benali-shorts

Steve Wigley waiting excitedly by his phone….

If you’ve had some bad results, why oh why would you pick two inexperienced, hound CBs? It’s madness.

Adam Armstrong is a terrible, terrible footballer

When’s Stewart fit? And is he the son of God?

Oh Christ, he's another mentalist.

Sorry, meant to add he scores in 3-0 win vs Besiktas yesterday. He's not the right solution for us, but good luck to him.

Looks weak through CM. CBs young. what could go wrong? Some options off the bench at least.

I didn't know Rasmus had his own website. I just had a peek. I'm still not quite sure what his basis is for telling the world how to be successful.

I think this highlights one of the major flaws of both Bazunu and McCarthy - they're both silent keepers and seem quite diffident personalities. I'm sure our defensive organisation would improve with a more vocal and aggressive keeper. I'm sure Bazunu will continue to improve but he doesn't strike me (nor AMcC) as being the type to organise, nor to impose any sense of fear on the back 4 - which is definitely what we need in the short term given the inexperience and/or incompetence of our CBs.

11pm Fri 1st

How drunk is the traffic cone?

What are the net prices to us for Lavia and Tino? There was talk of Tino being c£24m of the £40m sale (and presumably part of that is add-ons). I assume Lavia is less 20% of the profit - if we paid ?£14m and sell for £40m guaranteed plus add-ons, we'd be paying City c£5m so £35m to us? Maybe £55-60m for them both?

Exactly the sort of article which typically precedes a contract extension. Lovely work by his agent.

Having played a decade in the Danish and Belgian leagues, I suspect it’s less about systems, and more about level.

He won’t have the mobility, durability or ability for us. From the little we saw, he couldn’t jump and offers little aerial threat. Not sure what system he would suit, other than dropping into an inferior league. Dman almost certainly correct that we’ll be subsidising his wages for the rest of his contract one way or the other. Shame.

A silver lining to our relegation cloud

Leeds / Leics?

Jeremy Lens and David Astori reminiscences

That may be something to do with the quality of player / squad performing the possession football.

Enjoyable article, nice words too FF https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/65599706

Steve Cooper just saying that he’s not sure possession football works that well any more, and high tempo is more effective. Rasmus will use this ignorant waffle to fuel his single-minded conquering of the football world.

Full article by Tom Toddy below for info. Southampton manager: Russell Martin favourite to replace Rubén Sellés Club believe Swansea City boss is right man to take them straight back to Premier League Russell Martin is in the frame to become Southampton’s new manager as the south-coast club look to follow Burnley’s template in making an immediate return to the Premier League. The 37-year-old Swansea City head coach is among the candidates Southampton identified to lead them in the second tier next season, after their 11-year stay in the top flight ended when their relegation was confirmed at the weekend. Rubén Sellés has been in charge as interim manager since February. The 39-year-old Spaniard succeeded Nathan Jones, who was sacked only 95 days after replacing Ralph Hasenhüttl in a chaotic campaign at the club. Southampton have been interviewing other candidates for the role but admire Martin’s work at Swansea, where he has deployed an attractive possession-based style and is about to enter the final 12 months of his contract. Swansea finished tenth in the Sky Bet Championship, three points off the play-off positions, despite having failed to make any signings during the January transfer window. Southampton have looked at Burnley’s approach to bouncing back to the Premier League at the first opportunity by transforming their style of play to a possession-heavy, attacking approach under Vincent Kompany. They have already appointed Jason Wilcox, the former Manchester City academy director, as their new director of football and had hired his former City colleague Joe Shields, who was poached by Chelsea in October instead. Many of the club’s signings during the past two transfer windows have been young players developed at clubs who place a heavy emphasis on possession. The highly rated midfielder Roméo Lavia, 19, goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu, 21, and winger Samuel Edozie, 20, were all bought from City. Martin retired as a player in 2019 after 15 years as a defender, most of which were spent at Norwich City, and ended his playing career at MK Dons, before taking his first managerial job there in 2019. In 2020-21, Martin’s final season in charge, MK Dons were behind only Manchester City and Barcelona in the list of teams in Europe’s top five leagues with the highest average percentage possession. They recorded a British record in March of that season by scoring after 56 consecutive passes against Gillingham. That approach has continued at Swansea and was illustrated in last month’s 3-0 win against Norwich City when Martin’s side completed 888 passes, the second-highest in a fixture in Europe’s top leagues since the start of the 2021-22 season.

Article in Times on Martin being high on the list, including this little Rasmusism.... "In 2020-21, Martin’s final season in charge, MK Dons were behind only Manchester City and Barcelona in the list of teams in Europe’s top five leagues with the highest average percentage possession. They recorded a British record in March of that season by scoring after 56 consecutive passes against Gillingham."

Adam Armstrong. I have come to despise him, even though he is a footballer and I have never met him.