Glad the Lammens deal has went across the line, much prefer the potential of signing him than signing Martinez who is a ****house AND he's not far off being as blunder happy as our current dynamic duo of goalkeepers.
Sancho's been a crazy disappointment. Even after the Dortmund loan I'd have taken him back for a second (or third? I've lost count) chance at that point as I do like the intelligence of his game in comparison to the brainless style of Garnacho/Rashford displayed at times, but after the Chelsea loan with some of his snide digs on social media to the club & his general reluctance to make any sort of move happen for himself this window despite the club being willing to take a massive lose on him.. it's crazy disappointing to see the decisions he's made that have led him to seemingly Villa on loan & probably released on a free next summer.
Antony, don't hate him, we've sold him for a **** deal & I doubt Betis are that poor. Even if they are, there should have been incentives thrown in there that, if completed, would give them a few years before they'd have to pay them out to get the deal closer to £30m.
I'd be amazed if we saw anything substantial on that 50% sell on clause.
Garnacho was another **** deal. £40m + 10% sell on fee, crazy low. Chelsea have pulled our pants down with that one, particularly the sell on fee. Even if he under performs, could quite easily see Chelsea still being able to flog him for £60m+ making themselves a tidy profit.
Unfortunately Sancho is a complete waster, he lacked some of the physical attributes that make it easier to adapt to the PL, but that never stopped players like Silva and Modric, you need dedication and drive though, and Sancho has none of those qualities, he's happy to sit around and collect the cheque, if he'd had anything about him he'd have accepted the lower wage offer from Chelsea and been part of a team that has potential to actually win things.
Garnacho and Antony made things incredibly difficult because we had good offers from other clubs but both were hellbent on only going to Chelsea and Betis respectively, otherwise they'd have been out earlier in the window, and for more money. In the case of Antony I feel we were hamstrung by the fact Woodward and Co signed him for a ludicrous fee and put him on huge wages that were way above his talent level, so in the end we sold him for enough to cover the book value that was left after amortisation, and I'm glad we held firm on not giving him the £4M payoff. With Garnacho we could have stuck him in the reserves as his wages were low, but I guess we just wanted to remove the last of the entitled toxins from the club. I think we should have gotten at least what Arsenal paid for Madueke, and a 50% sell on clause like with Antony, but when you're dealing with unprofessional players, it's difficult, I mean look at Hojlund, acted like a total professional and in the end well end up getting more for him.
I read the news about Onana coming back after the vacation wanting a new contract and a pay rise and I almost spit my water out. Honestly if there's any club in the world where you could be terrible and then have the audacity to ask for more money - and potentially get your way, it would be Man Utd.
Maybe they could have made it an incentives contract - more money for more shots saved, that kind of thing.
With a contract stipulation like that he'll end up owing the club money by the end of the season!
Good signing for Inter.
Have to say again, I'm very happy we signed him rather than paying presumably a similar fee, if not more, on Martinez who we already know has an element of eccentricity about him that has seen him make quite a lot of errors at Villa. That's not even considering his wages which I'm sure would have been a high ask also.
If Lammens comes in & doesn't work out, he at least wasn't a massive fee & his wages will be on the more reasonable side which will make moving him on easier. Obviously I hope he comes in & shows enough promise to overlook any deficiencies he might have while he develops, the bar is extremely low for him to be an improvement. Onana & Bayinder are making an error (or more) per game so far this season, all he has to do is limit errors to every other game & he'll look like a prime van der Sar.
I have zero basis for this, but I've got a good feeling about Lammens, I just think he's going to turn out a good signing for us. Obviously he'll need some patience, but people keep talking about pressure and I don't think it's that big, because as you say, he merely needs to be competent at the basics and he'll already be an improvement on the 2 current keepers.
It seems they probably won't start him in the derby, which I think is a mistake, trust him from the start, City haven't started the season well, don't give them a goal headstart by putting Byandir or Onana in net.
Hmmmm Donnarumma is a bit like Haaland, in that they don't really feel like Guardiola players, in terms of how he wants his team to play.
Kind of feels like City have got a better keeper than us without even trying to think about it too much, we seem to be going for future potential though so I guess you cant have it all ways.
Vardy to Italy is so random
It's certainly a bold move for him at this stage of his career, but I year in Italy should be nice!
