Same, there's very few I look at & I think he's a slam dunk, 25+ goals a season a striker.. with the exception of Kane. I'd take him in a heartbeat as a 2-3 short term fix if the price was right, which with Levy involved, it almost certainly won't be.. however he does only have 1 year left on his deal so you never know. If he could be signed in the £65m region, maybe with like £10m in add ons based on goals & team success, I think that would be fine. Realistically we are probably his only option as I don't think he'll want to leave England as he wants Shearer's record.
I saw that to, Kim Min-jae, I know nothing about him. Probably saw him the couple of times I watched Napoli in the CL & he didn't stick out.. which in many ways is an upgrade over Maguire because when he plays he sticks out like a sore thumb waiting for him to do something stupid.
It's always been an issue & particularly for me because, as I've said a million times to you as far back as the 35 year old+ Scholes days, CM is probably the most important position on the pitch, so it sickens me that we often are always missing something in that area. McTominay unquestionably should be done, simply isn't good enough at all. Works hard & has a good engine, but doesn't read the game well & he shys away from receiving the ball almost intentionally taking up bad positions so he can't get it, which infuriates me for a supposed CM to do.
There's a lot of good options that can improve quality & depth so we shouldn't be held to ransom or let it get into another one of these full window long sagas that drag on.
All in all, whoever we can or can't sign will be largely dependant on the supposed takeover which the Glazers are milking & prolonging as much as they can. We could end up with very little or late activity if it runs into the summer window.. if they even sell up at all.
I just have a bad feeling about Kane, these expensive, older big name signings have not worked out for us in the past, I just can't shake the feeling that it'll backfire. Of the one's we've been linked to I like the all round ability of Ramos, he's ideal for Ten Hag's system but obviously isn't prolifically proven yet. We're also linked to a forward from Inter but he's only scored about 6 or 7 goals I think, and Kudus from Ajax isn't really a #9, he's a talented player though.
Maguire has been a disaster, we just need to cut our losses this summer. Kim Min-jae seems like he'd be the kind of solid squad defender we need and will provide good cover with Lindelof for Varane and Martinez, although with the latter I think ETH will opt for Shaw at CB if Martinez is out as he likes that left footed balance.
Yep, i remember one of our first conversations was when Barca smoked us in the 2009 CL final, and both agreed we needed to improve the midfield, here we are 15 years on saying the same thing! Casemiro is undoubted the best CM we've had since the Keane and Scholes days, he has everything in his locker including a winners mentality. The problem is we have no cover for him and not top #8, McTominay is often like the invisible man, as you say he drifts out of games and avoids the ball, hopefully we can get £25M for him in the summer.
There are some pretty good midfielder options out there I agree, so I'm really hoping there's no truth in the Rice and Mount rumours, they sound more like Ole signings, expensive and unimaginative, Mount in particular is a player I've never rated, if we want another #10 type I'd prefer Gibbs-White.
Unfortunately you're right, it looks like the Glazers are going to make sure we have one more transfer window where it frustratingly drags on until deadline day because they won't just take their 30 pieces of silver and f*** off!
Love that dummy.
Would have looked ridiculous if he got it wrong .
I think teams will eventually be able to compete with City’s first team if they get everything right, but outside of Madrid when they replace the old guard, not with their squad/second team. They were able to release the likes of Sterling and Zinchenko to rivals as they wouldn’t even get in to their second team.
Familiarity and I also think Utd has a bit more about them. City will also give everything in that CL match and it being the last game of the season with no international tournament, it's even worth a red card or injury to get the trophy. The FA Cup is great, but the CL is the biggest and the one they've never won. Winning it allows the huge haul of other trophies to get that much more credit too, as winning tons without the CL always feels like something missing. Also the other Euro teams won't always be at a relatively weak point so this is the time to get it over the line. Pep will be making that prioritisation clear I'm sure, no point any key players getting injured in the FA Cup final and then missing the CL final.
You need to be a hardcore student of the game now with many more strings to your bow and much more analytical ability than before.
Yeah, and also Dortmund (Ajax too) were already thereabouts anyway with a much stronger structure underneath all that activity. Brighton without this element could be a natural championship or lower team. It will be difficult but they are so far ahead in this area relative to most other teams that they could potentially make enough money to entrench longer term benefits.
I really wanted to secure the CL with a win in our last home game and also to help send Leicester and Vardy down, but we just couldn't score after so much possession and so many shots, and then actually looked vulnerable at the end! Everton absolutely have to win. Leeds look down already, yeah.
Haha.
Most pies sold is a valid metric mate.
Oh yeah, it was one of those that would have looked hilariously goofy if Pele hadn't got to the ball
it's just a shame he didn't score.
City feel fairly unassailable at the moment, they already won a PL with no striker and now they've added the nuclear warhead equivalent of a striker! There's lots of work for United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Newcastle and Chelsea to do to topple them.
I hope you're right mate, I've gotta say I'm not exactly looking forward to next Saturday lol but these tests are a measuring test of where Ten Hag and his players are at, both tactically and mentally. We need Rashford to recapture his form and the back 4 and Casemiro will need to be virtually flawless if we're going to have a chance of winning the FA Cup.
I'd love to see Brighton sustain what they are building, with Dortmund they already had history and structure in place as you say, and of course outside of Bayern Munich there aren't any other mega rich clubs in the Bundesliga, so it's not as competitive. It'll be interesting to see how many of their star players they can hold onto this summer, and also who they bring in.
Well CL is in the bag now, congrats mate!
Leicester bit the dust along with Leeds, it'll be interesting to see what players get picked up from Leicester in particular.
The Pukka Pies Champion!