forbzy

I fully expect this to happen. The financial model of the Premier League is insustainable. The richest owners will see this coming and like make another concerted effort for a European super league first.

I thought Saliba was injured?

I think Reggie Watson will likely get some appearances this season for sure. Especially first half of the season as players like Henderson are currently unavailable.

Given our challenges defensively so far this season, a clean sheet for us feels highly unlikely. It will be interesting to see how our exciting attack does against a well drilled defense like Arsenal.

I was thinking the same. Alonso definitely likes to keep information like this under wraps.

There were some pics from training on club website yesterday. I had a quick look and didn't see Caicedo but only certain players were featured.

An interesting article in the Guardian today relating to concerns about the Private Equity Industry. While it doesn't relate directly to our club the way Clearlake operates has been observed to be more like a Private Equity company and this is certainly something to keep an eye on: Private equity faces existential crisis in US as unsold companies pile up | Business | The Guardian

As far as I am concerned, Enzo has now moved on and is no longer our issue. Ultimately I think we got a good price for him. It will be interesting to see how his City career goes. He is surrounded by good players there but they have to deal with the post-Pep era and I think that may prove to be challenging. I reckon ultimately he still wants to move to La Liga.

I agree. We are missing some depth in key areas if we want to win the league. That being said top 4 is achievable, especially given that we have no European football this season. We should at least play some good football so I am looking forward to watching more entertaining games this season

I agree. Even if he was back in training I would prefer we make sure until he is fully read to return.

Rogers is being played as part of a front 3 so I don't really count him as a midfielder. Enzo F. generally played alongside Caicedo rather than as one of the wide guys like Rogers so I don't see that as a like for like replacement. Our midfield last season was hardly great and yet we have weakened it. We've let Andre Santos, Fernandes, and Essugo leave while bringing in Barco and Henderson. I think most of us imagined Barco and Henderson would likely have peripheral squad roles this season but now it looks like they could be starting regularly.

Certainly the player must feel like taking his case to CAS the way he was messed around.

I think Gusto started in midfield against Brighton because Reece and Barco had played full games against Luton and Caicedo wasn't ready to start. Assuming Caicedo is still injured I suspect we will see Lavia and Reece start.

I can only see that being remotely triggered if De Zerbi is still manager at Spurs at the end of this season. Given their record with managers, that seems unlikely.

It definitely makes sense to focus on our primary targets but I doubt it will be any easier to prise them from their respective clubs in January or next summer. Other clubs will no doubt join the battle for their signatures. For the first half of this season we need to hope that Caicedo is not seriously injured and that Lavia can stay fit. Reece is an option but not a reliable one given his injury record, and we don't yet have a date on Henderson's availability. Barco should be a decent option but it remains to be seen how he does against the bigger teams. I think it was a mistake to let Essugo go until we were sure that Camara deal was fully completed. He could have provided some more cover. If we hit a few injuries we will be back to playing the likes of Gusto in central midfield, or tapping into the academy.

We don't even know the extent of Caicedo's injury situation yet either.

Yep. I think that would be wise for coverage the first half of the season.

Agreed. Credit for shifting a lot of dead wood that they signed in the first place. But, they had all summer to plan for Enzo's departure and the last minute shenanigans from Monaco were always a risk. Ultimately they could have had the player signed earlier if they had paid what Monaco had originally asked for.

Or not

Who knows? Clearly nothing that was concrete enough to be enforced.

The deal was contingent on Balogun to Everton not going through. Everton decided they weren't happy with something in the medical and tried to get Zirkzee and Tammy to sign on loan but neither player was interested. So they managed to negotiate a lower fee for Balogun last minute apparently.

We should never deal with Monaco again, and Stewart should be sacked too.

If this is correct we may be preparing to hold off on signing a replacement for now:

equals the British transfer record set last year with the Isak signing.

I suspect we can get Camara if we increase our bid.