Magic Lamps

Gordon is a great counter attacking player but I don’t see how he fits Maresca ball hogging style . We need technical creative players for this not more speed merchants .

I know. Makes it even worse. When there is little residual value you can easily play hardball. Keeping all 3 one more year and losing them on freebies would have hardly been catastrophic. we have consistently overpaid for transfers while receiving market value at best for outgoings. When Hazard had one year left and only wanted to go to Madrid, marina still milked them for 130m. She may have fked up some sales and overpaid in others but all these gargantuan fumbles from clownlake put her decent work into perspective.

He was one of their top scorers, scored 8 pl goals, more than mudryk and Madueke. he is and never was a 40m player really but also not a 5m one. Unfortunately our boards expert trading strategy is buy high sell low . We also sold RLC and Pulisic for cents on the dollar despite them being no worse than their replacements. Wonder what Milan would quote us if we wanted them back.

You sure? We recently dropped 65m on a player with a whopping 13 Brazilian league games under his belt. I wish I was as bullish on the sanity of our board as you. Anyway, the point was, if we had shown interest in a 20y.o. palyer with 10 goals in the championship we sure af would be quoted 50m+ bc everybody knows Clownlake is clueless.

22m add ons already included for Hutch is tragic. We would be paying 50m+ if it was the other way round. But I have long lost all hope we will ever have a smart transfer strategy under this ownership. Kieran Mehsbury Hall who is older and has worse PL stats than Conor... Carney, ok he might be perma damaged after 2 big and 4 smaller injuries but could have been a decent squad player who looked quality whenever he stepped onto the pitch. Also one of the few who can play midfield and winger as a right footer, still only 20

We stand no chance of getting calafiori. Every top club is chasing him after his euro performamces plus he gives me the vibe of someone who will stay in Italy his entire career. From the players we have been persistently linked with, I hope we just end up with Anselmino and David. Hope we dodge the rest of the dross

50-70m for a Brazilian CB who is uncapped even at youth level in a period of rather meh Brazilian CBs and with just one ok PL season would be ridiculously stupid- in other words a trademark clownlake signings

yeah I know but overalll it is still 37,5 in 19m out. We could have sold Maatsen for a bit over 33.5 pure profit to someone else and not bother with another dud winger

Probably, but I don’t get the math. I can hardly believe no other club would have offered a deal that gives us more than a 37,5m - 19m + a useless player out of selling Maatsen

Guiu for 6m and David for 25 are no brainers. They will be worth more than double that the moment they sign and we could easily flip them next year unless they turn out to be absolute trainwrecks. What I still can not get over is that completely nonsensical signing of that random Villa youth player named Kellyann or something for a comparatively insane fee. He is lanky leftie winger/AM who prefers cutting inside from the right just like Palmer, Madueke, Estevao. If there really was the need for yet another right winger we could just give Angelo, Hutchinson or Kendry paez a shot at a later point, who - guess what- are all left footed as well. While we can always use an upgrade the one thing we dont need is more depth on the wings/AM. I am aware Angelo and omari are probably never gonna play but how can they be any worse than this guy who has 35mins in PL.

For a market devoid of world class strikers we have seen a ton of rumours and movement on that front. firstly while I have reigned to the fact that we will no sign a proper, experienced, well-established CF, I am happy we have distanced ourselves from that fella from Alaves. Also it looks like we won’t pay 40m for villas backup who I would not mind on a cut price deal. Sesko is would have been good value for money with his release clause but I am not exactly distraught we did not get him. He may have a high ceiling but right now he is a deluxe broja and I am not sure that’s what we need. gyökeres I always wanted to see him in PL to assess if his pace and strength advantage that helped him tons in portugal holds here too. Obviously a massive gamble for arse based on 1 great season at age 26. Osimhen is just too expensive. I can’t see him being a total flop but he has clear weaknesses and he would probably end up a better mannered Lukaku who scores 15 goals and does little else. David I watched a lot back in 21 when he looked raw but a superstar in the making. So no idea if he trailed off or just no one cares about ligue 1 but I don’t think we could do a lot wrong by getting him for a decent price. French league strikers often adjust alright to PL with many teams over there too setting up quite defensively with big, athletic CBs. His stats imply he is somewhat consistent which is what we need most IMO

Exactly. IMO Cucu should have been MOTM which reiterates your point further. 6 interceptions, 10/12 tackles won, 100% passing, so picking him over Grimaldo has been vindicated. Him being our starting LB next season becomes more likely which means we won’t be in for a new LB which might be a mistake. I am no big fan of either Cucu or Maatsen but they do complement each other well and are less injury prone than chilly. Chilly/Cucu as witnessed the past few seasons is no such durable combination as it will result in Cucu being overplayed thanks to chilly injuries

Wrong thread

In particular I don’t get how paying way above market value for hyped up youngsters that have proven nothing so far over established players at peak value is supposed to be some superior strategy. Value for money the latter is still way better. We still pay career peak prices for players that just let go down in value afterwards. If we would pick up these young players on the cheap fair enough, nice underdog strategy but we essentially are just throwing money at random youths. this “duran or some academy player” is especially ridiculous. Apparently it does not matter who the player is, just has to be young.

Hancko is a nice underhand pick. Definitely on my list of defenders to watch that I think have the potential to become class. (Great performance today as well) The others being the obvious Caliafiori Bijol Inacio krejci Disappointing has been sutalo

I think we massively overpaid here. Estevao seems highly talented, great dribbler, but by his highlights is so incredibly far off a finished product. Plus he seems very left footed . He plays like a very talented 17 yo but for 65m he should be close to wc already. Kendry paez to me looks far more mature with better shot and eye for goal.

I’d rather have a player in form and peak of his career on the cheap than get another expensive mega gamble

He has not been great last season but looked good before his injury and his height and pace have been an asset. I’d rather sell disasi but ultimately both are not good enough

interesting esp since he is left footed and RWB. Transfermarkt has him listed as either right or left attacker in every game for Strasbourg. Do you think he could be converted into a (inverted) right or left back for us given that his pathway in attack is pretty much blocked?

Would be a great signing for sure. The women are so much better run on every level compared to the men right now. Mostly bc Clownlake keep their fingers out of it. If it ain’t broken don’t fix it. A major factor in the disparity between the men’s loser mentality and the women’s champions attitude is that the latter have thtat continuity, a legacy of success being passed on. While on the men’s team there are no more 2017 title winners, only 2 2021 CL winners and almost no members of the 2004-13 golden decade in any capacity at the club. We lost a lot of the know how what it means to win titles due to that Clownlake clear out of the entire club structure .

So what. We have bought mudryk, fofana, Caicedo, Enzo for close to that figure. Why not spend 100m on a player that would actually improve us. All the money these braindead owners spent could have got us the best squad in the world not a ‘project’ which apparently is the shortened American English form of ‘we have no idea what we’re doing’. imagine you had 200k to buy two or more nice reliable, comfortable cars, say one for fun, one to meet clients. You might buy a Porsche 911 and an merc s class or maybe you prefer a z4 and an a8 whatever. Clownlake would manage to splash 200k on a fiat multipla with a broken gear shift, a non street licensed hummer after 5 crashes and an illegaly imported post-sanctions Lada (you know cos they like its data) and tell you these pieces of trash have superb potential, will last longer and are cheaper to maintain than established brands. The mere persistent determination to get as little value as possible for the most obscene amounts of money spendable would make you think Clownlake just have a rather exotic financial domination fetish or are simply sworn to destroy this club. But what is more probable is that due to their success in yank sports they really have the hubris to think that they are some sports biz geniuses who are following a great contrarian strategy that will make them look like absolute masterminds in a few years. Spoiler alert: they are just stupid and will look like even greater fools then. But this club will suffer from the debt and all these average players they have dumped upon us for decades.

At least he is left footed which appears to be in line with the owners’ vision of a full squad of lefties

Is that guy legit? I started to wonder the same when we signed fofana… them buying trash youngsters on eternal contracts for huge sums is one sadistic way to destroy a club for sure. But the motive has to be something else. When did Americans ever mind rigging a competition

If we signed Yaya sanogo as our starting striker would you say … eh let’s not write him off ? probably not. 99.999% of pro players would constitute underwhelming signings so writing them off saves a lot of time. Palmer did not set the world alight at city but everyone could see he was a superior talent compared to whatever that Duran Duran chap is atm

40m on a 5 goals striker. That is dead money right there. The only way he will appreciate in value is if he becomes a main starter and scores at least double figures both of which unlikely.