Tomo

Not atall I praise when due and critisise when due as you well know.

Hardly it's not like I'm saying we're goung to turn the tie round. Stop trying to pigeonhole me!!!

If we can get a result on the night from 2 down that would be something solid to build on all things considered.

I disagree with that, with the backing he's got there absolutely has to be an upward trajectory, 75-85 points plus a strong CL showing (go out kicking and screaming). However winning the title is still a season too early (we will be getting in 5/6 new players asking them to immediately gel and match City/Pool's consistentcy level immediately is unrealistic), in many ways a slowish start will be better for us so to manage fan expectations, the run we had in the autumn last year led to fans getting ideas above the squad's capability (likewise with Sarri's start) and in my opinion contributed to the toxicity when the inevitable growing pains arrived.

Could argue Nuno due to maintaining Wolves' league position despite Europa destractions. However in general i agree, i wonder how many of the people laughing at his nomination were swearing blind last summer that they'd be happy with 10th if we saw youth and progressive football with a promising projected end product. We got those with a 4th place finish!

Still far behind Mount who went off twice with serious looking injuries only to start the next game.

Was last summer the most deceptive window of all time? I remember getting a bit envious as I thought there was loads of talent available just as we were banned (saw other comments saying the same) but almost all of them have flopped or at best severely underwhelmed, Militao, Mendy, Jovic, Haller, N Dombele, Pepe, Rodri, Cancelo.....

Tbh i wouldn't want to sign 2 LB's, especially when both will sign expecting to start. Furthermore as much as Alonso's flaws have prevented him truly nailing down a starting place, he's perfect as a horses for courses second choice. I think a mix of teams being cautious with their money added to Marina's valuation's will make selling them all tricky, i hope i'm wrong.

But we also need to be realistic. In this Covid world there's only so much even we can do in one go. Unless we somehow get rid of a lot of deadwood a LB and GK is probably as much as we can realistically expect all things considered (unless we skimp out on a CB somewhere).

Not for me, they're instant results based manager's who don't really look at the bigger picture (especially in Allegri's case), those methods can only be justified by getting results and big one's. Manager's like Lampard, Pochettino and even OGS you can offer a bit of leeway too as they try to build a sustainable squad and brand of football that will benefit the club even if they don't turn out to be good enough.

If we ever appoint a Simeone or Allegri it can only be justified with strong challenges for the big two every season at a minimum.

His skillset was something that team lacked and would have given us another dimension. Plus he actually had a good first season at City.

I'd prefer he came to us with a medal round his neck myself.

So to cut a long story short. He's average as a sweeper, which could be an issue at times when we play high lines (I did laugh at how badly he mistimed a couple of them on that video). He's okay at playing out, not Ederson but not a train wreck either. However his main strength's lie crucially in the areas we need it the most right now, in shot stopping and command of his area, which should see a vast decrease in set piece horrors and conceding the first and sometimes only shot on target. If that report is accurate all in all I'm sold, especially for that price. Only downside will be we will lose him for a month season after next to ACON, which makes finding a suitable back up pretty crucial.

Doesn't this kind of back up the point I've made that attack signings should be considered just as important as defense for us now if not more? United conceded as many goals last year as we have this, they prioritized their defense and while they did concede less goals they still ultimately needed an attacking signing in January to be able to even match their previous season's point's tally.

Last time they were in the PL Fulham came a lot closer to getting results against Spurs and Liverpool than they did Chelsea.

Part of the assesment of fullbacks are what they offer going forward so why can't that work both ways?

Parker was appointed as a PL manager before he managed a single game at pro level, nice try though!

There's no guarantee it would have worked that way either. He may have scored more than Morata but they could have been the 6th and 7th and home to Stoke, the 4th at Huddersfield and the 3rd Vs Southampton. Also Morata scored the winner against United, something which can be reasonably assumed Rom wouldn't have done given his big game record. Morata also had an excellent game at Anfield and played a huge part in the equalizer, something that Lukaku may not have done. Furthermore we were comfortably in the top 4 in January despite Morata's flaws, it wasn't the striker issue that meant we lost out (we actually upgraded that January and still collapsed). Regarding Conte, he's been backed properly at Inter and is still acting like a baby, even if we somehow delayed the meltdown that season it would have happened the next. In hindsight the board should have took the fan outrage on the chin and sacked him after the title.

I don't think any signing we made instead would have made me wish we signed Lukaku, the guy is an average player with the ego of a generational one, he would have butchered the dressing room morale.

When has a transfer story gone as far as this and not happened? From our perspective I can only think of two and that's Robinho and Lukaku. Thankfuck the latter didn't happen, although I still to this day maintain the former would have worked for us.

There's a reason Coutinho and Willian have ended up there, they should be in the dictionary next to inconsistent.

If these rumours are true only Azpi, Alonso and Kova will still be here from who was part of Sarri's preferred Xl just over a year ago, that's absolutely mental!

I won't lie i was gutted when it became obvious Sancho wasn't coming here, i brought in to the romance of him returning to his boyhood club and playing with his best mate here, but the signing's we've made/making combined with Pulisic's elevation post lockdown means i genuinely couldn't care less at this point.

The most hilarious thing will be they'd have picked the wrong player to compare Sancho too.