Magic Lamps

Liverpool did not ditch him tho, he basically had to force his way out there. They were absolutely pissed he wanted out. Admittedly his career trailed off a bit in his later city years but even in that last below par season of his he showed he has some qualities no one else in the squad has. His signature move cutting inside from the left and aiming for the far corner has been quite effective even with little opportunity. He is not afraid to pull the trigger early and can handle tap ins and 1 on 1s. 9 goals on around 2500 mins for us last lesson is a decent return. Plus he had to cater the the ever wasteful Kai. With him or Mudryk from the left, Nkunku coming through the middle, maybe Jackson up top and Noni from the right we will have one of the fastest attacks in Europe. Poch worked wonders with averagely talented pace merchants like Moura. Surely he should be able to make something happen with our contingent

It only makes sense if he has fully recovered and we are planning on moving RJ to midfield in the mid term. he basically costs us nothing and already knows the club and the PL inside out.

Brave new world. Poch gives a real nice vibe - positively ambitious yet personable

SMS could indeed by a nice option. But of experience and different kind of player to our other midfielders. Could play together with Enzo or serve as his backup . Surely a better option for us overall than veiga.

U21 tourneys are becoming our a more important scouting venue for us than the senior tourney at this rate lol Still weird that so many 23yo can play at so called u21 tournaments. Maybe rebrand the thing. Biannual major tournaments are a weird thing when you have annual age brackets anyway.

Don’t think there is reason to reconsider anything on Mudryk yet. He has shown he can shine in Ukrainian league and youth level before so nothing new yesterday. But has not really produced much on PL level so far. I liked his performance yesterday, it should give him confidence but it is all worth nothing if he can’t transfer it. Even Gael Kakuta completely ripped some u21 euros over a decade ago.

Not even Bayer fans are this optimistic but would have no problems with you being right here. Don’t think he is quite that good tho. Lack of rhythm due to injury has thrown him back as well

Bernardo is not slow tho. He is not blistering fast but has above average acceleration and is nimble af. Wirtz and Chekri are not quite his level of agility or ball control.

Not sure if either works for us. Slow very technical flair players tend to at struggle in PL. you d rather want someone who is not always 100% clean but has pace to burn. Always liked him. He is a warrior. Remember him scoring twice and turning the game just after breaking his nose in a duel. But he has recurring injury problems which make him miss a lot of games.

Will be interesting to see if Inter change their stance on Lukaku now they have officially signed roughly the same player in player in Thuram. Maybe they drop Rom like a hot potato and he indeed only ends up with Saudi or reserves as his options

Always thought Gilmour was McEachran 2.0. Living off 3 decent games his entire career despite being out of his depth in every other appearance. As with McEachran there was some potential but clearly they themselves had not idea how to realise it so it is no wonder their careers trailed off when they were mismanaged. If they really were that talented and ready mentally they would have made it anyway.

Absolutely love how Arteta is celebrated as some visionary genius by delusional Arsenal fans for seeing Havertz as no. 8. Not only Lampard but also various coaches at Leverkusen have played him there but then shifted him forward bc his output was nonexistent. Kai is not someone to control the play, spray the ball out wide with nice diagonals or play intricate through balls. His creativity is mainly layoffs and little flicks in and around the box. Which is why most ppl here see him as a classic no. 10, which is reasonable but not a role that is of much use in the current game. He also will not be "Arteta's KDB" like some claim bc he simply does not have the range in his passing or shooting. His main strengths are his overall well rounded technique esp. ball control, movement in space, his height and decent pace. In Bundesliga this makes him a great asset as he has tons of space to run into or attack headers in, plus enough time on the ball to score a spectacular goal here and there. But his deficiencies like poor finishing, balance, upper body strength, ponderous turns and inability to get through in tight spaces don't go away by moving him to other positions. Faced with tough defenders and packed PL low blocks, he will always struggle as opposed to his slightly more impactful performances for us in CL. I expect him to be somewhat more effective at Arsenal bc they have a more cohesive attacking set up but he will only fulfill his potential outside PL.

It really depends. So many hype players peak before 25 these days. Maybe it is because of early fame and money that satures them, maybe it is because the game has become faster and more demanding on the body. A factor is probably also bc they get thrown into full seasons earlier. Just look at many of our former players. RLC surely peaked 2018 and it is probably save to say already he will never recover that level. Same goes for Timo. Peaked the season before he joined us witht hose 28 goals. Some of us maybe remember the times when academy graduates Miroslav Stoch, Josh McEachran and Fabio Borini were supposed to be our future. The former peaked at 20 on loan to Enschede where he contributed massively to an unlikely eredivisie title. The other two arguably never really peaked or stagnated once they left. In the end, it does not matter when they peak but how long they can maintain us. Only absolute top players can maintain their peak level 5+ years.

But he did raise our marketability in the US, sold some merch and that purple patch of his got us into top 4 so was clutch. Some big money gambles were failures from the get go but this one I think was one the club was entitled to take.

Ffs Whatever remaining value that chap had just went up in smoke. That’s 2 more years of paying disabled support. On a plus side maybe he can guide the incoming youngsters … the way to the physio facilities.

Fk man this is Saudi league. No need for a medical. Ziyech can just show up in a wheelchair. No one would see a difference in movement speed anyway

Cold and ballsy from Paul. All those vids of mount overhitting passes take focus off how many counter attacks he squandered by not passing at all or playing it safe. Thank fuck he at least did it right that one time… first time in ages English tax works noticeably in our favour.

His value? That shipped has sailed, wrecked and sunk into Mariana Trench maybe we are trying to not sound too desperate or spare Kepas fragile confidence

What I don’t understand, if we are in for a keeper anyway, why say Kepa remains no 1 before even having acquired a target? We would be attracting far better players if we give them the prospect of starting. Maybe it’s just media speculation, doubt Poch will hand out guarantees before even having trained the squad. don’t see a reason why Mamar does not walk straight into our first XI. He has already shown he is better than Kepa.

been decent but at some point his lack of end product may become problematic

not sure. I think contracts can be closed since June 14 but registrations only beginning at July 1

But our transfer window only starts July 1 as well so why do deals closed before count as old year for our incomings but not outgoings?

I agree. Best stay away. But it seems our new board still has to learn about the striker curse .

His movement patterns in the box are too similar to Nkunku’ and as you say his finishing is inconsistent. If we really want to throw money at the cf position for a big name striker AGAIN, it better be someone who compliments our other attackers. Kolo would be alright. vlahovic i can see doing ok in PL.

Lautaro is absolute dross just like Lukaku. We never learn do we. Lautaro would be a disaster here and inter are already enough of a bitch to deal with. We probably end up loaning him back to them for peanuts after shedding out 100m