Is it also because Arsenal & Chelsea probably have better links than us in both France and Italy? Wenger always seemed to look to France first and Chelsea to Italy. I hadn't given this much thought before but there does appear to be a pattern.
And Croatia and Argentina have been ok - but we need a Scot , it's been said before but we win trophies when we have a scotsman in the team.
The standards in Scotland have fallen dramatically from the 70s when arguably they had the best players in the UK. But there are signs of a comeback as Scotland has invested in large indoor football centres for youngsters. The loss of industry in Scotland ship yards, steelworks and mines used to produce many of the strong Scottish stars. All gone Thatcher again.
True, but there are still the occasional gem - obvs we won;t get Robertson or Tierney, but McGinn is a tidy player and there is a striker at Dundee United called Lawrence Shankland who has quite a goal scoring record and if he carries that on this year in Scottish premier league may get a chance at a higher level, I know its a big jump but sometimes goal scorers just keep scoring, one to keep an eye on.
hence why I’ve often said the first thing I’d do since we are not interested in spending money...I’d sack the scouts and replace the whole system with something a bit more fruitful...better scouts for a start.
Fabrizio Romano claims we're in the market for a CB, CF and a winger Of course he didn't say who, given he no doubt monetizes his tweets...
I don't think we do badly on signings on average. For comparison here are Chelsea's signings above £30m before this season Mateo Kovačić £40,000,000 Kepa Arrizabalaga £71,000,000 Jorginho £57,000,000 Christian Pulisic £57,600,000 Tiemoué Bakayoko £40,000,000 Álvaro Morata £60,000,000 Danny Drinkwater £35,000,000 Michy Batshuayi £32,300,000 N'Golo Kanté £30,000,000 David Luiz £34,000,000 Cesc Fàbregas £30,000,000 Diego Costa £32,000,000 Eden Hazard £32,000,000 Fernando Torres £50,000,000 I would say 3 big successes, 2 ok, 3 too early to tell, 3 poor value and 3 disasters.
Holland has definitely been a huge success for us, two of the Belgian’s and the Dane we’ve signed all came from Holland too. We could do a lot worse than delving deeper into that market considering: Vertonghen and Eriksen - huge successes Chadli - success, doubled our money Sanchez - success but could be better Bergwijn - looks like he’ll be a strong success The only flop has been Janssen. It’s a shame we couldn’t get Donny, apparently Utd only paid £35m up front, should prove a bargain in time to come.
Don’t think they need sacking, just adding too. Most of our scouts are British from what I can gather and so it’s not really a surprise we’ve generally done well when signing British players - we’ve also missed out on a good number of British players that we’d scouted early doors - whereas the success rate for non-Brits is more hit and miss. I think we could do a lot worse than trying to sign one or two scouts from clubs like Ajax, Dortmund, Porto, Dinamo Zagreb etc and have them scout their respective country’s to ideally find us gems. I think in general, a native to a country is better than a foreigner doing a search because in theory they’d have more time to extensively scout particular players and possibly have stronger links to communities/ agents etc.
Big successes; Hazard, Kante, Pulisic, Costa? I assume Pulisic is in your too early, but I'd take him tomorrow
How do they use him Pogba and Fernandes though. To accommodate they need a whole change of shape or go Ardiles formation.
Not sure, possibly a diamond with McTominay at the base, Donny and Pogba in the middle and Bruno in front? Though if they don’t then it likely means they’ve got great options if one has to start from the bench. Utd one of those sides that has the money to keep top players on the bench.
Guess they could do that and stick two up top but Pogba only plays well in a 433 and they look better with Rashford coming in from the left than as a 9 IMO. Plus if they do that then where does Sancho, who they’ve been chasing all summer, fit in? Unless they’ve given up and just gone for Donny and changed their whole plan of playing because of that but it seems a bit reactive as a proposition and they wouldn’t have time to train the new shape before the season starts.
I would say big successes for me were Costa, Hazard, Fabregas, Kante and the much maligned Luiz. Pulisic looks really good, Kovacic is decent Some big flops there, Torres, Bakayoko (was excited here), Morata (was excited here too at least we got our money back), Drinkwater (you could call this from the start), Batshuayi, Jorginho, Kepa (Obvious from the start we overpaid).
What does it matter? All they have to do is run into the area and fall over. The sad thing is that is this isn't really a joke.
The majestic bastard is still pulling off assists for us! Saying a lot of the things you want to hear, really hope he does the business.
