Tomo

But then the likes of Fulham and Norwich getting "reward" money for finishing bottom and yo yoing between the two divisions has shut down the route to the PL for another dreamer club like Blackpool in 2010. Where's the line?

Don't get me wrong I don't blame the club, I blame the system that heavily rewards such underachieving. Leeds shouldn't be in a position where they can turn down £60m for a player and West Ham defiently shouldn't be in a position to demand £150m for one.

On another note the fact that teams that haven't won or even challenged for anything in yonks are getting so financially rewarded to the point they can reject £60m (In Leeds/Raphina's case) or over £100m (in WHU/Rice case) to pluck two examples is all ends of wrong for me. Back in 2004 Everton had to sell Wayne Rooney to even get by.

There's no "hate", he's just being rightly criticised for two years worth of diabolical performances, his bottom level (which was seen far too often) has been worse than any of the other attackers. His credit for the restart period can only stretch so far. You say he's being overcritisised for the marketing thing well frankly I'd counter that with he's still being over defended and protected based on a run of form in what was effectively a semi pre season.

If he wants to move on because he was rightly criticised for his performances then I'll drive him to his new club myself.

Not going to happen. Yes, purely because we stuck with him for three and a half years. Getting Torres meant we couldn't put our name in the hat for Aguero, Falcao and Cavani when they became available and we started signing players (and managers in Rafa's case) who would have worked/did work well with the prime version to try and coax something resembling form from him. Not to mention the toxic positivity the crowd and his fanboys spread every time he done something resembling a footballer. As terrible as Lukaku has been we thankfully seem to be getting shot early and Tuchel quickly dropped him.

I remember people wrote off Liverpool last season based on their window. Ofcourse not saying we'll get 90 plus points but similarly we were in a bit of a false position last season due to the mitigating circumstances (Covid ravaged December then ownership issues). Also 2019 when we lost Hazard couldn't sign anyone while Tottenham, Arsenal and United played supermarket sweep there were similar sweeping statements about how all three will leave us for dust, two finished comfortably behind us (and haven't got back above us since) while the other needed goal difference to finish above us.

He may aswell have told us which were and weren't by his actions. Morata and Bakayoko got multiple chances so quite clearly were. He wanted to reunite with Emerson and Giroud in Italy so he quite clearly didn't mind those signings. Giroud was obviously him anyway due to his history wanting targetmen but get to that shortly. Drinkwater, Bats and Barkley were largely ignored so safe to say they were club signings. Zappa I think was a bit of both. Clearly a panic buy but when it got to the stage I think Antonio got lazy and went where he knew. Our repeated links with targetmen were 100% driven by him. We didn't have any recent history of going after any (not even under Jose) yet Conte with a history of signing targetmen (Llorente, Bendtner, using Pelle in the national side) gets here and all of a sudden we're linked with all of them under the sun.

Emerson makes Paulo Ferreira look like a Reece and Trent hybrid going forward but I agree Regullion is better than given credit for.

I feel they may have uncharacteristically panicked at City getting Haaland and felt they needed a top line player to compete. I'm surprised both have gone down that route, both suit a poacher type player less than we do and look what happened to us when we tried to incorporate one.

Also not to mention, despite all his personal stats Dortmund actually regressed as a team after signing Haaland. In his first full season they scored less goals as a team, finished outside the top 2 and lost more games than any other season since 2008 bar the bizarre Klopp final one. He won't be a flop that's for sure but if he's that good that he's guaranteed to make City (even more) untouchable for the next ten years then surely he would have dragged Dortmund to atleast one title or at the very least a close race with Bayern? Speaking of Bayern, his record against them fits quite well with what I'm trying to say, 5 goals in 7 games but still lost every single time.

On paper or practice? On paper they're miles better than the team Emery took to 5th but they've only just matched that after 2 and a half years of Arteta. He's always going to hold them back.

Arsenal have Arteta and are extending the likes of Nketiah and Elnenny. United have far too much to do and owners that won't do it. The only danger is Spurs which would even still keep us in top 4.

As @Blue Armourhas said I think he's worse even in a back four. Also the signs are back three is staying which makes his inclusion even more mindblowing if it happens. He was the main reason England managed to take Italy to penalties in the Euro final. For the goal he was basically in the centre looking like he was trying to hold the CBs hand while Trippier/Walker had the freedom of the flank and that last minute hack down of Saka by Chilleni happened due to him covering for Emerson being caught up the pitch.

Then it's on Tuchel when it ends in tears.

Him returning will be almost as depressing as Lukaku staying. He's an absolute nothing player. If the board are refusing to invest in a new LB/LWB this summer then keep Marcos, give Maatsen the spot or even use Gallagher in a Zinchenko/Milner type inverted role, anyone but Emerson.

Great news if true.

Managers should never get absolute complete control. Above all else they don't have time to scout and manage the team. Giving Tuchel a blank canvas will put us further away from City and Liverpool, not closer.

I'm not sold on Jesus however I would take Sterling. It's a dangerous assumption after you know who but you would think he will get a healthy number of goals to allow us to keep with Kai at false 9 without having to obsess over his own goal tally.

Mane for Southampton was streets above any version Puli has displayed for us bar the restart period which was a semi pre season. Not even Klopp will fix his tunnel vision and erratic football brain.

Salah/KDB is becoming pretty much a cliche every time we are linked with selling a player under 25. If the board have similar thinking it's going to do us a lot more damage than selling those two ever well. Liverpool may be good but they're not invincible, Minamino and Keita case in point. Furthermore I'm not sure how legit these rumours are purely because it doesn't make sense (it would more likely be a leak to bait us into keeping him). He will probably be third in the pecking order for gametime on the left and even that's assuming Mane is going.

But there inlies the problem, his Dad pretty much let slip he won't (with that tweet he deleted).

We'll get Levekusen and Milan.

In some ways but at the same time everytime they sign players that gave us their prime years when they're a significantly lesser version just further emphasises the gap between the two clubs in the present day.

Cornett aswell could potentially be a good option. Although I'm really paranoid we're going to roll with Emerson which will lead to another major LB/LWB crisis if Chilwell needs time to reacclimatize to playing.