OneMoSalah

Good post. I have to agree with Chilwell, Werner, Ziyech and Havertz (closer now) coming in, particularly Werner and Havertz, should raise Jorginho’s game because the movement will be much better off the ball and hopefully look to get in behind more. Ziyech as well is also going to be a huge player for him, coming between the lines to receive the ball. Really think selling Jorginho would be daft still.

Rakitic is 32 or 33. Hardly a shocker would of been more a shock if they sold him for that 2 years ago even if it was PSG. Think Barca tried to offer him to PSG for Neymar in that deal firstly but when PSG wanted to buy him for 80m€ (lot of talk it was 65m €) separately, he didnt want go either which is why he said the whole I am not a sack of potatoes thing. Not sure its free either his move now, Seville got him for like 1.5m € upfront and then goes upto 10m € with add ons. Potentially only going to reach 4m € for definite, rest depends on him or Sevilla doing very very well apparently. Umtiti is a weird one, always a good CB but move to Barca and Euro performances sky rocketed his stock and overrated him a bit IMO. WC winner or not, will find a club somewhere if they want rid of him. I think Koeman could improve him a lot also though.

Jason. If he signs, he signs!!! It would be more convenient but it’s better to get him whatever way than not to haha.

Maybe (if your on about Firmino that is). Depends though how you look at Firmino. He isnt necessarily a 9 to some people but he reminds me of Karim Benzema and has played as a number 9 in a similar system to what Real used with Benzema centrally dropping in, linking the play and Bale and Ronaldo coming infield from wider positions as forwards and running in behind. I would class him as a centre forward if I am honest, I know he was an attacking midfielder in in Germany but I would say he is a modern CF. Suppose just a matter of opinion. When people say false 9 I think more of Messi or even Gotze with Germany and Bayern.

How can they say no? They can say no, legally he has a contract. Same as any other player. Would you let the greatest footballer of all time leave your club so easily? Regardless of what he’s done recently missing training, putting in a request etc? Even more so when the clubs all over the place from board to president? It makes them look strong keeping Messi in this position when everything else has gone to shit around them. Personally I doubt he will go anywhere the financial impact of a transfer fee of that magnitude in the current market without mentioning 500k weekly wages makes it even more unrealistic. I think he wants the current president to resign and this is why he has made this request to leave. Eric Abidal left his position as sporting director, after being responsible for various transfers and also the sacking of Valverde and Setien. They are going to go through a major restructuring. If they do sell Messi, they will be even worse off.

Selling Messi would be the stupidest thing they could ever do right now. In fact any massive club in the state they are in now, selling their best player would be a shambles. Everyone knows Barca are a shambles upstairs and most players out there will know this. The lure of playing for a big club which is in disarray isnt half as appealing as playing with Leo Messi. The playing with Leo Messi lure outweighs the playing for Barcelona lure right now. Actually I would say it has done since Valverde was in charge and they’ve regressed since then. Luis Suarez I sort of agree with about selling and it seems Koeman is keen to get rid of him as he had a poor season but again on his day can still contribute something I dont think hes particularly lost his legs or his ability overnight. They need to figure out a lot quickly but selling Messi would be incredibly daft. Dafter than some of the stupid shit theyve been doing over the years, dafter like signing Braithwaite, dafter than spending 140m on Coutinho, dafter than appointing Setien etc etc etc.

People will just pick on Azpi in the same way they did regarding Cahill when he was captain, which is ironic because as soon as someone else criticised a player they liked it was the good old oh just get behind the player and the team. Its just a stupid argument to have. I mean do you think City fans argued about similar things when David Silva was made captain or Liverpool fans when Jordan Henderson was made captain or United fans when Darren Fletcher was made vicecaptain (he moved not long after as he hadnt played a lot due to his illness but still) or whenever wny club made their captain or vice captain someone totally against the mould of a Terry, Vidic, Gerrard etc? Captains come in different shapes and forms. There is different types of leadership and ways of being a leader which makes me realise that people are so caught up in how captains ‘used to be’ (as if its changed hugely and that every captain was one of these guys mentioned above) that they are totally blinded by the fact that just because someone sits shouting on a football pitch it means they are captain material when it doesn’t mean they are necessarily captain material. They could be shouting a whole lot of shite, I mean weve all played some sort of sport where some fucking idiot will sit talking shite throughout a whole game and you are thinking wtf are you on about... I would imagine some of these professional footballers are more than likely the same and probably some of the coaches can also do this too. But on regards to having leaders the addition of Thiago Silva is huge for that, all good teams or even looking at businesses have more than one or two ‘leaders’ so to speak, you need a good number of these guys. Its no surprise we were so successful with Cech, Terry, Lampard, Drogba, Cole, Ballack etc because ok while we only had one captain you had several senior leadership figures.

Hopefully we never line up with a false 9 ever again after Di Matteo, Conte and Sarri using it over the years here. Bar Guardiola, what manager has ever successfully incorporated one in his team? And even then, he had the greatest player of all time in the role in one of the greatest club sides of all time where they had such qualities in various areas of the pitch to make it work so effectively. I get Havertz has played there, I do, but I dont think it should be a viable option, I know you said if necessary but I think even with Eden in that position we lacked so much and even more so, even with Havertz we still will lack.

I dont see it. Hes probably half the player Thomas Muller is and even then Muller divides opinions due to his rounded ability and particular playing style. Knew he wouldn’t end up signing for a Real Madrid or a Barcelona or a Juventus. He might get a move but I dont think he's gonna excel particularly. If he surprises me fair enough but I dont see it.

He can sound as daft as he wants as long as he delivers on the pitch. Thats the important thing, why people care what someone sounds like or what their IQ is or who they kick about with or how many cars they have or whatever when their paid to kick a football is beyond me, just freakishly weird. As long as he doesn't do anything stupid off the park and does well on it, I dont care about anything else. That should be the criteria for footballers. Nothing else really. He will be an improvement on our other LBs. 50m not bad compared to the 80m we were first told to pay.

Arsenal should be 2-0 up at least. Liverpool playing virtually every one of their starting players bar the RB and maybe Milner and they look beyond average. Thats with an extra week of training and more pre-season games also. Think Arsenal look really solid in defence which is a concern because thats been their problem for ages.

Ruben looks like he will never make it back to that level he had with Sarri for 4 or 5 months. Not just based on today but last season also. Yes it was a big lay off but he just looks sluggish and afraid to run with the ball. If we sign Havertz, him and Barkley are as good as gone imo. Or at least one and its at the point now where I would imagine Frank sees more from Ross than Ruben, even more so based on last seasons continued faith.

I don’t think we will but as you’ve said never say never. Although its more likely to be unlikely. Even at 33 and however old Cristiano is both are considerably better than the next batch of players who are closest to them right now. If the Brazilian Ronaldo didnt have injuries he’d be right up there for me as well but he did and while he achieved a lot he like Ronaldinho (bit harsh on him as he was unbelievable for like 3 or 4 seasons), underachieved in a lot of ways for what youd expect players with their natural talent should of gone on and done. Messi contributed 31 Goals and 24 assists in all competitions. In the league he was involved with 25 goals and 21 assists. Barcelona scored 86 goals in La Liga. Messi was involved in more than 50% of them. Suarez had only 16 goals in La Liga and 8 assists. Theres only one guy who carried Barcelona this year and his name is Leo Messi. Out of interest who is better than Messi right now? Mbappe? Neymar? Lewandowski? Hazard? Cristiano? Messi and Cristiano still much better than most of them, comfortably. Lewandowski is oustanding and should be in amongst them two for his last 2 seasons IMO also. Again though there are these shitter teams so to speak, they arent any worse than the relegation fodder in the PL in fact I bet some of them teams that went down this season were twice the teams Bournemouth, Watford and Norwich are for instance. Or be better than Fulham 2 seasons ago who spent 150m or Villa this season who spent 100+ m. And lastly, cmon.... really, where do I start? Laporte is currently strolling the PL for City. Played for Athletic Bilbao. Former fans favourite Juan Mata (?) and David Silva both who came to the PL from Valencia, would say they found it relatively easy. Santi Cazorla came to Arsenal from Malaga and had a good spell in the PL. Ander Herrera again, solid player... did well for United, came from Athletic Bilbao. Zabaleta joined Man City from Espanyol years ago and became one of the top RBs for many seasons. Xavi Alonso??? Played for Sociedad prior to Liverpool. If I could be arsed to look deeper and find more players I would but I am sure you get the point. Be some glaring misses probably.

I know but imagine, going from Willian to Messi as our number 10. The whole we dont need him or he wouldnt Improve team x y or z talk is ludicrous.

Greatest player to have ever played but you don‘t want him because he runs counter the project we are building? To a lesser extent I am guessing Thiago Silva also runs counter to it because hes like 35 also? If so okay I see but even then I dont see the logic. If Messi isnt what we need at the moment we might as well say to Roman release everybody and sell up the club. Because we arent going to get anybody we need then if the greatest player of all time isnt what we need in one way or another.

We had someone like him years ago. Called Michael Emenalo. Wasn’t precisely the same role but it wasnt hugely different to that of a director of football. Marina has done very well in terms of closing deals in recruitment and sales. The players getting selected isn't down to her. Or the players being sold. She just gets whatever the manager/coach wants for them done. I would hold back on the huge huge appreciations for everyone though because we seen this sort of thread blow up before for the board in January when we sold De Bruyne and Mata then signed Salah and Matic, then it blew up again the following summer we got Costa, Luis, Cesc etc and sold David Luiz. Then we just decided to cheap out the next year and it basically went from “great job to get the finger out you useless cunts”. I know player scouting isn't Marina’s department but she does has a role of involvement with the transfers, negotiating on prices or wages so these can be held against her as well as praising her for other deals. As I keep saying football fans are fickle so next summer I wouldnt be surprised if its back to bashing her from half the people on here praising her at present. Its an endless cycle in football.

There is nobody better than Messi still and there never will be. He again has dragged Barcelona through another shit season where basically he has had to be the only guy who steps up to the plate, again. Like he has done many times since Luis Enrique left and even before then his individual genius in the greatest club team in perhaps football history or the last 25 years is probably more than enough to cement his position as the greatest player ever and if Ronaldo didnt exist, it would be undeniable. People will talk about La Liga and their teams or whatever not being that good but Seville just won the Europa League beating United on the way, Atletico schooled Liverpool in knockout football in the CL, Real were beaten fair and square by City but would beat every other PL team with significant ease bar City and Liverpool. Even then all these outside top 4 clubs in the PL have triple or quadruple the budgets of these outside top 4 or 5 Spanish teams and are probably worse. The Villa’s, Norwich’s, Bournemouth’s, Fulham’s, Everton’s, Cardiff’s, West Ham’s, Newcastle’s etc have all spent fuck tonnes in the last however many years and would probably finish in the same shit positions. Or worse. It is definitely harder to play in Spain than what people think - ironically, its still mainly PL fans who turn their nose up at the standards of the other teams outside Barcelona, Real, Atletico, Sevilla and Valencia as if ours are really any better? - even more so when you look at all the top players who play very well in Spain and then come over here and don’t necessarily struggle or need too long to make a transition. If the Spanish league was too easy to play in do you think the PL would have brought over so many players from there in the last 10 years? Not a chance. Wouldnt improve City? he would improve them significantly. Hes a very consistent goalscorer, assist maker, wins more fouls, creates more chances, makes more key passes, completes more dribbles than most players in Europe. Hes 33 now, okay he maybe isnt the way he was 7,8,9 years ago but he is still significantly better than most players in Europe. Him and Ronaldo would improve all teams in Europe. Even at their ages. Theyre still better than Neymar, Mbappe etc.

‘Alex from Glasto’ so I am guessing he is now lined up to be another one of these fake wanna be celebrities like the blokes and lassies on instagram who think their models/fashion line designers or the love island contestants that plague every newspaper now a days with needless stories like ‘Person X and person Ys from love islands, dog dies after 5 days’ or whatever.... Had a quick scan through it and had a wee chuckle at this 🤣 Things have blown up for you since then, you’ve made your own song etc, what is next for Alex Mann? “I’m not sure at the moment. I took a big break from everything after it blew up just to focus on myself instead of all the media attention.” ‘all the media attention’ get over yourself. You were on bbc iplayer for like 3 days mate and nobody’s heard of you since. See you next Tuesday.

Yes but I think your missing the point. Improvement in the organisation and defending as a whole has to be our number 1 priority next season as it was a huge reason as to why our season had that slump midway through and uncertainty towards the end (along with chance conversion - when the Havertz deal happens then I think its fair to say that issue has been almost resolved or so you would think looking at us on paper). Even with Havertz, Ziyech, Pulisic, Werner if we don’t improve the structure and organisation as a whole unit, teams will continue to create plenty of chances be it from corners, FKs, open play whatever against us. Its not necessarily just personnel that needs to change as we’ve mentioned so many times this last season its more than just one or two players, it comes from the way we try to play and the naiveness of a young manager who is trying to make his mark at times (mistakes will be made we cannot say that isnt going to happen but it has to be reflected on and changed in the longrun and set plays/fks/transitions were a huge issue last season). I think thats got to be more a realistic priority as a collective with the signing of a LB and maybe another a CB first and foremost than trying to offload a 71m GK 2 years into a 7 year contract in the middle of a financially crippling global pandemic, dont you? I think Kepa will get replaced but its not going to be as easy as okay Ajax heres 35m for your GK now we have to try offload a high earner with 5 years left on his deal who cost 71m 2 years ago who will undoubtedly not want to sit on the bench. If we are to replace Kepa I think a club has to make a move first to come and get him, theres plenty of talk the club still have faith in him and expect him to turn it around and pay back the investment. Whether you believe that or not I dont know if Frank or the club will think at this moment replacing a GK is top of the list. If we get this triple deal yes then absolutely but we still need to wait and see. I do expect him to be replaced but I dont think its our number 1 concern right now.

I said isnt our biggest problem. Not that he isnt a problem. He is a problem but hes further down the list for me. If we dont improve without the ball defensively or at set plays (maybe he is a reason as I said) or convert more chances into more goals it wont matter if we have Kepa or Oblak in goal. Sure Oblak would save more but a team conceding too many chances is never good. Even if the GK can bail them out. You dont want your GK to have to make a lot of saves.

If he is the biggest issue you haven’t been watching close enough all season if I am honest -chance conversion (more clinical we could probably have finished second based on how the season played out and not dropped points against stupid teams), -defending at set plays (it’s worse than its even been IMO since Villas-Boas was in charge), -not getting caught/so exposed on the transition (again this season almost a Villas-Boas-esque commitment to trying to play 2 defenders v 3 or 4 attackers at the back more or less everytime we lose the ball in the oppositions half at times) ...all much bigger issues than Kepa IMO. For all the bad games he had (10 or 11 I would say in the course of a season) those 3 things were more reoccurring and more of an issue than the GK and making saves or not making saves or coming for corners or not coming from corners. Okay set plays he maybe comes into it but dont tell me the set play set ups this season have filled anybody with confidence? Things like Ngolo Kante marking Virgil van Dijk (or was that last season cannot remember?), Jorginho defending the front post, zonal every fucking match giving any team with decent sizes players a head start. Was it 13 or 14 goals from set plays we conceded? More than the mistakes Kepa made all season? Also what did you base this off of? He was pretty good and pretty consistent last season, I really dont see how you could argue with that. Saying the defensive structure bailed him out is just incredibly lazy (our defensive record and structure was better than this seasons yes but still pretty fucking awful so its not even a viable argument in my eyes), would be like saying Oblak is only world class because Atletico defend so well and have proper defensive structure. Or Courtois was only world class at Atletico for the same reason... Just doesn’t do them justice or Kepa’s performances last season any justice. Yes he wasnt world class last season and yes has his flaws but the fickleness in peoples view of him as a footballer is clear to see. Okay we know he has been under performing this season, Stevie Wonder could see that but to say he was doing that last season is just bizarre beyond belief. I suppose its just to be expected though. But again as I mentioned, more worried about the shape without the ball, defending set plays and conversion rate right now. Werner and Ziyech offer more in to the last one but still plenty to do and not all of it can be sorted by recruitment either.

Kind of totally forgot the windows still open so have tunes out a bit. Not been much interesting happening anyway by many other clubs.

Few rumours we are in advanced talks with Thiago Silva. Interesting.

What? Player like Havertz as in an already very good player, potential one in a generational attacking player who can play in 4 or 5 positions: LW, RW, CAM, CM and CF, who had scored 18 goals last season and 20 the one before in a high standard league all at the age 21? What team doesnt need a player like that? I mean is United's attack really that good that Havertz wouldn’t play? Even if it wasn't a necessity to not have any interest or think he would be a great signing, even for United, would be a huge mistake. They wanted Sancho so I dont see why they wouldn’t want Havertz or have an interest either. Similarly both are attacking players, with good goal and assist returns, different playing styles but again don’t get what you mean they ‘don’t’ need a player like him. Regardless of if they wanted him or not, the longer we fuck about for this fee, the more likely another team, be it a PSG or a City or a Juventus or a Barcelona or somebody, has to swoop in. Just give then 75-85m and get it done. Simple as that.

Tbf he had more goals and assists involvements than any other of our attacking midfield/wide players in the league last season. He wasnt a massive player for us on that front every season but if he replicates that or betters it for Arsenal, he will be a reasonable signing for them. I know the 3 year deal is a bit long but I can see why he feels a bit hard done by perhaps. Lampard will also be annoyed that somebody he was desperate to keep has left to a rival, similarly to Conte when the club sold Matic. Obviously expect Ziyech to hit the ground running but still think letting one of your most productive players go to a rival who will be competing with you isnt the best idea.