-sodapop

Transfer team were probably home with their feet up when this one came in - only reason I can think that we rejected that is they couldn't be ****ed to head back into the office

Just miserable watching Man City spunk 200m on world class players mid-season. We may as well be following a different sport to fans of the big 6

they are taking the ****ing piss

My heart says get both out and start fresh, but my head is worried that we end up with a despotic middle eastern state or asset stripping Americans coming in. Things have gotten bad under King Power but you can't say that they haven't given a lot to the city, and shady business dealings in Thailand are one thing but they're not exactly carving people up in embassies. Sometimes it really is better the devil you know, you know?

would have been genius to do a joint announcement video with Seniorman

I know it's sort of soon to make any conclusion about him, and I'm hoping he's a difference maker (because it certainly doesn't look like there'll be any others), but I don't really understand why we've signed him. I can't figure out which of the following makes the most sense: a) Ruud didn't want him In which case, why did we get him? Why did he agree to sign? b) Ruud wanted him, but he's being kept out of the side by JJ. In which case, why did we sign him? Did we go out looking for a third choice RB or did we just not scout properly? If we were worried about depth and cash is tight, why not keep Hamza around? Ricardo could be back before the end of February. Could we really not find anybody else who would deputy for JJ and take him out of the firing line for a couple of games? c) Ruud wanted him, but he's taking time to bed him in and bring him up to speed on football in the Prem. In which case, why did we sign him now? We don't have time! Couldn't we have spent that money on an immediate improvement elsewhere in the squad? 2m + wages is surely enough to loan a half decent player from somewhere in Europe. Again, nothing against the lad - I just can't really see what we were going for here.

It's too late even if we get 3 people through the door now. Played 5 games since the window opened and got 3 points from a team that couldn't even field a full bench. Needed bodies in for Everton and Palace if we were actually planning on trying to stay up. Anything now is just to wave off criticism of not backing the manager.

same as it ever was really

If they get knocked out in the RO16 in the CL, and then don't qualify this year - their finances are going to look horrific. They're already at 90%+ wage/revenue.

i thought we held up okay against madrid personally

He's managed 4 games in the league and has 1 win, 1 draw and 2 losses (admittedly one very bad one) vs Barca and Real Madrid. Hard to say he's doing anything good or bad yet. Valencia might have one of the worst owners in world football, too.

Be funny if United get him the sack

I can't say for sure and you're not wrong to say the recruitment has been shit across the board for about 5 years now, but I truly believe we never sign Ayew for anybody other than Steve Cooper. I do see your point, and I doubt it's a case of them hand-picking players, but they certainly say what they need and almost certainly have a veto. I don't think they went over Enzo for Cannon/Coady; Cannon was seen as a bit of insurance for Daka possibly leaving with the potential to be good - we moved him on for a profit so hard to criticise that. Coady was seen as a smart pickup by almost everybody I saw comment on it; cheap but experienced defender used to playing in a back 3 to add leadership to a shit defence that just got relegated. Turns out, he wasn't that good or necessary, but you can definitely see Enzo asking for a player that fit that mold. It's probably a good idea to have some sort of recruitment profile for players that isn't at the mercy of each manager that comes in. The really big issues are rather: a) this profile is shit and I can count on my hands the number of unquestionably good or profitable signings we've made since winning the league (Ndidi, Maguire, Tielemans, Maddison, Ricardo, Fofana, Hermansen, Fatawu, BEK off the top of my head), and beyond that you'd be hard pressed to name what style we want to play outside of vague references to Top wanting us to play like Man City showing up in John Percy/Rob Tanner/Tom Collomose articles. b) we don't seem to match whatever this recruitment profile is to the profile of manager we recruit. I can't think of one thing that stylistically binds Rodgers to Smith to Maresca to Cooper to Nistelrooy - hard to even say they all play football.

Looking forward to hearing what exactly he's been doing for the last month when the window closes with only Woyo Coulibaly brought in (not that the manager seems to have any interest in playing him particularly?)

I think the difference is, we don't sign Ayew/Skipp/Okoli/BDR under Corberan. Maybe we miss out on BEK but frankly I'd rather we the chance that we signed five 6/10+ players than one 8/10 and four 3/10s

Charisma carries you further than ability, even in football it seems. (not saying Cooper was in any way the right choice for the job, mind)

difference is you have to have something about you to follow through on that, otherwise it's just empty chat. RVN doesn't seem to have much about him

Seems like Hamza had a good match today. (Cannon with an assist too.)

Absolutely not. Everton were down in this muck until they got rid of him. They scored 9 goals from our last game against them until Dyche was sacked (14 games). 4 of those coming in one game against Wolves. They've now scored 8 in their last 4.

Wonder when Woyo will get his first start

reading his Personal Life section was quite a ride

Just seen Atlético Mineiro's captain is Hulk btw, what a blast from the past

I think the hype of a south american signing will push us to 6/7 pages before it's completely dead in the water, personally

Reading some of the Brazilian comments on this; a lot of them felt they got taken to the cleaners by City Group for Savinho, who went for 6.5m and was a better talent. They think they'll hold out for more money. Doesn't seem like he's being bought to start though, as a lot of them see him as not ready to start every week in Brazil even. Some others are saying that they're too conservative and should be starting him, and that if he was allowed to play every week they could charge double what we've bid. Interesting link for sure.

Couldn't find anything on them being related, but one of Tariq's middle names is Nii.