Sideshow Luiz

I know.

It's nice to have this much of the ball even without a real "ball winner" in midfield.

That's from the darkest timeline.

No longer suffering with the TV?

Going forwards, they are more cohesive than I thought they'd be at this point in time. You can see, though, that they're still a step slow on the press. A few times a couple of the players have looked at each other to work out who's supposed to step up. Not complaining, this is to be expected.

Barkley made the wrong pass in the end, but that was a nice build up.

Scored against Wolves. Ajax were rumoured to be looking at him at the start of the summer. I wanted us to buy an attacking midfielder this year, but in the long term, it might be for the best that we didn't get Golovin. We could potentially have Barkley, RLC, and Mount next season and for the next 8-10 years. Hope we get to see further development this year. I'm really excited for his prospects.

Everyone is so quick to dismiss him, but I don't want him to go anywhere. And, I want him to get a new contract as well. Okay, he's limited, yes, but IMO, that's why you have him do the thing he's really good at. For me, that's finding the space and making the smart pass. Not trying to be a Vidal or Nainggolan. In our 343, he had to cover 40% of the pitch as a box to box player. That was never his game, but he made it work as best he could and forced himself to be selected. I think he is a great bench option to have. Jorginho can't play every match, and no one else in the team can find the space and link up play like Fabs can. He's the only back up for Jorginho. He can also play further up the pitch in a pinch as well.

The posts about late years Ivan make the current Cahill posts look like they're on Lampard's thread. It was a shame. Ivan was immense for us. Better to leave a year early than a year late. Unfortunately, in this case it was more like 2 or 3 too late. It wouldn't have been so bad if he wasn't a nailed on starter.

NO TRYING ON Kalidou Koulibaly 2nd best CB in world, after Verane - That's quite a statement. He's a beast, no doubt. Faouzi Ghoulam (he would be perfect LB for us if Emerson ends up a bust (Alonso is not up to a back 4 I fear) - Alonso looked exposed against Perth. 1 misplaced pass in the build up (which is going to happen, especially in these early stages) and he was completely out of the picture. Elseid Hysaj (I rate him 6th or 7th RB in the world) - Azpi > Hysaj. 1 of our 3 RB need to go. So, 1 of the 2 not named Azpilicueta. Amadou Diawara great young DMF - He's going to be excellent. He's why Jorginho was able to leave at all. Napoli seem to get their replacements in a year or 2 before they know that their first choice will leave. Allan box to box strong MF, superb player, so underrated - He'd easily replace Bakayoko as Kante's back up, but still a back up. Piotr Zielinski poor mans Milinkovic Savic - this one would be good to have. Poor man's SMS is for us. Utd. and Juve can fight over SMS, we're never going to get him. José Callejón even though 31, he is still a great RW in Sarriball - great engine, smart positionally. Pedro will have to do. Dries Mertens I dont see a place here for him, others love him - I think he's excellent, but I agree, I don't know where he goes. He always had the skills. Sarri playing him at CF has taken him to another level. Hope we have a future Mertens in the squad (could be Barkley, not as a CF, but someone who's game gets to the next level). I'm one of the ones that's not crazy about Rugani. It's not that I don't rate him or anything. I just know that we're all about keeping the net spend down and I think that spending the money on another area of the pitch would be better. I'm even more against Higuain. To be honest, I don't think there was ever anything in it. I just couldn't/can't see it. There's a low enough price where I can get on board, but there's no way that's going to happen.

Can we shift Bakayoko to get him in? I don't know him at all, so I have very few feelings about this.

It looks that way. On one hand, I'd love a Thiago type for that position. But Barkley, RLC, and Mount are all young. Any AM purchase will hamper their development. I have high hopes for Barkley this season. He looked a little lost tactically against Perth, but his determination was really nice to see.

Agreed. He was always a CF, IMO. Tried to turn him in to a winger at Utd. Then bought a young (ish) ST and an older winger, both for big money.

He's home-grown, is he not?

But, he could have had this: I jest, I really like London. Had a great time living there.

Oh, I agree, selling hazard now is stupid. We've done nothing to get rid of the dead weight either. We could possibly get Martial in, in a swap deal for Willian. That would mean that Morata has to go, which is fine. But, no one is paying 60M for him. The problem with this Bernard deal is: 1. He takes up a non-HG spot, which are at a premium 2. He's just good enough to be ahead of CHO in the pecking order. But, he's not good enough to warrant taking away important development time from CHO.

So, they want CHO to sign a new deal, and are telling him that he's got a place in the squad. Then, they want to bring in a right-footed playmaker winger type who likes to play on the left. Okay. My god, if this is a Hazard replacement.....

I was thinking that Mount could be the reason we aren't or probably won't get an attacking midfielder. He and RLC are not quite ready, but buying a 25 year old attacking mid would only push them further down the depth chart. That's what I thought, then remembered that we tried to buy Golovin. So, fuck only knows what the club are thinking.

Yup.

He's free, okay. But, he'll take minutes from CHO, not okay.

I had the impression that he was more of a playmaking winger type. Like a Hazard replacement

Saw that tweet on Reddit. Powerful lady-boss.

He's overpowered in FIFA 18. That's all I know about him.

Thanks for putting the list together. It looks like we're on an absolute 1 out, 1 in policy irrespective of any financial reasoning.