Magic Lamps

not at city only obviously. look at Barcelona and Bayern too where he signed guys like Benatia, Kirchhoff and chrgynskyy lol

Pep has singed like a dozen cbs all but 2 flopped. If Pep likes a CB it should make you wary not greedy. Coughing up 60m for a CB and then not playing him is what Pep likes for breakfast.

In a back 3 maybe. but even then we have to compensate and have him play more advanced of the other cbs making us lopsided. But you don't sign a cb only for one formation. Surely at some point, we will switch to back 4 under tt oder another manager and you also don't play Azpi as cb in a back 4. Honestly I never liked Azpi as cb even in a back 3. I further don't think that Kounde is remotely as tough as Azpi. Also, again, there are jsut so many quality, tall cbs available who cost half of what Kounde does. Maybe it is bc he scores a flashy goal every blue moon but he is so so overrated. Why do we pick the one tiny, overhyped cb? itdoes not make sense. Just sign Lacroix for 25-30m and be done with it. So many quality CBs like Konate, Varane already moved and we stood by so i thought maybe we just dont sign one this summer but no we go in for the one i explicitly never wanted. Just feels shit.

I don't doubt that he is a good footballer but I just don't see him excelling in PL. You just can not teach height. maybe his jumping or heading technique can compensate some of it but sometimes you just dont have the time to go for a leap and just need to stand there block a ball that wil evade you when you are too short. or you need the strnegth to push a player off it. In PL strength and height is so important, a fun sized, weak, short CB will not cut it no matter how good he looks in other leagues Maybe he could become a world class right back or DM, he surely is good on the ball, decent movement and reading of the game but even Alex Ferguson did not want gary neville as a permanent cb cos he is just as short as kounde. this will simply not work.

at least kounde is already proficient in shithousery

maybe. same with kounde. there are probably higher rated cbs in la liga as well. personally for me eder militao, alaba, gimenez and possibly diego carlos are better

Are they? weird no one else except Spuds actually made a bid for him.

Bakayoko was the top rated DM in Ligue 1 the summer we bought him. Kounde is just not made for PL can't believe no one else sees this.

I would have been fine with this window even if we signed no one of Note if we just stayed away from dregs but this kounde rumours show we the Board has learned nothing and it will be 2017 all over again. Kounde will be a massive bust

oh fuck pls no

With the amount of games we are gonna play coming season, 4 midfielder who all are starter material will be fine. each of them will probably still get 20-40 games esp with the 5 sub rule in all competitions bar PL. Kante and Jorginho are getting old, will get injured more often so we need cover for possibly longer periods. Similar in CB. We have to think ahead silva, Azpi are old, the former is often injured, the latter also has to cover for rwb. Rüdiger and AC I expect both to sign new contracts. if zouma stays we can as well roll with what we have but if we want to plan for the future, this is the perfect time to blood in a promising young CB to learn his trade from some of the greatest defenders in the game. In attack we will have to take a leap of faith. If we can't get the necessary Haaland or Kane, which we will not, there is no ready made world class striker to score the goals so we should not buy an average one. I rather take a gamble on our young players than take the gamble of signing a mediocre striker for 50m. we have to rely on our other attackers improving. broja to me looks like a shoe-in for Tuchels style, pacey, industrious, mobile. If he gets his confidence up and scores goals, i dont see why he can't contribute. Obv we have to keep Tammy to play the Giroud role.

centreback and DM. Preferably Lacroix and Locatelli or Tchouameni.

they might still do. nothing has been officially confrimed yet.

tbf if Kepa was not a 80m keeper he would have long been sent to the reserves. Talent wise there is probably not much between Bettinelli and Kepa.

That is deceiving. he is not even a bad goalie, it just was a terrible side he played in. Also in contrast to Kepa he has nice long arms.

Apparently PSG want to shed Kurzawa, Kehrer, Paredes, Sarabia and Icardi. Paredes would be a decent Jorginho backup, albeit just 2 years younger. In other news, leon bailey is gonna be sold to ASton villa for 35m.

yup. liverpool 2 years ago. won the cl , made 0 signings, went on to win the league.

tbf Sancho is a lot more talented than werner and i expect him to acclimatize quite well with him being English but I can not see ziyech, kai and timo not improving. Kai quite visibly turned a corner with his CL winner IMO, he was our best player at the euros. Timo can't hardly have worse luck he just needs to keep trying and Ziyech, well, he should still be fine as a back up. But the main problem is that there are areas we nee to improve in where we can not bank on the 2nd season effect...

that does sound tautological. Pretty much given up on the legaue. but i am fine if we collect the cups we have to win anyway and maybe add one of the domestic. ending the season with 2 or 3 small trophies would be fine. we need to maintaint our momentum and continue winning finals again. The squad is still young and will get better. It is not a huge number of signings we need. If the baord feels we can't get the necessary quality i am fine with signing no one at all and wait tille the market is more accomodating. what is frustrating is that there were some quality moves possible and we were not involved.

there can be impetus from more than signings and jorginho sucks anyway, his absence did never break our rhythm before so no to A. I don't think midfield wsa the problem under Lamps, it was clearly defence and misfiring strikers. the midfield itself was fine IMO. We will see what TT's plans with RLC are. For a backup he has enough quality i maintain. check his youth matches for us for evidence of his ability to play deeper

A. You can not be sure.TT knows how the season is laid out and will make sure we start it off on the right foot. No new additions also means no broken rhythm and it appears he can still incite new impetus in the team. B. they also played together in some games under Lamps. never looked like a problem to me. they are flexible experienced players. jsut bc we hav eno naturla older does not mean we suddenly break apart. c. what you say is wrong. RLC played almost every game for Fulham and only ceased to get appearances late on for them once they were relegated and they already tried stuff out for the championship. I would also have preferred to sign someone instead of keeping hold of RLC but TT appears to be a fan and holder is the only position he can still work. Mount is played over RLc bc of his energy and naturla drive, which are essential for an attacker. RLC was loaned out by Lamps, but TT might very well have different plans. Also i dont expect him to start here but to provide cove.r he surely is good enough for that.

we really can't afford to start the season off slow. the starting program is so tough, our title challenge will be over before it began. i don't think kovacic-kante is a catastrophe. they were great vs atletico. also i can see RLC growing into the holding position. he is a composed character with tactical discipline. technique and passing have always been polished and his loss of pace does not impede him as much in this position.

Kovacic and Kante have played together before. Kante will sit more. On the other hand, we have a plethora of dregs who could cover that role more or less so depth is not really the problem, more quality.

Blown out of proportion. Getting 10m a year for doing diddly squat and keeping shut about it is hardly an achievement. In the normal world, most professionals on less than 50k/y will have a few years where they play second fiddle to other colleagues and would face graver consequences if they put a foot wrong. No one goes and commands respect for basic human decency and professionalism