Mhsc

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/clywwgzv51vo Atletico Madrid have agreed an £81.5m deal to sign Manchester City forward Julian Alvarez. The fee is made up of an initial £64.4m (75m euros) with a further £17.1m (20m euros) in potential add-ons.

Atletico fans have a pretty visceral reaction to potentially losing Samu, similar to how we reacted the first time a Mason Mount leaving rumour emerged... They REALLY rate him and thought he was a huge part of their future. Lots of them saying they'd rather not do the Alvarez deal if it means Samu goes. All feels a bit OTT, but I guess we'll see for ourselves if we end up buying him. Yet another one of those guys that could be "the new Drogba" but that's probably 5 years away and what are we going to do with him for 5 years?

If someone swoops in and just pays full asking price for Osimhen and meets his salary demands then good for them tbh. HIGH risk high reward, if it works out they deserve it. Tbh if someone was going to do that you have to wonder why they didn't just do it as soon as the window opened and get him in for a full preseason? Truth is we've burnt too much money on "sure things" to go and buy another "sure thing" like Osimhen at full Napoli-tier valuations and those kind of wages. If you go back in time and stop us doing the W Fofana deal, or the Mudryk deal, or the Lukaku deal etc then sure, I would say lets go for it - might be a pivotal signing of the new ownership and take us to where they want us to go. But you can't just do those kind of deals over and over - especially when all the ones you've tried so far have been shit. Arguably only Caicedo has really been a good big money signing in a LONG time.

Seen many forwards make the move out to left wing and do a good job there, cutting in to shoot on his right, like Anelka did for us back in time but feel like this is the most natural alt position for a right footed striker no? I don't see why he couldn't do it, although of course never know until you see it. He doesn't feel like the type of guy that would duck the pressing or defensive duties that come with it. I don't think he would effortlessly win 1v1s like Noni does though, but he'd probably score plenty from out there. My gut says we don't get Osimhen though - I think the club want him on loan without obligation and Osimhen is way too proud to accept essentially a year long trial, which of course is fair enough with his reputation - but it does say something that given his price tag no one has swooped in for him... Still most top clubs with serious problems up front.

If we ALSO get Osimhen on loan then it is a pretty crazy window - the top striker everyone wishes we had but doesn't think we should spend big on unless we have proof they will work here, NJ who has insane potential and already shown it for us to a decent extent, and Samu who is a 6ft4 fucking monster truck off the bench with lots of potential too. NJ becomes an option at left wing and Mudryk is sent on loan.

Samu looks to be worse than NJ in all categories but I assume the only way to get Gallagher off to either Villa or Atletico was to agree to buy a striker they aren't fussed about in a swap deal? Doing the swap makes sense from the perspective we need a striker more than we need a midfielder, but its obviously not an upgrade. My bet would be he would be understudy to NJ, sub appearances + cup games, train with us for a year to get his name out there, loan deal in PL, sold year after for FFP profit (perhaps a real one but at least a FFP one probably)

Conor worked hard as fuck and was a servant for the club, humble, played in whatever position you asked him to without complaint, would be a squad player without complaint, ran all day at max intensity, stayed fit, saved our season last year. Happy he got a good move to a top club that will suit him and that he chose to go to Spain and play in the CL regularly to have a real career for himself. Top lad. Don't think he's one we will ever regret losing but I for one am thankful for what he did for us and proud that he came through at Chels and in the end we could find a good solution for everybody.

Pep in his first season when the media were starting to turn against him for insisting to stick to his method and let the team learn how to play out from the back

Mudryk doesn't look fit to be more than an impact sub against tired legs - if he's lucky. Very poor in 1v1s and totally failing at playing on the wing tbh. I wonder if he fancies himself playing behind the striker, given the shirt number he's taken? Bizarre.

It was the pitch last year that did Nkunku's knee while we were in US wasn't it? These USA preseason tours are terrible prep for the season...good commercially, but a USA tour travelling around every couple of days, playing/training in hot conditions they wont get in the UK, and playing on terrible pitches that again they'll never see in the UK, is just purely for money and not to actually setup the team for success. Fmpov it is one of the uglier aspects of modern football, everyone would rather make some millions in preseason than actually be well prepared for the season to start.

One of the things about losses is that suddenly everyone splurges all of their biases out and says "I told you so" using it to affirm whatever objection they have, whether it be that certain players are shit, the owners are shit, Maresca is shit, or the directors are shit, passing it out from the back is shit, not letting our fullbacks bomb forward is shit, or whatever... to some it will be final proof we should never have sold Mason Mount. Find it all quite exhausting tbh, toxic and kind of sad. Apparently, neither manager nor players are allowed to make mistakes (even in preseason): straight to the gallows for em. A bunch of people are even now after Caicedo, saying because he made a mistake and didn't play at his best in his first pre season game that he is finished, was never good enough, and of course they've been saying it all along: "I TOLD YOU HE'S SHIT". Also, everyone who screams we should not play it out from the back, what exactly do you want us to do instead?

Been a bit like a Pochettino game tbh that's all I'll say homie. Don't tune in

Sterling looks good tbf

Lots of failed experiments in that first 60 mins and some huge individual errors. We look a lot better now that Maresca has reverted to the usual system with players playing in normal positions. Hopefully we'll never see that shit again. Weird af attempt to squeeze that group of players onto the field. Reminded me of the Chilwell LW experiment by Poch tbh. Hopefully Maresca bins that forever and sticks with playing proper wingers in their natural positions.

Was wondering if anyone was going to say it... Very, very poor.

That was literally in the first few minutes of preseason for Caicedo... Remember he was a key player in De Zerbi's system and phenomenal for us last year when we had inverted fullback playing next to him. I think he and Lavia will both play better as a pivot with a player like Malo next to them though. I don't really see that we can get Enzo, Lavia and Caicedo in teh same XI and this was a WEIRD attempt at it.

This is definitely the most bizarre line up we've seen so far. Mudryk RW, Malo LW, Nkunku up top. Bit bizarre, Malo and Mudryk both look awkward playing on these sides, I wonder what the point is?

That's not true though is it. This game has had nothign to do with the system so far and everything to do with players making embarrassing school boy errors

Is that Malo LW?

Is kick off delayed or streams behind?

Not yet but you don't rush making a signing purely based on a short term fitness problem in one guy. The squad is mostly fit and we do have options: Guiu, Nkunku, and even Cole Palmer could play there as a false 9.

I don't think so, I like Marc but we are already stacked there and he is similar tier to players we already have imo

As in part of a box midfield, not in the pivot but one of the two midfielders behind the striker. I dunno whether to call it a double 10 or call them left and right 8s... It is not exactly a traditional system where the numbers make complete sense.

It is interesting Maresca has mentioned he considers Nkunku as someone who can play as a 9, a winger or an 8 but hasn't tried him anywhere other than as an 8 all preseason. I guess he considers that more of an emergency option than a serious one.

I am thrilled tbh - my main ask for the new manager was just get someone who wants to play positional football and will coach them in patterns. I think it is even more important when you have an inexperienced group. I do think a group of top, talented 25-30 year olds could still compete and maybe win PL playing non-positional football, where they just decide in every situation based on their experience and creativity what to do - but that's just not our situation. When you've got a bunch of young, inexperienced lads that are very talented but still learning the game, the only chance you have to win in the short term is via coaching good patterns of play into them to bridge the experience gap.