Mhsc

Maybe they'll offer stupid money to try to turn Bukayo Saka's head. That would be more their style than going for Cherki, I think.

They wanted Azpi last year as well... Barca seem to sign people mostly for the vibes, if they're Spanish, and in Oriol's case he is even Catalonian.

For whatever it is worth, statistically Caicedo either slightly or massively out performs Lavia in almost every single thing that can be measured. But Lavia is 2 years younger and was playing in a shit Southampton side. I think Caicedo is the only one that can be considered a suitable heir to Kante but Lavia is a very promising player and would still be a great signing if we can't get Caicedo.

Worth remembering he is 18, meaning they started playing him in the senior team at 15 and now he's only 18. How many players do you think would have good goal scoring record playing as a 15/16/17 year old in a man's league, albeit not one at the level of PL?

So you want to run a 30 man squad with 1 game a week and have the the same problems as last year all over again?

Forget about this nonsense

Muani would be great, but expensive. Shouldn’t we see what Nicolas Jackson can do first?

We have Nicolas Jackson, Nkunku, and then possibly Broja depending on if Poch views him as serious or not. You want us to sign a 9 and also an AMF/RW (ala Cherki?) or just 1 of those 2? Personally given lack of European football I want us to run a small squad, but do think we currently have a lot of dependence on Nkunku to cover the 9 (rotation), AMF (main option) and RW (rotation). So I think we should sign one of the two but probably not both, save the other for next year if we are back in CL?

Guy will get chewed up and spit out by PSG in 1 year, if him going there facilitates us getting rid of Lukaku then I am happy though.

Will we have full squad ready to play for this one, excl the players who are on the shit list? Really keen to see a bunch of the new lads like Santos, Nkunku, Jackson & Gusto and see what they can cook with the people we've kept from last year.

The only way I can talk myself into him is from the perspective that if it is the way to get Lukaku off the books in something close to a swap deal, with us not spending much money (<£20m?), we replace a player who's career has peaked with a player who is 3-4 years away from peaking, he would have resale value (surely always at least £40m, plus football-inflation) and give us a different profile of player to lots of our other players. He has a clear talent for finishing, and some potential in other areas. He is in my honest opinion clearly a bit worse than Lukaku (the slightly past it Lukaku of today), but if he was here as a rotation option / squad player it would be ok - it just only makes sense from a financial perspective of where to spend our money if it is part of getting rid of Lukaku. Also, if he would take acceptable wages, similar to whatever Nicolas Jackson is on. To get rid of this it surely has to be worth a punt on him:

Tbh, I think this is a result of the data-led approach to recruitment we are using. If you look at Vlahovic from a statistical PoV, he is pretty uninspiring, so you'd be betting on him improving a lot by good coaching. For example, here is him in his last full year at Fiorentina, where he was 'very hot' (top) vs Lukaku last season at Inter (middle) vs Lukaku at Inter in his hot year under Conte (bottom): You can cut the stats in loads of ways, but when normalised by per 90 mins played he really does not look like a player that you should be splurging huge money on. Add to that his injury problems and perceived mental weakness, and you probably don't want to make this guy your main striker if you're a top club, he should be your up and coming promising option who is a sub that you hope can develop into your main man. He should never have joined Juve and gone somewhere that plays football that suits him with a coach that develops young players and spent time there until he was in his mid 20s, when maybe he would grow into a player at Ivan Toney's level but probably not higher. For example a few year stint at a club like Brighton would probably have been amazing for this kid.

There's no way all of this time passing is because of "negotiations", such things would surely be a few meetings over a few days max. Surely either we or them are playing it slow because either they are waiting to sort a replacement, or waiting for more suitors to appear, or we are slow playing it because we are waiting to offload some more, or we're trying to give Poch time to look at Santos? I just don't understand how else it makes sense because there is no way these guys are sitting in a room 9-5 for 4 weeks haggling over a thousand ways to potentially organise payment structure over a deal.

Feels like Groundhog day for us tbh. Can't believe a whole extra week has gone by and we've still not sorted out Caicedo.

Speaking during the World Cup, Enzo Fernandez said: “I try to watch as much football and learn a little bit from everyone. “I like Rice of England, I try to watch him and learn.”

The idea that Rice is horrid on the ball does not match either having watched him play or the stats he puts out, you can see him here compared to Enzo (different level) and Caicedo (very comparable). He has more progressive carries than either of them too, and similar defensive stats to Caicedo. There is no doubt he is an elite player, and he seems like a leader as well, adding a potential captain into your team is always a good thing. The money for him was for sure insane but we shouldn't pretend like they didn't get a pretty amazing player.

Man, we've still got a whole BIG clear out left to do, when you look at it like that. Crazy.

You wouldn't have wanted Philip Lahm to move when Pep moved him either I guess? And Gareth Bale should have stayed as LB as well.

Isn't that exactly what City did, and they just won the treble?

The only strong rumours have been about Caicedo and the either Cherki or Dybala, with the leak being that we think we need to add creativity. I think Poch did say he wants to see in preseason if we need to add goals or if we have enough goal scorers in the squad, so a forward is still possible if he becomes convinced we need to go to the market.

Another nothing update

Conor is a blue, he wont be going to Spurs imo. £50m for him would be a good deal though.

RB Leipzig snapping up Loïc Openda, probably turn out to be a monster they'll sell on for £100m in a couple of years, he has very good numbers and has outperformed his xG by quite a bit every year so far. Wouldn't surprise me at all if he is on PL clubs transfer lists in a years time.

That is great to have in a DM too though, as the deepest player they're often available to grab the ball a bit outside of the box and either take a shot or chip it in to someone. I could see him pretty much easily playing RB, DM or as an 8 tbh. His technical skill speaks for itself. Shame about his bad luck with injuries. Hopefully our club can get a proper medical routine going to keep these players fit, Pep swears it is a key part of his success at City that took a while to get right (and why they're able to run a small squad)