How does that change....argggh fine. FINE:

I will be shocked if Karius remains the Liverpool keeper for the next season. The fixture dates get released on the 14th of June. I will report back with the exact date of my announced shock if Karius is still the number 1 for Pool (Liverpool Football Club that is)

I know that, MW reckons they might be though. Which just adds to it as you want to keep your best players and it adds more value to anyway potential transfer fee.

KW, just out of curosity at how much do you value De Gea?

If they spend it on a 26 year old Englishman sure, but five to seven years younger and he won't. Obv you won't get an elite prospect for that cash but if they've got some scouting, I'd probably rather take a Flyer on a one or two year pro than have a great backup GK. It's not like the backup's value is gonna rise while sitting on the bench while the end of his contract gets shorter.

None of this means they should take what they can get ofc but holding out until the Pickford fee is met sounds way wrong.

Waking up to the news that we're doing a last push to keep Adli (RMC) and that Antero Henrique met multiple times with N'Golo's agent these last few weeks (Paris United).

#dreamsummer

Luckily i was already told not to be excited about some kid signing so I'm not concerned at all

Well Allison is being reported at £70m, so it’s anyone s guess really. Besides, players are only worth what someone is willing the pay.

15m in this market is too low and Burnley quite rightly are saying no.

I'm with you now, must've missed the reference to mw's post.

We're not in a position yet where we are going to spend that sort of money on potential. If we're paying an 8-figure sum on a player, they need to be ready to go straight into the first team squad and be better than what we have.

We're under no pressure to sell because of the way the club is run. The money is already there for players if they fit the structure and the manager wants them. We haven't spent all of the £30m we got for Keane last summer.

It's amazing how your hatred of perceived burnley hatred makes you say such stupid things. Total strawman argument. When did I say to accept under market value? TP was talking about holding out for more than Pickford money, which is crazy. Accepting that you won't get as much as the most overinflated goalkeeper fee in football history is not a fire sale. 20-25m is a fair price for pope and probably even less for heaton because he is 5 years older.


This pretty much. I don't believe they should take whatever they can get. If the only offer for pope is like 10m, I would pass and gamble on his value going up, even if he only has 2 yrs on his contract like someone said (haven't verified that myself).

I actually like most of this burnley team. I didn't like them at all last time they were in the prem. Now they'd be just fine other than buying walters who is possibly my most hated player OAT.

Yup. Time for the World Cup!

Definitely a pure dm lone number 6 type of deepest midfielder in 3 man midfields.

He hasn't shown himself to have Xhaka's passing range but has nonetheless done well enough overall technique-wise, and maybe especially reading the game-wise, for a team trying to play techical football.

Defensively he's done very well in that role, maybe even similar to a young Mascherano and already significantly better than Xhaka when it comes to disciplined (but still aggressive) defensive work and spoilering.

Curiously he is fouled a lot as a dm. Some of those freekicks he wouldn't get in England. I think he is using his small build to sell contact.

He would be one of the shortest players in the league and the shortest midfielder along with Kante and Joe Allen.

My first thought when I saw him linked to Arsenal were along the lines of him being one of those very South American, not just DMs, but deepest DMs, that it's still tricky to picture in England, over Italy or Spain.

Such a player would have to be Mascherano great in order to thrive? But who knows maybe Torreira is somewhat up to that and of course the league is evolving.

--------

When I first saw Xhaka for Basel he would sometimes be a very exciting number 8 type of midfielder. Playing plenty of box to box. I remember him having an incredible game against Man U playing that style.

It was at Gladbach, after a horrible start, that he started getting hype and praise as a deep midfielder, on a team however seeing way less very dangerous transition against, than Arsenal, and I think at this point it's fair to say that you probably won't seriously contend for the PL title with Xhaka as a key player defensively in that role.

If someone else, better than him, would get such a role at Arsenal, I wouldn't mind seeing Xhaka at least getting a shot, or some rotation, in one of the more all-round midfield roles (3-man midfield).

xhaka seems underrated right now due to our whole team blindly bombing forward constantly leaving him horribly exposed in situations where his main weaknesses lie.
He isn't a lone DM ffs

He is, admittedly, super busy in his role as lone DM.

It’s reallybweird tbh. They are an insanely innocuous team. It’s like hating on your kinda old school uncle who’s a really nice dude. Because, reasons.......

Haha

Also for that post Björn. Seemingly we are really close to signign him. I dont mind such a gamble tbh and 22mill is more than fair especially in today's market


Think it is mostly due to TP leading arguments which he most likely already won over 10+ pages...could be wrong tho. Might be the boring football. I quite like how organized they are and how well they can play together.

this is a good point

they probably should be pumping & dumping keepers until ppl catch on
(defenders & DMs too possibly)

you keep saying this ... what is this way?

Greedy owners getting rich off their near league bottom turnover

ssn
great timing, i expect engerlund ****papers to have blahblah greedy sterling blahblah titles today

No reason Sterling shouldnt try to squeeze every last penny out of these mother****ers, but he almost certainly wont repeat his counting stats from this season and I dont see RM, Barca or PSG being in for him. He'll sign.

L'equippe going with Lemar to Atletico

You obviously don't consider Spurs under Poch a top club on this evidence.

this shot stopping vs distribution is a nice example of absolute value vs value over replacement imo.

Obv on the face of it if a keeper can't stop shot he sucks, while one that can't distribute doesn't necessarily. But given that there's like 100 keepers who are regarded as great shot stoppers, there's not much reason to spend much money on that quality.

Arse getting busy, closing in on Leno too now according to Bild.

Not a dream summer, but identified targets in areas of the squad that were weak and improved them.

Sokratis
Lichsteiner
Torreirra
Leno

Curious who leaves. I'm guessing Wilshere and Ospina are moving on.

Add Auba, Mikh for fleeing Alexis and Mavropanos(hehe) and it is certainly a dream-year.

AMN just signed a long extension which is certainly good news.