⚽ Football (Soccer)

[blueharvest]

 

[B]

De Ligt was excellent, he dominated Gyokeres and marshaled the back line really well, and Yoro is constantly improving, he's our best CB on the ball. We absolutely need a keeper and a midfielder before the window shuts. Like you say, there's plenty of solid keepers that would be an upgrade on the 2 calamity Jane's we currently have. I'd love us to have gotten Baleba but there are options like Elliot Anderson and Mateus Fernandes, or perhaps Stiller from Stuttgart or Larsson from Frankfurt.

Forgot to mention Yoro, for a 19 year old, he looks extremely promising. You can see why Lille wanted to keep him & a host of European clubs wanted him, has a lot of potential.
That's another sort of tactical thing I'd mention, I don't think de Ligt & Maguire should feature in a back 3, as those 2 wider CB's are require to almost be like half CB half FB at times. You need defenders with a bit more agility & mobility playing in those wide spots. de Ligt & Maguire should be competing for the central role. Yoro, Martinez, Mazraoui, Shaw & Heaven should be competing for the 2 wider roles.

I wouldn't even think about it, we know Middlesbrough will accept £20m for Hackney which in today's market I think is very reasonable. It's a punt as he's never played at PL level, however he does have 3 or 4 years of Championship experience so he's been well moulded to play in a physical league.
Even if we sign him & it becomes apparent after a season or two that he's not quite up to playing in the upper echelon of the PL, where we aspire to be, I don't think we'd have any problems recouping some or all of the money invested like we did with Dan James who like him or not, was actually pretty solid in comparison to some of our other high profile signings that followed/replaced him.

I'd then try to save our pennies & try to target Baleba or other midfield targets next summer, presumably when Casemiro leaves on a free unless we for some unknown reason pick up his option for another year.

Goalkeeper wise, honestly we don't need to strike gold & find THE guy to be our goalkeeper for the next 10 years, there's bound to be somebody. The most glaring option would be Donnarumma given his PSG omission, perhaps on a loan deal with option to buy at the end of the season & see what happens.

 

[BlackFox]

Richarlison's goal at the weekend, what a peach of a finish.

 

[BlackFox]

Leeds return to the Prem with a win as well 1-0 against Everton. Dodgy pen apparently but they wont care, two promoted sides with 3 points on the board already. Big win for them and massive confidence boost to start the season.

 

[Zantera]

I don't have a horse in the race of Eze going to Arsenal or Spurs but I always find it weirdly satisfying when one club is messing around taking weeks to wrap up a deal and then another club just comes in and within a few hours it's a "done deal" while the first club is still haggling over pennies.

 

[B]

I'm a little surprised Antony hasn't had more suiters after his productive loan at Betis, while Sancho has had I think 3 or 4 concrete offers & I thought he was largely disappointing at Chelsea.

Apparently Betis can only afford so much, £20m apparently, but are happy to have co-ownership or a massive sell on clause to compensate for them not being able to match our £30m-£35m asking price. The thing with the sell on clause is it's largely useless unless he's resold.. and because we've an insane amount of money invested in him, I can see how it would be considered a **** deal to accept from our perspective.
I'd try & give Betis supreme leniency with the fee ie meet the valuation of £30m, but you can pay it over 5 or 6 years which I'd imagine would be quite unusually long for such a 'small' fee.
I'd also try to help Antony out because he does seem quite willing to make a move happen even if it hits his own pockets.

Sancho on the other hand has effectively priced himself out of moves with his reluctance to take a wage reduction. I'd surmise something will get sorted with him but it will likely be on deadline day.

Garnacho, I wouldn't even entertain selling him for the £25m Chelsea reportedly value him at. In fact that talk is so much of a piss take I'd add £10m to the asking price taking it up to £60m just for them being ****ing stupid. It already should be a premium because it's an English club looking to buy what is considered a home grown player.
I honestly wouldn't even compromise on his asking price at all, he's on £50,000 a week & he's under contract until 2028. I would rather eat that £7.5m & let him walk for free if nobody comes in with a sensible offer than sell him to Chelsea for such a fee that they could re-sell him in a year for double.
Even more so after the Mount transfer with them being supremely difficult.

 

[Zantera]

I read earlier in the summer that the club had actually received a handful of bids for Antony but he had turned them down because he only wanted Betis. And Betis in their turn are claiming they have no money but "a loan would be nice". I really hope the plan isn't to send him on another free loan to them, either he takes a deal somewhere and we get some money or he can enjoy training with the reserves.

As far as Chelsea and Garnacho goes, you gotta admire the audacity of Chelsea. They sold an inferior and older winger in Madueke to Arsenal for 50m yet they seem to think Garnacho is only worth 35m. If this was Chelsea selling Garnacho based on what he has done on the pitch he would be going for 70m easily.

 

[Hunter Rider]

Forgot to mention Yoro, for a 19 year old, he looks extremely promising. You can see why Lille wanted to keep him & a host of European clubs wanted him, has a lot of potential.
That's another sort of tactical thing I'd mention, I don't think de Ligt & Maguire should feature in a back 3, as those 2 wider CB's are require to almost be like half CB half FB at times. You need defenders with a bit more agility & mobility playing in those wide spots. de Ligt & Maguire should be competing for the central role. Yoro, Martinez, Mazraoui, Shaw & Heaven should be competing for the 2 wider roles.

I wouldn't even think about it, we know Middlesbrough will accept £20m for Hackney which in today's market I think is very reasonable. It's a punt as he's never played at PL level, however he does have 3 or 4 years of Championship experience so he's been well moulded to play in a physical league.
Even if we sign him & it becomes apparent after a season or two that he's not quite up to playing in the upper echelon of the PL, where we aspire to be, I don't think we'd have any problems recouping some or all of the money invested like we did with Dan James who like him or not, was actually pretty solid in comparison to some of our other high profile signings that followed/replaced him.

I'd then try to save our pennies & try to target Baleba or other midfield targets next summer, presumably when Casemiro leaves on a free unless we for some unknown reason pick up his option for another year.

Goalkeeper wise, honestly we don't need to strike gold & find THE guy to be our goalkeeper for the next 10 years, there's bound to be somebody. The most glaring option would be Donnarumma given his PSG omission, perhaps on a loan deal with option to buy at the end of the season & see what happens.

I agree on the way the CB's should be utilised, I don't think De Ligt or Maguire are exactly what Amorim wants in that central CB role, but for now they're the best choice, longer term I think he might see Yoro there given his comfort on the ball, but right now we have a decent selection of options across the back 3.

I'm not sure what the situation with Hackney is, but not a single PL club has moved for him at that price, so it does make me wonder if scouts are not seeing enough in him. We've been linked with Wharton and Agourme over the weekend, and today Stiller, all of whom are DLP's rather than alternatives to Baleba, which makes me wonder if the plan was to get a DLP next year to partner Baleba, but rather than go for an alternative to Baleba, like Anderson, Larsson or Mateus Fernandes, we're thinking of waiting for Baleba and getting the DLP this summer instead.

Donnarumma on loan would be a shrewd bit of business, PSG have completely burned the bridge with him, so they might have to settle for getting his wages off the books. I would like to see our scouts unearth a solid keeper who's good at the basics for £15-20M.

I read earlier in the summer that the club had actually received a handful of bids for Antony but he had turned them down because he only wanted Betis. And Betis in their turn are claiming they have no money but "a loan would be nice". I really hope the plan isn't to send him on another free loan to them, either he takes a deal somewhere and we get some money or he can enjoy training with the reserves.

As far as Chelsea and Garnacho goes, you gotta admire the audacity of Chelsea. They sold an inferior and older winger in Madueke to Arsenal for 50m yet they seem to think Garnacho is only worth 35m. If this was Chelsea selling Garnacho based on what he has done on the pitch he would be going for 70m easily.

Antony and Garnacho are both essentially doing the same thing, they both only want to go to Betis and Chelsea respectively, both deals where those clubs are trying to screw us out of paying fairly for the players as they've got leverage that the players are refusing to go anywhere else.

 

[B]

I read earlier in the summer that the club had actually received a handful of bids for Antony but he had turned them down because he only wanted Betis. And Betis in their turn are claiming they have no money but "a loan would be nice". I really hope the plan isn't to send him on another free loan to them, either he takes a deal somewhere and we get some money or he can enjoy training with the reserves.

As far as Chelsea and Garnacho goes, you gotta admire the audacity of Chelsea. They sold an inferior and older winger in Madueke to Arsenal for 50m yet they seem to think Garnacho is only worth 35m. If this was Chelsea selling Garnacho based on what he has done on the pitch he would be going for 70m easily.

I think sort of the difference between Antony & Sancho compared to Garnacho is that it would be hard to park those two in the reserves & forget about them. Not only are they both on significantly higher wages bleeding £10m+ a season, we've money invested in transfer fees.

I don't doubt Betis have limited funds by PL standards, but I'm sure they've more available to spend to produce an offer closer to his asking price than they are letting on.

Garnacho on the other hand can be parked in the reserves because we've little to nothing invested in him but time. Chelsea also do have the funds so I wouldn't even entertain selling him for a penny less than £50m. Hypothetically the only way I personally would agree to £35m would be if we had something like 50% sell on fee clause as quite easily a player you could see Chelsea flipping in a few years to another PL club for £60m themselves. There's not a snowball's chance in hell I would sell him for £35m straight up with no add-ons or future sell on clauses if I was negotiating for United, as I said, I'd rather park him for 3 years & eat the £7.5m in wages than give him to Chelsea for nothing.

 

[Hunter Rider]

 

[B]

Seen his name be connected with Manchester City in recent days/weeks. Don't know much about him other than what I read about him in comparison to Ederson links. He's apparently not really as eccentric & good as Ederson with the ball at his feet & that he was a strong shot stopper and, at least in Belgium, statistically deals with crosses very well.

Tells you quite a story about the confidence I have in Onana & Bayinder when I've never seen a goalkeeper play a single minute & I am already hopeful we sign him.

 

[Hunter Rider]

Seen his name be connected with Manchester City in recent days/weeks. Don't know much about him other than what I read about him in comparison to Ederson links. He's apparently not really as eccentric & good as Ederson with the ball at his feet & that he was a strong shot stopper and, at least in Belgium, statistically deals with crosses very well.

Tells you quite a story about the confidence I have in Onana & Bayinder when I've never seen a goalkeeper play a single minute & I am already hopeful we sign him.

This is exactly the type of goalkeeper signing we've been talking about, he seems like a very well rounded keeper already, and at 23 he has plenty of room to develop while also being ready to start, and the fee is around £15M, I really hope we get this one done.

Then it's on to midfield, if we can get Garnacho, Hojlund and Antony sold this week we can hopefully get a CM in, but I think the Bruno situation is hampering us as Amorim wants to shoehorn him in regardless.

 

[Hunter Rider]

 

[BlackFox]

Thumping 5-1 win for Chelsea at West Ham last night. Not a very good start for them and Potter, has the magic run out for him....

 

[BlackFox]

Even if he is useless as well, at least it will be someone different to moan about if nothing else.

 

[BlackFox]

City v Spurs up first today, good game to kick off the games today.

 

[BlackFox]

Spurs go ahead after a VAR overturn 0-1 Johnson.

 

[BlackFox]

2-0 Spurs, absolute shambles at the back for City trying to play out from the back and an easy one for Spurs to double their lead!!

 

[BlackFox]

HT 0-2 to Spurs, City all over the place at the moment and not that threatening either going forward. Do have the likes of Silva and Rodri to bring on and they might need them to rescue this game.

 

[Zantera]

Spurs really are City's kryptonite. Doesn't matter who they put on the pitch or who is the manager, or if Son is in the team or not. "Life will find a way".

 

[BlackFox]

Solid 0-2 win for Spurs, in control for the entire game really, City never posed much of a threat. Surprise result early on in the season really but Spurs are playing well at the moment and great start for their new manager. For City, bit of a flat display at home, no doubt they will improve but need their big players back it seems.

 

[B]

Even overlooking the fact he made a balls up of where he actually played the pass, just the mere decision from James Trafford to try & play that ball which led to Tottenham's second is absolutely mind numbing.

It's that sort of thing you'd see & then start blaming the manager for thinking he's Pep Guardiola.. although in this case it is Pep Guardiola, however this sort of brings me to the point that this sort of thing isn't on the managers. Sure you can want your team to play a particular way, out short from the back, but the players need to have the intelligence & ability to do it otherwise it looks embarrassingly bad.

When the short pass isn't on, it isn't on. So look for a short mid-range pass into midfield or alternatively just lump it up to your 6'5 striker in Haaland.

That has annoyed me watching that & I actually want to see City crash & burn. Bayinder tried the same thing a few times against Arsenal, fortunately both Casemiro & de Ligt instantly played a pass first time out to Yoro/Shaw which broke that initial press instantly, but it's just an insanely risky pass to play & you're asking for trouble when you see a team be ultra aggressive & high with their press like that.

 

[BlackFox]

Yeah its usually Arsenal, Spurs or a West Ham that make themselves look silly trying to play out from the back like City. This time it was City themselves. Can see why they are after another keeper as well. This Trafford guy looked all over the place, I guess he is young but not ready yet.

 

[BlackFox]

Wins for Brentford, Burnley and Bournemouth today.

Arsenal 2-0 at HT against Leeds.

 

[BlackFox]

5-0 in the end for Arsenal and two for the new guy Gyokeres. Good start to the season for them and Liverpool up next. Hard day for Leeds but probably glad to just get this game out the way early in the season.