HazardousChoice

I don't know He's nearly as old as you and you're starting to struggle. You also might want to have a read about how much Boehly has paid. 4B hasn't come out of his pocket he's not that rich and he isn't our majority share holder. I don't suppose Clearlake Capital know or care much about football. It's going to be a big learning curve this summer. Agreeing a transfer fee before checking the player himself actually wants the move is as amateurish as it gets though.

Do you think Boehly knows that? Feels like he's operating like American sport franchises do where they can buy and trade a player against their will

You're right. But a backup left back that has had more output than one of your wingers over the last 7 seasons really says everything.

Statistically a massive upgrade on Pulisic for a reasonable fee.

Exactly. But you seem to be imagining a world in which Deco and Raphina are the only people who aren't aware of Barca's financial situation. Raphina obviously knows it. He just doesn't care he'd still rather play for them than us.

I'm sure Coombsie knows more about Barca's finances than someone who's actually employed by Barca. Deco represents his client. If he only wants to move to Barca no matter what he only wants to move to Barca. Deco working as a scout for Barca while also working as an agent for players at different clubs is incredibly dodgy though

No manager at a decent club would want Pulisic. He's absolutely useless as a footballer and wouldn't get near the Juventus team. But clubs often force players on managers. In this case because of a potential marketing angle. If we can play on the Juventus board wanting to expand their advertising and commercial side and cover some of the lost revenue they expected from the Super league i think we could get them to take Pulisic and let us keep Jorginho and Timo. 40m + Pulisic is a good deal for us. 40m + Werner or Jorginho less so. But Jorginho only has a year left so we need to sort his situation out this summer and avoid another Rudiger.

I thought we ripped Everton off getting 28m for Lukaku and haven't changed my mind at any point since. I thought we ripped Bouremouth off getting 20m for Ake and now we're linked with him for more. Even when we manage to get good fees for untalented players we bring them back for more years later 🤣

The club would have to fold as we'd never be able to field a starting 11. There's less than 11 players on the planet that would want to play for us over Madrid/Barca and they'll have all have come through Cobham. Even as poorly run as Barca are the 2 Spanish giants are ultimately the dream of prettt much every player but it shouldn't discourage us from signing anyone. Hazard was very clear early on that Real Madrid was his dream but that didn't stop him performing excellently week in week out. There's not a player around with less mental strength than Lukaku. Raphina may prefer Barca as I'd expect every Brazilian to but if we do sign him I'd still expect him to continue to deliver top class performances. It's not like Leeds were his dream destination prior to Barca's interest.

I wouldn't want Ake included as a freebie with Sterling. Wouldn't take Ake on a free. His entire career was him being a mainstay in a defence that set records for goals conceded and got relegated then being last choice CB at City and only playing games at home vs relegation fodder when Pep was resting his actual decent centre backs ahead of midweek games. Games City would have 80-85% possession and Ake would have barely any defending to do. If we're relying on him to be a mainstay in our defence across 38 games we'll concede goal after goal. He's the Sarr of Manchester City.

There's not a chance he's wasting 2 years of his prime at Leeds on poverty wages hoping a bankrupt Barca find enough cents down the bus seats to buy him. If Barca can't pay this summer he's going somewhere that can.

We could have already paid Leeds 65m and he'd still have been a better player for us than Lukaku.

He could average 10 games a season. He'd still outscore Pulisic and Ziyech over a full season Neymar has averaged 29 games the last 5 seasons and still scored nearly treble the number of goals Pulisic has in that time (100 vs 37) while having over double the number of assists. For all the risks he has more talent in the little toe on his weaker foot than the dross we currently have on the wings. Well worth a loan.

Would be much happier to see Pulisic offered to Juventus instead of Werner. Timo is a much better player and we'll be able to get a good fee for him from a German club either this year or next year. 40m + Timo looked steep. 40m + Pulisic looks like a massive bargain for us.

Strongly disagree. He's as untalented a player I've seen at the club in over 20 years. He's apparently been offered to Juventus as part of a deal for De Ligt which is promising. Obviously the worry is we keep him based on his nationality jusy like we signed him based solely on his nationality but Boehly is backing Tuchel. Tuchel knows Pulisic doesn't have the talent for this level and with 2 years left on his contract this is the last chance to fleece another club into taking him before he decides to run his contract down. I'm confident he'll be gone this summer. It's not good for him to be 5th/6th choice in a world cup year and it's not good for us to keep a player on 150K a week who is nowhere near good enough for us.

That's exactly where Sterling comes in.

Was sceptical of this. But Neymar on loan makes perfect sense and would be the perfect deal providing PSG cover some of his wages. Sterling/Raphina/Neymar in. Pulisic/Werner/Ziyech out. Has any club ever had such a big upgrade in a position in a single window? We won't be completely depend on Neymar performing though he's still likely to be our best player and he can even play centrally alongside Sterling and Raphina.

Incredibly cringey. And a little sad that Pulisic is 23 and his career highlight is he scored 9 goals before turning 19. Alas the other 2 kicked on and Pulisic career still averages 9 goals every 60 games.

Wingbacks don't exist in a back 4.....

They're not mentioned for a reason. At least 3 of them should be gone before the season starts and Broja isn't ready.

Because Phillips is a bang average player that no one actually wants in any role other than a backup And Raphina is comfortably Leeds best player in about 2 decades and a priority target for Us, Arsenal and Barca? Raphina has also had 2 years of being Leeds best player in the Premier league not 1.

You are literally the only person on the planet that thinks Raphina is similar to Ziyech. You genuinely couldn't find a more different pair of wingers.

Surprised we've not offered Pulisic to Leeds to bring the price down. But Pulisic + 30m for Raphina was my dream transfer this summer. So I'm incredibly happy that this looks like it will come off, Raphina has looked fantastic for Leeds, he'll be both the fastest player in our squad, our best dribbler and has shown himself being great off the ball, a great presser and capable of playing on the front foot and with a fast tempo. 65m is a high amount for any player but Raphina himself fits us perfectly. Exactly the type of player we need and combined with Sterling/Neymar/Dembele etc should see the end of the static pass along the back against any low block style we see. Exciting times.

Sevilla didn't move the goal posts last summer. They set a deadline as they have this summer that Marina missed because she was too busy trying to sell Zouma first and mooching off Roman. They've actually been perfectly clear and transparent. We've just f**ked around and can't decide if we're going to put a bid in.

His constant sh*t performances over his 7 year career is incredibly tedious. People like yourself constantly bringing up the one good month he's had in his entire 7 year career is tedious. A once in a career purple patch is not reflective of his general level of performance. There's no argument that Sterling isn't a massive upgrade on Pulisic and that Pulisic would have got games for England. We really need the upgrade.