barkley, Baka, Drinky, Kenedy, Batsh*t That is also before you get to players like Kante and Jorgi who are good but have questions over their positions.

Hary Mc currently be like: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=14PgWitIbSk

Just coming to post this too. Looks like Willian has been hitting the crack pipe.

The international calendar is ridiculous. About half of those games could easily be taken away without any loss to anyone. 7 Nations League/friendly games in 2.5 months is just ludicrous.

Apparently he went to headbutt a young lad that was shouting abuse at him but owing to him being slightly worse for wear and the sheer scale of his forehead, he mistimed it and hit 14 policemen all at the same time. People at the scene saying to was akin the the Beirut explosion.

Is Mbuyamba first team ready or is he one to loan out?

Do I need to? I think the poster in question is digging enough of a grave without any help.

Atalanta would probably be a good fit for him as Zapata is sort of similar but with better football intelligence. For me, I want a straight sale, as whilst the league is slower there, Italian defences are much more savvy at playing forwards offside and we all know that Batsh*t is seemingly unaware of what the offside rule is.

Everywhere Batsh*t has gone he has played as he had at Chelsea i.e. zero all round game, always offside but will stick the ball in the net if you get the ball in the box and he has kept himself onside (about a 50/50 at best he has done so.) Batsh*t is the prime example of why you should never judge a player by stats and youtube clips alone. Anyone that watches him properly knows he has super low football intelligence and that he has shown zero development in this regard for 4-5 years. As for Alonso, as has been stated his speed is the issue. However, when you dominate 60%+ of the possession he is fine as he doesn't really need to track back. As for your points, no he isn't going to be beating a man with skill but his positional play going forward is pretty good. An example of this was the Dippers at home where he kept on getting in behind them. Only reason he didn't get two assists was because Batsh*t headed wide and Mount blazed over, both times he put in perfect balls to the players. So, yes whilst his crossing isn't TAA style, he does know how to play balls in (these are usually more between the lines than crosses.) This is also borne out in his stats where he has pretty high assists levels for a LB/LWB when it comes to minutes played. Defending he is one of the few players we have that can actually head the ball so at set pieces, so he is handy against bigger physical teams, in one on one's he isn't that great but again, if you have him in against the bottom half of the PL and non-top teams in Europe, he isn't that big of an issue as they have far fewer attacks. Another thing with him is that he actually scores at a high rate for a LB/LWB so going forward you have to say he good. As me and Tomo are arguing there is no disagreement that we need a new LB to play as a LB in a 4 and especially against the top teams as we need someone who can defend better, however Alonso as LB2 is a pretty good option. Personally, looking around the league I would say he would possibly be the best LB2 in the league unless that new kid form Greece that the Dippers have picked up is very good.

Alonso is miles above that level of player. The only reason Alonso isn't considered a very good/excellent player is due to speed. Virtually all of his bad points are to do with him being to slow to recover. You play him in a 343 then he is pretty good. The problem is when he is asked to play in a back 4.

1) Let's see who actually takes those players. Press links are one thing, actually selling the player is another. Especially when it comes to fees. 2) On top of Harvetz and a LB, we desperately need a GK, CB and probably a DM also, so those need to be sorted first before any LB2. 3) Alonso is actually that bad, as a LB2 he is perfectly fine. He can play 15-20 games a season against lower ranked opposition and not be a problem. If we get a good offer for him (unlikely) then sure, upgrade him. However, it is a massive problem and certainly a smaller one than some of the other areas.

As others have said buying two LB's in one window is troblesome as one of the players will only play 20-30% of the time and struggles to settle. As slow as Alonso is, he isn't completely dire and there have been occasions this season where he has bailed us out. Starting Alonso against the likes of Sheff Utd, WBA, Fulham, Brighton, Newcastle etc is not an issue. For sure, do not start him against City or a Bayern/super quick teams. Alonso for me is a flawed player but the way some people go on you would think he is Baka/Batsh*t bad and that just isn't the case. PS, we aren't finding anyone to tale on his £100k a week wages, let alone pay us a fee on top.

Three of those players are close to impossible in the next two/three windows. Oblak and Gimenez are too expensive and if you're doing over £100m on Gimenez you may as well just go for a De Ligt or Varane or something. Rice's contract makes him unlikely also, so unless West Ham are ready to take some serious dregs that are way overpaid, he is also tough. Kante imo is a 50/50 to being here, I reckon one good offer takes him as we need to free up some CM positions. As for the current squad, I do not see Mount getting dropped anytime soon and I think any new GK is going to have to be budget as Kepa is a massive drain on finances even if we loan him out as he will be something like no loan fee plus 50%+ of his wages.