Pizy

This Fulham XI looks pretty terrible. Even with Arse missing some key players they should comfortably win this. These promoted sides are going to suffer the most without fans in the stands I think.

Chill, I'm just joking.

Please don't tell me he's also an anime nerd. That's the only way it could get worse...

Fuck sake.

We need Mendy in net for Liverpool. As long as it's done by then I'm not bothered.

True, raising the money looks like it'll be the "easy" part. Convincing WH to sell their best player and future captain is the extremely difficult bit.

Basically Rice needs to throw a fit and demand to go if we have a chance this summer. Even then WH have complete leverage in any negotiations to demand whatever fee they want. He's got so many years left on his contract and is so important to their team. Selling him after the season starts and with limited time to replace him their fans would riot. Our only real hope is that WH are in really bad shape financially due to COVID and absolutely need money. Then maybe they'd accept £50m or something more reasonable.

We haven't actually been linked with Zakaria, have we? People saying his name here just like him? I think it's Rice or nobody. Like Chilly, it seems like Lamps is dead set on Rice and we'll wait as long as it takes to eventually get him.

I really rate Rice but he's nowhere near an £80m player. Or £70m or £60m. Is he worth that to WH? Probably. But if we can put a sizeable offer in the table like we did with Chilly maybe they'll settle for less due to COVID? Guess we'll find out. But surely one or more have to be on their way out? Having squad depth is one thing but having Kante, Jorginho, Kova, Billy, AND a new deeper midfielder is beyond overkill. One of Kante or Jorginho HAVE to be going for big money. Maybe Barkley as well on top of one of them.

So literally moments after I asked a bunch of Mendy news dropped. 😆 Still very curious about the Declan Rice situation. It's insane to me that it's possible we're still after him.

Wonder what's going on with Mendy. Sounded like it was basically a done deal last weekend. Nothing since.

Yeah, Brozovic is a good player who apparently has a nonstop workrate. But I wouldn't swap him for Kante. Only way I'd (reluctantly) let Kante go is if we brought Thiago Alcantara in. And we all know that ain't happening

Going to be a pretty weird dynamic if we don't have Mendy in ASAP. If Kepa starts the first few matches and gets yanked out and replaced it'll probably destroy his psyche. Would be equally as strange if Kepa plays a few blinders and then a ~£25m new keeper comes in and replaces him. This is why it was probably not smart waiting until this late to sort the keeper situation. Going into match 1 knowing who our new keeper is and having him training with the boys is what would've been idea.

Havertz sounds like he's ready to start straight away. Werner likewise. Chilwell we all knew would be missing for a while. Ziyech is the new signing I was probably most looking forward to seeing initially so this injury really annoys me. Why Frank even played him in the second half of that useless friendly I don't know. Was really feeling that Ziyech was the one new signing that would instantly provide decisive goal involvement. Guess the Ziyech blow is softened quite a bit by the fact that CP is back already.

Yeah, we should have enough for Brighton. But it's looking likely we'll be seeing the same dreadful defense + keeper for a bit longer. When a strong start to the season is probably going to be hugely important, that's not ideal. Especially with Liverpool up next.

That answer about Ziyech didn't sound good at all. Frank says he's hopeful he'll be ready in a matter of weeks. Doesn't to me that he'll be ready any time soon. 😣

I don't mean wait until his price goes down, I'm saying we'll wait until we have money for the huge outlay that will be required. WH will likely demand £65-80m for him which there's no chance of us paying this summer. This time next season we'll have PL and CL money to work with and will probably only need one or two players after what we've done this summer.

Our business has been so fantastic that I'm not really bothered about him going there either. I don't think he'll be this transformative player that becomes a world beater or Ballon D'Or contender like their fans think. He'll of course be very good and strengthen them.

Always assumed Sancho would eventually end up there, but as the saga has dragged on and on I had just started to think that maybe United's incompetent negotiators may have waited too long. But it looks like it'll get done. Pretty dreadful planning for Dortmund if they sell him at this late stage, though. How can they replace their best attacking player now?

Hopefully this dude has a big, alpha dog personality and can handle intense pressure. Because he's probably going to our most scrutinized new player considering all the drama around Kepa.

Difference is Soumaré is miles and miles more comfortable on the ball than Bakayoko is.

That fucking sucks about Ziyech. Damnit. But holy shit at CP being back that quickly. I wasn't expecting to have him for like a month. I'm going to guess that without Ziyech, Havertz will start the season on the right with Mount in the #10 position.

Definitely don't think Soumaré is shit. Far from it, actually. I think he's a top talent who has an excellent all around game. I was impressed with him when we played Lille last season. If Frank is 100% determined to sign a midfielder this window and Rice is totally impossible, Soumaré would be a good fallback option. But I don't think the position is in desperate need of a player there currently. We'll wait for Rice until next year if need be rather than signing someone just to sign them.

I have a feeling that the FA or FIFA or whoever is going to change the loan rules soon to limit how many players any one club can loan within the PL. Because you have to admit (however funny it is) that us sending loads of solid players to PL teams who can damage our rivals while not being able to damage us is not really fair. Hope we abuse the hell out of the rules as they are, though. 😂

But 29 is so ugly. 😣 Makes him look like an academy player who was called up last minute after an emergency injury.