Pizy

Absolute amateur hour. Trying to lowball the release clause by tens of millions of pounds. Wouldn’t blame Benfica at all for being annoyed and dismissing this out of hand. And now if we walk away we risk pissing off the player himself after his head has clearly been turned. PAY THE DAMN MONEY

I suppose there’s still hope until we get an Ornstein or Law tweet saying we’ve walked away. Those are the two ironclad, most trustworthy guys.

Genuinely thought today was the day we’d get a briefing from all the usual reliable sources that a deal had been agreed. Not the full, official club announcement but the likes of Ornstein, Fab, etc saying everything was done but the medical. Instead it looks to have imploded.

Just pay the fucking money, Todd. This is a player that can completely change our midfield fortunes. And we have essentially a free run at him this window. May never get this chance again. Especially if we finish bloody 10th or something!

Would add insult to injury if Liverpool or United suddenly decide to swoop now that our move looks off.

Would be really rotten if you get the players hopes up, convince him to join, and then balk at the last minute at paying the release clause. Any other midfielder we may sign from here is a pretty substantial downgrade on Enzo. None of Alvarez, Caicedo, or Rice (in the summer) offers the complete package.

That would be hugely embarrassing. Alvarez doesn’t have a tenth of the ability and class that Enzo has.

Yep, it’s off. We probably tried to offer some small upfront amount and Benfica stood firm. We bottled it.

The fact that we’ve reportedly been locked in meetings with them for days now and there’s been no advancement makes the deal hitting a snag believable.

Especially since several supposedly reliable Benfica/Argentina sources have said it’s done. Wish we could just know specifically what the snag is. Is it on our end or theirs?

Haven’t been this impatient about a signing since summer 2020 when we were desperate for a striker. That’s how badly I now want the Enzo deal to go through. He can be that important to the team in the future. So this lack of updates is killing me.

I’m sick of playing our players in strange positions like that. Chalobah or RLC at RB can work for a game or two in emergency situations but our system relies SO heavily on the wingbacks or fullbacks being key parts of the attack. When our forwards are already struggling mightily to score goals, adding a fullback who gives us nothing going forward like Chalobah sounds miserable.

The thing about signing a new RB is that we don’t even need to shop in the highest bracket. Even signing a fairly young player who can run up and down the wing and actually add something to the attack would be a substantial upgrade on current Azpi. We could probably spend £20-25m and sign a RB who’s good enough to deputize for Reece without that new player feeling aggrieved when they go back to the bench when he returns. What about Max Aarons from Norwich? He has been linked with a move to a big club for a few years now. Can we not try for him?

Mudryk just looks to me like a very good but not special player. The kind of flashy wide player that comes around fairly often. The sort that if we were after him for a reasonable price I’d be fine with. Something like £35-40m. But for £80m or whatever they want for him he looks dramatically overpriced and I think he’s got huge bust potential for that sort of cash. Think we can do better if we’re after another wide player.

It’s extremely strange that both Tuchel and now apparently Potter both seem to be perfectly fine using a completely past it Azpi for extended stretches. It’s like they can’t see what we all see.

Hopefully Enzo is wrapped up before the City match. If he sees us put in another awful performance and get smacked by multiple goals he may have a change of heart. 😬😬😬

Bet Benfica either want the vast majority of the transfer fee upfront or all of it and we are insisting on multiple payments. Pretty frustrating how this saga keeps changing every few hours. Everyday we get Argentine/Benfica sources saying it’s a done deal and then every night we get an update from Fab saying it’s not. Think tomorrow will tell us a lot. If our board meets with Benfica again and don’t come to a deal then this is off. I pray that we get it done.

Wonder what the hold up is with Badiashile. Been several days now that it’s supposedly been done. Also, I wonder why an announcement hasn’t been made with Nkunku if it’s been signed and sealed for like a month.

With the ball at his feet in open space Mudryk reminds me a bit of Gareth Bale when he was bothered about football years ago. Doesn’t have the end product of Bale had yet, though.

We’ve just signed a very young striker in Fofana. Not sure it makes sense to buy another in the same age range. Looks pretty good, tbf. Much like Leão he looks super dangerous in open space out wide.

Really makes for extremely embarrassing reading looking at the table and seeing some of the teams above us. Or seeing teams who were horrendously poor last season like Newcastle and Man United turn around their fortunes basically overnight. United in particular had a season like we are having now last year where seemingly every single player was in poor form simultaneously. Now they’re all flying simultaneously. On one hand it shows just how quickly things can change in football and we can be right back near the top next season if we’re smart. But on the other it’s just so embarrassing that we are where we are with this squad we have. On paper and assuming everyone is fit I’d still say we have the 2nd best squad in the league quality wise. At worst the 3rd best. And yet clubs like Fulham and Brentford are above us. And a Newcastle side who were relegation candidates much of last season are way above us who have maybe 1 player in their whole squad who would make our squad.

I’m not even sure why Arse want him so badly, never mind us. They already have their beloved Saka on the right side and all Arse supporters are always hyping up that Martinelli is a future superstar who is on the left. So why spend £70-80m on another winger?

I don’t get it. Especially as it appears he’s a pure left winger when we just spent pretty big on Sterling. We shouldn’t be looking at a wide player at all this window. our priorities should be Enzo & a RB. After Reece went down again you would’ve thought we’d race to get a backup in ASAP. But it doesn’t appear like there’s urgency to do that at all.

This Mudryk dude has been whoring himself to Arse for months. He clearly really fancies going there. So why bother? Wait until summer and try to keep the Leão dream alive.

Yeah, with the PL season all but finished my biggest hope for the remainder of the way is for us to just get all these key players fit and establish a style. Something we can build on for next season. I REALLY hope Fofana in particular can put his injures behind him and get a nice long run in the team for a few months. He should be one of our most important players over the next 5 years.