Just trying to keep the costs down, mate. If we could splurge on someone like Costa I would go for it.
Agreed. I don't get the peculiar and sudden Varane animosity. When both are healthy, Varane and Martinez have been very effective.
Yeah well, same thing could be said about Martial.
Varane is quality, but he's injured too much, he will most likely miss 17 games this season in the PL alone, last year he missed 16. As he gets older, it's hard to see him suddenly stay injury free. It's a worry, because we have to pull Shaw in and we lose his effectiveness from left back as a consequence. He's played 59 games over 2 seasons for us, to put that in context, Fernades has played 100 games and we still have games remaining
Can't disagree with that, which is one of the reasons the guy from Napoli seems to be gaining a bit of traction. If there's one thing most can agree on, its that Maguire and Lindelof aren't suitable options.
You're not taking into consideration his salary. If he was on league average wage, there'd be some chance of spending £20-30mn. Not when he's earning £190k per week. Newcastle have one of the best defences around, why would they buy Maguire.
how could you possibly think we dont need to revamp the midfield this season? Doesnt matter who the striker is we constantly get dominated in the midfield because we cant pass and retain any possession under pressure. Next year Case will be a year older, as will Eriksen. Neither are getting younger or stronger. Mctominay and Fred gonna play huge amounts of games next year for a successful top team? Hell no. Who is gonna step up and be a starter from our youth options who have received pretty much no meaningful minutes this year? If we dont add a starting CM then doesnt matter who we put up top we will struggle again next season.
I dont disagree that our midfield is aging but its not a pressing need. We have scored the least amount of goals amongst our rivals and even worse our chance conversion.
highest issue perhaps, but to say dont touch the midfield this season is madness. Ive said bare minimum is 3 positions, CF/CM/GK. The order can be argued but to say dont touch midfield for me would be absolutely crazy. If you want to say spend the majority of funds on CF i can understand that. The club should be able to find good value in midfield somewhere in the world (really for any position)
Mate Meslier has been dropped by Leeds as his form has taken a wild tumble
My argument is we have a glaringly obvious need up front that needs fixed immediately. The stats back it up. Our chance conversion is outrageous and we are lucky to be in 4th. If the manager decides he wants x striker, then go get him. Secondary need is midfield, then defence/keeper.
I would love nothing more than replacing DDG but we can't replace every position this summer. With 15 clean sheets his replacement is less important than a goal scorer.
Ok then £29m ffs jeezo
id agree as long as we fix the midfield as well in the same window. No way to go into next season with case and eriksen as our starting CMs and having only fred and mctominay again behind them.
Well, if we want to improve as a football team, improving the goalkeeper is almost as important as the striker.
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It's a critical need for us. We're getting constantly countered because Eriksen is basically a traffic cone in defensive transitions and Bruno and Casemiro are operating off a basketball style shot-clock where they feel they have to pass or shoot within a second of gaining possession and because of this we are conceding possession back to our opponents constantly and therefore never building midfield pressure.
well put. Feel like as well eriksen hasnt come back strong from his pretty serious injury. Expecting him next season to be back at his best from this season would be a huge mistake.
You've ignored my entire argument. Let's go get the midfielder of your dreams. Sure we might create more chances, currently 4th in the league. Maybe we will get to 1st in the league in chances created, which would be lovely. Now, how do we get from 15th in the league from chances converted with the same forward line?
I'm absolutely not arguing with your contention that we need a striker, I'm disputing your argument that midfield isn't a "pressing need".
And yet you continue to ignore the obvious in that it is entirely possible, and downright expected, that the club address BOTH the CF AND CM positions. Why do you keep acting like it is an either/or situation? Add a starting CF and CM, not that hard.
I'm not trying to insult anyone's intelligence here but come on, the money required to get a top level CF is going to eat the best part of any budget, especially one where we are struggling to stay within FFP due to the laughable amount of money we are still liable to pay for past transfer fees and wages owed. Ducker and many others have covered this lately. We had the head of FFP regulations visit the club in January.
My argument is striker is the pressing need.
even that i disagree with. If option 1 is we start with Rashford as our CF next year with martial backing him up, relying on garnacho and sancho to take the LW spots vs starting the season with Case and eriksen as our starting CMs with only Mcfred behind them again id honestly chose option 1 vs option 2. You can talk about "chance creation" all you want, but i can easily point out the shit stats our midfield has (and that includes eriksen playing well pre injury and case's purple patch). You control the midfield and i think you can create even more chances.
Our scouting networks have been rather poor. We have turned down good deals a multitude of times, Caicedo a very recent example. Garnacho has been our only good youth purchase in a long time. Amad might eventually work out. Alvaro Fernandez played well for Preston this year too, but so many of them have struggled to kick on.
My preferred (realistic) CM signings who can also cover Casemiro are Caicedo, Ugarte and Lavia.
You’re being too optimistic.. they know he’s not in favor here and they know we need to sell him. It’s the worst position to be in.
Would you say Steve did a good job on the video?
Reports are suggesting Caicedo could be anything between £75-100m. He’s a lovely player and would be great for us but we probably need to be looking to balance quality and value with our signings this summer (apart from at CF where we need top class and there seems to be a lack of good value options)
This is why we need Qatar ownership as we’ll settle the difference to leave like most clubs do who we ain’t rid of players on high wages.
Qatar ownership has been proven to inflate wages and make a team full of stars who don’t work together. Talking about adding Neymar to this team, a guy whose ankles are made of glass. It’s idiotic. It’s Woodward level stuff
What’s this gas lighting that got to do with what I said.
Have you actually watched how PSG do their business? They haven't got a clue. Buy the shiniest most expensive toys but don't know how to integrate them all while a conveyor belt of future stars leave their academy to do the business for other big clubs.
It’s crazy enit. But we are a well established English team who haven’t got an inferiority complex.
