Chez

Unproven? Didn't he prove he could play to the required level/well, when Norwich were in the Prem last?

been impressed with Berardi for Italy in the first two games, but no doubt he's way out of our price range. Surprised an Italian giant has not snapped him up from Sassuolo before now. Great left peg.

didn't he fuck about with the COVID protocol and piss the manager off massively? I thought he was benched for the cup final and the manager perhaps wants to get rid?

Do Anderlecht have the funds to match the wages on the last year of his contract here? As I doubt he will have been willing to take a pay drop this summer to get a move/longer term deal. If not, then we will be paying him a big fat `loyalty' bonus to help him on his way. Not a chance we will be getting a transfer fee, but at least it frees up wages and gets that sorted early, so we are not paying him all summer.

I agree. They are bringing the game into disrepute, as is feigning an injury. UEFA doesn't want anything to do with it though. The Pires dive against Celtic (I think) was the opportunity to set a benchmark and they bottled it. Good to see the refs are giving a lot of players short shrift when going down for little reason.

`probably has made recommendations, but those players are all out of our price range'? Could be, but you'd hope he'd be aware of some players coming to the end of contracts etc. that would be affordable. Maybe he wasn't involved in the scouting/transfers, although not sure why that would be the case. If you live and die by your players and the players you bring in, then surely you'd be all over that?

also disappointed that a manager from oversees hasn't been able to recommend more players, that are within our price range from his former league. Maybe everyone good is just too well known across europe.

Koeman won't care where he goes, just how much money there is to spend on incoming players.

If he went for £20m, which wont happen, then you'd have some benchmark figure to base Ings' value in the current climate.

They seem to be financially sound and having sold Griezman for €54m way back in 2015, they know a players worth and will therefore get very good money should he leave. That counts us out.

sure does. 21 year old scoring 17 goals in the Spanish league. I would think so.

Agreed. He's a Kante, that can drive forward on occasions, but in essence a destroyer/water carrier. Not seen him live yet, but what I have seen is a player that has the potential to be very good indeed. We shall see how that pans out.

I like him too. Some of the stuff he does on the ball when under massive pressure from an opponent makes me think he could be a terrific player for us. Get his role right and partnership with JWP or Romeu and he will be an asset. I'm much more concerned about our wide men/attacking midfielders.

Fells like bridges have been burned. Lemina expected us to be challenging for Europe, Ralph expected Lemina to do more to help us do that. I predict Lemina will leave, on loan, on the last day of the window.

maybe not, but unlike Everton they've won the European cup. OK it was yonks ago, but the game goes in cycles and right now they seem to have the finds and will be progressing if they can retain Grealish. We cant say the same thing.

who is the say that we don't take the same amount of time as everyone else? In the end, who cares how long it takes, all that matters is hw good they are. VVD took ages to complete for example

not sure I agree with you here. Romeu was outstanding last season before the injury and certainly is a starter. Diallo (who looks a really good player to me) now provides some much needed competition and cover.

I wonder what those `unrealistic' clauses are. Norwich to get into Europe or win the league maybe?

feels incredibly similar to our Elyounoussi announcement. Basically, don't ask about a loan as we want to sell, but to ensure we get the best price, we will spout bollocks about giving them a chance to fight for a shirt. The fact is, we've made our mind up and don't want him, but while we find someone to fill Wijnaldum's shoes, we'll give him some pre-season games to show we are not desperate to shift him or sign another, so as not to get shortchanged/fleeced.

might have been Yasser Larouci. Leeds enquired about him in January, as did a couple of others.

both on £70k a week or is it even more?

Big decision to cut him loose. I didn't think he was any good, but that doesn't mean he wont be. Good that we've generated some funds and haven't been forced to loan him out to reduce the wage bill. who's our third keeper?

Not quite sure what a congested middle has to do with getting the ball to flair players and asking them to take people on rather than probe defences with passing. We are talking about wide players here, usually faced by full backs and when games open up, full backs without cover. Tactical fouls ain't some new thing by the way. Jimmy Case was the master at it. You get yellow cards for it now, when you didn't in Matt's day. In fact you can't get away with much these days, so its easier than ever for skill players. The long and short of it, is that there is no point signing flair players if you don't get them to demonstrate that flair. And if you aren't getting them to try it, a lot, then they end up like Redmond, going into his shell a bit too much. Saint Maximin scored three goals and five assists in 18 starts (according to transfer markt) for one of the worst sides in the league. Stats aren't everything. Beat ten players, lay it off to someone who misses from a yard and you don't get a `1' added to your assists. Doesn't mean you aren't effective. My eyes tell me he is . He took us to pieces for starters, setting up two goals and completely turning Newcastles fortunes around after they had looked relegation certainties while he was injured. Would you not swap him for Djenepo, Theo or Redmond?

OK. Beating a man is obviously not as simple as passing it to a man in space. But is it easier to create an actual chance through passing it than creating a chance by beating a man? There is merit in both methods, but if you have skilful players like Djenepo, whose best facet is dribbling, then you have to exploit that or don't bother buying them in the first place. IMO the best chances, those where you really ought to score, not simply get a shot away, are those when a player has been beaten, forcing another to leave his position and leave a gap for others. This is when you get stats like `one chance one goal' rather than lots of shots from range or under pressure. Saint-Maximin's attacking output is pretty mediocre? I'd take him here every single day of the week.

this will sound daft, but maybe we need to follow the Alan Ball method of "just get it and give it to Matt" a bit more with our flair players. We don't feed them enough and then when they do get the ball there doesn't seem to be enough encouragement for them to be greedy and just run at players. We work the ball into the final third, a winger has a full back in front of him, but instead of just trying to beat the player and risk losing it, we chose the `keep the ball and work the chance' method. Passing teams to death to create the space/opening is absolutely fine, but you have to be very good at it. If you have a flair player that can beat a man, then all that work is negated as once a man is beat, then the opponent is in real trouble. Beating the man in the first place isn't easy. It's probably the hardest skill, but we've had players that can do it like Sane, Boufal, Redmond and Djenepo, but we don't seem to exploit their strength. Confidence is obviously key, but the manager has to give them that confidence - keep playing them, make them the focal point, keep demanding them to run at players... I appreciate they could lose the ball (and fans will be on their backs quickly) and that can create problems defensively, but look at the difference Maxim makes to Newcastle's attack and he certainly appears to be encouraged to try to dribble and beat men.