On 04/04/2026 at 20:55, The Rising Sun said:

This lot ripped everything apart straight away, , even down to sacking the medical team and the groundsmen for good measure. They continued spending Roman levels and more.and plummeted us down the table, out of Europe and our worst ever finish. while telling us we were underperforming all over the place with Roman and they were going to put it right.

They did this because they wanted to dismantle and create shell holding companies that each hold an asset that the club owned.

I suspect their plan was to turn it into an investment vehicle where it becomes a money generator without much input. The only barrier to this was the guaranteed spending on players which is why they hired people who were known to be good "youth prospect" scouts. Nobody would notice much if they cycle through youth prospects to cover the loans whilst buying whatever players to meet the quota.

Win-win for them, if the player manages to turn good = publicity, trophies etc. If bad = sell before value plummet.

They were looking for Brighton-type models who are comfortably mid table but with the added benefit of CL money.

It was never about the football. I found it weird how in the first year of the ownership, the owners was so busy looking through finance documents and self-reported to authorities. Todd as SD, the face of it whilst the backend people cleaned house and implemented the strategy until it was "ready to launch"

Their real "project" was completed the moment our assets had been compartmentalized into holding companies. Probably why it took way too long to find a FOS sponsor because they didn't want new money coming in to mess with finance calculations and why they needed yes men as managers so as to not look too deep into it.

3 hours ago, Bob stark said:

Yes we have so many players. The only position where I think a ready made player make sense is midifeld, this is assuming that James is not a midfielder

Nvm I just saw news about Barco

32 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

Nvm I just saw news about Barco

Ticks all the boxes for them including previous PL experience. Failed at Brighton

1 hour ago, WhiteWall said:

Ticks all the boxes for them including previous PL experience. Failed at Brighton

I have never watched him, I just remembered reading somewhere that he is a small midifelder.

1 hour ago, Bob stark said:

I have never watched him, I just remembered reading somewhere that he is a small midifelder.

He played left back against us back when Poch was in charge. Reece got sent off in that game.

32 minutes ago, Deino said:

He played left back against us back when Poch was in charge. Reece got sent off in that game.

We're probably interested in him as a small left back and cover/competition for Hato after we've sold Cucurella LOL

4 hours ago, Bob stark said:

I have never watched him, I just remembered reading somewhere that he is a small midifelder.

Yep, not good enough for a team with designs on winning titles and Champions League. More important for this mob there is probably profit there at some point.

They just don’t learn.

If the squad needs padding use the academy. If we had just kept our academy players we’d arguably have a better team without spending billions.

And guess what their all from the academy so they are young and would have far more backing from the fans and probably the football world for that approach. Spend the money on some stardust players here and there but oh no not these dickheads.

8 hours ago, WhiteWall said:

Ticks all the boxes for them including previous PL experience. Failed at Brighton

From the Argus Newspaper...😂vvv

""Barco, 20, joined the Seagulls amid considerable excitement and showed attacking flair and intent during his few run-outs for the club.

But head coach Roberto De Zerbi memorably told The Argus he would need to field two goalkeepers if he were to use Barco and Kaoru Mitoma together down the left-hand side.

He spent the first half of last season on loan at Sevilla but struggled for significant playing time and headed to France in the winter.""

I thought we were supposed to offload our sh*t to Strasbourg, works both ways I see.

5 hours ago, Sexyfootball said:

We're probably interested in him as a small left back and cover/competition for Hato after we've sold Cucurella LOL

Could be truer than you think, although I think he operates in midfield now. An already inverted fullback. Joy. Looks built for a premier league midfield doesn’t he.

How the mighty have fallen, this summer will be more about who’s going than coming I feel. Could be yet another squad downgrade this one enforced through their incompetence rather than the usual terrible business we get each transfer window.

3 hours ago, WhiteWall said:

Yep, not good enough for a team with designs on winning titles and Champions League. More important for this mob there is probably profit there at some point.

Think he improves us, and on paper one of the top midfielders in Europe at only 21. I would buy him but we need to fix the mess of a midfield we currently have to make it work. Presently we lack a ball carrier, and only a fit Lavia helps our build up play. You add him and you are bringing onboard an artist. you improve our progressive play, creativity, add an elite ball carrier, a ball magnet and someone who loves a duel. He is a young Modric or Bernardo Silva, what we lack is a Sandro, Khedira or Rodri to partner him with.

51 minutes ago, markpitts said:

Think he improves us, and on paper one of the top midfielders in Europe at only 21. I would buy him but we need to fix the mess of a midfield we currently have to make it work. Presently we lack a ball carrier, and only a fit Lavia helps our build up play. You add him and you are bringing onboard an artist. you improve our progressive play, creativity, add an elite ball carrier, a ball magnet and someone who loves a duel. He is a young Modric or Bernardo Silva, what we lack is a Sandro, Khedira or Rodri to partner him with.

Have you watched him. He is more a ginger Will Hughes than young Modric. Far from improving us, flooding us with bang average players purely to try and flip for profit is actually stifling the opportunity for players to break through, players that have gone through our system for 10-15 years. Let's not forget that the purchases of Mudryk, Garnacho, Gittens etc not only saw off Tyrique George (probably not good enough) and Rio Ngumoha (who absolutely was better than any of these players).

Barco is a decent enough young player. They all are, they're all professionals. Personally I'm completely ambivalent whether we sign him or not. He is part of a trading stable.

1 hour ago, markpitts said:

Think he improves us, and on paper one of the top midfielders in Europe at only 21. I would buy him but we need to fix the mess of a midfield we currently have to make it work. Presently we lack a ball carrier, and only a fit Lavia helps our build up play. You add him and you are bringing onboard an artist. you improve our progressive play, creativity, add an elite ball carrier, a ball magnet and someone who loves a duel. He is a young Modric or Bernardo Silva, what we lack is a Sandro, Khedira or Rodri to partner him with.

Mark.. Please tell me this is either a wind up or you're smoking some powerful gear !

If he wasn't at the club that BlueCo also own we wouldn't be "buying" him .

24 minutes ago, The Rising Sun said:

If he wasn't at the club that BlueCo also own we wouldn't be "buying" him unless he was still at Brighton.

Fixed for you.

another poor decisions - one of the reasons why our defense always is under pressure is the lack of height and physicality in the midfield.. None of our midfielders are even 6 feet.. that means that the CB has to engage always - look at the number of goals we concede because we dont win the first header... Do these directors even watch us play??

fck winstanley.. fck Liam.. fck Blueco

Barco is a good player. Got kicked out of Brighton when De Zerbi left because their nerd manager didn't like his 'character'. He reportedly has had some off-field issues but he seems to have his head back on, for the most part.

Too much focus on his alleged lack of physicality. He's fast and agile and can run with the ball. Wasn't great defensively at LB for Brighton because he played so far forward but he and Mitoma absolutely tore teams apart on that left hand side.

5 minutes ago, Jangz said:

another poor decisions - one of the reasons why our defense always is under pressure is the lack of height and physicality in the midfield.. None of our midfielders are even 6 feet.. that means that the CB has to engage always - look at the number of goals we concede because we dont win the first header... Do these directors even watch us play??

fck winstanley.. fck Liam.. fck Blueco

Virtually all those goals are because our CBs don't win those headers. We need height in midfield because we need taller players in general if we want to stop the cancer of set-pieces.

Barco is an upgrade on Enzo

18 hours ago, The Rising Sun said:

But head coach Roberto De Zerbi memorably told The Argus he would need to field two goalkeepers if he were to use Barco and Kaoru Mitoma together down the left-hand side.

🤐🤐🤐

18 hours ago, The Rising Sun said:

From the Argus Newspaper...😂vvv

""Barco, 20, joined the Seagulls amid considerable excitement and showed attacking flair and intent during his few run-outs for the club.

But head coach Roberto De Zerbi memorably told The Argus he would need to field two goalkeepers if he were to use Barco and Kaoru Mitoma together down the left-hand side.

He spent the first half of last season on loan at Sevilla but struggled for significant playing time and headed to France in the winter.""

De Zerbi has a famously big mouth with a penchant for shock.

36 minutes ago, dermott said:

De Zerbi has a famously big mouth with a penchant for shock.

Funny quote all the same !

The sort of thing Mourinho might have said ... 😀

For me there's a couple of issues with this signing. Firstly it doesn't show ambition, he is not a statement signing. There have been few signings in the last few years that have made me feel anything but meh.

Secondly, this signing suggests to me that if anyone was hoping that if things go to pot, as they have been doing under Rosenior, he ain't going anywhere this summer. I feel his influence on this.

It'll be a season next season of listening to middle management twaddle speak. If I hear the word " group " one more bloody time I'll scream.

31 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

Funny quote all the same !

The sort of thing Mourinho might have said ... 😀

From The Guardian:

Marseille players will testify to De Zerbi’s emotional volatility. According to L’Equipe, he was so disgusted with one performance he refused to coach at the next training session; the players responded by refusing to train under his assistants. The video clip of him confronting Ismaël Koné in training, telling him to leave the pitch and “take a shower”, before adding “call your agent to come here” – Koné, humiliated, responded by trying to square up to coaching staff – will doubtless be viewed with interest by the Spurs players.

Koné's sin? He was taking too many touches. De Zerbi is a lunatic.

I just think if you fix the first team the squad fixes itself because former first teamers are now on the bench etc.

Obviously we’re going to have to wait and see what else happens in the summer but What does this signing fix?