OneMoSalah

I get playing Ruben in a 3 man MF… but as the deepest of them? Lets hope we aren’t too sloppy because don’t trust him positionally in that position.

They’ll still keep plenty of clean sheets though if they keep the likes of van Dijk, Matip, Gomez and Konate fit plus the likes of Jota and Firmino will still score goals also so they’ve still got a very very good chance of being in the title run. The ability to keep clean sheets always gives you a chance of winning. In January it also will depend who they play though and how far Senegal and Egypt go in the AFCON. If they get a run of easy games, keep their backline fit as well as Jota and Firmino they’ll be there or theres about by the time they return after AFCON. They look very good and unfortunately right now the only team I would say who are going to properly challenge City because you can say as a title challenging team, they are more mature and ready than we are. Still think we will give it a good shot but potentially will fall away.

Do us all a favour and read up on it instead of acting like a massive twat thinking you know everything when you haven’t got the faintest clue between your arse and your elbow. Please just read the link, its painful for the rest of us reading this “barca fanboy pup” and “scam football club” nonsense 😂 The La Liga £100m cap was for this season (based on their financial situation), they trimmed the equivalent of €250-300 million off their wage bill this season compared to last. As reported by the Athletic (heres link if you don’t believe it) https://www.google.com/amp/s/theathletic.com/news/real-madrid-in-270m-boost-barcelona-given-280m-cut-2021-22-la-liga-wage-caps/1BPLPzfhRtee/%3Famp%3D1

Because La Liga have put salary caps on all Spanish teams meaning that due to their financial status now Barca are only allowed to be paying around €100m in wages per year but never mind, I suppose you knew that too…. ”snarky comments” no just proving a point, which again you’ve made a royal cunt of yourself 😂

Well anyone who isn't living under a rock would know 1) Messi left who was on the best part of €1m per week and 2) majority of their big players took a pay cut meaning they've cut their wage bill down significantly and could register their new players and propose renewals to the likes of Fati and Pedri. So less of the “do some reading before you fly in like rambo” when I am more than aware and you obviously weren’t….. or you wouldn’t be hitting out with “they literally couldn’t even pay wages pal” which couldn’t of been further from the truth 👍

What new wallet? What are you on about? 😂 I repeat, they have renewed someones contract…. Not bought him. Obviously it costs money to renew with fees and increased wages but I doubt it’s significant enough to hugely affect them.

Eh? You on about Barca? They renewed Pedri’s contract, who is a player they already have? Who they signed in 2020? What would that have to do with FFP or being in debt?

Well thats not exactly true. Aye in fact thats almost ludicrous. Prior to Roman and even Ranieri being the manager, we were pushing in the right direction. Look at our league finishes from the 96/97 season up to when Jose was appointed under Guillit, Vialli and Ranieri. 6th, 4th, 3rd, 5th, 6th, 6th, 4th and 2nd. Plus throw in the FA cups, UEFA Super Cup, UEFA Cup Winners Cup, League Cups etc won in that period. Obviously Mourinho’s exceptional managerial skills and some of the big players we bought accelerated us to the back to back leagues but again you can’t say “we just threw money at it” like we were a team who were finishing in the bottom 10 of the PL table like Newcastle have done since Benitez took them back up. We were already in and around those teams. Maybe we wouldn’t have been as successful with Ranieri as were with Mourinho but you can’t just say we threw money at it as if it was unthinkable that we could have achieved something more based on the previous seasons. Ironically once we just started throwing money at players like Shevchenko and Torres without really thinking about it, thats when things didn’t necessarily go too well. So you’ve contradicted yourself, you said they would be throwing money around like its confetti? But now you think they wont buy top players? So what are they going to do? Make your mind up.

The fact every media outlet says they will not be making knee jerk decisions and they want to have director of football/sporting directors in place makes it blatantly obvious that it may take them another week or 2 weeks to even approach a manager. I don’t think you see or understand the bigger picture point (which the group and Amanda Staveley have been discussing in the media) so I will just leave it at that. Your thinking it is like FIFA or FM where they will just go n throw £££ at it in fees and wages because they can which is idiotic. Like Anzhi did in Russia with Roberto Carlos, Zhirkov, Eto’o, Willian, Diarra, Samba etc. Without a plan it won’t work and I doubt they’re here to just throw shit at the wall and hope it sticks.

Should be a tight game but also one I would expect to be entertaining at their place. They are very interesting and have shown already good variety this season, capable of playing long and direct or short and out from the back. They also are effective playing a high press or sitting in a bit deeper, being organised when they have to as they did at times v Liverpool and Arsenal. Good to see the referee is in discussion… jesus christ, if we don’t win this, it will be down to us not being good enough or them being too good, not the referee. I mean the fans of the smaller clubs are the ones who usually moan about referees being appointed to their games because traditionally at the bigger teams stadiums, they would maybe not get the same decisions. Now people on here are complaining about it because they appointed Anthony Taylor for one of our away games…. the tin foil hats are back in full force.

And who did Tuchel buy? Nobody. Thats the whole point. Not on about solely appointing managers, its happens midseason more or less 75% of the time all around Europe. maybe this will help…. And by joined - club I mean after the seasons kicked off as we are 7 games in already. Anyway, as I can see here, there are 100% people expecting Bruce to have been sacked on the day they confirmed the take over and for a new manager to come in a day or two after, which is quite frankly ludicrous. As a club just taken over after an initial failed takeover attempt prior, I doubt they’ll have even thought about having anything in place immediately with a manager. They’ll have a list perhaps but I’d be surprised if its not Bruce or his assistant taking the game at the weekend although it is only Tuesday. End of season? I don’t think that would make sense. If they are smart, they will maybe take a bit of time to see who’s out there and get someone who wants to build the club for a couple of seasons at least so they can actually have a reasonable progression and build expectations up as opposed to going from Steve Bruce to a caretaker for 6 months to another manager then the following summer changing between 3 different managers, with 3 different views on football and 3 different goals entirely. Plus if they want a director of football (which is rumoured) and also try and get the likes of Shearer, Keegan and whoever else in place also in some capacity, depending what those roles are particularly if they are going to be footballing roles, they have to be compatible with whoever they want to appoint as manager too. We have seen whilst here, our model of changing managers has worked very well, you also see that Liverpool and City have done the opposite with Klopp and Pep, investing in their project and ideas long term and they’ve built up in a way where they’ve followed a clear plan that gives them the opportunity for sustained success. City in recent times are begrudgingly the perfect example really. Once Txiki Begiristain was appointed and Pellegrini came in, everyone and their dog could see they were building for Pep eventually and to have all the footballing infrastructure in place to give him the best chance of implementing everything he wanted.

They need to get a manager first though. Also, when has a manager ever joined a club which by the time they bin Bruce and get someone picked and things in place probably be closer to midway through the season and goes and buys excessively in the January? Its almost unheard of.

Hazard back would be strange. We don’t usually sign players who have had bad spells at other clubs, we usually don't sign players who are of or over the age of 30 either. I dont think we can afford to simply resign someone who maybe might do it again or maybe wont because of sentiment. We already have enough players who in attack and streaky or not doing it regularly enough so to make another attacking signing who plays on the wing/attacking midfield position and its the same story, it would be frustrating.

The thing is, if they get a good recruitment plan and project in place which Conte is all for based on his Inter signings the likes of Barella, Lukaku, Hakimi, Eriksen, Lazaro, Sensi, Politano were all in various ages below the ages of 29-32 so its not a given he will go and buy shit tonnes of 29-32 year olds. Sanchez, Darmian, Vidal, Kolarov, Young were really the only older guys he signed there majority of the others kids/players between 19-28. If they make a plan in the same way City did with Pellegrini and then Pep, building their squad with a mix of young, middle age and few older senior pros or players in their prime then theres no reason why they cannot achieve or build to something good. This Conte 29-32 year old signing thing really is bizarre, maybe at Juventus he did (Juventus have been good at squeezing every ounce out of players who are in that age bracket and above though - in recent times I can think of Pirlo, Barzaghli, Buffon, Chielleni Tevez, even Matri and Vucinic had reasonable returns for him in their late 20s or whatever ages in their 30s - but he did openly say himself about them being tight which is why he left. Here the likes of Giroud and a few others Dzeko etc who were linked, they were probably all that was available at the time considering it was January too. But you’d think he signed 25 old men at every club hes ever been at reading this place sometimes 😂 And even if he did or didn’t, he’s got the trophies to show it works. Obviously getting success is one thing but its about sustaining it, at Juve he built an excellent squad prior to Allegri going there, here he brought in a few very good players and again the majority of the starting 11 at Inter, the stand out players such as Barella, Martinez, Lukaku (left), Hakimi (left) all improved ten fold under him and he signed them bar Martinez.

A good fit? Honestly, I am a bit baffled but Simon Phillips again… suppose So basically, what I have gathered… another club with huge ambitions, probably if they wanted to (although talk of not doing this and having a project), able to give Frank whatever amount of money to spend each transfer window on high quality players, only for him to probably not be able to fit into a team/coach to play as a cohesive unit with any clear identity… then try throw more money at it again and again (huge talk of him wanting Rice at all costs here last January and again this summer)… hmm…. a good fit? Even the project talk and youth players, Frank tapped into the youth academy here and at Derby, this eye for a young player is given to him although when you consider how famed our academy has been for years - just look at the FA Youth cup wins - its not exactly an unknown secret. For a project that you want to accelerate to this level of ambition eventually that they’ve talked about, at a club who are owned by personnel worth £320bn, that is still a bad job for an inexperienced coach who had huge resources here and couldn’t make it work in 18 months where identity and playing style was severely lacking. If they are ambitious and want a playing style and an identity to bring the fans onside, they will more than likely get someone who has some experience at reasonably big club level or someone who has been part or delivered a project to some sort of reasonable standard. I suppose finding them is difficult but the likes of Lampard and Howe will not be top of the pile, 100%.

Love how people are assuming they will go and just throw hundreds of millions at it in the beginning and it will work and they’ll end up top 4 in like 2 seasons. I have no doubt they will put some sort of cash in on better players and maybe get a much better manager because it is obvious they need it but I also don’t necessarily think Newcastle will be able to go from where they are to fighting for the top 4/6 without making some sort of other progress first in a period of 3 or 4 years first. People forget City finished 9th prior to be taken over and then 10th in the first season after being taken over in 2008. Then they got to 5th under Mancini who was a much better calibre of manager whilst Carlos Tevez almost single handedly fired them up the table that season scoring 20+ PL goals. It took City their third season to go from 9th to the top 4 under new owners, costing them the best part of £400m in transfers. On the contrast Newcastle are usually spending majority of the season struggling to stay in the PL with a squad that lacks any real and obvious quality in multiple positions with no genuine regular source of goals before getting a few results and luck from other teams around them. The top 4 teams are out of their reach by a mile. Even spending £100m in 3 or 4 windows, they’re still miles behind because they don’t have any real quality in there to work with. I think they’ll also have a plan and targets, to maybe do what City and ourselves have done around the community but the footballing sides of things, I think it will not be as easy as £500m in 3 or 4 years to bring them up to a top top team.

🤣 Nobody is forcing him out the door. Lets be fair here. Another of the big arguments was he played with a CF at Leipzig, Lukaku is a CF yet hes rarely featured with him. I said last season I felt Tuchel would lose faith in him and I think the signs couldn’t be clearer.

Precisely. I think under Tuchel our big game records not really the issue (despite the two losses this last 2 games v City, Juve), its the smaller sides that we dropped more points against. Jose’s first season back in his second spell here was as good an indicator also, if you can get points v the big teams (think we took points of City, Arsenal, Spurs, Liverpool and United) but drop points v the smaller teams due to not being able to convert chances etc, you’re not going to win league titles.

I dont know what your reading, you’ve taken my post completely in the wrong way. Or just tried to funnel it into something it isnt…. Someone said Lukaku has disrupted the likes of Havertz, Ziyech, Pulisic, Werner etc but have they done anything of note this season? Did they perform outstandingly last season as well in periods? No. Also, is the attack this season not functioning amazingly solely on Lukaku’s shoulders? Obviously its not. But that seems to be the narrative. The attacking problem is a collective one, clearly, from Lukaku and the 2 off him to the wingbacks as well not being to the level they should be offensively and even in midfield lacking a bit more creativity. I said we lacked chemistry in attack and the combinations we have tried so far the last 2 games haven’t really worked. Where did I say Lukaku was only shit because of the others? I mean if you use your eyes and read everything instead of jumping to conclusions based on maybe misinterpreting a sentence, trust me you’ll not find that.

The point is why hasnt Tuchel started him once in the PL since Lukaku came in though? Or even bringing him on v Juve then talking about missing runners or runs in behind post match? If he had faith in Werner surely he would of played him more than 209 minutes in the PL so far? No? Or subbed him in v Juve? Not one mention of Lukaku in that post either but guessing you mean one from Another thread.

I think as limited as our attack has looked, to say Lukaku has harmed or prevented Werner, Pulisic, Havertz etc from developing or playing better is utter bullshit, frankly. I mean Havertz has played regularly this season and hasn't convinced entirely. Werner played virtually every game last season under 2 managers and hardly fully convinced consistently bar one wee spell of games with Tuchel. He isn’t on the bench for nothing. The real problem is who is the best 2 to play off of Lukaku in that 3421. 100% we need someone who has pace enough and can play in 1 v 1s in that front 3 and its fair to say Mount is as inevitable a big a miss as you can have. Maybe Pulisic-Lukaku-Mount has to be tried, or dare I say it, playing a back 4 with 2 actual wingers and Mount at number 10? Big problem with our attack is we actually lack multiple players with pace to open up spaces as well as seeing poor chemistry between the attackers. The balance isn’t right. Look at how Conte used Lukaku with Martinez, thats two players who suited playing off one another because their skillsets complimented each other. I am not entirely sure what Ziyech and Kai brought to the table playing off of Rom. Hopefully this chemistry comes over time, its only 8 or 9 games into the season in all comps. Whilst there has been alarming signs the last 2 games, the other games weren’t half as bad as being made out. Tuchel even said after Villa IIRC and other games we weren’t where we needed to be.

He is one who I think is as good as done here barring a miracle. The big thing being TT talked about not having runs or runners v Juventus but yet he didn’t sub him on. The proof is in the pudding, why didn’t he bring him in? Does he trust him? Does he not?

Pretty sure guys like Kante, Drogba, Vardy, Maguire, Lampard, Kane, Kolo Toure and other late bloomers/players who developed well despite having glaring weaknesses/not being at the top level have disproved this “if their touch is shite at 18 then its gonna be shite at 28” thing ten times over. Which basically is like saying if your a shit footballer at 18 your likely to be a shit footballer at 28. Which we know isn’t true. Its not as black and white as that, never has been, never will be. Granted Ziyech hasn’t done enough and looks out of his depth after a brief spell in pre season and in the SC but to use his example as why to never buy players is mind boggling. I mean if your going to tell me you seen Ziyech play at 18 as well I have to say that’s impressive but I doubt it… Also never buy on form? Why do you think players get moves more than 50% of the time? From playing badly? No, from having had an amazing run of form/season. I see the point your trying to make but not everyone falls into the same basket, its different on a case by case basis.

Di Matteo actually finished 6th in the PL. Which was lower than where we were when he took over…

Kovacic has to shoot there. Fuck. The one good bit of play out wide between CHO and Kai, good spot, half a chance to shoot, tries to pass to our left wing back… man oh man. And yes Loftus-Cheek again taking the ball, doing about 3 faints, failing to see the forward pass or quicker pass midway through it and then passes sideways/backwards bar that one there where he received it on the half turn near the box and got it into Lukaku…. cant wait for the “should start next week” posts. Mount is a huge loss. Either way.