forbzy

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 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.

If I remember correctly, Hughsie and his childhood mates from Wrexham all grew up as Chelsea fans.

If I remember correctly, Hughsie and his childhood mates from Wrexham all grew up as Chelsea fans.

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.

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 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.

I thought Saliba was injured?

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

I thought Saliba was injured?

I thought Saliba was injured?

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.

It's 3 points end of the day. Yes we all badly want to beat Arsenal, but it would not be worth it if playing Moi got him injured and out for a long period.
Leave him out until we are sure he is ready.

I think there's two seperate but worthwhile points you and @The Rising Sun are both making:


Perhaps for the first time under BlueCo we have a positive value on our playing squad. Losses on the likes of Fofana, Gusto, Neto, Mudryk, Gittens and maybe Lavia are offset against likely gains on the value of Pedro, Palmer, probably even Rogers and Caicedo in this market. This is great news for Clearlake and their lenders, but not so relevant to the club. In an inflationary market we are unlikely to secure equivalent replacements for the same price and in a deflationary market we won't receive the expected sales.

Asset value doesn't matter in football terms, spending does. We've spent an unimaginable amount of money with little to show for it. That's still a problem and while we are able to cover our mistakes due to favourable selling conditions, that isn't always going to last. We have to get much, much better at recruitment.

There's some dangerous PR coming out of BlueCo suggesting that Winstanley should be praised for the window sales, and that it was the recruitment and the 'model' that guaranteed us the prices we received. That is foolish nonsense. The market was inflated by a number of macroeconomic conditions that are unlikely to be repeated and are certainly not sustainable. We will not be getting 50m for Garnacho or 65m for Jackson or 125m for Enzo Fernandez equivalents in future years. BlueCo need to have some humility and take an accurate perspective, and not squander a second-chance that we might never get again.

I would like us to look more closely at our "world class" academy for potential players as replacements
And I hope this is the last season with a multitude of players coming and going, it doesn't do anything for the stability of the team. . Still,so far, so good, a welcome change from every other window since the takeover.

Despite my earlier posts I will concede that we arguably should have been actively pursuing a CM as soon as Santos left and Scott/Wharton were clearly impossible. It's the consequence of having to sort out sales and loans for an army of unwanted players and leaving the opportunity to do so right to the last minute. It may have been the right decision to prioritise the sales/loans of all those players but if we didn't buy them in the first place, we wouldn't have that problem.

They’re still spending the Coutinho money

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

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

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

Caicedo and Lavia is a very good midfield pairing if they're both fit, but with Lavia in the conversation it's a very big if.

I wouldn't call a British record transfer getting done over.
It's our own fault for leaving it so bloody late, something could always go wrong

That qualification there says a lot doesn't it?
I think the disagreement here is regarding having James, and especially Lavia, in the “healthy” category—they are anything but. Lavia has hardly played in three years.

For dumping 125 million pounds worth of toxic waste on Manchester.

As one of his former fans, I fully agree. In fact the thing that struck me against both Fulham and Brighton is that they are incredibly similar with the same strengths and weakness.

The only differences being that Acheampong is one of our own, is 5 years younger and still has a drivers' licence.