Magic Lamps

I like the ruthlessness but surely 21 players is not counting the u21 right? We can’t go into the longest season in club history with just 21 players

Good. We are indeed doing some decent deals but always under the radar as the big mishits catch all the headlines. At least getting more than a tribunal fee for players with no perspective and bringing down the wage bill is sth we have to give them credit for. Taking on a very benevolent angle Clownlake do not underperform the average top clubs transfer strategy by that much when ignoring the big ones. Fofana, Sterling, Mudryk, Enzo, Caicedo were spectacularly terrible signing in terms of quality (relative to the alternatives) and the combined 1bn outlay (fee+wages) and will cripple the club for years to come. But when looking around, every club has made similar miscalculations. Not even talking about Barca or Manure a few years back but even smart clubs like Bayern who sold their 2 most expensive CBs ever for cents on the dollar, PSG who signed up a generation of the most promising talents to win nothing and tanking their values or losing them for free. What causes the most hate from within and outside the club tho is the sheer quantity of expensive young player signings and the contract lengths. Bc this is so contrary to the standard approach of all other top clubs 7,8 untouchables, 6 contenders, 5 useful squad players, only 3-5 y contracts, balanced age profile that it makes clownlake look like smug buffoons. For some who have been in the game for ages it probably feels like a slap in the face to see so much money spent in a different approach so it’s fun and easy to ridicule the dumb Americans. But we don’t know if there is any substance to those sanctions and transfer ban rumours. In fact if we were to be hit with a multi year window ban it will come in quite handy to have 2 full squads sitting on long contracts. Not saying it will happen but we should not dismiss it altogether. Interestingly enough the smartest business has been done by the skint Italian sides who have been impressive in Europe as well. Nothing to trouble real/city but you could argue snapping up the churn from other clubs wasteful transfer policies for peanuts has got the Milan teams quite balanced squads. Others like Atalanta or Napoli had no choice but to patiently develop players over years. If there is one page we could take from their book it is to limit excessive outlays. It’s not the financial burden alone but also the mental pressure on player and teams when you make a 100m+ signing. It’s no coincidence big money signings have a terrible success rate. Esp here the mid range signings have historically been the best at any level. Lampard, Kante, Kovacic, Essien, hazard, Cech, Gusto, Palmer etc all were signed on decent but not excessive fees at that time. For the record, I still condemn most of what clownlake have done to this club but I refuse to give up hope. If they just stopped making these wild random big money signings and concentrate on the little smart deals we see every once in a while we might still have a chance to win something again in the near future.

30m conditional buy obligation is indeed hefty . I would not entirely rule them out staying up. I expect them to have a go at teams given their defenders are not PL level. They need Omari, Broja or another attacker to blow up and win them a couple of games. Can’t see them rescuing a lot of draws vs stronger opposition so they need to collect 7,8 wins va the teams around them. Not impossible but even if Borja ends up carrying them which I highly doubt given he looked already useless for albania who had a similar outisider role, I would never want him back

Haha good point but you have to see it in context. When he is making a run into the box closely marked like vs city he has less time and more pressure to make a proper connection. A lose control will be an instant turnover . I don’t think he always miscontrols these kind of balls but he is more likely to when in a more advanced position which he is less experienced at at the top level. When he receives the ball deeper in midfield he does not necessarily need to touch it towards goal but has more options to divert it away from the opponent. Plus a pass in midfield is more likely to be a straightforward ball without much spin. The flat crosses he miscontrolled vs city were fizzed in.

Rewatching the extended highlights, I noticed how many poor controls he had. Esp in the city box on 3 instances when an easy pass pinged 5m off him only for him to go to ground under minimal contact when chasing after it. He really was never an elite player technically but his presence is just annoying with his wannabe leader antics. Embarrassing. Quickly becoming the Sterling of midfielders. We know he can do better as soon as Maresca stops playing him out of position.

How can they use it to beat him with? He will just sit there collecting his wages. The statement itself was pathetic but feeble enough to not constitute a breach of contract , probably nodded off by a lawyer. we can not really afford to let him rot with the reserves. We can’t sell him bc of his wages. Every clubs knows this and will try to low ball us if there is even any interest. There is nothing the club can do to get rid apart from paying him out. He may be a terrible frustrating player but he has his uses. Contrary to mudryk he is not so devoid of top level experience and confidence that he at least finishes some his chances every now and then. Either some miracle happens, maybe a Saudi side taking him, or Maresca has to play him again at least as sub

Not sure how reliable equipe is for PSG but if they are indeed interested we stand no chance. Tbh I still don’t really know what to make of Osimhen. Sometimes he looks like prime Anelka with his finishing and movement. On other occasions he looks like he has never played football before. The fact that he only has one season where he scored more than 15 goals is not really a worry cos his goals per minute ratio is still elite. The problem is, is he so injury prone that he only averages 20-25 appearances per season? Also him flopping so hard in Bundesliga is not a good luck as is the fact that he too has to play afcon.

Obviously Sterling has to go now. But can’t see him going to Saudi. Expect a rip off subsidised loan deal to some cheap Italian fraudster side.

I like Conor and I am not a fan of Felix but no one can contest Felix being an infinitely better footballer. In isolation this is not a bad deal given it’s effectively a straight swap with little cash effect on the B/S but logging in pure profit in the I/S. But while losing Conor weakens our midfield slightly, does Felix improve our attack? What does he offer in addition to the embarrassment of richches we already have in his position? tactically well done this deal but strategically still makes no sense. I hope there is a clear plan in place to get rid of Sterling and/or mudryk bc otherwise we will have at least 2 expensive attackers sitting out every game sulking on the stands

😂 Dude, you obviously have 0 clue about football but at least you are funny. You should work for Clownlake Nothing beats ppl joining a forum and instantly start spamming it with these random incoherent ramblings. Brilliant 😂

Goals for Argentina? You mean all mammoth 4 of them, 2 of which coming against the mighty forces of El Salvador and Curacao ? Face it, Enzo is one of the worst attackers in the squad and one of the least suitable years to ever fill that no. 10 role in club history. You could play bettinelli there and he would probably score more

I desperately hope that is not true. He really is not that good and absolutely useless as 10. When he is not giving it his all and putting his body on the line like he did at the Wc, he really is just an average player tbh. Neither his technique, nor his athleticism nor his football iq are anywhere close to that of a 100m player.

Moronic idea from him to have this statement released. We have 42 players in the squad. A good 20 had to be left out, where are the other guys statements? You don’t play? Just get on with it. the timing just before the game was an act of sabotage. as Maresca apparently sees nkunku and Neto as LW, Sterling is now our 3rd choice LW. You can’t have your 3rd choice complain every time he isn’t in the squad. Reminds me of that story when steve warnock complained about Benitez not telling him in advance he would not play in the CL final 2005. I hope Maresca told Sterling that he didn’t inform the kitman he would not start as CF either

It does not really matter. as long as we don’t have a proper gk we could have prime nesta maldini cb we would still concede a ton of unnecessary goals I do hink we need both, wc gk and a wc cb to win big titles again. Even city/Liverpool never would have never won league /CL level without making these vital acquisitions nor us with that one magic Mendy+rudiger year. that being said fofana and colwill probably have the highest ceiling of all our cbs which is not saying much. Fofana still looking remotely useful at all came as a surprise. Still, dude is one big injury away from being done at top level so we should look to bleed in Tosin soon

Tbh, 25m sale kova breezing past 225m Enzo caicedo mf to score was painful. We obv massively overpaid for it but bar a couple outliers, the xi+bench we saw today is strong. They should be technically solid enough to adapt Maresca ball for what it worth and it will be enough for at least top 6. At this moment the cohesion is back to 0 but we were never gonna win vs city anyway. The squad will need a couple more matches to look up to speed, so don’t expect maximum points yet. Serviette and the early fixture accumulation will be a good thing bc it gives many players a chance to impress and brush off the rust other than that… good: Cucu carrying euros form, Lavia, fofana being useful in between injuries Unpleasant but not worrying yet: Nico still wasteful when it matters, nkunku still not having back that extra sharpness, palmer less effective when marked properly , Enzo Maresca still having to figure out the other Enzo is useless as no10, gusto still rusty definitely worrying Sanchez (given that we spent over 70m on half an XI of useless goalkeepers despite this being a super easy fix ), still no chemistry between Enzo and caicedo even with Lavia, Maresca having no clue how to fit our best attackers into a system where they all work

Felix for 50m euros is probably alright for a player of his quality. The problem remains that we are stacked in AM. One big plus is that creative players like him will be more important in unlocking deep buses than speedsters like Noni/mud/sterling… Now we have 4 attackers who can create a goal out of nothing : Neto, nkunku, palmer, Felix. last season we basically were offensively done whenever palmer was out. Still 7 players + possibly Carney/Kellyman/some Academy graduates on the fringes is way too much for 3 or max 4 positions (given palmer and nkunku can play false 9)

Also Chilwell is one of the last links to our successful past. After the executives and backroom staff have been cleared out by clownlake, soon there will be no person remaining who knows how to win a trophy at this club.

Bayern have pulled out of the Tah deal. He would be available for under 25m euros and at relatively modest wages. He would instantly be our best CB and cost less than any of the average goalies we regularly sign. Not sure he would like to join but even if so, our owners would never do such a sensible deal sadly .

It’s obviously a play by them. They calculate that we are so desperate to still get a fee for Conor after he kept rejecting contract offers from us and teams like villa that we will take one of their failbogs in exchange. They probably are right. Bc conor is pure profit we can’t really afford to lose him on a free

Felix is a good footballer, great technique, no doubt. Under 40m is relatively cheap. Still we are absolutely loaded with attackers especially those who - like him - are all flair no end product. He is the exact opposite of what we need, exactly what he was last time we pondered that decision. He has failed wherever he has gone since leaving Portugal . Let altetico crash and burn , no need to bail them out just bc they can’t string two transfers together . The mere concept of switching from omorodian to Felix, two entirely different players and types of signings highlights again the absolute incompetence in our board and their completely random scattergun „strategy“

Rather keep Gallagher than buy any of those two useless chokers from Atleti

It’s great we have Malo but seriously inverting him is even more of a crime than doing so with James.

At least we don’t have to see him in this eyesore inverted role then. It did a great job of protecting his health as opposed to him bombing down the flank at any rate.

I am really not so sure on them. They look like really talented kids but nothing I have seen from them screams generational. Also, aren’t they both injured for multiple months already? Can easily see their small bodies not being ready early enough for those brutal PL defenders so they will probably spend most of the time in the treatment rooms. Regardless, this club is far from a perfect environment with all the chaos, upheaval and incompetence around. Only youngsters who are already very mature mentally like Cole, Gutso stand a chance of making it here

not some, most will come to nothing The good ones would make up for all the failed ones only if we acquired them at decent prices as clubs like Dortmund or RB do. But we pay outrageous fees and still have a lower hit ratio then them. This whole strategy will definitely backfire economically