I doubt he'd have been under 30 tbh. They wouldn't even go for that when they were on the verge of going bust. The point I was making is that we'd be better off saving the money for a potentially >£50mill deal for a top drawer midfielder. I like Jack and think he fits us well with his work ethic but so does Lamela and I'd take an injury-prone Lamela over Grealish. It's not like we'd get more for Lamela than Grealish would cost either.
IIRC they were in danger of failing FFP due to the amount they've spent since being in the Championship, if they'd have lost today they'd would've had to sell some assets to comply. Not sure they'd have been in a good enough bargaining position to have demanded any more than £30m. I personally wanted Grealish and a top CM such as Tielemans/ Ndombele, because we desperately lack creativity in CM. None of our current four first team CMs have a creative bone in their body. Lamela and Grealish are different players and play in different positions, right now I'd prefer Grealish though because we need someone like him, as much as I like Lamela, I think we've reached a point where we don't really need him any more.
Tielemans' main asset is that he gets the ball moving and can pick up the tempo, similar to Winks, whilst Ndombele's more of an upgrade on Sissoko. Not sure you can call them creative if you don't think any of our current midfielders are. Grealish can play in a 3 man midfield when he has license to go forward but Eriksen and Dele are both better in that role so I think the Lamela comparison works as he'd likely play further up the pitch. Ultimately, if he's playing a midfield 2/3 then Rabiot, Ndombele, Kessie and Gomes will all be available and would all offer more. Further up Lo Celso, James and Zaniolo would all be better. Then there's players at Real and Barca who could come available depending who they sign, and Clarke at Leeds could be worth a punt. Players with experience at the higher levels should be a priority, Grealish hasn't played PL football since he actually started looking like a decent player.
Our four CMs combined this season managed 5 goals and 2 assists in the Prem. Tielemans alone managed 3 goals and 5 assists and he done it in just 13 games. I'd definitely say he's far more creative than anything we've got at CM. Ndombele seems more like a Dembele with assists (7 in Ligue 1) which is still more than what any of our four managed. Grealish played in a two man midfield last season under Bruce in which he played a Modric-esque role for Villa and that's when the links to Spurs started appearing. He can play as a ten like Dele and Eriksen if need be but it's his performances as a number eight that got our attention.
Looks like Newcastle are on the brink of becoming City mk.II. Cousin of Sheikh Mansour apparently? Forgive the rant but it is so incredibly frustrating watching your club painstakingly build over 15 years only for nothing clubs to be artificially inseminated by some ethically bankrupt foreigner who much prefers expensive new toys and shiny airlines over helping the many millions of his co-religionists displaced by war and conflict in recent years.
Try to feign surprise when they start paying surprisingly large fees for players whose names look uncannily like the ones listed here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018–19_Manchester_City_F.C._season#Loans_out
Yes I was going to ask how on earth this could be legal to have two clubs in the same division owned by the same foundation. What will stop Newcastle becoming City's in-house academy? What will stop them gifting each other points or players when needs must? UEFA? The FA? Yeah sure that looks watertight.
I think the gap between the top six and the rest is too big at the moment for Newcastle’s potential new owners to break into. Could be wrong but I’m not overly worried if the takeover goes ahead. FFP rules nowadays may make it a bit harder for them to close that gap anyway, although cue brown envelope suggestions to the FA/ UEFA once they’re spending £300m in a window.
I just paid a visit to the website of the Bin Zayed Charitable Foundation and either the english version is still being built or there just isn't very much to write about. Such a ****ty webpage by all accounts was probably thrown together by Sheikh Mansour's 6 year old grandson on Wix. Oh no wait that's an Israeli company so he can't be using that. The only noteworthy bulletins I managed to glean were that they fund 600 men and 300 women to make the Haj, funded 130 hospital beds in the Emirates, which costs appx. what Aguero earns in a season, and built a medical centre in East Jerusalem, which is actually a nice gesture I suppose. They're just relentlessly benevolent.
I like the thought that Aston Villa are back in the PL. As an old fan,it seems that's where they belong,even forgetting the Chelsea part!
Looks like Valverde’s set to be sacked. His replacement? Supposedly Roberto Martinez. Six years ago he was managing Wigan! Talk about hitting the jackpot.
I guess that means Norbert's not the elite coach we're told he is, given Barca have no interest in bringing him in...
Authorities are investigating as many as 8 cases of match fixing on Spanish soil. Hope they keep their eyes peeled for any brown envelopes containing wads of cash and a note reading 'this is our year' with a return address of simply the BBC HQ, Salford.
It'd be interesting if any of them happened to involve Girona, considering they're part of The Sheikh Mansour Empire ...of course, it would just be "jealousy" to find them guilty of match-fixing
