cityfanlee23

Yeah Gray is going to cost a fair bit I'd expect. Regarding Philogene, the vice-chairman of Hull City confirmed that Villa have a fixed fee of £15m as first refusal, but only if the 2 clubs are in the same division, so providing Hull don't get promoted this season, we could potentially get him for say £20m, since Hull know if they get promoted they will lose him for £15m to Villa if he continues to play well, so I'd expect anything over a £15m bid they would accept if they fail to go up. I doubt Villa would bid more than £15m for him if Hull fail to get promotion. It’s actually quite a strange deal for both sides, if Hull go up they will likely lose their best player for £15m, if they don’t go up they have an incentive to sell, which would then force Villa to potentially have to pay more money than the fixed fee they have in their contract clause, which I’d doubt they want to do. Plus the fact Philogene said in an interview he had to leave Villa to progress his career, so there’s potential that he doesn’t want to return anyway. So unless a wild bidding war breaks out for him, Hull have an incentive to sell and Villa will look stupid if they sign their own player back for more than their agreed fee.

One that really interests me is Simone Pafundi, was given his Italy debut by Mancini in 2022 aged 16 and was talked about as being one of italys brightest young players, game time at Udinese has been almost non existant with 10 professional appearances in 3 seasons. AFAICS United wanted to sign him from Udinese but because of Brexit rules they are unable to (When Brexit officially happened, English clubs were effectively banned from signing foreign players that are under the age of 18 from EU countries) So Pafundi has now signed a deal with Swiss Super League club FC Lausanne-Sport (Owned by Ineos) My assumption here is that will give United a loophole to sign him at a later date given Switzerland are not part of the EU or EEA, but my knowledge on those rules is very lacking. Given where United are currently, give it 12 months and they may have a new manager with a completely new direction and Pafundi could become available, he looks a serious talent, and Mancini gave him one of the Italy national teams slots that they award to their most promising youth players, so Mancini must rate him too.

Definitely not "unheard of" but there are multiple players in the Championship who are too good for this league and will 100% be in the top flights of europe in the next 2-3 years. Jonathan Rowe - Norwich Jaden Philogene - Hull Gabriel Sara - Norwich Jack Clarke - Sunderland Milan Van Ewijk - Coventry Taylor Harwood-Bellis - Man City (Loan at Southampton) Archie Gray - Leeds

He’s going to get absolutely mopped up in the premier league.

I’d love to see Enzo adopt something closer to what Thiago Motta is doing at Bologna, he is massively impressing me at the moment and has developed a hybrid system that you wouldn’t think would be as fluid as it is. bologna have the highest possession in the Serie A but they also adopt a high press. Motta has credited 3 different managers with 3 very different styles as his inspiration, Joachim Lowe’s 2014 Germany when defending, Bielsa’s style regarding team positioning and trusting eachother and Luciano Spaletti for the attacking phase. Motta also has quite an interesting way of looking at the pitch as a whole, setting up with a 4231 but he actually calls his system as 2-7-2 as he looks at the formation vertically rather than horizontally. 2 players on the left, 7 players in the spine, 2 players on the right, he considers the goalkeeper his “first midfielder”, really refreshing take on modern football. I’d take Motta quite happily if Enzo doesn’t work out long term. Enzo doesn’t seem to be learning unfortunately, things need to change as at present it’s hard to tell whether we are where we are because of the tactics or because we have one of the best teams in the league, probably a mixture of both but I doubt this would be working with lesser players, some credit obviously has to go to him for turning the ship so quickly and getting results, but we are making the same errors we made in the first matches of the season and it’s really quite frustrating.

Damn, that’s very sad, always liked Sven

I know just the man to fill that gap in goal 😂

I think a very good cup run is almost necessary this season so we can test ourselves against better opposition, usually if we are in a relegation scrap or like now fighting for promotion I’d say sod the cup and get the business done in the league, but we have the breathing room to really focus on both this season and I think it’s important we are able to test out the system against better teams to see how we fair.

Cannon could very well be the undoing of Daka right when he looks to have shown some ability, shame really but Cannon looks like a very very good prospect. Can see Cannon starting every week now and nobody else getting a sniff if he keeps delivering

Bit torn on the penalty shout, gut instinct would be to give it, but on seeing the replay he goes down WAY too easily for such a light push, but with that said the defender has tried to push him. I think there is a fine balance between putting someone off balance and fully pushing them over, I don't think he pushed him hard enough to really give a penalty.

Difficult one to properly commit to but I really like Flemming for Milwall, said in the match thread that he's easily a cut above this level, but not 100% sure if he would be able to step up to the premier league, of course I jinxed it and he scored a great finish, but I do wonder if he would be a decent signing for cover/as an attacking mid, he can play anywhere across the attacking midfield, can play upfront if needed, 15 goals last season for a very average side and has played really well today. I'm beginning to think he could do well with a side like us.

Sorry

I do like the look of Flemming for Milwall, he's definitely a cut above where they are currently, not sure if he would take to a step up to the premier league immediately though.

Haha yeah I know it does, I’ve been a big fan of Ralf Rangnick for years so I tend to follow Red Bull teams and managers quite a bit, Salzburg are one of the best run clubs in the world. Sucic looks like their best prospect imo

Emile Smith Rowe another obvious one, had an injury mid season but has been on and off the bench a lot, he's been messed about by Arsenal quite a bit for a few years now, would we be in a position to go in for a loan with a view to a permanent deal in summer if it works out? I just wish he was not so fragile, he tends to get small niggling injuries but he has had 3 significant injuries since 2018/19, missing 24/15/14 games for all 3.

I'd be interested in seeing if Ben Godfrey fancies a short loan spell, has been on the bench for most games this season and can't get a sniff, easily championship standard and under the right manager I think he can still be a good premier league player, 25 years old. Rumours are Roma are interested though so if there's anything to that story we will obviously lose that battle.

Slightly concerned for the lad, this could very well end up being one of those situations where the timing just doesn't work out. You see it so often where for example we go down and give the perfect opportunity to someone like Alves to get game time, he gets another injury and we have to pull the trigger on bolstering in january, which then limits his chances, we get promoted and suddenly we are trying to stay up and can't risk the game time. Really hopeful that he gets proper chances towards the latter end of the season or he could end up being another player that gets hyped up and ultimately leaves us because he never got a chance at the level we were at when he was fit. He's got plenty of years in him obviously but he needs solid game time. I do think he will get a good run of games toward the end of the season though if he can get fit and we are still comfortable. Fingers crossed for him as he sounds exciting.

Another fantastic performance overall, still a little bit at times in defence, but overall we dominated again and put on a really good performance, we started the season well then seemed to stagnate slightly, but in the last 5-6 games we really have turned on the taps and you can see we are getting better at learning when we need to press the button and attack rather than passing for the sake of passing. Had concerns during that period in the middle of the first half of the season where it felt like we were overcoached and going backwards at times, but Enzo so far is doing an amazing job of proving my concerns completely wrong. Tom Cannon looks like a hell of a player based on today and at 21 years old, him and Daka will easily see us through the rest of this season if Iheanacho goes, and who knows possibly long term they could still be here in a few years, but with todays performance I think that takes a bit of pressure off of us needing a striker for a few months. Great performance and a great way to start the year. Brilliant.

Trying not to jump the gun but Cannon has been quite unfortunate not to score multiple goals in his previous appearances, so with him on for a hattrick today if he keeps getting opportunities like this, I think there's no need to worry about strikers with him and Daka as our options. Iheanacho can leave in Jan.

If we can get Carvalho on loan with a buy option we should absolutely rip their arms off if the price is £15m or less, i'd be tempted to pay £20m for him in summer (incl addons) if we go up, this is a serious player being completely wasted at Liverpool, the right club, the right system, he has massive massive potential. Edit: I should add I know a permanent deal is unlikely, but Liverpool need to assure him game time or he might get impatient.

Salzburg have a few very handy players at the moment, Would have a lot of competition in the summer but Luka Sučić is a serious player, midfielder, 6ft1, very technical for his size, absolutely no doubt he ends up at a top club in Europe. Strahinja Pavlovic is a young CB with plenty of potential, decent on the ball, doesn’t mind possession and a decent enough passer, still quite raw but has a good future. Oscar Gloukh also another future top 6 player in Europe, can see him ending up in the Bundesliga, very talented, plays as a more attack minded midfielder. Konate very highly rated striker by them but needs a bit of time IMO, wouldn’t sign him for the prem just yet, would need a sign and loan type move. Of those Sučić and Pavlovic would be my priority. Edit: Even Gourna-Douath looks a handy player, French youth international but might struggle to get a senior cap given just how good this French midfield is going to be in the coming years, bit of a sideways step going from St Etienne to the Austrian league but could prove to be a decent player in future.

I can think of few players who have disappointed me as much as Iheanacho, usually we sign players and they fail to live up to the hype, Iheanacho has repaid his fee over the years but has been often mismanaged by the club/managers and was consistently dropped even when he deserved to be playing, so many occasions during the seasons he has been here where he has seen us through some rough patches, during the 20/21 season he was pretty much dragging us single-handedly through some matches, made constant excuses for him because of the mismanagement and constantly being denied a proper run during our downfall, I thought this season would be redemption, 26/27 years old, plenty of years left in him and his chance to really prove himself and score 20-25 goals in a far inferior league, and half of the time he just can't be bothered to even run. There really is no excuse for someone of his PROVEN talent at the top level to be putting in the performances he has for much of this season. He had a hot streak in October and has been largely anonymous since, I've run out of excuses for him, 7/10 should be the absolute minimum for him at this level. I love his character but he does not look bothered anymore, he's not earning his wages, really sad that it's come to this, I can accept players not living up to their hype and not living up to their fee, but Kelechi has proven he can live up to that fee, when he can be bothered.

Another very good performance, dominated from start to finish, few players stood out but I was quite happy with Hamza, KDH first half was fantastic. Cardiff have a couple of good players that could probably step up a level I’d imagine, always respect Cardiff for their response and respect they gave us after we lost Vichai, hope they can continue to improve. Very positive steps!

Coverage tonight has been absolutely awful, I’m now currently watching the half time of West Brom vs Leeds….

Don't know what everyone is complaining about, my match has been fine. Hopefully Matty Fryatt comes on soon though Hume is having a shocker