OneMoSalah

Nah he will be too old by then wait and see 😂

Another thing. Can’t believe after another season of watching young, inconsistent attacking performances…. our grand solution is another attacking youngster who is undoubtedly going to be inconsistent. Wheres that great Albert Einstein quote about insanity….

Oh you better believe they’ll throw in an extra £5m with no hesitation if BVB ask 😂

New bid for Gittens…. Just wait for us to bid £84m for Ekitike next also.

Exactly. But some people will be happy to think we showed Milan who’s who by not giving in for the sake of a few million or whatever it would’ve taken. Yet wait and see Dortmund will get £40-50m for Gittens or we will splurge another similar fee on someone no different to what we have quality or experience wise without hesitation. This happy with what we’ve got at GK brief was pretty much the same as last summer - look how well Sanchez & Jorgensen did for majority of the season, cost us matches. But because Petrovic is coming back to all of a sudden (10000% a second choice GK quality wise) people think it’ll all off a sudden be different. It also means Maresca has no choice but to insist with them cause we couldn’t close this deal now and also opens up the door that 1) he decides to persevere again with any of those muppets and 2) that another club offer Milan the fee they wanted for Maignan. If people can’t see how not closing this deal is bad for us in several ways then I don’t know. But Maresca sneaked us into the CL and won a Conference League as well now people are back to thinking he’s the right man also after months and months of being out his depth. Shows the fickleness of it all.

Well thats a different excuse to get rid of him other than he’s a braindead footballer most weeks

Welcome to Strasbourg. Or welcome back to Strasbourg. Another “what was the point in signing him” signing…. Great

For sake of the £3-5m more it would likely take to close this deal… Not too confident? Are we seriously haggling over pennies for a player that is no doubt at the calibre of what we need, in a key position, that we have needed a reliable player in for multiple years….. just because he is over 30 (what other reason would there be)? Who’d of thought after spending more than £1.5bn, severely overpaying on a huge % of transfers under this ownership group that aren’t or weren’t worth that fee or needed at all, we’d finally go the polar opposite way… un fucking believable 😂

Tbf they could have any of Sanchez, Jorgensen or Petrovic? They would better 3rd choice options and gets them off our books 😂

We would haggle over a few million for Maignan yet likely go well beyond the first offer we’ve made for Gittens without hesitation (mixed feelings about going for him)…. Give Milan another 4 or 5 million and get it done as a good GK is absolutely critical for us. Then a top CB next. Can worry about which up and coming attackers we are going to sign once we get those key positions sorted. Would say Delap signing ends any hopes of a top CF though.

Lukaku nowhere near as bad as Mudryk. Didn’t have the desired result and ended up leaving yes after shooting himself in the foot but to say Mudryk isn’t the worst signing we’ve made in last 25 year is borderline stupidity. Be even worse when we loan him or sell him for peanuts. Because he is 100% done here.

Hopefully spells the end of Mudryk‘s career here. We have made a lot of unbelievably shit signings for big money in the past 25 years but his signing for me is probably the worst in terms of the level of the player and the fee paid initially. Never mind the add ons that could of taken it to £80m or whatever.

If Newcastle want Noni then the first player we should be trying to get from them/work into any deal, is Sandro Tonali (Isak would be top but unattainable for us I think). Gordon has improved aye and is of a similar position but what a season Tonali has had. He and Caicedo would be scary. I get then we’d have to reshuffle the pack re positioning/playing Enzo & Cole together, have Santos coming back as well as Lavia (fitness going to be reliable?) but it would be some statement signing. Would be something the old Chelsea would do - like when Ballack came in. Defo more pressing areas but if we are going to try deal with Newcastle for Noni, why not? Can’t see it happening but would be a massive move - weakening a CL rival significantly whilst strengthening our midfield with one of the best PL players in that position for me. Was noise about Napoli/Juventus/Milan sniffing around Tonali this summer I think.

Genuinely reckon the amount of time and money they will waste trying taking someone like Roman to court will be incredible. I wouldn’t be surprised if he also won in Court because the government are so so so incompetent 😂

Might be the first sensible thing those pair of sporting directors have done for a couple of years. £5m is fuck all in comparison to the £25m and wages we’d be wasting. Bit torn on this. Good squad player but is his numbers going to ever be good enough as an out and out first choice? If they offer more than what we paid and they make him a good offer, could happen. James Trafford ffs 🤣

How can they sue Abramovich? Is he not stalling because those government retards have moved the goalposts and its all to do with wording and licensing? Or are they that stupid? That wanker Starmer is also trying to save face after cutting the aid funding and putting it into defence a few months back for sure…. Ironically Trump cut off US funding to Ukraine few month ago too? This will go on for years and years yet if they think they are gonna take Roman to court. Has any form of government ever taken a multi billionaire to court and won? The initial case itself was incredible 😂

Be another good few seasons of backwards and sideways if Maresca sees out his contract though 😂 I don’t think we will see much change, like with Arteta at Arsenal too. Who without a fit and firing Saka look pretty toothless playing that style. Now that the dust has settled a bit. In reality, it’s not something a club of this magnitude should’ve ever been aspiring to be competing for. Yes first club to win all 3 European competition trophies, can’t take that away from us but if you had said when BlueCo took over, say 12-18 months after winning a CL, Super Cup, CWC etc that our first trophy since then would be the Conference League - we’d all be quite deflated. Lets be honest. Particularly after a £1.5bn outlay. It is good for this group to get the monkey off their back after the result last season in the Carabao final with the “billion pound bottlejobs” thing but will it change much? Thats the question. Still have huge concerns about the quality of a large % of our squad. And huge concerns about the direction of recruitment and the actual manager himself which need answered. This summer will probably answer a lot of those questions. Sancho & Delap aren’t exactly brilliant first steps either in the market (squad players at best). At the end of the window things will maybe be clearer, lets hope so, but generally still think next season will be another slog if we keep insisting with this utter guff, inflexible style of football and 3-4 years down the line recruitment. I mean 3-4 years is going to come and the first guys signed with this strategy could be off somewhere else, sick of waiting…. maybe not but again, who knows. Its a short career all players don’t want to wait 3-4 years to win something hugely significant.

He looked very very capable playing as an out and out fullback under Poch though, like he was easily one of the much much better performers we had all season round. Don’t think anyone here would disagree. I don’t think that player isn’t still there, I really just think it’s a tactical thing with this manager which he either the player adapts to or the manager is more flexible when he plays (Cole Palmer also made comments about backwards/sideways which I think can definitely be interpreted about the tactics and philosophy more than an off day). Also whilst he was poor in the final, I think Betis had highlighted that right side and targeted it as whenever Gusto appeared inside when we had the ball, Ez Abde was cheating essentially, not following in & waiting for a turnover to exploit that space. And that pass into him or following pass by him was intercepted a lot in the first half. A lot of opportunities for moments like that came from Gusto, Caicedo & Chalobah giving the ball away when building out.

Yes but Henry was one of this generations best players who could do virtually anything 🤣 Where as Gyokeres scores a bulk of goals having run 25-30m virtually unopposed onto a long ball or goals in which the standard of defending is absolutely diabolical to the point I reckon Jackson would score 30-40 goals in Portugal in that Sporting team. Look at Darwin Nunez & Jackson Martinez in the past also. If no big club gets a deal for him done in the first 1-2 weeks of the window that will tell everyone exactly what they the big clubs really think of him.

Delap deal agreed and Sancho signing permanently… really? Which ex Man City youngster we signing next? 🙄 Would love us to go for Eberechi Eze this summer but hes actually really good so we probably won’t. Plus he’s 26. So probably too old. Also not surprised Gyokeres isn’t priority for us (no shit sherlock), Arsenal (Sesko #1 target) or even Liverpool by sounds of it (probably feeling the burn from signing Nunez from Benfica still). Portuguese league is very flattering. He will never score half those goals in a more competitive league.

First 45 minutes he was fantastic I think, without a doubt best player on the pitch and Betis’ best in the whole game. Forgot how good he was really, slalomed through us in the first half at ease, basically impossible to get the ball off, little drop of the shoulder, flicks here and there but great choice of pass also. Imagine him and Hazard in a team together in their pomp…. would need 2 footballs.

Would be better if he was playing out wide as opposed to tucked infield all the time. Just limits his (& Gusto’s) game a bit I feel. Gusto has struggled immensely with Enzo’s tactic's - not surprised one bit. Big season next year, Reece has to stay fit and justify his big wages. Starting every 2/3rd game when fit isn’t really enough for a player of that calibre unfortunately but good to see he’s got some more regular minutes since coming back. Just hope he can sustain his fitness, thats the main issue. He needs to improve on this, but he also has been thrust into that role far too early IMO. Sometimes watching him when he first broke through, he looked like he was going through the motions and didn’t push himself. He seems to have that bit between the teeth now but he also has to become a lot more vocal and demand that from others at times. It is clear people respect him in the squad but with that he has to own it and demand more. He still strikes me as too nice. Will be honest Enzo Fernandez as captain is a joke for me, isn’t worthy of the armband at all. Looks like he half arses most games. And when games are tough he is the first to vanish, first half tonight was even more proof of this. If Madrid offer anywhere near the money we paid, take it and run. Good quality on the ball but he is never going to not be a liability without the ball.

Super useful? How exactly? If he hadn’t had that game against us in December, I doubt their would be a clamouring on here to sign him. It’s like the Torres, Benayoun, Meireles effect all over again. Reports saying long standing interest also are very strange - why didn’t we try signing him from City then? Like Palmer and the fullback kid O’Reily…. cause its nonsense! We’ve needed a CF for years and he’d of been cheaper than Nico also, so yeah not buying long standing interest reports at all. His last 2 PL goals were the beginning of April v Wolves on the 5th of April & Bournemouth on the 2nd of April. Before those he hadn’t scored since goals v Villa on the 15th of Feb and Southampton on the 1st of Feb. Prior to those, his last goals were against Fulham on the 5th Jan and us on the 30th December. If his playing style isn’t particularly suited to a heavy possession based team - lets be honest its not at all - and his goal return isn’t consistent then how would he be “super useful”? I am yet to see one thing that indicates he would be an improvement on what we already have (and that says something cause Jackson is beyond average). The whole point of signing a CF is to have someone who can do the business to limit us relying on a Jackson/Delap/Guiu. Throwing in another kid who isn’t ready to lead the line for an aspiring CL level/title winning club is just pointless. May as well sign another project CB and project GK whilst we are it. You said it yourself in another post he isn’t striking fear into any of the big boys - thats the sort of player we need.

Suppose it’s not about playing well in finals, only about winning them but wow, don’t we make it difficult for ourselves, fucking hell. First half and second half polar opposites. Maresca needs his head checked after naming that starting 11….. a lot of improvement is needed when we jump up to the CL though, from players and the manager both that is for sure. No more inverted fullbacks please 🤯🤣

Perfect farewell hopefully yes….