I hope we are sensible with our world cup players and give them time off and a mini preseason. Group stage players should be able to do that and be back for Bournemouth.

Last 16 and quarterfinals the week after. Anyone reach the semis and beyond would be be from 3 weeks off/preseason training imo.

On 20/11/2022 at 17:58, goose said:

Problem is that ‘Barca’s top execs’ in creating a wonderful team also created something which was unsustainable in high transfers, wage structure and culture. Something which has now almost collapsed the club.

it’s ok for City to take this on as money and finance is not a problem atm as the dance their way around any FFP restrictions.

We on the other hand we do not have that luxury and have to find a solution somewhere in between Brighton and City.

If City took away their best execs, it's no wonder why Barca is slowly collapsing. 

You'd think City was this behemoth in financial superpower (which they are) outspending everyone every season when in actual fact, their spending has been lesser than us for quite a few seasons and even in terms of paying wages, we reportedly pay more. Hard to criticize them for underhanded methods when Todd is actually trying to turn this club into Man City 2.0. Fact is we are a cash rich club willing to play a mediocre brand of football because "The Project" takes 2 years without any guarantee of it succeeding. We have become Utd post-Ferguson and Arsenal post-2005 combined. 

2 hours ago, Deino said:

If City took away their best execs, it's no wonder why Barca is slowly collapsing. 

You'd think City was this behemoth in financial superpower (which they are) outspending everyone every season when in actual fact, their spending has been lesser than us for quite a few seasons and even in terms of paying wages, we reportedly pay more. Hard to criticize them for underhanded methods when Todd is actually trying to turn this club into Man City 2.0. Fact is we are a cash rich club willing to play a mediocre brand of football because "The Project" takes 2 years without any guarantee of it succeeding. We have become Utd post-Ferguson and Arsenal post-2005 combined. 

No different than United's 'project' with Ole. 3 years in and now Ten Hag is having to clean up the mess.

Was watching the Wales game and Ethan Ampadu looks miles better than he used to. Taking him off cost Wales the game. Hope we give him and Colwill a chance next season.

2 hours ago, Drogba1 said:

No different than United's 'project' with Ole. 3 years in and now Ten Hag is having to clean up the mess.

Ten Hag has to be the most overrated manager I've heard about for a while, he's a borderline myth at this point the way people bang on about him.

3 hours ago, Argo said:

Ten Hag has to be the most overrated manager I've heard about for a while, he's a borderline myth at this point the way people bang on about him.

He still has time to them turn the around this season and getting rid of Ronaldo might just lift the squad.

Wouldn't write them or him off just yet. 

27 minutes ago, strider6004 said:

He still has time to them turn the around this season and getting rid of Ronaldo might just lift the squad.

Wouldn't write them or him off just yet. 

I mean he may but there's so far nothing at United or before to demonstrate he's this genius the media and football fans are portraying him as.

His European record is woeful, he has the same GD as us (and we're universally mad at where we are) and at Frank De Boer sweeped up on Dutch titles just like he did, would you want him?

9 hours ago, Deino said:

If City took away their best execs, it's no wonder why Barca is slowly collapsing. 

You'd think City was this behemoth in financial superpower (which they are) outspending everyone every season when in actual fact, their spending has been lesser than us for quite a few seasons and even in terms of paying wages, we reportedly pay more. Hard to criticize them for underhanded methods when Todd is actually trying to turn this club into Man City 2.0. Fact is we are a cash rich club willing to play a mediocre brand of football because "The Project" takes 2 years without any guarantee of it succeeding. We have become Utd post-Ferguson and Arsenal post-2005 combined. 

Would be good to see your figures here Deino. I looked it up and the source I found said we have only been the top spenders once since 2013.

These figures are really eye-opening up to our 2019 transfer embargo season.

https://www.90min.com/posts/6494104-the-premier-league-s-11-biggest-spenders-over-the-last-five-years

4 hours ago, strider6004 said:

He still has time to them turn the around this season and getting rid of Ronaldo might just lift the squad.

Wouldn't write them or him off just yet. 

I haven't watched enough united game under ten hag to judge but if you can drop and get rid of cr7, united job is the easiest job in top 6 by far. The expectation is low after last season but you have top 4 squad. 

 

With Casemiro now with them I think they will start getting results.

United haven't really improved much from last season. Fulham were all over them and they were lucky to get the win before the break for the World Cup. The only thing that has really improved for them is that they are jammy and that us and Liverpool have started the season badly.

1 hour ago, Scott Harris said:

United haven't really improved much from last season. Fulham were all over them and they were lucky to get the win before the break for the World Cup. The only thing that has really improved for them is that they are jammy and that us and Liverpool have started the season badly.

Yep, our performance against them was probably the worst big game performance we've had in my lifetime especially at The Bridge and we still came within three minutes of beating them.

1 hour ago, strider6004 said:

With Casemiro now with them I think they will start getting results.

He's the only reason they aren't below us.

12 hours ago, Argo said:

Yep, our performance against them was probably the worst big game performance we've had in my lifetime especially at The Bridge and we still came within three minutes of beating them.

He's the only reason they aren't below us.

No he isn’t! Rashford is playing much better this season. 

7 hours ago, BS66 said:

Rashford is playing much better this season. 

That's not exactly saying much.

On 26/11/2022 at 06:30, just said:

Would be good to see your figures here Deino. I looked it up and the source I found said we have only been the top spenders once since 2013.

These figures are really eye-opening up to our 2019 transfer embargo season.

https://www.90min.com/posts/6494104-the-premier-league-s-11-biggest-spenders-over-the-last-five-years

The link you've provided only listed spending until 2019 and it's based on net spend. Personally, I don't want to use the net spend argument because we don't really sell first team players much instead we offset our spending by selling academy products or loan fees so we can't exactly make a direct comparison. 

I didn't have the energy to make a side by side comparison in terms of spending for every season but this is a compilation of spending for every club in the Premier League since 2012/13

https://www.transfermarkt.com/premier-league/einnahmenausgaben/wettbewerb/GB1/plus/0?ids=a&sa=&saison_id=2012&saison_id_bis=2022&nat=&pos=&altersklasse=&w_s=&leihe=&intern=0

We are the highest spending club in the PL.

Edited November 27, 20223 yr by Deino

We are apparently very close on Nkunku. I like the idea of him but I don't see any single player solving our problems by themselves nor unlocking something in the side. 

Getting Reece back healthy and having a 27 year old Kante in the side would help alot but that is not in the cards. 

We know this side can beat anyone but we need these World class players playing. Under Tuchel I believed in us. At this moment I don't know what to believe in. 

Somehow I don't see Todd and co giving any leeway to Potter when the pressure mounts. Their experience in world football is next to none and media pressure and the idea we are not able to buy top talent if we lose out on CL has to sit in their minds.

I feel historically unattached and bleak about our future. 

10 minutes ago, evissy said:

We are apparently very close on Nkunku. I like the idea of him but I don't see any single player solving our problems by themselves nor unlocking something in the side. 

Getting Reece back healthy and having a 27 year old Kante in the side would help alot but that is not in the cards. 

We know this side can beat anyone but we need these World class players playing. Under Tuchel I believed in us. At this moment I don't know what to believe in. 

Somehow I don't see Todd and co giving any leeway to Potter when the pressure mounts. Their experience in world football is next to none and media pressure and the idea we are not able to buy top talent if we lose out on CL has to sit in their minds.

I feel historically unattached and bleak about our future. 

We're signing Nkunku despite being in serious danger of missing out.

The UCL factor is very overhyped in attracting players, if you can convince a player it's just a one off they'll likely sign anyway.

On 28/11/2022 at 22:26, evissy said:

We are apparently very close on Nkunku. I like the idea of him but I don't see any single player solving our problems by themselves nor unlocking something in the side. 

Getting Reece back healthy and having a 27 year old Kante in the side would help alot but that is not in the cards. 

We know this side can beat anyone but we need these World class players playing. Under Tuchel I believed in us. At this moment I don't know what to believe in. 

Somehow I don't see Todd and co giving any leeway to Potter when the pressure mounts. Their experience in world football is next to none and media pressure and the idea we are not able to buy top talent if we lose out on CL has to sit in their minds.

I feel historically unattached and bleak about our future. 

All we need is one very good dm and that will solve a lot of our problem. 

9 hours ago, Bob stark said:

All we need is one very good dm and that will solve a lot of our problem. 

Not true.

9 hours ago, Bob stark said:

All we need is one very good dm and that will solve a lot of our problem. 

We need a high stamina DM with good close control and ball-winning attributes, a fast, physical box to box CM with high playmaking qualities and a fast physical striker that can score goals and bring others into play

And that's just to have a good 11 never mind challenging for the league and trophies

We need a couple of players that can provide 10 goals and 10 assists a season. Players that are reliable in attack and actually enjoy doing it. If Kai and Mount were them kind of players we hoped them to be, we would be absolutely fine.

45 minutes ago, KonaKai Blue said:

We need a couple of players that can provide 10 goals and 10 assists a season. Players that are reliable in attack and actually enjoy doing it. If Kai and Mount were them kind of players we hoped them to be, we would be absolutely fine.

Mount literally just did that last season.

We need 2 central midfielders, going into this season with the ones we have was ridiculously negligent by Tuchel.

1 minute ago, dkw said:

We need 2 central midfielders, going into this season with the ones we have was ridiculously negligent by Tuchel.

He was probably reasonably anticipating Kante to be fit and ready for action (after a specialised fitness program and not being on the USA Tour), and also expecting Gallagher to make more of an impact after all the media fanfare about his stint at Palace ... 

I agree we need at least 2 midfielders 🙂 

Personally I'd be looking for 4, as I don't think any of the 2022/23 Jorginho, Kante, Kovacic, Gallagher or RLC are quite what we need to challenge for the PL title ... 

19 hours ago, Deino said:

We need a high stamina DM with good close control and ball-winning attributes, a fast, physical box to box CM with high playmaking qualities and a fast physical striker that can score goals and bring others into play

And that's just to have a good 11 never mind challenging for the league and trophies

Our biggest problem right now is that we need to find a way to play without wb because all of our wb are injured. 

It is the same exact problem that tuchel had last year.