Mhsc

Did the game finish yet?

I cba. Going to call if for the night. Fuck this tournament USA a great country for so many reasons but soccer is not one of them yet.

No doubt a local one - but a location they chose! Should have played it in a serious footballing country, proper stadiums, filled with fans.

On the plus side, the new offside stuff looks like a godsend.

Got to give all 5 people in the stadium a chance to get to cover from a drop of rain Fucking state of this nonsense

lmao just finish the game what a fucking mockery of football this tournament is So many people involved in planning this need to be sacked in FIFA. This tournament so far has been a totally embarrassing shambles.

Kudus is very similar to Madueke, but less successful / productive. A very low standard indeed. Madueke is already beneath the level we should have albeit I think its ok to have some squad filler like him, signing more squad filler is not what we need. Unless Madueke is on his way out and Kudus is a vastly cheaper replacement, it would make no sense. We need to be raising the standard not lowering it or just keeping it the same as the worst members of our squad.

Just entering his prime with 5 goals 3 assists. He has great physicality and little else. Selfish and low IQ player, which is fundamentally an unfixable problem and sets a very low ceiling. We don't need to stoop this low anymore.

Kudus is a Strasbourg tier player. I'll abandon all hope if we sign him.

Very very many shit windows tbh. The unbelievable lost opportunity of the final 10 years of Roman's reign, when we still had spending power + wage power but overwhelmingly no clue how to do it or consistent approach with a proper director of football, repeatedly letting managers pick players instead etc. That approach looks almost hilariously prehistoric now but when it worked it was pretty great in those little flashes.

We will have to loan and part pay Chilly's wages til he retires. We gave him a new contract in 2023 that lasts til 2027, in what was a remarkably foolish decision... No doubt pushed for by Frank Lampard, even though Chilly had injury ridden seasons until then. His career is over he's just winding it down getting all the cash he can on the way out, no point for him to move and slash his wages. There's no comeback story here.

That is pure fan speculation, it is super unlikely in reality. Poch talked about how the system works and he (and now Maresca) are involved in chats in so far as supplying info on the type of player they need or explicitly do not need, and they get a veto to say a hard no for any player. More often than not it seems they get talked out of using their veto (e.g. Felix deal). But there's basically 0 chance that Maresca had authority to sign KDH, the club decided that and he didn't veto it.

Huh forgot we had a preseason game today what’s the craic did we win?

Madueke was 100% always a buy and flip Just the good type - one we don't need to rush to sell and can actually do a job for us in the meantime. Would think this summer is 1 summer early to flip him tbh.

Woops, thanks m8

I tuned in purely to check out Delap Can't bring myself to care about CWC in the slightest, history matters at the end of the day, plus this has the feeling of a fucking preseason tournament due to timing Delap impressed me more than I expected, even as a guy that was optimistic about him. Looked immediately at home.

Cucurella?

Can't stand seeing Nkunku coming on. Something about him has really annoyed me. Just doesn't seem like he gives a shit or has even tried slightly in his time with us.

Painful but eh, it happens. Cucu was also dreadful to the point of not looking like a professional player for a fair period. He needs to adjust and find some confidence.

Maybe a little embarrassing for Nico the immediate and obvious golf in class between Delap and him Hopefully it fires him up

Osimhen retired 1 year ago I dunno why they keep putting news out about him in the press like he is still relevant to talk about

I can understand this attitude if it is Christmas and we're looking back at the start of the season and Cherki has absolutely torn up the league, totally transformed himself from an out of shape lazy bastard into a pressing demon and City are sitting top of the league But as it stands they've signed a guy that is cheap because... he is cheap. Because he is not that good. Because no one else wants him. Because it is a bit of a cheap punt to see if he can do something with good coaching. That is some weird glazing man

If AC Milan say no they lose out on £15m (not a lot to us but a lot to them), forced to play the whole season with a GK who has openly said he doesn't want to be there and has no interest in the club, lose him in a years time on a free in a humiliating failure to retain their most important talent or at least manage the situation properly, and then have to somehow sign a decent GK with absolutely nothing in the bank - and whoever comes in knows that whatever deal they sign better be good because the club can and will fuck you over. The reality is we are fine with the GKs we have for CWC and there's probably no time to bed in a GK for it anyway, they've got to learn a whole fucking tactical system - I really doubt Maresca would rush them in over Sanchez who knows the system and ended the season well. We can do a PL season with Petrovic in goal if needed and bring Big Mike for free next year if they force us in that direction and its not even really a bad outcome for us.

They're presumably betting that Pep can break Cherki's spirit into being a hard working automaton If he creates clean chances for Haaland and they sort out his work rate they'll be unstoppable But that's a big IF.

Man Utd do the same thing every year, pay top whack transfer fees and top salaries to players that they think are sure things. Mason Mount was a sure thing just like Cunha and Mbuemo are. Probably with a £200m outlay on transfer fees and an extra £1m pw in wages they can get to midtable, no idea if they can afford that in PSR but if they can then they'll (probably) be less embarrassing next year. With the lack of efficiency in how they spend on transfer fees and wages it will cost them something like £1.5bn to get back to being a regular CL club.