honeybradger

£60k a week, you could buy a talented footballer for his yearly wage which we would have to cover. Went missing against any decent championship side Leeds faced last season as well. No thanks. Just play Monga and Mavididi instead.

He's honestly not as bad as is being made out. He wasnt great in the context of us being a Premier League side looking to play in European competition but even then he had a run for us in Christmas 20/21 where he was playing at the standard of a top 6 level midfielder and even had a man of the match performance when we beat Man City 5-2. He also was a starter for Senegal when they won AFCON. For the championship he will be good enough, he's a good recycler of the ball and can put in a good tackle if he gets close enough (his main issue is that he gets bypassed quite easily in midfield). Back then it wasnt good enough but at Championship level midfielders get lauded for doing less than Mendy does. He also quite comfortably outplayed our current midfield last pre season in the game against Lens which showed how far we had fallen as a club. Even Mendy looked surprised with how awful we had become in such a short space of time.

Besiktas fans are saying Ndidi played well despite the loss.

Are we seriously believing this o'rauke guy? He doesnt seem trustworthy.

I just cant believe that Mcateer would ever say that.

He looks good technically but is it not worrying that his stats look so poor in Europe alone as per Fbref, even if it's skewed by a small data size.

Why loan Vuskovic when you can buy your own version of him in Villads Nielsen.

Ivanovic scored 1 goal every 3 games in the championship last season, are we sure he is the guy we need to score regularly for us?

I would like to see him playing abroad.

I dont think it's over the top to say that he's arguably better than what we have now. Just having a midfielder who is willing to regularly make a tackle is an improvement, then you factor in Mattsson's ball playing ability on top of it and he looks like the complete package whereas our midfielders certainly do not. You have to consider that our midfield has been woeful this season against what should be weak opposition in Wednesday, Huddersfield, Preston and Charlton. It's not like they are performing at such a high level where you cant compare them to players who are actually performing well in weaker leagues, I would bet most teams in those leagues would look more comfortable against those opposition than we have.

Most Leicester fans would say Bilal was one of our few bright sparks last season, Ipswich fans consider Philogene and Clarke to be a joke. Perception amongst the fans that watch them week in week out is important in telling if a player is good or not, it's not all about stats.

My question is whether our scouting department are actually unaware of these players, which is unlikely, or if the reason we dont go for them is because the higher ups veto any player that doesnt meet their requirements in terms of experience. By all accounts we regularly have scouts attend matches in the Scandinavian leagues.

Considering we spent £25mil on Skipp, £20mil on Soumare, £8mil on Winks, Norwich signing Mattsson for £2.7mil who is arguably better than those 3 really hammers it home how poorly we are run and how much we consistently overpay for players.

Finn Azaz is not better than Bilal. There are loads of players who have done well at championship level similar to Finn Azaz and couldnt translate it to the PL in recent memory such as Jack Clarke, Philogene, Summerville etc. Look at what Ispwich fans think of Clarke and Philogene for example after getting 20 g+a at championship level, theyre looked upon as competition winners over there. Bilal by having a half decent season at PL level is already significantly ahead of a 20 g+a championship player who is unproven at that level.

Just noticed that Adem Zorgane went to USG for 4.3million euros. We should have been all over that, better than all our current midfielders. Although arguably USG are a more attractive club than us now.

If this is true then probably accept whatever is offered honestly and go for another attacking midfielder. We need to stop the rot at the club before it gets any worse. Not going to fully take this source at face value though as it seems unreliable.

Nail meets head. The lack of commitment from Winks has been plainly there to see on the pitch for the last year or so. Him getting frozen out by Van Nistelrooy is just being used as an excuse for him at this point. You don't need to speculate what went down between him and Van Nistelrooy when you can judge for yourself whether Winks's attitude has been acceptable. Had he never been frozen out my opinion would remain the same, we cannot rely on Winks going into this season as he checked out of the club this time last year. It's just surprising at this point that a year on and some fans still haven't caught on. I have a feeling "i defended him at the start of the season but after his performance today i can no longer do so" is going to be fairly common in a couple months time.

This won't happen. AC Milan won't want to pay the money required for us to break even on him. They probably were only looking at him as a loan as he wasnt starting for us but now he is so we won't loan him and he will likely be happier to stay.

He got moved back to u21s football then got injured against Liverpool u21s and didn't make an appearance in the most recent game against Reading u21s. Hopefully nothing too serious as with Justin and hopefully Kristiansen leaving it's the ideal opportunity for him to challenge for a starting spot.

Any news on his injury by the way?

I dont disagree (maybe £30mil was more realistic though). I was very much on the Hermansen bandwagon back in November before his injury. My original comment was in reference to fans being disappointed with only getting £20mil this summer, which is in the context of his post-injury loss of form and risk of getting re injured. Given the situation we did well to get £20mil and I think only unreasonable people were finding issue with that deal at the time. Edit: actually I think I misunderstood LFox99's comment in the first place, my bad

Before his injury maybe, even then he wasnt good at claiming crosses and corners like Trafford is I assumed the quote i was replying to was referring to us selling him for £40mil this summer, which was entirely unrealistic given his loss of form and injury risk. We did well to sell him given the circumstances.

I dont think any reasonable person was saying that Hermansen was worth £40mil...

To be fair that Botafogo goalkeeper looks rubbish. Hermansen shouldn't have any problem coming out on top against him. Maybe Areola ends up being their starting goalkeeper though.