All Activity

It is what it is, nothing we can do about it now. I’m ok with Barco getting more minutes to develop. My main issues are James isn’t a midfielder, with a couple of injuries we are light in midfield. My main one I don’t want to see Gusto used as a midfielder under any circumstances, I don’t even rate him as a player and I definitely don’t want to see him in the engine room. I’d honestly rather promote Watson.

Would agree if 2 of the midfield options weren’t currently injured and the other 2 weren’t insanely injury prone (one of whom is arguably better suited to playing anywhere across the back 5 than midfield). Maybe Barco or someone from the youth teams will step up. I don’t think it’s a complete disaster that some are making it out but it’s far from ideal either.

I think we will be fine mate chill we are playing one game a week. We have enough to keep us going, had we got into Europe then it would have been a completely different story. Alonso can now really see who he wants and they better go and get him right at the start of January and don’t drag their feet.

Was just about to post the same thing. It's time for Josh's Rafa Márquez moment. Plus he's ten times the ball carrier that Enzo is.

You’re just getting upset at hypotheticals. Lavia looks fit and has finished 90 minutes. RJ breaks down a lot less at CM. We have no idea about Caicedo. Barco doesn’t get injured and looks an upgrade on Enzo already so far.

We dont need cover in midfield, if thats the case just use Watson and/or Nicoll-Jazuli. What we need is a quality starter next to Caicedo, none of these free agents will be able to do that. Lets keep the powder dry and go again in January for Wharton, Scott or whoever we deem to be our main target.

Well I think Enzo is so bad in the pivot that Reggie Watson would be as good / better. So yes, Barco is a level up for me.

Judging by the words of his agent, it seems the guy did not want to come here anyway. Maybe Liverpool are in touch with him for a longer time and even promised him a better contract, maybe the agent will get a bigger fee from Liverpool. All I understand from his statement is he did not want to be involved in the negociations between Monaco and Chelsea. Same for Ismaila Sarr who wanted Liverpool so bad, but Palace did not let him go there. It seems that the agent is very close to Liverpool and wanted both his players there.

Is Barco any worse than Enzo? ‘Cos from the little I’ve seen (1.5 games) he doesn’t appear incapable

Essugo went on loan and is sh*t anyway. Watson isn't ready and Nicole-Jazuli is 16 years old. Lavia is awful off the ball and can't even reach 70 minutes of football before being subbed off. He's probably days away from another injury too. James is constantly being protected because he is also an injury waiting to happen. Henderson is injured, had no pre season, is old and not even very good. Caicedo, the most important one of all is also injured, are people already forgetting that he headed straight down the tunnel against Brighton? His injury is clearly quite serious. I look forward to the excuses watching Arsenal completely dominate our midfield on Sunday.

You're absolutely spot on. It's dreaded to oversee big money signings like kepa, lukaku went to drain so if there is a chance to sell for profit on some 'problematic' players then you just have to take it. Your take on city could not be any nearer from the truth, the way (the sequence) they've done their transfer, it's like a message to maresca and public that city did the transfer for absolutely doing him a favor. Without maresca, city wouldn't have gone for enzo, especially with that price and likewise, without city, maresca wouldn't have a club that has the financial clout to back him for such signing. That's why I don't have resentment towards those 2 because they make it possible for Chelsea benefit. Some people need to understand the reason why last season was a wreck was down to the board for not replacing maresca AND rosenior properly, twice the mistake there, what a monumental error from the board. The CL qualification was still possible until the last day.

It's not about who we lost. Enzo Fernandez was sh*t outside of scoring the odd goal, he needed replacing, but we didn't even do that. The midfield was weak last season and it's even weaker this season.

Step up Nicoll-Jazuli and Reggie Watson. Your time has come.

I don't know how anybody could watch the games against Fulham and Brighton and think we will manage easily until January. Zero control in midfield means chaos ball in every single game. We had so little of the ball against Brighton, there was no link between defence and midfield and midfield and attack. The ball just kept ping ponging back to Brighton. Caicedo is injured, which people seem to be forgetting, Lavia can't play past 65 minutes, James can't play in every game because he is also made of glass, Henderson is injured and has had no pre-season, Barco is untested and also has had pretty much no pre-season. The owners having no idea Monaco would make a hash of it is still on them. Why wait until the dying hours? They had June, July and August and the best they could do was a free transfer for old man Henderson and sell 3 midfielders.

What is Mineiro up to these days? On a serious note, Renato Sanches was just released by PSG apparently. 29 and was highly rated a few years ago if I remember well.

We will play a low block and try and frustrate Arsenal. They struggle against teams who just sit back. Most top teams don’t do that, they didn’t exactly cut through Villa the other night who let in 4 against Brighton. Villa just didn’t have the quality we have to hurt them on the break. COYB!

He's not exactly going to transform City. We know what he offers. 8-10 goals a season. Not much in the way of passing range. Slow and bypassed easily. I don't think he really brings much more to a midfield than someone like Gallagher did when he was here. But he does turn up in big moments sometimes.

Buttering them up for Wharton in January

In his own mind

Just read elsewhere something and I had clean overlooked and that is that Josh can and indeed under Maresca did play in central midfield. Strong , athletic, can pick a pass . What’s not to like if , as it seems likely, he isn’t going to start in a back 3

A lot of pressure on this guy to get back now. Out of our other 4 midfielders, 2 are excellent but injury prone, 1 is over the hill and currently injured and 1 is unproven. If everyone stays fit it is still an excellent midfield.

We bid €55m they wanted €70m apparently…… we was ready to walk away from the deal. Then they had there panic said he’s yours then he ain’t again. Our position didn’t change, we seemed calm enough to go into the season with what we have and that’s how it turned out. Talk sport claiming Camara wanted us and is fuming I doubt Liverpool also sniffing around played absolutely no part in this…. Other clubs also want to sign him but as others have said I know next to nothing about him so can’t exactly sit here gutted he ain’t coming. Barco was very highly rated in France last season. Selling Enzo was still definitely the right call.

I agree completely and think there's no need for any overreaction. It was a brilliant window all in all, and we can't let the final day be the judge of the entire summer. For as awful as they've been so far, I'll be the devil's advocate and say BlueCo have done a great job this time. Most likely with Alonso as the main driver, but they actually listened and delivered. We got rid of most of the dross and brought in quality difference-makers. Yes, the midfield is a concern and of course it would've been ideal to deal with it on time, but what can the club really do if there were no bids for Enzo earlier? It was the right move to sell him now - I think his price would've only kept going down as time went on, plus he would not have played even if he stayed anyway. So, selling a disgruntled player and making hefty profit from it seems like a good deal to me. At the moment, midfield concerns are really only based on the "potential" for Reece or Lavia to get injured. Who knows, they might stay fit, and if so, we will be fine. Now, if we don't strengthen in January, that's a whole other conversation. Even if we do, we all know what the prices will look like then compared to now. Time to put it behind us and back Alonso and the lads, I think top 4 is a realistic target.

You'll probably bulk up nicely this year

Balogun’s name being sung around the Emirates this weekend haha