Magic Lamps

2012 was a miracle though. Plus those were different teams, experienced ones who had won tons of big games. This current one has only won one as slight underdogs vs on the beach Liverpool. We need a perfect game to even stand a chance.

Agree but on the other hand Cole should have passed to the other wide open KDH when he had his shot blocked on the counter instead. Even though it did not matter the chance wasting today was again frustrating. Can’t have this in the final

good performance overall. Game management and overall tactical and positional play improved throughout the tournament. Ppl may not like Enzoball, it is really not always pretty but you can’t deny the guy has a plan. can’t see us beating real or psg save a miracle but we have played a great tournament overall, earned a ton of cash and hopefully gained a lot of following and fame in the US

Oh caicedo please no

Exactly. They are somewhat similar players, roughly the same quality, both homegrown but Madueke is English INT so he should fetch around 10% more. But no doubt our Bord will get taken for a ride

If the Times report is correct and we indeed need to balance the books before being able to register new players for uefa competitions, it is no wonder we are being fleeced for every transfer. Once again zero thinking ahead by the board. Anyway at least this hectic of thinking about new incomings can stop until those 60m+ are raised which should be easy enough Still this uefa punishment is super random. Can’t even register players that were injured but already at the club last season.

Exactly my point. amortisation matters for accounting profit. Thats why it doesn’t make sense to sell immediately after a player value has tanked. Buy felix for 40m, 1 year of amortisation, maybe 8m off the books max, now he gets sold for 20m… 12m accounting loss, 20m economic loss Yes, so how does it contribute to long term growth when you randomly buy 10 players per windows, most of which never play, lose form and sell them shortly after at loss after amortisation?

Typical for our Board to be happy with comparatively small profits for decent players like Madueke and Petrovic while receiving cents on the dollar for those signings that everybody knew were pointless in the first place. It’s highly unsustainable to sign this many players and then sell most them again with huge discounts just a few windows later when they are unable to turn huge profits on the few that actually delivered. No idea how this weird transfer strategy is ever gonna be profitable

Do red cards get wiped at some point like yellow ones or will pacho and hernandez now miss two games like Jackson?

Good player, decent signing. I think even the money is not a huge overpay for once. PL veteran who is still young. Followed his career since his Watford days and he always stood out for me with his ability to hold onto the ball and find teammates. His training ground altercations are a bit of a red flag but Hürzeler emphasised Pedro‘s leadership quality so let hope he brings the same passion onto the pitch in positive way A bit of a head scratcher are Pedro‘s comments that he sees himself as a pure no.9, finishing as his best quality and a poacher like Lewandowski as a similar player. Mind Pedro has 10 non-penalty goals in 2 years playing mostly as a striker, which Lewa has achieved within a fortnight occasionally. On the other hand his creativity and link up play are a lot more striking. He is also quicker, more mobile and agile than Lewa but a consistent finisher he is not. Bottom line I don’t mind him playing as a striker at all, rotating with Delap. I am sure they can find 20-30 non-penalty goals between them which should be enough to qualify for CL as long as our wing play improves output wise.

It is safe to say whoever led the negotiations on Chelsea side botched that one big time. When the second offer over 50m was rejected, the Dortmund director went out of his way to say that it was only rejected bc the bid came in hours before the windows closed not bc of the amount. Still, they came back with 55m+ right when it reopened. Also got a hunch Bayern interest was never real and they just did it to coax the club they dislike most into overspending

Wow this fluminense side will be thrashed by city

Like many, I am fine with letting Jackson go now we secured Pedro. Not necessarily bc of all his misses, he has some redeeming qualities on the pitch but bc of his continued immaturity and unprofessional attitude. His ability to deal with pressure (e.g. CL qualification expectations, competition from Delap) has only gotten worse, impressively emphasised by two bonkers red cards in his last three games. I am not there yet with Madueke. Granted, apart from his short purple patch last autumn he has been ineffective but his ability to wreak havoc and necessite 2on1 coverage in virtually every backline created space for others. I would say he has done just enough to earn another year of assessing his trajectory. Hence, I am also on the fence about kudus. He too is super quick, reliably invokes chaos in opposition defences but fails to tangibly capitalize far too often. It doesn’t make much sense to sign yet another left footed AM/Winger if we don’t sell Madueke - with a Neto likely being safe on current form. finally, as pointed out before, the squad needs some continuity. We can’t keep selling starters every summer, taking away this young squads ability to settle down a bit and internalise tactics and mentality.

Type wise maybe but looking at the stats he has played 119 games as ST and only 7 as a#10. he has played occasionally as second striker but that position does not exist in our system which was one of the reasons Nkunku failed here. If Jackson is sold, I expect Joao to compete with Delap for the striker position mostly. His skillset allows him to play across the frontline ofc but I don’t see him operating in the half spaces and sometimes dropping deep like Palmer and Enzo do when playing as 10.

Kane settles it

Then again Bayern lost vs benfica who we utterly dominated Actually flamingo are playing better than they did vs us just very wasteful. Bayern on the other hand have been clinical today and were wasteful vs benfica. A game of small margins

He is running down his contract at Liverpool atm so he might very well leave. Here he has the chance to be the leader of a young team at real he would be one among many. I am not saying it’s likely but we should try.

Btw if Liverpool sign guehi we should be all over konate. He would be ideal as defence leader next to Colwill. Massively experienced and still only 26.

Most ppl will have seen plenty of Joao Pedro so I would say the overall fan reaction and sentiment is sound in this case. A good, versatile footballer but not a great goalscorer. The thing is we have plenty of these players already. So clearly the ambition by the Bord sis not to sign a ready made wc striker to compete for titles. The frustration over this is understandable but let’s now this is established let’s take a step back and see the signing in isolation. For me has had always been one to watch since he came into the league spearheading an awful Watford side. back then his ability to hold onto the ball and link up play was already impressive even at age 20. he was usually the only player in the opposition half most of the time Often, after Watford had aimlessly launched the ball upfield he shielded it for a good 20 seconds till support arrived. None of our players quite has this ability; we produce a lot of turnovers whenever we get into the final third, I expect this to decrease with him. I would have preferred a proper, experienced goalscorer ofc but what Pedro brings to the table can be valuable too. Now from the economic side, 50m+ for a homegrown, PL proven Brazil international sounds fair enough but remember he was already most of that when Brighton signed him for half in 2023 while the board wasted money on mudryk, Joao Felix, Kellyman etc who were nowhere near the same level

He really stepped into that role of being a senior figure and leader in the dressing room. When he gave that on-pitch team talk yesterday after the game went into extra time it clearly had a positive impact. Seems like a great character to have in the squad but ability-wise will never be a world class CB. Hopefully can continue to be such a reliable influence on the team for years to come regardless of playing time

Semi will be vs city who look like the best team in the tournament by far so I doubt it will matter but the yellow card rule is indeed a disgrace.

Except if they have a blue shirt on. Then it’s capital punishment for a raised eyebrow

Nicely taken by KDH but look offside

Just caicedo I think - the most important one

Neto keeping his streak