Mhsc

Oh dear. Probably he had a license from Ecuador but you can only use a foreign license for like a year in the UK I think and then you have to sit and do the test. He's probably been driving without a valid license for like 4 years... No idea how he was even getting insured (or if he was insured). 23 years old and can't get the basics of his life together... Not a good look tbh.

That was the rationale for many of our woeful big money forward signings though. They all hampered us for years afterwards and were very difficult situations to get out of. At the risk of going through this entire debate again, it is very possible (perhaps even probable) we will just end up with a very expensive player who doesn't do a lot for us, and end up in an even worse situation than we're in now. And then we will look back and condemn the sporting directors for blowing everything on a player with one elite season in his career, persistent injury problems, and who's main motivation is openly and transparently exclusively about maximising his wealth. I think the argument for someone like Delap is not that they might be able to do it in 2-3 years but that a guy who scores 12 PL goals (so far) for Ipswich, massively outperforming his xG scoring from basically nothing, if placed in a team that creates way more opportunities he maybe can already do a 20 PL goal season. And at a much lower risk to our ability to succeed over the next few years if it goes wrong. From the expensive options, Isak would be my pick, at least he has shown he can do it in PL and there is something to be said for the strategy of aggressively going after elite PL players as they emerge no matter the cost (a strategy that back in time did Man Utd very well, and more recently Man City did really well).

Haaland is indeed perhaps the only exception I can think of in world football where you might justify spending big money on him despite very obvious limitations, although its interesting that City have collapsed this year, in a way they have never collapsed in all of the years in which they had more complete players up top.

Agreed. In general I don't want any of the Vlahovics of the world unless we're picking them up on very favourable deals. The pure-finisher type like him can fall off a cliff too easily, when the only thing being provided is finishing and they go through a bad spell at their only elite skill... Basically become a passenger. Sometimes they stay a passenger for years, or just never get it back to the level required. We've signed endless strikers like that over the years and they never work out over the long term. I'd really like to see us only spend big on players who can be a menace even when they're not scoring, and improves us just by being on the field and going about their craft. If we sub out NJ for a pure goal scorer it will net out at 0 improvement probably (or maybe we get worse). Liam Delap is one of various interesting options although I'm sure you have a thorough list on this already.

Tell that to Arsenal fans, they despised him and still don't rate him Our fans would turn on him in <6 months

To be fair, in nearly all of our successful periods we played quite tedious football Perhaps the double under Carlo was the only exception really.

Nkunku reminds me of Claudio Pizarro. Just totally disappointing.

So many decent keepers have been available since Courtois left, we've briefly had an in form Mendy thanks to Cech's recommendation, but otherwise its basically all been dross. I can barely even remember the relaxed feeling you have when you know you will very likely only concede goals that are unstoppable shots. Quite remarkable how bad we are as a club at picking them. And at overspending on the ones we do sign, fighting absolutely no one for their overpriced signatures, but paying top dollar anyway.

Why? They are 12th with nothing to play for. I think we can certainly win, for all our problems, we are still favourites vs Brentford (even if they did have something to play for).

Shame Caicedo didn't get that goal - unbelievable performance from him as usual. Baffled that anyone does not rate this guy. Imo he's the most likeable player in the squad by far from a fan PoV, puts everything on the line for us game after game. Always turns up and steps up when others do not. There is nothing I dread more than him picking up an injury or a suspension - we just don't have enough to get by without him imo.

Good news all around.

Yes, seems like it is both true that the rules are quite clear on it, and also that there are methods to get around it based essentially on technicalities https://weaintgotnohistory.sbnation.com/2025/4/1/24398332/blueco-to-put-rc-strasbourg-into-trust-should-they-qualify-for-champions-league-alongside-Chelsea So, we can do it as long as we give up control of Strasbourg for a while, and stop doing business between the clubs while they are both in CL. That would probably completely destroy Strasbourg's hopes for doing well though, and defeat the purpose for us from a sporting PoV (although financially very lucrative for BlueCo)

Surely his salary is being cut in half if he stays, we're not paying full whack now and that must have been part of the agreement from the beginning (we just don't pay that sort of money for anyone now) Even despite that, probably wouldn't bother with him at £125k pw. He's just not well suited to PL.

I wondered about this as well! I think there is some rule that says that in this scenario, only one club can play in the competition, and the spot goes to whoever finished the highest in their respective league - and the other club gets dropped to Europa. If its equal, there is a convoluted series of tiebreakers including GD.

Very exciting to have Santos coming back, before Xmas I was a bit skeptical he would actually come back and play, when we were in a brief moment where everyone was fit, it was hard to imagine him displacing more expensive signings. But seeing how he's kicked on and maintained a high level I think there is a real case that he could win and hold down a spot, I think every MF we have except for Caicedo should certainly consider him a very immediate threat to their playing time.

My feeling is they probably didn't start the season with a specific target for him of top 4, but after seeing us in 2nd and even now being in 4th, it has become a clear target in both the fans, manager, players, directors, and owners eyes surely. So whether it was a formal target at the beginning of the season or not, it is now de facto a target because it is totally in grasp and it will be a bottle job if we give it up this close to the end of the season.

Um, I find it hard to oppose him publicly pointing out the blatant racism he experiences, whenever he experiences it, and it being investigated and dealt with. I would in fact consider it more like a model behaviour, that other players should by all means follow if they experience the same - visibility is surely only a good thing. If you don't want to engage with it then don't, but he surely is right and completely free to point it out. Just because you lost a game of football does not mean you have to silently put up with racism. I think it is extremely cynical and unrealistic to think he deliberately tried to change the narrative around a poor performance by jumping on these posts. He has lost plenty of games in his career and had plenty of shit performances.

In a totally separate thread in an in game chat where I mentioned that I was not unhappy that Cole was getting angry on the field, which you were apparently annoyed at. You said something about how he should not do that unless he can "do it all for us" I said he did it for a year and has the earned the right to get annoyed when things are going badly and ask for higher standards from those around him No where there did I say we should not ever criticise his performance on the field and him not scoring but I guess you took a note that someone had a different opinion to you and just waited for some kind of vaguely related situation to bring it up to try to attack me over it lmao. Bit sad. I just don't mind if he gets pissed off on the field. He should be pissed off when we're not winning, at himself as much as everybody else, which is how I read his reaction. I want to see him and more players getting pissed off when we're not winning.

Disagree. He is one of the few we have that is a real competitor with a bit of edge to him. He started to find his feet finally learning how to play as more of an 8. He has a high ceiling and will enter his prime in a year or two. Given what we paid for him and where we've finally got to with him it would be silly to sell him unless its for a fee that nobody would ever pay...

What's got you so excited? I know nothing about the man - just glancing at stats, vs other midfielders he looks like a pure destroyer with minimal technical skill. Such players usually end up perpetually in the loan army until being sold on at a loss. Have you watched the guy a lot to know better? Or is he not actually destined for CM? Hard to get excited about this one for me, maybe on the eye test he shows something different?

I do not know anything about these kids but its interesting we're randomly spending a decent chunk of money in March. Maybe the club are trying to get business done much earlier than in prior years? If I could have one wish it would be to get all business done every year before the main preseason tour starts abroad, so players can get a decent amount of time together learning about each other and learning the manager's system. That said I assume these kids wont even make a preseason tour until 2026 at the earliest?

Every single one of them We'd be midtable without him

Yeah, still, I doubt we can hold them. They are great at set pieces and the darks of football, two things this squad is young and naive at. If we can have Fofana, Lavia and Reece James all fit for it, and Cole finds his form, we could definitely make it a real game and maybe win. Best hope in truth is they mentally check out of the title race at this point and take their foot off the gas...

A little glimpse that this group can win ugly if they need to... Funny we are 4th now but when you look at the table it wouldn't be totally crazy for us to finish anywhere from 2nd-9th from here. Very little between the top 10 both in terms of points and quality, aside from Liverpool.

That and doing coke are the rumours I heard... We wont know until some biographies come out I imagine!