Tomo

It's one thing criticising the club in some aspects but pretending all our rivals are doing amazing alongside that just reeks of an agenda.

Gvardiol and Fofana play on opposite sides of CB. They have no impact on eachother, even assuming on the unlikely event he wanted us over City and we were considering him it would rightly or wrongly have been Colwill and/or Badiashille that would have stopped us making any move.

I actually think playing in a (likely) dominant team will be better preparation for eventually making it here, even if it's a tier below.

To be honest I'm kind of hoping Poch tells the recruitment team the profile of player he wants and they do the identifying of the individual. His record in the market with Spurs was hopeless and just as big a reason for their stagnation as Levy's stinginess, if not more so.

He has to stay if we don't get Caicedo in time for Liverpool as is looking almost certain. All this talk about being unstable to start the season but 10 of the 11 to face Liverpool looks set in stone injury permitting.

Usually with a player of this level I'd say there was less than zero percent chance but given Mbappe was (to one degree or another) a childhood Chelsea fan and friends with Drogba I'd say there is a very tiny glimmer here. I still don't think it will happen though, and even if it does we're probably a buffer en route to Madrid.

Like I said, is there any evidence that money is even potentially a difference maker to being able to afford Caicedo or not?

Have you got any links and articles that prove we're "FFP limited" with these two signings or are you just making it up to fit a narrative?

I was in the camp of take it to a certain price then walk away at first but after reading views of Brighton fans and downloading some 90 minute performances of Moises my mind is shifting to spend what it takes. As outrageous as it is to say this, £100m for a player of his quality with effectively 5 years left on his deal (given the club option) isn't actually that bad and better than spending £40-50m on a mid alternative like Alvarez or Sangare. Another year of top performances and Brighton are probably quoting around £150m and it will be another Declan Rice situation where he's priced out until he gets into the final year of his contract, and even then we'd probably have to pay the same price or more we will now.

He was the top end percentile for pretty much every relevant metric. Under Potter/Bruno he averaged 11 succesful switch/long passes per game which is prime Pirlo level good.

If we made judgements based on last season every one in our squad bar Enzo, Kepa and some of the defenders should go and find a different career.

We literally had a next to identical season in the Roman era.

That type of impact for a £97m signing who thinks he's on par with peak Suarez and Benzema is the barest of bare minimum requirements.

West Ham are really weird. They appointed that ex Levekusen director only to be going after a Brexit esque team if reports are correct (Maguire, Gallagher, McTominay). They're probably should sack Moyes and get a manager in line with that directors vision.

We have been doing with the likes of Jackson and Badiashille. Which should then enable us to splash the big bucks on ready made when need be.

Pretty much every report for the last month including one just posted have said he has his heart set on Liverpool. It's VVD a few years ago all over again, pointless even trying.

Pretty much every report for atleast the last month and you literally have just proved my point yourself minutes later. Just like with VVD years back, it's very clear where he wants to end up.

You want us to stop fucking around but at the same time bid for a player who clearly wants Liverpool and only Liverpool?

Hey? We has an entire Alex Sandro saga in 2017, Koulibaly saga in 2016 and Lukaku was done so late in the window he couldn't play the first game. Last time we got the deal wrapped up early under Roman was 2014. I don't think getting players in for pre season is the massive crucial deal breaker it's made out to be anyway, maybe if it's multiple players but certainly not just one. Mata came in late and adapted fine and quickly, the only time Lukaku looked good for us was when he was training with the squad for a matter of days, Kova arguably had his best performance for us on his debut vs Arsenal at a point his Chelsea career was days old, Silva and Mendy came in late and instantly slotted in (while the players we did get in nice and early that summer struggled).

There's a big example for me from even this summer, Sandro Tonali, boyhood AC Milan fan in his club living his dream he probably fantasised daily about as a child gave it up for a new life in North East England. The pay packet even the shitter teams in England can offer is convincing players and managers to join teams/clubs well well below their level (Emery, Conte). Europe is going to have to fight back at some point which only means one thing, a super league back on the menu (not that the PL isn't one in all but name anyway).

Nothing different to what the PL have done (and are still doing) to other leagues for years. We can't moan now a bigger fish has arrived.

I'm not sure about Gilmour, he's good when on form but I can't ever remember seeing such a huge disparity between a players best or worst, when he's bad he's bad. I wouldn't say we keep doing it either, unless I've missed someone it's basically been Lukaku, Matic and an attempt an Ake * (two of which a buyback would have been rendered obsolete anyway as they moved on again atleast once in the interim). No different to say Barcelona having Pique, Alba and Cesc in their team. *ofcourse there's Drogba and Luiz aswell but I get the impression this topic is about players we let go as youngsters.

Because controller type players of Enzo's level and skillset are usually reserved for Real Madrid, Barcelona or a team managed by Pep. The last player of his (tempo controlling) level in that area of the pitch willing to come to us was Modric and even he we'd have probably lost to the former eventually.

It's hilarious that both our fans and rivals act like it's only a thing exclusive to us (which doesn't even happen as often as people make out anyway). It's reasonably common amongst Europe's biggest clubs. Anyway even so, this is a different situation to a norm as there's not a single person involved in the decision to sell him that will also be involved in the decision to buy him back (if it happens).

There's nothing to suggest Liverpool are any closer to a breakthrough with Lavia than we are Caicedo.