OneMoSalah

The thing is, we need a suitable RWB back up now. Although I suppose with RJ back in training AND IF we don’t rush him back too soon like last time, maybe allowing Gusto to see the season out isn’t the worst idea in the world. Its not great but not the worst. Granted he keeps playing and they don’t do a Dortmund-Pulisic on us.

Biggest asset? Is it just me or does anyone else not really see the potential with this kid Gordon? I mean his numbers and performances are very very bad. Granted Everton not been good in any way shape or form, but he doesn’t even stick out in a bad Everton team. I don’t get how any club could justify paying £40m plus for somebody who has played 16 games this season and has 3 goals. As well, take into consideration his antics the last few days, first and foremost he’s a local lad at his boyhood club who are are struggling? Plus he’s not even contributed, made it as a fully fledged footballer or done anything relative in the game to have the right to miss 2 or 3 days of training to try force through a move. If he had scored say 5-10 goals this season and looked well too good for them and that team, you could maybe see why he’s having to do that/doing it/wanting to leave - but he hasn't and he doesn’t have enough skin in the game. 7 PL goals in 58 games the last 2 seasons for Everton then 8 goals in 90 games his whole club career. Throw in another 6 goals in 27 caps for England u18 to 21. I dont see how anybody is willing to pay £40m + £5 in add ons like Newcastle have agreed. I mean he probably won’t even start for them? I am glad its not us getting him though although wait and see Boehly probably go match their bid now.

He was originally offered alongside Ziyech and someone else as the 3 guys on loan plus €85m IIRC. Maybe they don’t think he’s up to much? Or just not interested.

“Renegotiating and offering players on loan” For the love of god, when will they learn 🤣 Lets try do something again which they rejected the first time and after they have publicly announced several times they will only accept the release clause for the player. Also if Arsenal get Caicedo for £60m fair play good value considering the inflation in the PL market. Never worth £100m but doubt either of us gonna get him this window.

No its more the fact the original context was meant in a wider sense yet you took it as if it was personal. As if to say “no you are wrong, I posted about Mudryck in September, look *quote from date XX/YY/ZZZZ*” when I meant our fanbase as a whole in regards to not really wanting/discussing/wishing about signing the player in the summer or even remotely in the run up to January until it came very much apparent we were interested…. But if you want to take it personally again then ok.

Ok maybe you were the only one…... Not the point but this isn’t the first time Ive seen you digging up your old posts from whenever to try prove a point/make yourself look like some sort of footballing know it all, when my context was more in a wider sense. He was never ever somebody the club were remotely linked with or had an apparent interest in in the summer. The move came around very quickly. In January, this month, after Arsenal spent a whole half a season looking at/making a move for him…

Ziyech much much more athletic than Mata ever was. Onana now? Wtaf is going on. He is fucking shite….. Also rumours now that Kai Havertz is gonna leave if we don’t get CL football. Absolutely ironic. Hes been fucking woeful for nearly 2 seasons now. Sell at first opportunity. Please.

Not really. Currently its mid season, late in the window, their in a title race and still in the CL. It makes no sense to sell unless they get their valuation - which is the buyout clause. Plus sell on fees to River Plate is 25%. So the more the better. If they truly value their player at £106m and he was to leave for cheaper they’d look like idiots. Particularly if he was to become this world class elite level midfielder for the next 10 years that he is touted as. It would be like if we sold Hazard in January for cheaper and not the summer - where we stood our ground and got what we wanted.

They weren’t willing to structure the deal the same way we did. Even the Shakhtar director said that.

We overpaid for all 4. One way or another. No doubt the clubs/agents seen Boehly coming a long way off and thought result. And no doubt many more will and we will oblige. Plus throw in the bid for Anthony Gordon as well in the summer - Jesus Christ, I suppose it could have been a lot lot worse but there is still convincing to do. For me, realistically only Badiashile, D. Fofana, Andre Santos and Madueke so far scream out to be signings made by the club & new personnel in place. Mudryk at that price screams Boehly driven as does Joao Felix because again, the finances involved are insane for what could only be 6 months. Plus Mudryk was never ever somebody talked about here until Arsenal went in for him in this window.

Intrigued to see where he goes, he certainly looks ordinary playing for that Brazil u20 team though. Maybe physically he’s more developed than the others (or seems more evident in the game v Argentina than Peru) but even then, technically he looks very very limited. His passing is very basic for someone who has that much time on the ball, very safe in his choices (especially against Peru). If thats the level he’s at he’s going to need a few good loans in Europe to adjust to playing at a faster tempo and under more pressure. That clips against Peru looks like the sort of performance your able to go see down at the local park every Sunday. The stats may look good but how many times does he pass it backwards under next to no pressure? How many times does he break the lines? He doesn’t affect the game greatly in any way with the ball which for a midfielder in a team who dominated the ball in the way Brazil did, is pretty useless. And in the game v Argentina, Brazil didn’t have a lot of the ball so whilst Santos may have scored he was very ineffective in possession. Few decent recoveries and tackles but just looks lost when he has the ball. I’d hate to see a good pressing team go after him. I feel he would be someone to trigger a press on because you’d fancy him either not taking a huge risk in passing it forward or being sloppy in possession.

I think its fair to say after what we paid for Koulibaly (salary & contract length), W. Fofana, Cucurella and Mudryk the club is still as it always has been. There’s been no real change on that front, still overpaying, still handing out silly contracts, no real plan for building the squad in areas it needs urgently - good reinforcements at CM & RB last summer/ this window should of been high priorities, particularly this window, not 2 wingers and an attacking midfielder for the best part of say £130m minimum all in. And with the rumours that Graham Potter is desperate for a MF player this window, I wouldn’t be surprised if we go and do something stupid. Boehly & co still have a lot of work to do in convincing people. I mean we’ve probably been properly linked to maybe 40 players since Boehly took charge. He's signed what 13 as it is. Barely any sales either - selling Ruben, Ziyech and Pulisic should have been a priority in the summer/at least now with 2 more wingers signed. The “project” is still a mess.

Newcastle, Arsenal, City and United all look much better sides than us at present. Much better sides than us. The top 4 as it is now I would say is how it would finish barring a minor miracle. Unless Spurs gatecrash it but they don’t typically start games to the second half and there is some sort of lingering around Conte leaving that may derail the second half of their season IMO. I mean throwing money at all these players is fine but do people honestly think GP is going to get enough performances and momentum to fire us back up the table whilst all of these clubs drop points to make the top 4 this season? Yet alone seeing folk talk about competing to win everything next season based on the signings of a guy who granted looked decent in the 25 mins v Liverpool but wasn’t difficult to do in a pretty poor game, a player we haven’t even seen play for us yet as well as the fact we don’t really play a number 10/second striker at current so will have to change the system again (Nkunku) and Enzo, who we are no closer to signing? I get being optimistic but I would think next seasons targets should be based on how this one ends. If we finish 6th-10th next seasons aims is top 4. Wouldn't think we should be worrying about competing for the PL title in the next 2 seasons or so if Potter is going to still be around, as he will need time to build something and undoubtedly expectations will need to be managed despite a huge influx of cash - although there is excitement around certain players and targets.

We all knew this would be the case. Be a waste of time trying to negotiate.

Would slow your roll a bit before claiming we can compete for everything next season yet. Or even top 4 this year. Likes if Nkunku, Mudryk, Enzo if we get him still not gonna be enough to make us go from where we are now to a championship winning side. And top 4 is still questionable this year either way. It would take a catastrophic collapse from the current top 4 teams. Still huge marks over Potter for me as well. Despite a bit of an improvement in last few games still been not enough improvement overall.

Until he leaves Benfica. It’s written into his contract. And if he renews there it will undoubtedly increase. I don’t know why people think now so more than ever that Benfica will sell Enzo, with just over a week left to go in the window, for anything less than the release clause. Not even considering the circus around the failed attempt at the beginning of the month. If thats the consensus at the club also then Todd Boehly’s “world class infrastructure” is truly full of morons. Just pay the fee if we want him. We’ve already overspent on Mudryk and Cucurella. Well lets be honest if it was any other club it would be complained about also and actions would be taken. UEFA have always been gearing up towards making FFP much more stricter and better structured over the years and we’ve really given them ammunition to do this. I mean it would be naive to think a club that has spent nearly £500m in not even one full season wouldn’t raise suspicions/make them interested into how they can get around their rules. Particularly considering we've had very little sales. Then, to look at it another way, it isn’t necessarily going to be feasible forever because not every player will sign a 7 or 8 year contract, particularly players over the age of 25. And eventually we will go for players who are in their prime because we cannot just keep buying u21 footballers forever. If it were Newcastle or City doing it and spending say 400-500m (speculative figures but they have the 2 richest owners in the PL) per window on similar deals there would be uproar. Just like the whole issues with their sponsorships etc.

Yeah us negotiating with Benfica… its more than likely going to be either pay the release clause or fuck off. As it always was when we tried last time and usually is with Portuguese clubs. I don’t see us offering say £90-100m over the spread of a long contract. And even if we did, are they really going to be inclined to accept it when the release clause is still £106m? After the initial pursuit at the beginning of the month? It makes no sense for them to take a lesser deal or a deal thats structured in a way to make it more beneficial for us than for them. Even more so when they know they will get that £106m release clause in the summer as more clubs will be better placed to make such moves. I think for sure Real Madrid, Man City, Liverpool will all be in the market for a statement signing in the summer and I think MFers such as Bellingham and Enzo will top most lists.

Frank sacked by Everton.

They were pretty stale to watch for a huge stretch aye but you could see (or I certainly felt from watching some of their games) that they at least had some patterns of play for building up and would say it was early doors but there was some sort of identity. I think their mentality also shifted though and they had to start gearing up towards doing the dirty parts of the game which Arsenal sides have never been particularly good at since the early 2000s. Although in comparison to now, they look a totally different team. Everything just looks right. As you’ve said he’s gotten rid of the older guys and gone with youngsters, which I think has helped but even off the pitch, I think they identified how badly they’d recruited over the years too and changed that. Even the Arsenal squad when Arteta first came in compared to now. Its been a radical shift of personnel. I think if they go on to win the league now next season will be even more interesting and a bigger challenge for him to go again. Barring City in the last however long, the defending champions have always gone and fucked it the next year.

I think at the time there was a lot of fallout from how awful they were starting to look under Emery and some of the signings he had made were busts. Not to mention I think its easy to forget that Wenger really had done a good job over the years without going crazy in the market whilst also losing his key players. Granted he maybe stayed too long but I think like the United position when Fergie left, it was always going to take maybe 2 or 3 different coaches or at least considerable time to get things right. No doubt Arsenals football wasn’t incredibly great in that first 12 or 18 months or so with Arteta too as a lot of it was death by possession but they had an identity of sorts. I think the development of certain young players have added a bit more spark and even from the amazon documentary you can see Arteta is clearly very demanding and set a lot of standards which I think as well with the likes of that, the pennies dropped with a lot of the players now plus the addition of guys like Zinchenko and Jesus who have won a lot will help. Even Xhaka seems a totally different player and everyone thought he was done there. What impressed me most about them in the game v United was that they still kept playing at a high level believing they would go on and win, where as in the past they would probably have crumbled and capitulated. They look pretty nailed on to go and become champions I would say.

I think Ziyech might be kept now to the summer at least. Granted he wasn’t brilliant but he had put a few good crosses in from open play and set plays. He really has a unique skillset despite not having blistering pace.

Jesus how many times are these players gonna fall over 😂 I think the game fizzled out after 25 minutes not done anything bar that Mudryk chance. Opportunity lost as Liverpool have been there for the taking.

Have to be honest, Badiashile looks very impressive. Still raw, likes going to try intercept in front of attackers when he shouldn’t but technically he looks excellent. Very cool on the ball. Left footer brings that balance to that position and makes our build up better.

There is a player in there but he should have gone on loan again I think. Has all the drive and athleticism but just not quite technically there yet for this level. I don’t know what sort of player he is, is he going to be a box to box player? A ball winner? A more offensive midfielder? Wow what a save by Alisson, bastard, but should be scoring that

Mount should have shot. Surprisingly Havertz also having a decent gsme so far, jesus christ, he must of been reading the forum 😂 Will Connor stop running the ball into people/crowded areas also?