Watching the AC Milan v Newcastle game. Oh my God! Rafa Leao. Brilliant skills to make an opportunity but the finish! Dear lord. Laughed so hard one of my tits fell off. He'd fit right in for us with that type of finishing.

Edited September 19, 20232 yr by just

8 hours ago, RIP Mourinho said:

More players struggle from Italy than do well. 

RLC, Pulisic, Giroud, Tomori all deemed surplus to requirements are some of the star players in that league. 

City haven't bought a player from that league in 7 windows, Liverpool for 9 windows (other than Arthur on loan who didn't get played).

Obviously there are the occasional outlier but all in all the league absolutely stinks. I was there in February to watch Como and the Milan Derby and the fans are great, the football not so much. Como in Serie B was honestly like watching my local team in Northern Prem.

I always say that if you're going to sign a player from Italy, only go for the ones that have experience in other leagues and/or haven't spent more than 5 years playing there. They get too acclimatised to the league and struggle badly when moving to the Premier League. 

People will call me mad, but this is the reason why I never wanted us to sign Pirlo. He was a brilliant footballer, but I don't think for a second that he would have been able to dominate a midfield like he could in Italy. His whole game was built around Italian football.

I also always need to point out that I don't think one league is inferior to the other. It's just a clash of styles.

Edited September 19, 20232 yr by Scott Harris

7 hours ago, Sheva said:

I pretty much agree with everything you've said.

I never said that players from Serie A would be an instant success here, Im implying that it's a weak excuse that because they play in that league then they are not good enough to play in the premier league. What im trying to say is that we need to give them the best possible chance to do well here, especially if they are younger players.

Over the past few seasons we have not give players the best possible chance to do well here because we are unstable on and off the field.

 

A good player is good regardless of which league he comes from. Casadei came from Italy and the local talent that we had here prior is worse than him. Zakaria that was on loan played decently but had injury problems. Jorginho came here and was automatically a key player for us so even in our recent history it shows that our Italian signings have been good.

In all honesty, Tonali to Newcastle was a strong transfer, I knew he was going to be a good player a few years back and had we signed him instead of Lavia it would have been cheaper and we would be a stronger team right now.

Dusan is a mute point. Is widely reported he did not want to come here.

4 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Dusan is a mute point. Is widely reported he did not want to come here.

moot point 🙂 

14 hours ago, Gol15 said:

A good player is good regardless of which league he comes from. Casadei came from Italy and the local talent that we had here prior is worse than him. Zakaria that was on loan played decently but had injury problems. Jorginho came here and was automatically a key player for us so even in our recent history it shows that our Italian signings have been good.

In all honesty, Tonali to Newcastle was a strong transfer, I knew he was going to be a good player a few years back and had we signed him instead of Lavia it would have been cheaper and we would be a stronger team right now.

Tonali has one good game and a MOTD highlights reel and he's the signing of the summer doesn't matter that he's been average to none existent in the games following.  Wish Chelsea players got so much leeway.  Some randoms on a Sky show who've probably only watch that MOTD highlight where comparing him to some of the best midfielders in the league already - please, if that's the case then Mudryk is up there with Salah due to his 10 minute cameo against Liverpool.  I'm not saying he's a bad player but the guys living of that one performance.  Lets judge who's got the better signing when they've both played at least, or maybe at the end of the season when they've played through a nice British winter.

Once more linked with us.

Juve manager Motta does not want him, he is just about to turn 25. Could our sporting directors finally get us a striker?

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 hour ago, axman2526 said:

Once more linked with us.

Juve manager Motta does not want him, he is just about to turn 25. Could our sporting directors finally get us a striker?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hell no! he is that bad that Motta would rather start a winger with no physical presence at No 9.  

7 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Once more linked with us.

Juve manager Motta does not want him, he is just about to turn 25. Could our sporting directors finally get us a striker?

 

 

 

 

 

 

We're not signing anyone now with the amount of time left in this window. Even if these clowns could contrive to get an agreement in place with any player in time they'd fck the paperwork up anyway.

4 hours ago, WhiteWall said:

We're not signing anyone now with the amount of time left in this window. Even if these clowns could contrive to get an agreement in place with any player in time they'd fck the paperwork up anyway.

were you on holiday in Jan 2011 actually you can just go back to 2023 

25 minutes ago, theGreenBaron said:

were you on holiday in Jan 2011 actually you can just go back to 2023 

we'll see.

11 hours ago, ducavis said:

Hell no! he is that bad that Motta would rather start a winger with no physical presence at No 9.  

Dusan is a very strange striker never seen anything like it before. 

He is a big striker but falls over at the slightest of touch and has zero build/hold up qualities. That's fine though as he's just meant to be very tall poacher, except he misses more chances than Jackson. Bizarre player. 

2 hours ago, Remodez said:

Dusan is a very strange striker never seen anything like it before. 

He is a big striker but falls over at the slightest of touch and has zero build/hold up qualities. That's fine though as he's just meant to be very tall poacher, except he misses more chances than Jackson. Bizarre player. 

Come on, we've seen it at least once before:

6 hours ago, PloKoon13 said:

Come on, we've seen it at least once before:

With a huge connections too.

Honestly for a 4 month loan it'd be worth it just so we at least have some competition for Jackson.

On 22/01/2025 at 16:10, WhiteWall said:

we'll see.

I think you are correct btw - just an observations that things can come to life in the last days 

On 24/01/2025 at 09:12, Ukraine Bolt said:

Honestly for a 4 month loan it'd be worth it just so we at least have some competition for Jackson.

I can imagine Vlahovic having a huge impact as a loan player, just like Higuain did.

He’s rubbish, we need to stay away.

Chiesa, when fit, is much better and he's  already spoken for.

Vlahovic would be one of the few options at the moment, especially for this window. We may well have to go without this window, although it would be far from ideal. 

Apparently Chelsea have joined Newcastle in the race to sign out-of-contract Juventus star Dusan Vlahovic [26] this summer. The Serbia striker has scored 64 times in 164 games over the last four years in Turin, with eight goals in 20 appearances across all competitions so far this season.

The new "Hulk" ...

21 hours ago, TheCeleryKing said:

Apparently Chelsea have joined Newcastle in the race to sign out-of-contract Juventus star Dusan Vlahovic [26] this summer. The Serbia striker has scored 64 times in 164 games over the last four years in Turin, with eight goals in 20 appearances across all competitions so far this season.

Apparently? Just another dose of clickbait invention. He has been supposedly linked with nearly every PL team over the years, presumably his agent's doing. He's not PL standard.

3 hours ago, dermott said:

Apparently? Just another dose of clickbait invention. He has been supposedly linked with nearly every PL team over the years, presumably his agent's doing. He's not PL standard.

Allegedly? Supposedly Arsenal were very interested in signing him at one point, now it is Spurs, Newcastle and Chelsea who are after him. Ostensibly he might be a good move on a FREE and Marc Guiu is really ready for a loan and Liam Delap hasn't really worked out and he might also be a loan next season. Seemingly Chelsea are considering him. I have not seen his youtube reel yet, but you're saying he is not all that?

8 hours ago, TheCeleryKing said:

Allegedly? Supposedly Arsenal were very interested in signing him at one point, now it is Spurs, Newcastle and Chelsea who are after him. Ostensibly he might be a good move on a FREE and Marc Guiu is really ready for a loan and Liam Delap hasn't really worked out and he might also be a loan next season. Seemingly Chelsea are considering him. I have not seen his youtube reel yet, but you're saying he is not all that?

He looked brilliant at his previous club (Fiorentina?) but has flattered to deceive at Juve. Think he’s had a big injury too.

Isn’t mobile enough for me and I’d have Pedro ahead of him if he came.

19 hours ago, TheCeleryKing said:

Allegedly? Supposedly Arsenal were very interested in signing him at one point, now it is Spurs, Newcastle and Chelsea who are after him. Ostensibly he might be a good move on a FREE and Marc Guiu is really ready for a loan and Liam Delap hasn't really worked out and he might also be a loan next season. Seemingly Chelsea are considering him. I have not seen his youtube reel yet, but you're saying he is not all that?

As I said, he has been linked with a lot of clubs over the years but no more than linked. No one has ever moved for him. He's 26, injury-prone, coming back from a November operation on an abductor muscle. For comparison, Chiesa was always better than him.