I would personally put LW as our highest priority. Give Gyokeres and Havertz the ball in the box and they are pretty solid. I wouldn't even be opposed to keeping Jesus for another season if he took a steep pay cut. I don't think we can get both Barcola and Alvarez unless we are willing to forgo other positions. Both would cost about 200 mil together give or take. We do that and we have room for a 50 million pound signing (Bouaddi?). I would go Barcola, Rogers, Bouaddi, Kofane or Kroupi (crazy as it sounds I'd take Kofane but wouldn't cry if we got Kroupi), Monga, forgo Tzolis and keep either of Trossard or Martinelli. Reason is, two new players in that position is going to take some adjustments. Having someone who is already settled, knows the team and the set up, can be subbed on or start at thet season till the new player is settled in the club and the league. Sell Jesus, Kiwior, Norgaard, Reiss Nelson. I'd prefer to keep Ben White and Nwaneri. But if we need money sell either or both.
There’s some shady news coming out around Maresca being named Pep’s replacement at Cheaty. 1.Maresca RESIGNED in December, walking away from his contract with Chel$ki and received no compensation from the club when he departed. 2. So why is Cheaty now paying Chel$KI 17M GBP as a condition to sign Maresca? And Maresca has also paid Chel$ki a fee reportedly around 3M GBP. Chel$ki is now receiving a total ~20M GBP over this. It seems obvious that there were violations around Maresca’s departure, but instead of trying to litigate, Chel$KI is willing to extort cash right away and bury the evidence. https://www.football365.com/news/ma...ppointment-chelsea-respond-322-word-statement
Oh, I agree there. The new news is the money being exchanged, especially with Chel$ki's statement today on the topic inferred there were violations but they're OK with it now that they're being compensated. It's been years since the 115 came out, and this seems to be a clear case of Cheaty willfully breaking the rules and then making payments to keep them off the front pages for more violations.
i don't know if the FA has to approve owners like the NBA, NFL AND MLB does. Governments owning a team...hmm.
City and Chelsea were negotiating. That was known too. City tapped up Mascera. It took until July for city to say they hired Mascera.
I didn’t watch Brazil this morning, but I see Martinelli scored the winning goal. I also noted he came on for Cunha. Did he come on as the striker or did come on as the left wing with Vini Jr. sliding over to the striker position.
He was playing as kind of a left sided false 9. Vini stayed on the W and Marti was dropping back a little deeper.
Don Carlo has been playing him in the left sided AM role in the last few games he's played. Vini still playing wider left striker.
Extrapolating from one World Cup goal isn’t a sound tactical approach. However, Martinelli’s best season was with Xhaka as the left 8. If memory serves me well, Xhaka would often drift wide, allowing Martinelli to drift in toward the corner of the box. Maybe there’s a lesson to be learned here.
That, plus Jesus would drift left and the interplay between the two of them made for a superb attack.
You must not be watching many fan programs of other sides. Every single one of them, including the rival fans on AFTV pegged us as early favorites. Also, because we are linked to players like Rogers, Barcola and Alvarez they are peeing themselves that we will be on another level, etc. I don't think it will be that easy even if we get some of the big targets we are linked to.
Two Man Utd guys, 'That's Football' https://www.youtube.com/@thatsfootball and 'Football Terrace' https://www.youtube.com/@TheFootballTerrace/videos are actually very fair, and both have been accused of being closte Arsenal fans because of their predicting us to win the title the last 2 or 3 years and also accused others of being bias.
They are very even handed and call out bias in non City related things like Man Utd pundits Scholes saying anti Arsenal things based on BS. They cheered against us in the CL final from a fan perspective of being Man Utd fans. If you look at their platform a lot of it is about us, and in a positive way. AFTV has fans of other sides like Chelsea, Tottenham and Liverpool and all of them said the early favorites are us, especially if we buy playes like Rogers, Barcola and Alvarez.
Nope, definitely don't watch AFTV. But being considered favorites isn't the same as thinking we're favorites in a walk, regardless. So you're seeing folks say the latter?
Maddison and Fernandes midfield is a really solid one for Tottenham. If they have everyone healthy, they are a legit top 6 challenger. Last season injuries played a great deal with their issues along with mismanagement.
I did a search. Couldn't find 'walk' in my comments. We are the favorites. When we were linked to Rogers, Barcola and possibly Alvarez early on various pundits talked about how much stronger we would be to beat. Nothing abnormal about that. Champions improving the squad means more for other teams to do. No one said walk the walk the league but definitely big favorites. A variety of pundits and YT channels. That's it. If you don't know those channels, fair enough, but that was the prevailing feeling. My view is the other clubs are going to be much tougher and the league is going to be much tighter than it was this past season. Hence "not as easy as some think'. Not its going to be easy but it much harder. Pretty simple concept.
Much respect to Tottenham. Most of their fans have complained a lack of investment into the squad for a while. Its not farfetched to say that lack of investment over time has gotten them near relegation for two straight years. Credit to them for spending big money to guarantee as much as possible it doesn't happen this upcoming season but also puts them in a position to get into Europe again or a cup final. I hope it fails miserably but they are doing the right thing. Beating bigger squads to Fernandes and Tonali (assuming he signs) with already having Maddison is a helluva midfield and one of the best in the league. They should be very tough. The forward line needs more than Solanke but the back line when healthy is decent. The derbies are going to be very interesting.
So "some people" are saying it will be relatively easy otherwise you wouldn't be responding it won't be "as easy" but sure you didn't say "walk." Cool, I love semantics games too.