On 14/09/2025 at 07:49, Scott Harris said:

I'm not writing him off yet, but f**king hell, it's scary how far out of his depth he is looking. How do you spend £60m on a player that looks so wildly out of place?

Fingers need to be pointed at the two clowns again too. Why the f**k are we spending £60m on Gittens when we were just going to sign Garnacho no matter what anyway? May as well have just kept Madueke and spend that £60m on a CB.

You always need to account for a new signing's ability to adapt to a new league, culture, country etc, especially when young, but with Gittens he's literally returning to his hometown so I'm not sure what to make of that. There is no doubt to me that he has been reading the media about his transfer fee, the club chasing Garnacho/Simons etc. and it's got to his head, on top of having to adjust to a completely different style of playing.

To answer your question, I'd guess that there is a difference in opinion between Joe Shields (who targets his former grads like Gittens) and the SDs (who have openly courted Garnacho for 6 months).

He’s new to he PL give him time. Don’t boo him don’t groan at him give the young man confidence.

On 14/09/2025 at 05:49, Scott Harris said:

I'm not writing him off yet, but f**king hell, it's scary how far out of his depth he is looking. How do you spend £60m on a player that looks so wildly out of place?

Fingers need to be pointed at the two clowns again too. Why the f**k are we spending £60m on Gittens when we were just going to sign Garnacho no matter what anyway? May as well have just kept Madueke and spend that £60m on a CB.

The more ticket you buy the bigger chance you hit jackpot.

Selling Madueke make sense, he is basically an established pl winger and England international, he will demand big wages soon. Gittens on the other hand looks like years away.

Edited September 16, 2025Sep 16 by Bob stark

To be ahead of other young or established players, you would think he must be strong and be playing well in training. Unfortunately his game time so far hasn’t shown this.

He looks really raw and uncooked atm. Wishing him best of luck

Saw a Thierry Henry clip recently where he talked about his own mentality when playing out wide, and coaching the likes of Jeremy Doku and Desire Doue. His view is that most young wingers are coached far too conservatively and adopt too much caution as a result. One thing that changed for him was realising all he needed was one chance of beating the fullback. If he scored or created after that one moment, he had left his mark on the fullback and earned the right to play. It didn't matter if the defender tackled him 9 times, all he needed was one dribble that led to a goal and assist - that's all anyone would remember.

I reckon that's Gittens' biggest hurdle to adapt to. He comes from a team environment where the expectation is just for him to dribble as much as he can. Now he's a big money, starting LW, who is expected to create every single time, and in Maresca’s system he is relied on to make it work tactically. The team is so young that he isn't the young prodigy or afforded all the leeway that goes with that.

Mentally and tactically, these are big hurdles. He's arguably come in with even more expectation than Estevao.

3 hours ago, SydneyChelsea said:

Saw a Thierry Henry clip recently where he talked about his own mentality when playing out wide, and coaching the likes of Jeremy Doku and Desire Doue. His view is that most young wingers are coached far too conservatively and adopt too much caution as a result. One thing that changed for him was realising all he needed was one chance of beating the fullback. If he scored or created after that one moment, he had left his mark on the fullback and earned the right to play. It didn't matter if the defender tackled him 9 times, all he needed was one dribble that led to a goal and assist - that's all anyone would remember.

I reckon that's Gittens' biggest hurdle to adapt to. He comes from a team environment where the expectation is just for him to dribble as much as he can. Now he's a big money, starting LW, who is expected to create every single time, and in Maresca’s system he is relied on to make it work tactically. The team is so young that he isn't the young prodigy or afforded all the leeway that goes with that.

Mentally and tactically, these are big hurdles. He's arguably come in with even more expectation than Estevao.

I don't think this is the case. He is basically very raw right now. Need to improve on finding separation which is normal.

Quenda

Garnacho

Paez

Mudryk (Ban should be lifted for next season)

George (likely to be sold in Jan/Summer)

Realistically looking at the squad Gittens could be 6th choice going into next season, 5th at best.

We’ve made some bad signings, but this one for the value, positional need & ability is an absolute stinker.

I get the argument of signing for the future but also the present has to happen at some point. This squad is good enough to be challenging when fully fit and set up correctly from the 1st minute every game.

I think what we fans think of players when we see them play and what the manager and coaching staff see are completely two different things.

£60m, how do u flip that for profit in 4yrs?

Unless inflation drives all player prices through the roof he’s going to be sold for about £30-40m once we’ve had him stinking our place up for a few yrs and he only starts to look half decent but we will be told it’s an amortisation profit and was all part of the plan.

Then off to the next 19yr old.

But this is the clubs model now so nobody is allowed to speak out about it.

37 minutes ago, C3blue said:

£60m, how do u flip that for profit in 4yrs?

Unless inflation drives all player prices through the roof he’s going to be sold for about £30-40m once we’ve had him stinking our place up for a few yrs and he only starts to look half decent but we will be told it’s an amortisation profit and was all part of the plan.

Then off to the next 19yr old.

But this is the clubs model now so nobody is allowed to speak out about it.

Well he’s meant to be the elite level talent which is why they spent so much. Should he reach the potential he could sell for top price range in the 90m-100m

Even if he flops and goes for 30-40m the board will probably see that as a profit book value wise.

9 minutes ago, Remodez said:

Well he’s meant to be the elite level talent which is why they spent so much. Should he reach the potential he could sell for top price range in the 90m-100m

Even if he flops and goes for 30-40m the board will probably see that as a profit book value wise.

I think this is the issue I have with that approach... In 18 months, we dont see players, certainly not wingers, doing what they should be doing because Maresca's tactics stiffle them. Theyre asked to do jobs as oppoesd to stretching play and pinning full backs in their own half and or going past players and creating.

Waiting to see which Palmer turns up this season, but the guy who destroyed teams playing on the right hasnt been at the club since January this year, maybe niggling injuries, a change in position, but if he has another season like the second half of last year, not even Manchester city are going to spend 80 million buying him back. we only see him shine when he stops playing the Maresca way. Its a decision for the board to sort out.

Also, if we do see continued player inflation, we'll be paying 100 million in five years for the likes of the next Gittens. That to me is simply unstable and bad financial modelling that these venture capitalists use... at some point the music stops.

I just hope for the clubs sake, Mr Gittens finds form and proves the detractors on here wrong but he is going to need time and patience.

1 hour ago, C3blue said:

£60m, how do u flip that for profit in 4yrs?

Unless inflation drives all player prices through the roof he’s going to be sold for about £30-40m once we’ve had him stinking our place up for a few yrs and he only starts to look half decent but we will be told it’s an amortisation profit and was all part of the plan.

Then off to the next 19yr old.

But this is the clubs model now so nobody is allowed to speak out about it.

To who? The real money is in the PL, and what PL club will pay that kind of money for an underperforming winger from a top club? Semenyo was £8m, Ndiaye £15m, and both players were picked up on under £50k/w wages. There is no market for an £100k/w winger if he fails.

47 minutes ago, bluelightening said:

I think this is the issue I have with that approach... In 18 months, we dont see players, certainly not wingers, doing what they should be doing because Maresca's tactics stiffle them. Theyre asked to do jobs as oppoesd to stretching play and pinning full backs in their own half and or going past players and creating.

Waiting to see which Palmer turns up this season, but the guy who destroyed teams playing on the right hasnt been at the club since January this year, maybe niggling injuries, a change in position, but if he has another season like the second half of last year, not even Manchester city are going to spend 80 million buying him back. we only see him shine when he stops playing the Maresca way. Its a decision for the board to sort out.

Also, if we do see continued player inflation, we'll be paying 100 million in five years for the likes of the next Gittens. That to me is simply unstable and bad financial modelling that these venture capitalists use... at some point the music stops.

I just hope for the clubs sake, Mr Gittens finds form and proves the detractors on here wrong but he is going to need time and patience.

Think this is a slightly different topic but one I agree with.

The idea of putting them on the shop window and allowing them to flourish with their natural talent to cash in later on I think clashes against everything Maresca has so far displayed as a manager. This makes it harder, not impossible, to really get the fees the club would ideally want.

I don't think we will ever get to a stage in our life time that paying 100million for a Gittens would be considered normal. It simply wouldn't be sustainable.

15 minutes ago, markpitts said:

To who? The real money is in the PL, and what PL club will pay that kind of money for an underperforming winger from a top club? Semenyo was £8m, Ndiaye £15m, and both players were picked up on under £50k/w wages. There is no market for an £100k/w winger if he fails.

Bear in mind that underperforming in the prem for a top club is not a death sentence. Many will still succeed in other leagues.

Also he's on 90k/w, which does make a difference in terms of wage structure at other "lesser clubs".

Edited September 17, 2025Sep 17 by Remodez

£30-40m was an if we are lucky amount. The fact is £60m is way too high if ur hoping to flip which they of course are.

He would have to be a huge success for him to be £80-£100m player and has been said only a handful of clubs in the world could afford that anyway.

We are stock piling so called potential at prices most clubs don’t or can’t spend that sort of money on for the finished player.

12 minutes ago, C3blue said:

£30-40m was an if we are lucky amount. The fact is £60m is way too high if ur hoping to flip which they of course are.

He would have to be a huge success for him to be £80-£100m player and has been said only a handful of clubs in the world could afford that anyway.

We are stock piling so called potential at prices most clubs don’t or can’t spend that sort of money on for the finished player.

It's £50m we paid, it was 60m in euros.

Still a lot of money of course, and I believe Dortmund even have a sell on too, but don't think it would be too difficult to move on for a "book value profit" of 30m-40m should he not fulfill his hyped potential.

Always a sign of good business when instead of discussing what an impact said player has had on the team we are discussing whether or not we can get our money back in a few years.

It's a handful of games in and the kid deserves a lot more grace. I think he's our best prospect for LW by a mile and despite being low on confidence, should have started vs a Bayern team he tore to shreds last season.

Truth is he will never reach his potential as long as Maresca plays the way he does, so there's no point in getting excited.

On 18/09/2025 at 01:18, C3blue said:

Always a sign of good business when instead of discussing what an impact said player has had on the team we are discussing whether or not we can get our money back in a few years.

When I saw that Delap is available for 30m, I knew that we will get him. 30m is a bargain for pl st, if it works out great, if it doesn't you can pretty much get your money back in 2 years. It is sad but this is how we do business.

This guy does not have a higher ceiling than Sancho

It's actually offensive to Sancho to even compare!

Regardless of what fans think of Garnacho, he is streets ahead of Gittens!

Blueco have signed some lemons but this guy is horrendous.

Whoever scouted this absolute cabbage needs sacking immediately. Makes Koulibaly look like a diamond.