Rival watch

Coutinho’s the closest player to Eriksen in Europe right now I’d say. When both were in the Prem the stats were very similar, Eriksen edged him IIRC though the main difference between the two was reputation and persona. Coutinho being a Pool player instantly got him more media attention and hype, being a ‘silky Brazilian’ too also meant that he’d appeal more to big clubs than the quiet Dane at Spurs, despite - in my opinion - Eriksen being the slightly better of the two, he seemed more consistent and created more chances.

If the club feels Eriksen needs direct replacing then there won’t be many better options than Coutinho, albeit it will be a costly one and I’m not sure if Spurs would have the finances. A lot would also depend on Ndombele, it’d be impossible to fit Coutinho, Ndombele and Lo Celso into an XI and there’s not a chance in hell Spurs would allow one of them to be on the bench most weeks - likely Ndombele at the moment - when they’re on £200k a week and cost the club £55m.

 

There’s talk on Twitter that I think has stemmed from reliable Leicester accounts that Chelsea have made a breakthrough for Chilwell and that the fee will be a world record fee for a FB.

I think Cancelo holds the current record at £60m.

Leicester developing a knack of selling “ok/ good” players for world records after slabhead and now seemingly Chilwell.

 

433 with Højbjerg, Ndombele, Lo Celso behind Kane, Son, Coutinho?
Would need to sell Lamela or Lucas to free up a non-HG place.

 

Coutinho could definitely play out wide as he's played LW many times but that'd then mean Son likely being moved to RW when he's generally better at LW. So it'd be a case of putting two top players in secondary positions. It could work though.

 

So if we don't buy somebody who's flopped at Barca and Bayern that automatically means we're signing somebody from Norwich?

I mean I was going to suggest Marcelo Brozovic from Inter, or test Bournemouth's resolve to keep hold of David Brooks, or take advantage of Valencia's fire sale and make a bid for Dani Parejo or Lee Kang-in, but apparently Norwich players are the only ones good enough...

 

Google translate (English to Gooner) ... processing ... done

< FACT >

 

Are Munich the only CL team in the past decade to have utterly
demolished Barca (2013 and now) ??

We know Barca lose in the CL but I cannot recall offhand other teams
who have done so in a one/two leg tie.

 

WTF did Barca even buy Coutinho ??
Who was he supposed to be "heir apparent" to ??

Vermin that they are, at least with Madrid you see some of the ROI
that they got from Bale (regardless of how that saga is playing out as the
end approaches) .

 

They’ve made some, well, questionable, purchases for big money - think Coutinho, Griezmann, who just don’t seem to fit into the team. The structure behind the scenes seems broken. Lots to fix on the pitch. La Masia doesn’t seem to be what it once was, by all accounts. Messi is the elephant in the room, because the end has to come for him sometime. Something’s rotten in the state of Barça and it’s going to be a big fix.

 

Barca have this weird approach where anyone looking at the team can tell they need to sign replacements for Messi, Suarez and Busquets yet instead they signed a replacement for Rakitic (while keeping the original one) while Griezmann is expected to replace Neymar and Suarez at the same time - yet they also haven't offloaded Dembele, who was supposed to replace Neymar

 

Joined Villarreal for nothing a few days ago. Francis Coq au vin joined him for €8m.
Valencia's owner is a ****ing fruitcake and an arsehole.

 

I can see Barcelona going after Klopp, I think he would jump at the chance.

 

Utterly ridiculous

Keep wishing bruv

 

Poch, Xavi and Koeman in the frame according to Spanish press.

 

Won't be Poch because of Espanyol. Xavi turned it down last time. Koeman would make a lot of sense but the current Netherlands team are pretty strong and you'd think he might want a tilt at the Euros next summer with them before taking on Barca.

 

Pochettino recently walked back his comment that he'd rather live on a farm than manage Barca and has supposedly met up with them.

 

Looks like Bournemouth have accepted an 18.5 million bid for Aaron Ramsdale from Sheffield United

 

That’s interesting...well he is the man for a rebuild after all and he’d have a task on his hands there that’s for sure.

 

I think that they need somebody with a strong hand, but that also has the approval of their big names.
They clearly didn't give a **** yesterday and that's an awful position for any manager to be in.
It's a massive job, but it's also a really tough one right now.

 

The tough one is Messi. Because he’ll be there as long as he wants to be. No manager will walk in and show him the door and the chairman who hires a manager to do that will take a metaphorical bullet. You can make the case for consigning Pique, Suarez and Busquets to the subs bench at this stage, to be fair, which is what might need to be done. Trouble is that their defence is all at sea as it is, they just need a major, major rebuild.