Magic Lamps

I don’t believe for a second Haaland would have picked us. We bid way more than his release clause to get him early in Jbuary that year. But when a journalist asked him about it, he laughed his ass off instead of parroting the usual BS about „great honour to be of interest for such a big club, we have to wait and see“

Maguire is Southgate’s main weapon in his mission to continue England‘s barren spell indefinitely

So far Caicedo has shown potential not quality. One good season does not make a word class player. If the contract is incentives based, fair enough but still. I was always against this signing on these terms. Even if he becomes a solid player like Ramires or Mikel he would still be a flop for the money paid. You can only get of this viscous wages circle when you sell the overpaid freeloaders (which we are doing) and refuse to hand out those contracts again, which we still struggle with.

150 for Caicedo is terrible. I understand we had to fend off pool. But wtf that is just as bad as those 150 to Kepa. Caicedo might still flop easily and we will be stuck with him for 8 years.

Weird game. Obviously one we should have won higher again bc of all the chances we had. At this rate we will continue undeservedly losing and drawing games in PL where we are the better team. Happy for Enzo to score his first but he is one of the worst bottlers and should be kept far away from Opposition goal and that ominous no 10 role. He is deluxe Jorginho (minus the pens) not a misunderstood Zidane. That pen on Big Rob was a terrible decision. He punches the ball clear first like he always does and half a second later that headless chicken runs into his fist. Wtf was he gonna do about it. Not convinced with our new no 1 either but 0 blame here Noni like you would expect from a flair player vs subpar opposition looked quite impressive and should have scored more. Took his penalty very well, Willian style . this is the exact kind of game reliable squad players like Conor, Ugo, Maatsen can be clutch. Moreira, Humphrey and Burstow are still raw and need to go out o loan.

Finding his level... scraping relegation in league two.

Of the few appearances Palmer has made on senior level I have probably seen a quarter. The player he is most similar IMO is Kai but the Leverkusen one. He has the same swagger and elegance with ability for spectacular goals but is lanky and weak af. Good end speed but average acceleration and balance. What palmer hopefully offers is goals. He has scored in about every match on development and youth level and also in the two super cup games this season but never in PL. At age 21 he is a gamble mostly bc of how little he has played. Kai at that age already had over 100 pro games. I hope Palmer still has the Hunger after winning CL and PL as bit part player but if he wants the move he probably has.

And from the looks of it 1,67 is stretching it for Maatsen. Spuds killed it in the transfer window this summer tbh. Van de ven , udogie , vicario, kulusevski, Porro and maddison are all pretty damn useful. Just no proper striker but as long as they keep son fit he might do a job

It’s obviously a subjective assessment. Mount without major injuries has stagnated or regressed last 2 years. I don’t think he will develop much anymore as his deficiencies are mostly something that can’t be taught. ESR has flaws in his game too but when fit he looked like he has the talent to iron them out. I might be wrong and he may be completely wrecked after injuries but when talking about ceiling we should not focus on past achievements either. Surely, mount has achieved way more in the game but he looks a shadow of the player from our cL campaign. Might well be the case his further career ambitions have already faded. We can state the need to get rid of Cucu as often as we want. Does not change the fact the he is a sunk cost. No one will ever touch him with the wages he is on. Using him will be detrimental to our success as a club. He is drinkwater 2.0 (or Bogarde 3.0) but worse. He has already mentally checked out and is prepared to sit on the bench and milk every last penny of his contract. contractually we might be able to force him to act as testimonial for some sponsors hair conditioning products. As for Maatsen, he is not a winger and if he really can’t defend, then yes he is redundant. but if we continue with this weird lopsided formation with Chilwell as LW off the ball and Colwill basically a LB then Maatsen can cover for chilly. Makes the decision to sell hall even more cringe

What is the price talk tho? can’t see them entertaining bids under 50m tbh. Young, English, HG, over 100gs experience, can play everywhere in midfield and attack plus has 3 years left in his contract. He basically is their mount but with a higher ceiling and we sold mase with 1y left for a hefty fee. his profile perfectly fits the intersection of what Pochettino wants (PL experience, ready to play, versatile attacker) and the boards overall strategy (young, big upside, hungry for titles) . Not the kind of player who lifts us to a new level but he offers something no one else in the squad does, esp with the injuries to nkunku and Carney

Chalobah is a definite upgrade on the overrated sulking Parvard. Despite his flaws I do think there is a decent CB in Trev and I will be sad to see him leave. Always came across as a likeable character, top professional and true blue. The memory of debut wonder strike & heartfelt celebration in particular will stay forever.

What is worrisome is how easy it is for our rivals find it to turn games around after going behind or finding last minute winners. This is while our team completely loses faith and patience whenever we go in behind with the pool game a rare exception. Age and experience play a role but we can only hope for improvement. I don’t see us making top 5 without grinding a few results after falling behind during the course of the season

At this point not even the Saudis want to tarnish their reputation further by associating with Lukaku 😂

He is really poor defensively and a weird character tho . a great crosser and provides a threat from the left side but played a horrific first season at Leipzig. Would pass on him

😂 serves them right. Taking our ‘best’ player again after Willian 😂

well, at least Arse blew it. Can see why Fulham are so insisted on keeping Palinha. Absolute clutch for them once again. Will be interesting to see if Arsenal can have another season like the last one. The amount of games they stole last year was insane. Don't see them repeating that.

Manure can always rely on ref or VAR to get them out of trouble. NO surprise there. did not even bother watching even after 2-2. was always gonna end this way

He is such a weird player. Never seen someone produce this many turnovers in a game, must have been at least 10 but still scored two vital goals in an expertly fashioned. I mean he has always been frustrating with moments of brilliance but today was something else on both counts. But as long as he scores, I am happy. Especially bc employing him on the right nullyfies his most potent special move, curling shots from the left but somehow improves his ability to dribble past players.

He is a crazy hard worker. Won quite a few balls with his pressing up high, which we then squandered. But his ability to close down players and make runs into space is amazing. If he can now build a scoring streak and confidence, he will be very important.

I thought 2nd half was better. Still frustrating but made a few more direct moves and unsurprisingly scores from them. Enzo is Great at moving the ball but a terrible shot. This talk of him as no 10 has to die. He is terrible in a forward role. Really holds us back. Should either go for 433 or start another attacker when the back 5 has to stay. Not a fan of 3atb with Chilwell pushing this high. Totally lopsided and ineffective. gusto is no James but looks solid. delighted Sterling is finally clicking. Jackson off the mark can be huge. Caicedo and Gallagher were quietly decent but hopefully will gain more control once they gel better. Disasister as always with his shaky moments but will simply need time to get accustomed. Colwill was a bit meh but without consequences. Same as Sanchez. Thiago class as always

100m does not seem impossible for us tho. We spent more on Caicedo who looks an absolute joke at this point . if we really need one more top class CB, he could be a candidate.

Contract till 2028. Need some 150m here

Worst performance so far vs a sub par opposition. We miss attacking players . Enzo is not a no 10, esp in a 343. Way too slow and not a dribbler. Chukwumeka so much better in that role. And we have no one to bring from the bench really. Need at least one more cos we surely will concede

Bayern board have voted against the move.

10 world class players sound good in theory. But first, which absolute world class player would even be willing to join us? Not too many. then some including our board also thought Koukibaly and Sterling were world class before they joined us. So signing world class rep is not a sure fire thing . Second genuine world class players would demand double or triple the wages we pay Caicedo, Lavia etc. our wage bill would explode and unlike PSG we can not cook the book with some state owned sponsor . We would get in trouble with PL FFP. Boehly doesn’t mind amortising big fees over 5 years. Even combined with wages that is still less than 1bn for 10 Sterling like earners on 300k+ pw. Instead we got like 20+ players. Boehly or whoever is in charge is a bit of a betting man it seems. Handing out those massive contracts to potentially wc players means if we indeed strike gold we have some serious asset on our hands. But young players also only choose us bc we do hand out those long deals. As soon as they sign those, they know their family is set for generations. At some point all those 21 yo will probably down tools. Many modern footballers lack sporting ambition and just care about the money or their brand. Can easily see Lavia, Fofana, Cucu etc basically just blackmailing the club by doing the bare minimum waiting for their contracts to be paid out. Once you sign a deal that pays you 50m over 8 years just to show up for training on time and run after a ball for the cameras twice per week, motivation quickly plummets for this generations half assed players. After one more disappointing season we might very well be stuck with a group of unfit quiet quitters who long mentally checked out from caring about their career, the club or its fans.