OneMoSalah

Fuck so he is. Well Mount on at HT, need someone on to get closer to Abraham, Willians trying it but Callums been anonymous. Our Final ball has been shite today.

Tomori awful for the goal. Has to get something on that ball so he cant take it, spin and run at us. Still plenty time but I think Kovacic or Mount has to come on for the of CBs at HT.

120/180k a week. All I will say. Injury or no injury not been impressed bar the Newcastle (well I think it was Newcastle) game this season.

Surprised with the result but good performance. Willian brilliant throughout. Dont see it enough though

Did people really doubt us against Arsenal? IIRC we had sort of stringed a good run together before? Maybe not seems like a life time ago and it was only last season 😂

Would you say the same about Cesc or Makelele back in the day? Great teams sell great players at some point too. Gabriel Jesus has got huge potential, hes only 22 and has scored 55 goals for City in 120 games where he has been in and out of the team. Not bad for someone who had never played in Europe prior to that move. Also has 18 goals in 39 games for Brazil. Very good strikerate at international level. He just needs to play every week, hes shown he is capable at City but Aguero is Aguero and Pep rarely plays 2 CFs so he can get 3 men in MF.

Honestly if he makes huge adjustments, whats the point in the work hes done in the last few months since coming in? If he, like Sarri and Conte, has a method he believes in he may as well continue implementing it. Once coaches go totally against their philosophy or whatever you want to call it, whats the point? All that other work basically goes out the window. We will make mistakes continuing in this way but at least we will implement what he wants. Pep and Klopp had same issues when they arrived in England but persisted with it and improved their squad. We lack a few top quality players in some positions, the set up is vunerable on transitions and at set plays but that can be sorted with minor tweaks, more coaching and a few additions as opposed to going back to basics playing 10 men behind the ball. As much as Sarri wasnt everyones cup of tea I had respect for him because he came to do things his way and barely wavered from his philosophy. We played some nice sequences coming out from the back under pressure but struggled in the final third due to shortcomings in quality, if Frank goes and makes huge changes to his philosophy then we will just go back to old ways imo and the ground work Sarri had also instilled is rendered useless too. We have got the technical players to play football where we play out, control the midfield and look to dictate the game with quick football in the final third. A great deal of squad is made for it, especially in midfield and offensive positions. Defence we maybe lack a CB and LB who are of top quality. As well as maybe lacking another winger, 10 and CF who can push the other players/relieve the weight on their shoulders (ie. Tammy and Pulisic who have been leading the way for us in attack imo). As I have said many times the shape and set plays are an issue but I believe its more coaching and a lack of players than Franks general idea of how we should play and set up. Yes we need to have tactical flexibility but we do have it already, we can play 343, 433 or 4231 as weve seen but these problems are always evident. That means for me its more the coaching side of that and personnel in some areas as opposed to the actual formation or way he wants us to play.

As would I. He hasnt played for City as regularly as he would have wanted but he has tenacity and really good instincts in the box. He is quite resillient as well for a smaller player. City would never sell him to us though.

Tbf Tammy has outscored almost every CF weve been linked with. He deserves a new deal and I would imagine he will hit 20 goals this season.

Essien had like 2 huge injuries in 3 or 4 seasons though. Bale hasnt. There will be a decline but I dont think it will be on that scale. That story is a non starter anyway. For sure.

Those guys are much better players though. Zaha is good but not 80m and his end product is still inconsistent. Hes played upfront for Palace too last few sessons as opposed to outwide.

Hes stated the obvious. We wont finish top 2. We havent beat United, Liverpool or City and conceded 4 v Ajax....

I think if this was true as well as the fact we need a good winger, it would be done already 😂 Bale might not be everyones cup of tea but I dont think wed be stupid enough to say no to swapping Mount for Bale

No point as it wont be until hes maybe 32 or 33. Unless he wants to take a pay cut and possibly be a rotation player because I would imagine he will drop his level at that age too.

On a boat with shit wifi 🤣 watching football/reading sky sports has been a disaster this trip. Ah well Napoli are fucked haha. Gattuso is a borderline average manager at best. He wont last long.

Still dont get why Napoli sacked Ancelotti. He is probably the best manager theyve had since their resurgence in terms of his reputation and what hes won and done as a manager. Just baffles me. Their owner is normally shrewd but the sacking to replace him with somebody like Gattuso (rumour I seen unless its happened now) is absolutely catastrophic on his behalf. Even if they had the fall out thing and the players were fined etc. I mean Ancelotti is still Ancelotti. He would of been welcomed at a lot of clubs bigger than Napoli even after being sacked by Bayern. Great appointment for Everton if he can get them going. Will be good to see him back in the PL.

And if this lack of a new deal progress is due to finances, this is the precedent the club set when they let Callum and his agent hold a gun to them to get 180k a week. I said at the time that it was dangerous, the guy had played maybe 20 times for us and had only played reserve football before. Obviously, other players will maybe try it eventually if they havent already. Tammy has had X amount of years on loan at lower levels, performed, worked his way up and is now doing the business in the first team so he definitely has the right to ask. Reece maybe has the same idea. Its like Sanchez at United when he signed getting that huge wage, De Gea wouldnt renew because he wanted a huge pay rise to match it. Pogba if he would of renewed at United is in same boat. Except here, if it is down to finances regarding these twos deals which is still hypothetically speaking, we have got it but with young guys who havent achieved much in the long term scale of their footballing careers. Fantastic...

Thats just a rumour though from Kicker. Therr was also rumour he has one that is around 60m euros and it will drop 10m euro each year running upto 2023.... I doubt any club, especially one who are notorious for developing and selling for profit, would be stupid enough to put a 30m euro release clause in a player who has scored the amount of goals he has. Id imagine the 60m would be more realistic than 30m.

Where do you get 25m for Werner from?

They can have Alonso for 30-35m. Emerson no they can go fuck themselves 🤣

Still dont think it means that we will go daft. Many members in the past have maybe stated about spending the likes of £400m+ in one window (mainly summer) and even with the Hazard and Morata money, I dont think that we will in all fairness. Maybe we will get a couple of faces in January. I reckon we will probably make 2 signings if its possible. In the summer again I would maybe imagine 3 would be what we go for to strengthen the first 11. Not a completely drastic overhaul but 4 or 5 players in 2 windows is easily doable and also wont bring a massive disruption to our team/squad as I would imagine there will be 3 or 4 going in that time too. Plus we already have got Ruben, Mount, Tomori, James, Pulisic and Tammy already so its not as if we need 10 new players in the squad. We need some better quality to deepen the squad in some key positions, LB, CB, the 10 position unless Frank goes for using Ruben there (still think Barkley will probably be on his last legs here by then as he has struggled since arriving bar a wee good spell under Sarri at the start) and maybe another winger and CF as it looks as if Pedro and Giroud are off. Midfield though we are pretty stacked with Kante, Jorginho, Ruben, Kovacic, Mount. Mount needs competition whether or not Frank sees Ruben as that, or a deeper midfielder, I dont know. If we keep going 4231 I dont see us needing to be buying another deeper midfielder anyway unless he sees Ruben as a 10 but again weve seen Billy Gilmour this season already so maybe he would be more in Franks mind for that role too to rotate the squad. I do think we are maybe only 4 or 5 players along with these young guys continuing to improve to be right up there, as long as the players are the right ones, very good ability, mentality and willing to work. I mean even under Jose, once we got Costa, Cesc, Filipe Luis and recalled Courtois, most would have said we were favourites from the get go that season to go win the PL. If theres a solid enough foundation in place we only need to add some good players to it. We still need to get the defence sorted first because in attack we have potential. Defence and our team shape has definitely let us down more than our attack this season imo.

I doubt we will get all lf the Hazard money. Even with the add ons etc still to come depending on whatever, we only got like 80 or 90m upfront IIRC and chances are they will be paying x amount in installments like most clubs do these days too. Its not like FIFA where you get the full 130m in and all to spend, the club will pocket some of it to put into other things too.

Feel sorry for the guy. Had huge potential IMO, very rounded and I think even under Mourinho at first he could have maybe made his way in a bit more than many expected because he had that physical profile as well as technical. Maybe not for definites but I do feel he would have been solid enough to do a good job in a Mourinho team. His loan at PSV he looked very comfortable and a real driving force for them but its probably too late for him now although who knows, if he was fit to train, maybe hed be an option? I dont think he would be any worse than Bakayoko, Barkley or Drinkwater in all honesty. I think if he was 100% fit and had his injury troubles behind him, Frank would let him get a chance for sure to show what he could do although I doubt he would be displacing Kante, Kova or Jorginho regularly. As a squad player though? Someone who can play as a 6, 8 or even further up? Wouldnt be the worst option. A shame though, I know pre seasons nothing but getting match fitness and trying things out but I really liked the look of him when he signed if I am honest. Looked like he could have been like a Michael Ballack sort of guy, someone who could do everything. Maybe not to that level, maybe nowhere near because he was outstanding but definitely end up as a capable enough player. Maybe if he gets fit a fresh start at another club would do him the world of good too.

Yeah. my point was more that there are plenty of CBs who can do a good job meeting the criteria that was in the post I quoted about being good in the air, quick (ish) and can pass though. CB is an urgent need for us I really feel. I think all the good teams have at least 3 good CBs. We have maybe one established good CB in Rudi and the others not so good or established. Id still think we could maybe get Koulibaly as Napoli are apparently open to refreshing their team this summer but as youve said, for the cost and his age it makes it tougher. Id still say if we could get him for 50m max it would be worth it. I personally think Sarri might go for him if Napoli are as I said looking to refresh the team and hes one of the guys to go. Bonucci, Chielleni are 30 plus and De Ligt has struggled but he could be a good stop gap. Suppose theyve got that young Turkish CB they got from Sassulo as well and Barzaghli IIRC he hasnt retired yet but hes ancient too.

Exactly. I think theyd rather push for Havertz though even if he costs a lot. I mean they spent a lot on Hernandez who is only 22 or 23 and I think Havertz will fit their preference more as he is only 20 or 21 although Coutinho is back to his self at Bayern.