Thor

We have some shite like any club, but people here would be a lot happier with the players we have if we got a better manager. Maresca has regressed us. Its fucking annoying too because for a team like ours, some continuity in style of play and learnings would be massive. I don't think we're massively understaffed from a player perspective like some let on here. A Hato, Gittens and an upgrade at keeper and we're in it for competing. But Maresca needs to see the light or we need a way better manager.

Delap is the smartest footballer alive. Not for anything he has done for us so far. Simply because he saw what was here, and knew Jackson would faulter so that he could step in as starting striker by default lol.

Maresca plays such boring football. Something needs to change. We looked so good in the first half of the season.

I've honestly never seen a more impatient fanbase than on here. The windows barely been open - and we've secured an area of need - ST. A good player by the looks of it too. LW is the other big need and GK. The LW market isn't spectacular right now and Maignan isn't some must have in my opinion. If the price is right - sure. Calling the group a bunch of penny pinchers won't ever stick considering the amounts spent on Neto, Caceido and Enzo. We're literally one or two signings away from proper competing and acting as if it has to be done today won't make it so.

Liverpool got a bunch of big names, but pretending we are in anywhere a similar position to them is hilarious. Walking into a team that was already near the top and needing to make few changes, compared to trying to rebuild an entire team and put in a different approach to the transfer market.

I clearly remember this and you were one of the few - and actually posted so much about him to convince others. Most were not for him though. I can remember Raphina as well and him getting trashed on here as well.

Regardless - people here binned him off for the most part.

How you gonna put Felix in there when you rated him? lol

There are players that are sought after heavily that end up busting, or being bang average. It means squat at the end of the day. Vitinha literally got binned by Wolves. Dembele I'm fairly sure joined on a free. Cole Palmer came here for 40 mil, and most on here and in other forums said "who?".

Dembele... Gordon... Raphina... These are literally all players that were linked to us that people here acted were not good enough and didn't want. We're literally back in UCL, won a trophy, and are making continual progress with the youngest team in the league... Delap is a fantastic value signing. Fofana would be another great signing for me. Half the board is bonkers for Nico Williams yet Gittens is better in just about every statistical category from carries, to link up, and then goals and assists.

People complaining about Gittens and Bundesliga signings, but don't want to acknowledge we won the UCL with Werner and Havertz starting, and Pulisic playing a big role.

I hate this kind of rhetoric acting as if humans are the worst. We've done plenty good, and we aren't inherently bad.

I'll get blasted for this, but I'm a big fan of both Semenyo and Fofana. Fofana, not in terms of quality right now, but looks much like a young Salah - although his finishing and decision making even now is really, really good. Always impressed with him when he plays. Semenyo and Rogers would be great - but I do wonder if Rogers is impactful down the left? He's always seemed to thrive in the middle role more so? Rogers would be a dream signing, but is it us trying to fit him in without taking into account his best position?

The club has done really well with attacking talent for the most part and people are in shambles about our targets, despite from a stats perspective rating very well. Gittens statistically is better than Nico Williams, yet people are acting as if there is a major gap between the two.

Thought he looked fine. He knows he is coming here and playing with that level of player against better competiton is difficult as you rely completely on your own brilliance. Will look better here, and we need to give him time to grow into the league. Don't know what people are expecting... Messi off the bat? Just not realistic.

wrong post

Who are the bad guys these days that we're meant to hate? The Jews and Israel? I thought we wanted to stop the Nazi's and help them. The Arabs are bad? Didn't we invade them first and mess everything up? The racist and nationalist grandparents in the west are all confused.

Yeah - my point was more people saying we don't get the world class talent everyone is after. Enzo was one of the hottest prospects in the world, as was Caicedo - and we got both. I'd say the Lavia pull was big as well - and even the likes of Nkunku who at that point was being talked about as one of the best SS in the world. Not to mention, we were competing with Liverpool for these guys in a lot of cases. Given where we are, and how consistent Liverpool have been and their status in England, when we go head to head with clubs for players, we do really, really well. People are being dramatic acting as if we don't pull the best talent anymore.

I think big names in the sense they were both world class prospects. We've never really gotten the world class established player ala Pogba, Neymar, etc - even Hazard wasn't the out and out star when we got him. He was much in the same position as Enzo and Caicedo. We've gotten players before they get there.

To be honest, we still get WC players now. Enzo and Caicedo were exactly that by the metrics, and the chat on here at the time. You just can't expect every single position to be a 70-100m player.

Dortmund isn't some flash hot team and Gittens outperforms him.

But he literally only plays well for Spain. He is fairly average aside from that, and for the things he is good at, Gittens actually ranks better - and is younger.

Nico Williams scored 5 goals this last season... world beater apparently?

And from an amortisation standpoint, and book value wise for the club, it actually ends up being more than a 10-15 mil dollar profit in the example you gave. Its simply good business to keep numbers ticking over.

I just don't think its the panic stations everyone is going on about. People are praising PSG, but they signed all their current great talent at under 25... We have been trending upwards. Our players are going to be a year older, more experienced, resilient, and in tune with the manager and his method of playing. People are acting as if we were world beaters the last 10 years. We've won 1 PL title in the last 10 years. Our "success" is a bit of a mask when we had an extraordinary and unexpected CL run where we happened to hit our stride, and clearly built a cup side, but one not capable of winning the league (ala early 2000s Liverpool). If you zoom out and look at things for what they are - this last season results wise was one of our best in the last 10 years aside from the PL winning season, and CL winning season. We're in top 4, CL, and won a trophy. We are the youngest team in the league (history actually). Have some of the most promising players in Cole, Caicedo, Lavia, Enzo, Santos and Estevao in our team - who will continue to grow, be a staple/core of the team, and the average age between them is under 23 years old... We have RJ who can hopefully work his way back and is only 25. We have the likes of Colwill who has been hot and cold but is 22. I'm personally excited for the likes of Essugo, who is young and strong as a bull. I've heard nothing but great things about Quenda who will be joining us next season too. People are yearning for this return to glory, but it was masked well in the last 10 years under Roman. It wasn't as consistent or glory filled as we pretend. We had patches where we made it work. Both of our CL wins happened and were shocks to most of us. We didn't win while we were dominant, we won because we hit stride and it masked the faults of the club that were plain and obvious. Now we go into next season with more experience and a year older, know how to win a major final, and they showed when it gets tough they know how to get results with the last stretch. That is big. Yes I wasn't happy with the play since Xmas, but they dug deep and won. That is important. Is there things I'd like to be done better? Yes, clearly defensive and GK signings have been god awful, but I'm sure it is a point of making it better. Maignan would have been nice, but is it far and away the surefire thing we think it is? Maybe not - and glad they approached with caution considering how poor they've been spending money on keepers.