Pizy

He’s a significantly better technical footballer than Gallagher, so I disagree.

We have an absolutely ludicrous number of young talents on or soon to be on our books. Imagine a couple of years from now when everyone shows up to Cobham for preseason. There might be 70 players, ffs 🤣

True. But will he be cool wasting away on our bench for a whole season? By the time next summer rolls around there will be a new batch of exciting midfielders coming off of great seasons that other big PL clubs will fancy and he may not have the ideal place to go.

Sounds like Gallagher to Atleti is far from a sure thing even if we and Atleti agree on a fee. He might not fancy it and then we’re fucked out of getting any fee at all for him when he walks this time next year.

That teenaged goalkeeper we’re linked with Mike Penders from Genk just started following us in IG so that’s clearly a done deal. Most expensive fee ever paid for a Belgian keeper apparently and this dude has only ONE senior appearance I’m reading?! We must genuinely think this kid is Courtois regen.

If Chalobah or Gallagher played for Everton or Southampton right now and Chelsea were linked to them everyone here would be in total meltdown. Because they’re decent players and nothing more. Would Man City/Arse/Liverpool/Real Madrid/Bayern/PSG etc have Gallagher playing for them? Absolutely ZERO chance. Those clubs are playing at the level we should be playing at. You’d think reading some Chelsea fans that were selling De Bruyne or Xavi. Conor is a “energy and hustle” player. That’s it. He doesn’t fit in a team that wants to play highly technical, quick pass and move football. End of.

English, homegrown player to another PL club. Everyone knows there’s an extra tax for that.

Which I think is the only way we get him. No loan, no Osimhen for us.

So we basically watched a big rumor be born and die within a couple of hours.

Welp. Judging by Fabrizio’s latest tweet with a quote from Osimhen’s agent, Di Marzio is the one who was right, not Ornstein. The loan move was always too good to be true.

Yep. Di Marzio used to be THE transfer window authority but is super spotty these days. I will say, though, that Napoli buying Lukaku permanently with Osimhen coming the other way only on loan does sound too good to be true.

These are all good things…🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️ Enzo and Caicedo will be great for us in the long term starting this season, imo. Osimhen on a Netflix 1 year trial is smart. £30-35m for Gallagher who has a year left on his deal and wasn’t in the manager’s plans is perfectly fine.

Probably the only way we were going to sell him abroad is by lowering the asking price. Atleti or anyone else outside of the PL was going to pay £50m for Gallagher. And the PL options quickly dried up with Spuds and Villa already buying midfielders. Only £30m is bad but with a year left on his deal and to get him away from a rival domestic club is probably the best we could hope for.

Loan with buy option for Osimhen? If he actually agrees to that then it would be incredibly smart business from the club. As for Gallagher, I’m a bit surprised the fee is so low but he had to go. And it’s fantastic that he’s going abroad so we don’t have to hear about him nonstop ever time he plays well. The Mason Mount comparison is spot in in that Conor is a very solid player who you love having in your squad as an option but he’s a limited footballer. Be sad to see him walk because he loves the club but it had to happen.

I think the owners want to turn us into one of those clubs like Dortmund or Benfica or yes, Brighton who buy these young talents for low fees and mould them into £100m players. Just on a much bigger scale since we aren’t a club that’ll be forced to sell those players when and if they do blossom into superstars. It seems like scattershot madness right now when it’s in its infancy but if in a few years from now Estevão, Paez, Anselmino, etc are all starting for us the club will look like geniuses. Nobody really has patience anymore so it’s difficult now to see the big picture. As for the wages we offer, apart from the two Manchester clubs I don’t think anyone else really pays mega wages. I’d bet our highest earners under this new wages structure (about £120-150k) are comparable to what the best players at Arse, Spuds, Liverpool etc are earning. You’ll have your odd superstar like Salah on far more but I doubt Liverpool for example are offering new signings any more than we are.

I think the new wage structure was recently put in place because of players like Sterling and Koulibaly. These owners don’t want to get burned again by giving players that turn out to be huge disappointments £300k a week. Players like Enzo, Caicedo, etc were brought in and put on “reasonable” (by todays standard) wages when traditionally these mega transfer fee players would be only more than double what we have them on. If we suddenly hand Osimhen £250k per week I can imagine some of the others being annoyed. Don’t get me wrong, I’d still pay what it takes for the right player. But it’s not without risk.

So that Slonina buy looking more and more pointless than it already did, huh?

If we break this new wage structure that we’ve just put in place for Osimhen it kinda opens the floodgates for any of our current players seeking new terms. If Palmer has another amazing season and then stays to the club “I want £200k per week or I’m going to agitate for a move,” will the club be prepared to break the wage structure again?

If they’d accept something like £60m + Lukaku then of course you do it. I’m skeptical Osimhen is the guy for us but that’s a deal you do every day of the week. But if Napoli insist on something much more like £80m + Lukaku I don’t think the club goes that high and I’d say rightly so. We’ve been burned by on so many striker signings that I’m incredibly weary every time now. Just can’t help but be pessimistic.

I really, really wanted him a couple of years ago but I’m very conflicted as to whether he’s a good fit for us now. A classic, “big man” #9 in a team that’s likely to play really patient, slower football? Will he be starved of service for huge periods of time and therefor be ineffective? I suppose the best outcome in that scenario is replicating what City have with Haaland where he can go entire halves without getting more than a few touches but is still super clinical and bags loads of goals. If we’re now willing to splurge a huge fee on a striker I can’t help but feel Alvarez would be a better system fit.

Ending up getting Osimhen after all this time would be pretty funny, ngl. Especially after Fabrizio saying over and over again that we won’t go near his massive wage demands.

Obviously we should all hope for the best and give Jorgensen a chance before we shit on him. But goddamn, do we have to give everyone we sign a SEVEN year contract?! Especially a keeper. Did we not learn our lesson with Kepa when we gave him a 7 or 8 year contract? If this guy comes in and flops in his very first season the entire football world will see it because he‘ll now be on the biggest stage rather than under the radar at a smaller club like Villareal. Then how would we shift him?

I really, REALLY like the long term signings the club have made. Some of these teenaged talents look excellent. But I hope now that Anselmino is finally sealed he’s the last one for a while. We’re going to create a serious problem for ourselves where we buy so many youngsters that we totally block their pathway.

😆 Regardless, neither are the type the club should be going after. So we should be thankful that their clubs are pricing them out of us getting them. Last thing we need is yet another super raw striker player on huge wages that comes in, doesn’t look close to ready, and then we struggle for years to move them on.

They’re the same age, mate. In fact, Duran is a few months older.