Mhsc

Yeah we're just speculating on random names that might fit Poch's criteria of ready to play and have an impact in PL on day 1. TBH the club are clearly letting Poch have a "hard no" on anyone he really doesn't want but otherwise just picking the players they feel are right for the long term, otherwise instead of Lavia and Caicedo we'd have got him a 26/27 year old in midfield instead of three 19-21 year olds, so it is probably just as likely to be Barcola or whoever rather than someone who is genuinely 'PL ready' like Eze.

Jadon's on £375k pw is he LOL. Jesus - forgot Man Utd have absolutely 0 brains. Would have to go down to <£200k pw (same or less than Nkunku as a hard rule) to be worth even considering. He's a Blue so I'm sure fans would get behind him. Various interesting options the more you think about it tbh. Curious what the club will cook up here.

I don't think the club thinks in that way whatsoever though.

What's happened with him at Utd? I feel like there's got to be a serious player in there but how has he fallen from grace so hard? Fitness? Attitude? The system?

I suppose there's also Jadon Sancho who has the Joe Shields link... I'm not immediately keen, but not very familiar with how he has flopped so hard at Utd. Edit: We posted at exactly the same time!

“It’s easy to say we need another offensive player but I think we have offensive players that need to recover. “Now, if you bring a player who is maybe not fit or needs to adapt to the Premier League, maybe you are going to spend the same time that you need to wait for Broja or for Nkunku or for Carney, and then you are going to create a mess in the squad.” So he wants someone that will immediately slot into the lineup without needing time to get fit or adapt to the league at all. That probably means a PL or ex-PL player or someone that looks tailor made for the league. That said, Poch asked for experience in midfield and got handed a 19 year old and a 21 year old for huge money. So maybe it is better not to read too much into it and someone like Barcola is just as likely as anyone else.

Maybe it really could be Eze? He’s got PL experience, and plays on the left or through the middle. He’s good at long shots where we are generally not great, and in general just the sort of profile you could totally imagine slotting in immediately. He’s also a little older (close to his prime) which Poch has been asking for.

The thing that totally throws me is Poch said it’s pointless unless they’re a PL player, as it will take time to adapt if they’re not and by then Nkunku is back. So who the fuck could be a surprising signing that knows the league? Leroy Sane? Hazard? Eze? Fuck knows.

Anyone know where to get running stats? Curious how our miles per game has changed since last year since it was a stat often mentioned for Poch and the way he transforms teams (that his teams are close to top of the miles covered table)

I have a feeling in my balls that Mourinho ends up at Newcastle

Wonder how long before Newcastle owners seek a more glamorous option than Eddie Howe?

Damn, I thought we planted Vieira there to play the same system we are playing. Thought it would make sense for all the clubs in the multi club model to play a similar formation and strategy

Lmao, Newcastle. Guess that’ll kill any rumours of us signing Nunez. Two great goals.

We should finish ahead of both of these teams.

He wouldn’t be a terrible choice but 250k pw for a rotation / backup that underwhelmed before would be a bold move. Maybe if he agreed to play on half that.

If wirtz was 50m, it would be a no brainer even after injury imo, totally worth a gamble then, but in this day and age? If he was 45m even Brighton would have thought about going for him just to flip him for profit. He will never go for less than £75m imo, unless he has a release clause ofc.

Jonathon David would be a good addition to the squad, but wouldn't really lift us up a level as he's not really elite (yet) but he has potential and he would go right into the team while Nkunku is out imo. But he would be good cover for NJ + Nkunku and probably he could play left/right as well given how Poch is playing those roles quite centrally and not really as wingers.

Love this guy on Twitter btw

Very interesting player, but they were talking for about 100m Euros weren't they? Might be a bit much for a player coming back from injury. Plus, a lot of Bundesliga players look uninspiring in PL. Who knows though. It feels like it will be a player that the media hasn't been talking about, which means it could be almost anybody including Wirtz. My guess is we don't have another 100m to splurge tho.

Assume they'll refuse it tho? They'd be finished without him, Klopp wouldn't last the year and then it would be another long painful cycle of failure IMO for them.

TBH Salah might as well, no feasible route out of Liverpool for him other than Saudi and what the fuck is the point staying where he is? They need a similar level of rebuild to what we've just done. Plus he just saw his club get mega cucked over and over for midfielders by us.

£9m wages per year (base) to keep him competing with Chilly and Maatsen then? We can't sell him for 2-3 years as I explained above (v small chance could sell him in 1 year if Utd, Arsenal, City or Saudi want to buy him for £40m), so unless we're doing Super League 2.0 and abandoning CL, we either have to loan him or commit to keeping him in the squad. Personally I think we should loan. I don't consider this strengthening a rival either. They're effectively paying us £9m (covering his wages) to help us balance our books, plus maybe some kind of small loan fee too. And they're getting Cucurella, not someone that might genuinely help them. If they don't get him, they'll get someone else, except that wont benefit us whatsoever. And of course, Poch asked for a small, tight squad of ~22.

Unfortunately it is very hard to get rid of Cucu. With some players, if they've fallen in transfer value this quickly, you can write down their value on the book e.g. if they have a serious injury or some other exceptional circumstance. It is rumoured we have written down Lukaku's transfer fee massively from a FFP perspective after his interview. This is why we can 'afford' to sell him for so little now. But there is no imaginable reason to do this with Cucu, he's not had done his ACL or anything, he was just an average player bought for a crazy transfer fee. £56m it cost us to get him (+£7m in add ons potentially but lets assume we wont pay those) on a 6 year deal (£9m+ wages per year). So, his current book value is £47m-£50m. We can already not afford to lose money on any players in fact we need to create nothing but tonnes of profit from players somehow, so to get Cucu off of the books now you need someone willing to pay ~£9m wages and a £50m transfer fee. In a years time his book value will be £37m-£40m which might be doable if he's had a good season somewhere but of course £9m in wages would rule out most clubs. Maybe Arsenal or Man Utd are the only clubs stupid enough to take him off of us. The most realistic route out might be in 2 years time when his book value is only £28m. Then somewhat but not fully independently there is the question of what to do with Maatsen. If he does not reach the level where he's almost guaranteed in the XI then in all likelihood we will have to sell him sooner or later, because of the way FFP works. It sucks but it is the way the system is designed and our whole spending approach relies on it - if we don't want this we had to not buy Enzo, Caicedo, Mudryk, Fofana etc. It will at some point become necessary to pocket profit for Maatsen and buy some £30m option in the market ala Gusto, unless Maatsen becomes so good that we cannot realistically replace him affordably in the market.

Cucu loan would make sense imo, Poch keeps playing Colwill at LB so with Chilly and Maatsen in the squad we should be fine to lose him. He used to cover some options for us that we just don’t have depth problems in anymore, and he’s just not found form with us ever since the hair pulling incident. Ideally get a fee for him but just get wages off the books and let him go and play a full season somewhere and see if he can generate some transfer interest.

Getting tonnes of messages from Arsenal supporter friends asking how we’ve done them again with Havertz 🤣