Pizy

We backed out of the Maignan deal because Milan wanted 25m, right? Donnarumma will cost more than that I would think and his wage demands will be much higher than Maignan’s.

Yeah, said last night here that Rodrygo makes sense for City. More the type of attacker Pep desires right now. A winger who will stay wide and take players on. Xavi is very much a Pep #10 but they already have Foden and Cherki. Sounds odd to say about such a top player, but I’d be glad if City go for Rodrygo and leave us to Xavi.

Grealish, Savinho, and Mcatee are all going so it makes sense for them to try for Xavi. We should wait for any of the reputable reporters to say anything but it would serve us right if he goes to a direct rival in the span of a couple of days after we’ve been “advanced” and dragging or feet for weeks. Our fanbase will rightly be enraged if we not only miss out on him but to a rival where he could kill us multiple times per season for years. And then to top it all off sign Garnacho…

Yep. I’m good with Trev, Tosin, and Fofana as squad players. All can do a great job coming in as rotation options. But depending on them as every match starters when our ambitions are to compete for the league feels like too much. Comparing our CB pairings + keeper to the other contenders doesn’t exactly fill you with confidence. Would’ve been a different story with Levi in there because I think he was poised to have an amazing season where he took a leap.

Wonder if we’ll now keep Anselmino here after the Colwill injury. The plan had almost certainly been a loan so he can play every week and it surely is still the right decision. But if we don’t go out and buy a top CB I wonder if we keep Jim as an extra body and hope he develops further.

Actually wouldn’t shock me if they went big for Rogers. Though, he really doesn’t strike me as a typical Pep player. But they’re surely going to sign someone if both Grealish and Savinho are going. If it’s true that Vini is asking for €30m per year salary then nobody but the Saudi’s is paying that. Barcola has a firm no sale tag by PSG. I suppose they could rival us for Xavi but you would hope that us negotiating for so long and making such a big push for him would convince him to turn down anyone else. Could see either Rogers or Rodrygo there.

The hell? Feel like I’ve heard Pep rave about him recently and thought he was about to be an important player for them this season. For them to be willing to sell him to a PL club this close to the season you’d imagine they have someone lined up to replace him. Someone big.

Bayern being on the verge of selling Coman has me side eyeing them a little bit. They’ll soon need another attacker and they were one of the other clubs linked with Xavi along with ourselves and Arse. We may want to hurry up before they turn their gaze on him. They’ll know him extremely well and it’s often very difficult for Bundesliga players from the smaller clubs to turn down Bayern if they come for you.

I feel like something surely has to already be happening with Jackson behind the scenes for us to leave him out completely for these two friendlies. If we were still in that “if a huge offer comes in we’ll sell him but we’ll happily keep him otherwise” mode then he would be in the squad on the bench. For us to be leaving him out completely it must mean he is actively working on a move away. No chance of returning.

Palace are a very dangerous first opponent. We’ll have to be super attentive and on it against them.

Anyone in our fanbase who was worrying already about Delap is crazy. He has been performing well and as today shows he WILL score if given good chances. He’s going to be huge for us this season. Really, REALLY hope we stop the silly Garnacho deal and just get Simons + a top CB. Then we’re truly ready for the season.

Malo Gusto caught napping once again. We look straight up poor defensively. We 100% need a CB.

Look good and sharp in attack but actually looked concerningly vulnerable at the back and in transition even against 10 men. One simple pass out wide and they were at us creating dangerous attacks quite regularly. I continue to think it’s a direct result of Enzo playing so high up that he’s basically a second striker and Cucu inverting into midfield. It leaves us kind of exposed when the ball is lost.

Working stream please anyone?

Nkunku going back there for Simons would be picture perfect for every party involved.

This is most definitely going to be our starting XI for Palace next week I would think. And yeah, it’s annoying to still not see Lavia in the squad once again but we at least now have 2 super solid options in Santos and Essugo to fill in whenever he’s absent.

Yeah, it is a bit concerning that we haven’t heard of any real concrete links with Nkunku. We’ve heard from Romano several times that “many clubs” are interested but nothing seems remotely close at this point with the season a week away. And as for Jackson, he still doesn’t appear to be any club’s priority/first choice at this point even after loads of strikers have moved. He still feels like a fallback option for the likes of Newcastle if they miss out on others.

I know he’s surely getting a massive bump in salary but damn, having to go from living in Milan to Newcastle has to be quite the culture shock. Really shows the power of the PL these days though that Newcastle can go and take a player from Milan who Fabrizio repeatedly said their manager wanted to keep. Leaving an iconic, legendary European club for a second tier English one shows how diminished Serie A is.

I’m just saying, I’m not seeing any links or talk about us being interested. All I’m seeing all over Twitter is that he fancies Man United and they’re desperate enough to pay his monster wages.

Why are you guys even talking about Donnarumma? Seems like he’s Man United bound.

I see CFCPys tweeted a clip of what Maresca actually said about a new CB yesterday. Apparently he did NOT actually say we need to go out and get a new one. It was misreported by everyone last night. He was asked “do you need to bolster your defense after the Colwill injury” and he said yes most likely not knowing what the word bolster means. He probably just meant that we need to find a solution to the problem. Not necessarily through the market, though.

Maybe if he hadn’t just signed a new contract last year. Forest would probably demand £100m for him at this point in the window. No chance. True, which is why there no chance they’d sell him. And I doubt an Italian best of a CB will want to leave an Italian club who are UCL contenders.

He’s actually decent if you give him time on the ball in the final third. He just has no tekkers as the kids would say. He’s not going to skin defenders on the wing with some amazing skills like you want in a winger.

Yep. Really don’t see what he really adds to this squad. We’re going to. E playing a shit load of low blocks and packed defenses. Garnacho excels when he can break at pace in a counter attacking side. He’s a shit dribbler and doesn’t offer the technical ability that Gittens, Neto and Estevão do. Sadly, I think the move is already so advanced that we won’t pull out. We’ve been chasing him for 6 months now and he has totally burned his bridges at United. Which is why I’m sweating about Xavi. Feels like that’s the target that is more lLike ly to be sacrificed for a CB than Garnacho.

Same as long as they’re athletic and super calm on the ball. We need a cool head that can step in and instantly hit the ground running.