Pizy

What’s the alternative, really? Guiu hasn’t played in months and George isn’t a striker as we saw last time he started up front.

Expect Forest will come at us guns blazing in the first portion of the match like Newcastle did a couple weeks ago to try to get an early goal. Get the crowd in a frenzy and try to rattle us. So we better be able to match their energy or this could be a horror show.

Looks like Maresca is going more attack oriented than safe and secure with Lavia. Sure would have been nice to have a proper striker up top for such a massive match instead of Neto being forced to play there…

I’m oddly relaxed about this game. If we win and get UCL footy I’ll obviously be excited (perhaps naively) because it could mean better transfer targets and Championship League nights have been badly missed. But if we fail to win it’s not likely to change much in terms of targets judging by who were linked with.

Morgan Rogers is the only one of those named by Jacobs that would genuinely excite me. Even Sesko, while talented, feels like a big risk to me. Gittens and Garnacho would be a massive letdown and I will be extremely skeptical about them until the season starts and we see them in action. Think Rogers has the potential to be a top player and it would be wise to go for him now before he has another great season and City or Liverpool come sniffing around. We’d probably have a free run at him this summer if Villa do indeed have PSR issues again.

Garnacho or Gittens would be monster flops. For the love of god, don’t do something silly…

Wasn’t the report yesterday that Seško is Arsenal’s top choice?

That Ben Jacobs tweet sounds pretty definitive that we aren’t after him.

Just like the Rodrygo rumors, the João Pedro ones were born and died within 24 hours basically. Shows you that nobody knows shit in regards to Chelsea and likely won’t until after tomorrow.

I’m not saying Wirtz is going to flop as I think he’s a brilliant player but I do find it kind of strange that of all the positions on the pitch Liverpool decided to go all out for an attacking midfielder. I never once thought to myself watching them this season that a high quality #10 type is the thing they’re missing. I figured they’d return to the CM/DM area after failing on both Caicedo and Lavia. They’re still pretty short in that area after Gravenberch. I guess this is a move with an eye on 2-3 years from now when Salah is gone and they have their new talisman to build the team around. so in that case it’s sensible. Though, if the reported 150m price is what they pay he pretty much HAS to become a superstar and one of the best players in the world.

In the same way that Nkunku and Felix technically can, yes. None of these 3 are wingers though so he’d be wasted there.

They’re such completely different players that you can’t really even compare them.

Santos and Estevão are super exciting for me. But I feel like people need to get real about Essugo. He’ll probably go out on loan never to be seen again before the PL even starts. With Caicedo, Enzo, Lavia, and Santos it’s hard to see when Essugo would play. Even with the customary Lavia injuries.

Looks like Wirtz is Liverpool bound. So Wirtz, Frimpong, and Kerkez likely secured before the window officially even opens. And they still will sign a top striker to replace that donkey Darwin Nuñez. That is an INSANELY good transfer window for a team that just walked the league. Should be an eye opener to our board if we win this weekend. if we secure UCL football we need to go all out on TOP players like that or we’ll finish 20 points behind them again.

João Pedro is yet another one of those “good player but is he what we need?” types. And the answer is no. Again, he’s the sort of signing that I’d welcome if we already had a serious #9 who he could either play off of or rotate for. This would basically be replacing Nkunku 1 to 1. A forward who has no defined position. Not an outright striker, not a natural #10, and not a winger. Maresca already didn’t quite know how to use Nkunku and Felix who are just that type of player.

Estevão looks like he could genuinely become world class if he settles in well here and is developed properly. Incredibly impressed once again by the compilation I watched of the match from last night. His comfort and ability on the ball is insane for his age as is the power he generates from his shots for such a tiny kid. My hope is that he is used and integrated straight away and isn’t treated like the other teenagers under Maresca where they see a few minutes here and there. If he settles in to a new country quickly we could have someone insane on our hands.

If our ownership/transfer handlers want to really piss this fanbase off they’ll go for Garnacho. I seriously can’t handle another bang average winger coming in and being horribly inconsistent.

Maybe. If the Arse owners are finally willing to go big and get over that final hurdle I guess. But them spending Man City or Chelsea type money in a single window I still have to see to believe. They showed with Rice that they’re willing to go big for one single player but we’re yet to really see them splurge on a handful of expensive players all in one window. Same can really be said about Liverpool.

I really don’t see any of those clubs being willing to pay that much for a winger this summer. Especially when they’re all linked with super expensive players in other areas of need.

Really like what I see with Ekitike from a raw talent and style standpoint. But do I see a striker who is going to be a 20+ per season scorer in the PL caliber player? Don’t think so. He looks like he’d be brilliant as an option for a top side who already has that monster #9 in place much like Jackson would be. For 80m+ he looks like a huge risk. Especially with our recent history of buying forwards from Germany who look outstanding over there and then massively underwhelm here in the PL.

Badly want Spuds to win this. Really badly. For two main reasons. One, because the Mark Goldbridge meltdown content will last weeks and two, because Spuds getting UCL football is completely pointless and does them not much good. Not like they can go out and sign top players with the lure of being in it. They may even keep Ange if they win which is good for us. United will always be able to attract good players due to their size and history but they desperately need this money for winning it and the money they’ll get for being in the Champions League next season and can shop in a totally different bracket this summer. I think they can make legitimate pushes for the likes of Gyokeres/Osimhen/Nico Williams etc if they have UCL + the money it brings rather than the mediocre targets they’re currently linked with. Long story short, United winning tonight makes our life harder next season and beyond. Spuds winning doesn’t really affect us at all.

Think it’s pretty safe to say that nobody really knows our primary transfer targets right now and won’t until this last game at the weekend. If we win and get UCL I think we’ll immediately start seeing briefings from the club about who we’re going after. The Enzo out/Rodrygo in stuff died within a day so that was clearly BS. I bet you anything that we’ll be looking almost exclusively at PL players. Delap, João Pedro, Guehi. The club will prioritize players who can hit the ground running with little to no adaptation period.

This is kind of where I’m at. I really like Enzo as a personality and love his play on the pitch when he’s at his best but I don’t think he suits the super high intensity of the PL as well as he would other, slower leagues. When matches become very stretched and end to end he struggles because he’s not the quickest or most athletic. Bit like Fabregas or Jorginho when they were here. I don’t WANT to see him sold and I’d be perfectly happy to keep him for years more, but if Madrid offer what we paid or more I’d do it so long as we replace him with someone new who suits the PL better. If the idea from the club is to sell Enzo, not use the money for a replacement, and then simply say that Andrey Santos is his replacement then it would be a huge mistake.

True. Like I said earlier, Wharton from Palace looks like the ideal midfielder if we need one. He is ultra comfortable on the ball and is great at playing between the lines linking the midfield and attack. He 100% looks like a midfielder that Pep will fancy at some point so we’d do well to be there if possible.

I love Lavia but I think we can go ahead and just assume that he’s going to miss some significant time with injuries. And Essugo is a complete unknown. So if we sell Enzo we’d definitely need another dependable CM I think.