Tomo

I actually think Reece has been at this best when he's been a more inverted wingback/fullback.

Obviously Enzo is the dream but based on what Everton fans are saying on GOT Onana won't be a bad signing atall, quite the opposite infact.

Because it doesn't benefit them to permanently break a relationship with a club any more than it does us. In years to come they may need a big sale with us the only (well resourced) club with a need for the player they're trying to sell.

That's the thing, they didn't, in his first 18 months they played like Pulis' Stoke and all their metrics were genuinely midtable stuff. Saka aside (and even he was often played out of position in defense) he wasn't even playing the youngsters until Willian/Auba/Luiz breaking Covid protocol before the game against us forced his hand, Martinelli and Smith Rowe were ignored all year while Saliba was loaned out. I confess what Arsenal are doing caught me by surprise but there was nothing in that period I was quoted and before to suggest this was coming, absolutely nothing.

Yes unfortuently Arteta has found/stumbled across a way to make Arsenal competitive but there is a hell of a lot rewritting of history when it comes to his first couple of years, even accounting for the cup win.

I've just asked an Ajax supporting friend who's not particularly enamoured either. Hopefully the new technical team are seeing something our friends are missing. Edit: posted this before seeing @Sankaunitedcomment which is very promising by comparison.

I use to hear similar being said about Maguire at Leicester when he was playing in a lower block and allowed to focus more on the old fashioned defending.

The only thing I was really annoyed about is that we didn't get a fee (and messes up his replacement which should have been an immediate Colwill promotion). He's not quite current Kouli level yet but when he loses his pace and athletic qualities he'll probably be worse.

He's the reason i wasn't remotely bothered when it became clear Gvardiol was unlikely. Genuinely think Levi will be similar level if he isn't already.

Likely getting an England callup aswell.

I did, I was watching obscure Benfica games solely for him and even downloaded River games he played in, and I was far from the only one doing the former especially. The idea that people are kneejerking on the basis of this world cup is just utter nonsense, if they were then Sofyan Amrabat would be getting equally raved about alongside him.

It works both ways. Would be have joined Arsenal if they fronted the cash (in the structure Donetsk wanted)? Most likely, but also on the flip side if Mbappe suddenly decided he wanted to join us and PSG were prepared to let him go we'd have dropped this lad quicker than you can say boo.

Colwill and CHO to return next season. Hall, Chucky and Hutchinson will all qualify as HG when they get to ago 21.

We're not in a pickle atall, we have HG players coming out of our ears including a direct replacement for Mount in the worst case. I want him to stay but he's not irreplacable the same way James is and the contract offer has to reflect that

I can actually see Pulisic attracting some interest purely because he's got a world class PR team. Even sections of our fanbase that watch his shite performances week in week out still give him leeway due to the restart period.

The meltdowns over potentially resigning Ake are looking quite funny now.

Even if that was true attracting a manager of that calibre while out of UCL further proves my point if anything. Probably not, but that would still likely be the case even if we somehow recover UCL football for next season. This month however we actually convinced him but things fell apart for other reasons. Yes, and as I alluded to above even with UCL football we will fine it incredibly hard to beat those teams to players. Haaland didn't look twice at us even after we won the thing. Romano has given it a here we go at a point our UCL football was in serious jeopardy.

We got Kante in without it. And according to @We Hate Scouse also convinced Jose to return (when he was still in and around his peak) with our top 4 place far from secure. The players we wouldn't be able to sign would be the case even if we had it, case in point Haaland not looking twice at us even after we won it.

I'm not sure. I feel he has a bit of an "excuse culture" mindset to him. When England went on a run of 4 scoreless games and got relegated he came out and practically said it's okay because they score in training and then after the world cup bragged about Mbappe being quiet in the France/England match. Compare that to James who said "ready to win trophies" to Koulibaly in their first meet up and it's night and day.

Please no, i'd rather Kepa in any state than Bettinelli playing a match of even remote significance, he is absolutely shit. In regards to Kepa however, this is exactly why i stuck to my guns even during his mini spell, he's back to 19/20 Kepa now, if not worse.

There's literally a huge list of top class players who have joined clubs without UCL, including our very own Kante and Ronaldinho on three separate occasions. Infact we've already got one coming despite a likely UCL miss. It's an urban myth players can't be attracted without UCL football, especially at the start when you can play the one off card.

There's been some pretty horrific agendas against Mount in the past which I've been the first to defend him against but now I feel it's going to too far the other way where even legitimate critisism of him is getting wrongly translated into 'hate'.

I won't pretend I've seen him play live but from what I've seen on clips, his metrics and what I hear about him signing Zakharyan is the only way (out of the realistic signings) I can even remotely get over losing Enzo anytime soon.

Actually I think the problem has been bottling the false 9 system for "proper Centre forwards", first Lukaku now Auba. We were building some serious momentum in TTs first half season with Havertz at centre forward and we threw it away. Compare that to Klopp who straight away identified Firmino as his false 9/CF and had the courage of his convictions to stick with it even when he was being laughed at.