Mhsc

Dortmund bottled that hard. Good luck Maatsen. Feels like about the right level for him.

Plus recent transfer windows have been insane with us over spending and being too desperate. We're in a different situation now with the squad mostly built.

The main argument against these no-names with minimal goal records imo is actually Broja, a player who I've argued is not good enough and probably never will be for Chelsea. I am no scout but I don't really see with any clarity that these targets are better than Broja. He also has amazing physical attributes. Duran to be fair looks like potentially an epic finisher on his left foot which might be an asset. But Fofana aint too bad at finishing is he, if that's all we want?

It is hard to imagine a worse player for a slow build up positional system where intelligence from the forwards is key. And what about how he betrayed the club and his teammates? And the manager? And that he is the least professional person we've ever had in the squad? Or that he is constantly overweight and unfit? Or that it has been years since he was any good, even then only in a very direct style of football? This is the worst idea we've had in this thread in the last 1000 pages or so imo.

So much disrespect on NJ as if top strikers always bang in their first season in PL Don't understand it myself. I've been humbled so many times by players that looked like they had something but weren't quite delivering, that I wrote off, that then turned out to be world class. Even Suarez had a frustrating start at Liverpool, being wasteful in front of goal, and people had basically written him off when he established himself as one of the most dangerous players in the world.

I am kinda happy to see a link to a literal who that I've never heard of. But his stats do not excite. Underperformed his XG and doesn't have good stats in... anything?

I agree unless we're going after some kind of phenominal beast that can do a VVD to Liverpool esque transformation to us. I am not aware of such a player that is a realistic transfer.

What's everyones thoughts on Guirassy at €17.5m? Might be a one season wonder? With Sesko off the market, at that price, it has to be tempting no?

Personally I have this deep seated unshakeable feeling there is a world class ball playing goalkeeper out there available for <£20m that just isn't in the right team / league to have grabbed the attention they deserve yet, I just don't know that we have the people to find them. It seems like we're pretty good at finding outfield players but have a blindspot at finding top talent at CB/GK. For me it is still the only totally missing piece in the puzzle. The GK needs to be as good as a ball playing CB with the ball at his feet and while ours have a level of competency I just can't see THAT level from any of them, or even close. And the system is only as good as its weakest link, if we don't get it sorted it will hold the whole team back for another season until they "have had time to identify it as a problem and resolve it" aka the curse of swapping managers yearly.

Sorry bro I've always been a 20 second man, what can I say?

It says that group are exceptions, everyone else is open for sale. Hilarious Mason Mount isn't on the list, I bet he's gutted. Terrible for his PR.

Forgot Olise is a proper London boy, that should help us a lot. Honestly might be an us vs Arsenal situation.

I don't really believe in any of this player trading stuff. For FFP reasons we want to buy and sell players in completely separate transactions surely. When was the last time anyone heard of a cash+player swap deal? I think it makes virtually no sense these days. Of course we could be open to selling them a player that we're comfortable selling, at fair market value. But that would have been the case anyway, you'd imagine.

If you took the reality of injury records out of that team it would certainly look like a side that could play some damn good football.

Utd might not be offering out fat contracts under new ownership. Doubt Arsenal or Liverpool will go crazy on salary. If City go in for him obviously it should just all be over, he'd be amazing for them and they would happily chuck him £250k pw.

I do think the scouts should get a BIT more trust than we're giving them, after picking up Cole Palmer, Gusto, and Nicolas Jackson as little known and affordable options that turned out to be really quite promising players (to say the least). Most of our horror signings really predate the current setup. They have obviously not excelled at CB or GK so far but otherwise most of the signings they have brought in with the intention they would actually be in the squad as serious options for the year are looking very promising and ended the season strongly. If they (especially Joe Shields) have a hard on for Duran then I would get behind the lad and see what he can do when he's in. May well surprise a lot of people.

I would throw up a little in my mouth if we spent money to re-sign Solanke

Yeah, I don't disagree, although I still have some sort of hope that the clubs massive expensive scouting department can find a gem like Alvarez without buying him for £70m+ from City by grabbing them a step earlier. So I'm not totally against us going after a little known player, but I would want them to have a very good technical all round game that shows us a basis to think this is a good investment and not just speculating on someone that's gone on a goal scoring run recently but is useless when they're not scoring.

Sounds like he will sign a new contract without a buy out clause and a gentlemen agreement instead, ala Harry Kane. They'll want a fortune for him in the future now, which will limit his options massively I would think. Personally think it is a terrible decision, fine if CL is his priority (I'd get that) then maybe don't join us or Man Utd but the opportunity to take Arsenal's no.9 spot is right there for the taking.

Bit lacking in ambition this. Must not think he could nail down a spot at any of the PL clubs after him.

I would say he's proven he's good enough to play a LB role where he tucks into CB to form 3 ATB in Maresca's system, in a similar way to how Poch used him. Not convinced he's done enough to prove he's the default starting CB option vs the rest though, he like all of the CBs should have a clean slate under Maresca to compete and see who can come out on top in the new system. I would have thought he'd have a good chance to nail down a spot there.

Surely not. We just can't possibly fit this many players in, I'd have thought he really has to go out on loan again. Already struggle to imagine how we get Enzo, Caicedo and Lavia regular minutes - unless Palmer is playing out wide. Then we've got Gallagher too. And Carney.

Yes, its one of the very interesting puzzles. Going to be interesting to see it play out. One argument is for Palmer to play as an 8, and Nkunku out of position sort of awkwardly on LW. Or Nkunku up top, and Jackson on the LW (perhaps also a bit awkwardly). Also, an experiment with Palmer as a false 9 would not surprise me either.

Only signed a contract last year. He did make some noise then as well about whether he'd stay so not sure we can expect much loyalty tbh. Hopefully its all nonsense and he stays. Would be painful to watch another one of our very promising defenders develop at another club while we get stuck conceding a record number of goals. I would have thought our new manager would really want Colwill though, can play CB and a LB role where he tucks into 3 to make 3 ATB too. Has high potential in his passing game. And he's only 21.