benali-shorts

Sorry, should have read your comment closer. Long or Armstrong akin to shuffling deckchairs on the Titanic.

Fair enough. A little bit of me dies when I see Long in the starting line up. Agree Armstrong at least offers the hope of perhaps coming good.

I hope so. He seems to have some good attributes - pace; finding space - but has just appeared totally shell-shocked in the last 6 months. Sometimes a goal can be enough to rejuvenate; sometimes the step up is just too great. Let's hope it's the former.

He needs to recapture his confidence, so I’d imagine a return to the Championship (or eg Scottish prem) would be the likeliest level. Although you state he’s “too good” for the Championship, I’m not sure he’s seemed ready for the Premier League based on this season’s performances, and his experience over the last 9 months seems to have adversely affected his confidence, so he might need to take a step back to a more familiar level to regain his self belief. What would you do with him?

Armstrong has looked totally and utterly broken for 6 months+. I’m amazed anyone advocates him starting. We all want him to come good, but his last start (City cup game?) was a painful watch. He needs time away on loan.

Broja's form at Vitesse tailed off at the end of the season too - he scored one goal from Feb onwards - so would be interesting to know if it's a physical/fatigue thing, or if it's an issue of a lack of focus on / motivation for remainder of current campaign. Napoli link at EUR18m seems the right sort of fee, let's hope we're very much in the race at that level.

That's a good point and definitely true that the second game in quick succession is often our nemesis. We outplayed them at ours with a 442 so would be odd (particularly after Thursday's ineptitude) if we don't revert to that. I'd go FF - Livramento Bednarek Salisu KWP - Armstrong JWP Oriel Redmond - Che Broja.

Agree with the injury risk, but then again any CF signing sub £20m comes with its own risks. I think Potter would be capable of evolving Brighton to accommodate the abilities in his side rather than rigidly sticking to this season’s format, especially in light of their form in the last 2/3 of the season. I think Ings would work well there, they create plenty of chances and if Ings had been on the end of them rather than Maupay this season, they’d have a decent points tally.

Intriguing to consider if he was available for 15-20m.

No. Pre-existing contractual agreements continue to be honoured.

Plus Romeu was only 23 when he joined, so is another successful young signing. That's a much more successful route for us. More experienced big 6 player signings makes me think of Perry Groves and David Howells.

In this 2021 interview, Kraft talks about investing in three companies in professional football, citing transfers, scouting and physical performance. The latter seems to be Sportlight. He was I/c the 2013 KKR deal to buy United from Solak, so has worked with him for a while.

I wonder about JWP there - has a great engine to cover the full-backs so they have licence to attack and provide width, and he would have more time on the ball to develop his long-passing game (which he shows fleetingly, but seems to have all the technical attributes to develop); Oriel and Diallo should then dovetail effectively as CMs.

This link a useful source to forecast finishing points/positions. Has us to finish 15th on 44 points. Investments can go up as well as down etc etc. https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/soccer-predictions/premier-league/

Does anyone understand how the referees/VAR/PGMOL are accountable, or to whom? JWP's decision aside (which was 50/50 imo), how are the referees/VAR assessed (by PGMOL?). And how is PGMOL - as the body responsible for overall refereeing/VAR standards - measured? Why have PGMOL got a seeming right to provide officials for the PL? Who decides PGMOL are the correct body to provide officials, and for what period, and on what basis? It seems weird that there isn't open dialogue about refereeing/VAR performance, given the gain that these individuals potentially have in influencing outcomes. If I was a betting syndicate, the first person I'd turn to would be the VAR official, given their seemingly non-existent profile vs their ability to influence game-defining moments.

Odd comment by Ralph about not shouting on the pitch at the end of that article: Hasenhuttl, who added: “If you know me you would know I’m not a big fan of big shouting on the pitch. “Taking, I don’t know, leaderships on the pitch or whatever. “Run, play football and do what we ask you to do and do a good job for a player we have for running and not shouting.”

Dexter Blackstock 100% clean sheet record.

Tella excellent in the build up to the 4th

tella creating, adams scoring in fact

good feet from adams to create the third.

good finish djenepo

We don't know the money he's on vs. what Villa may offer, but that could be a significant pull given it's likely to be the most lucrative contract he signs. We do know that Villa are willing spenders, and they're likely to have money available from Grealish sale this summer.

I suppose there's an argument that he's currently at peak value - age/contract; fringes of Eng squad; decent season last season. I would think our model makes it likely that we would have to consider any offer at what we perceive to be the player's peak value, and based on our trading history to date I suspect we would have our head turned regardless of the bidding club. Similarly for JWP, it's likely to be a sizeable financial package, and he may well consider that this is his best moment to secure that type of package - he's unlikely to get a top 6 squad place in the current financial climate (£30m+ plus package pricey for squad player), and so next level down is his most realistic target of securing that. Outside of the traditional big 6 and Leics, there aren't a huge number of teams capable of funding this type of transfer, but Villa (assuming Grealish goes for £80m+) are definitely one of them, so it seems plausible.

Quite a decent array of finishes on his YouTube collection - left and right foot; one on ones; sharp finishes etc. Hard to know if he would have the movement and mentality for Prem, but looks an instinctive finisher, and could potentially compliment Che well.

Whatever the kit is, and I’m going out on a limb here, I bet the ones that don’t like it are more vociferous than those that do.