CFCCAN

Watched the game, pretty much all one way traffic as expected with many players looking rusty. I thought Drinkvodka was OK for the first 20 minutes hitting a few long balls to CHO, something that Jorghino seemingly lacks the ability to do, but after the 20 min mark, DD began to fall back into the average player that we know and could see the reason Frank dumped him. I don't see him making the squad or Barkley, who was also pretty average; both need to be sold along with Zapacosta. Although Gallagher played the entire 90 mins, I think it was that Tuchel was trying to see where perhaps he could fit him in, but again overall not a great performance and he might be better off on another loan spell. Many of the fringe players really just playing for a squad spot rather than the first XI...most need to move on.

In days past Lukaku's historic thread of 129 pages, Stones 106, Pogba 100 and even Sandro with over 60...Haaland has a long, long way to go yet...we could be back here in January; if the pen is mightier than the sword then Roman needs to sign the cheque before I fall asleep...

So anyone remember when we spent £100,000, a club record fee on Tony Hateley, we thought we were mad then, apart from his head he was dreadful; now we are talking £150,000,000 on an unproven kid...well lets hope he scores more goals than Hateley did with a massive total of 9 in 33 appearances before being shipped off to Liverpool.

Which is about the same odds as us signing a striker this summer. Have we signed anyone yet..........anyone?

While I agree that only a very few of the 'kids' when they arrive at the Academy will actually make it to a senior level; those that fail during their younger years fall by the wayside and released, but a vast majority of those players that are left from all those trophy winning sides, are thrown into the cattle market because they are average at best and end up in 2nd tier clubs; right now it seems that there is a fire sale at the Academy because none of those that are refusing new contract will know they don't have a hope in hell to make the first team squad. Given the money that Roman has thrown at the Academy in the last 15 years you would have thought that at least one CF or decent attacking player would have been identified and groomed for the first team; TBH I think despite the success the Academy has had at youth level they have been piss poor at producing anyone that will get near our first team on a regular basis, apart from the last group that I mentioned in my earlier post, along with JT; and even with that being said CHO or Tammy while attacking players, can't get a sniff and RCL is on his last chance. Now you can argue with the turnover of Managers, apart from Frank, none have really looked at the youth players but rather gone to market and pissed millions on average players, or even below average players such as most recently, Drinkvodka, Zappacosta just to name two and don't get me started on Bakayoko. And now Roman wants to piss £150mill+ on a kid that really has had a season and a bit, in an average league where even Werner and Pulisic scored for fun but have struggled in the EPL. Personally I'd be upset with whoever is running the Academy that not only am I throwing millions funding that, I am also having to throw millions at buying sh*t players and failed centre forwards, Didier and Costa aside.

Dortmund are just a feeder club...never going to win anything of note, but will certainly be a rich bastards in the process. I'd be after their scouts if we can't afford their players. How are they managing to sign all these 'gems' and turn them into superstars, while the big clubs, EPL in particular, are wandering around aimlessly in the dark throwing their money around on kids in their Academy's, that at best become average or above average players. Its only recently that the crop of youngsters we have had through the Academy have hit the spotlight, or rated highly enough that other clubs come knocking on the door wanting to offer us insane amounts of money; with the exception of JT and one or two others that spent most of their careers at the club, the rest we loaned out or moved on for a few shekels here and there to mediocre clubs. Surely despite the success in recent years of the Academy there is something wrong with not being able identify and nurture a centre forward? or is it that kids these days all want to be a Messi or a CR7..anyway just a thought as to why we have to chase a 20yr old for an insane amount of money when we supposedly have one of the best Academy's in the world yet have never produced a world class centre forward.

Neither of them are like a Fabregas or even a Mata. And Jorghino or Kovacic aren't imaginative enough or the answer when we get 25 yards out, or at least we haven't seen it so far.

The Haaland sage is like Marina the Cougar looking for the young stud to fulfill her fantasy...forget it move on and find us an experienced creative midfielder who can unlock defences with a forward pass or shot on target from 25 yards out, instead of us pissing around the box for 10 minutes before passing it back to Mendy.

Waste of money and time looking for a world class striker, we have a decent team and some very good attacking players, what we need IMO is a creative midfielder. I'd rather spend the money there rather than spunking £150-175 mill on a 20 year old 18 month wonder kid who just might get eaten alive by the PL central defenders.

I have never understood spending this kind of money on a young player who has had a great season in a 2 team league. It makes me wonder about our scouts at times that other teams can go out around the globe and find really good players, specifically forwards, yet we seemingly always want to go out and splash the cash on players who have big reputations and ultimately turn to sh*te the minute put on a blue shirt; and what are we going to do if Haaland doesn't hit the ground running, look for another striker in January?....We didn't pay much in the grand scheme of things for Drogba and Costa no doubt they are exceptions rather than the rule 😧 . All I can say is that I'm glad its not my money that we'll be pissing down the drain..

So's Jesus apparently.......and we're still waiting 😴🤫🤫

Excellent performance! especially with the media at the outset treating as underdogs. But what grips my sh*t more than anything is many pundits once again claiming City weren't at their best ..well f**k me with a barge pole, pundits say this every time City get beat, so when are City at their best? Taking minnows apart?; We've beaten City 3 times this year but the pundits still can't give total credit where's credits due; TT has got Pep's number and the pundits hate it, so be prepared for yet another season of a love in on Sky and others for City and Liverpool together with a whole bunch of new excuses when we beat them again next season. For the game today, while everyone played well and some were exceptional, there is the problem with Werner still not hitting a barn door or controlling the ball, which he has to work on surely over the summer. Jorghino for me was poor and offered nothing in midfield even when he chance to do so; he just played safe and backwards most of the game and definitely still can't offer a tackle; Mount was quiet I thought apart from the killer pass; the back 3/5 are stalwart in defence and for me MOTM was between Kante / Havertz.. can't wait till August and hopefully a couple of new faces. The fans of course were magnificent

He seems to be the most intelligent of recent managers and my hope is that if the club do find him a striker and perhaps a creative midfielder, that his tactics change to be more offensive and agile, especially against the mid to lower teams because that's where the PL is won and lost as more points are to be had against those teams than the top 4.

Hoping we see a good game; I won't be too disappointed if we lose this providing we put up a good showing and don't embarrass ourselves, as to me getting to the CL Final was a bonus...but I am royally pissed that we bottled the FA Cup given who the opposition was.

Could have well been into double figures had VAR been on our side