True, but it caused a few ripples of discontent at the time. Luckily it proved no barrier to Emi's NCFC career progression, though.
Speaking of Emi, here's a useful warning about taking transfer rumours too seriously: https://www.justarsenal.com/arsenals-interest-in-buendia-was-just-paper-talk/273045
And here I was thinking we don't have to put up transfer rumors for awhile. £35 mil would be a good price for Max if he is ready to go.
With the installments we already have coming in for Jamal Lewis and Ben Godfrey that would enable some quality signings in the summer, starting with Giannoulis and Quintilla if we gain promotion. Obviously we'd need to replace Max, although we do have Byram and Mumba. Byram's injuries are a bit worrying, though and with Mumba as the young prospect it would be good to get another RB with experience in top level football.
That is a decent amount if Bayern can match it. Max is the real deal though so I expect him to go for an established player amount. That will be him firmly in the England senior XI window (alongside Godfrey too perhaps).
It was two issues with his hamstring. The first one required surgery about a year ago, but complications in rehab meant further surgery in September. He's in "tentative individual training" according to the Pinkun, but no timeline on first team availability.
Are we obligated to buy Quintilla if we get promoted? We will have Mcallum coming back which would leave us with three LBs plus Sorensen and Mumba who can also fill in there
Pretty sure we all knew this anyway but thanks for confirming, Delia. The only way to avoid being a perennial yoyo club is to hang on to our top talent. The only way to do that is to find owners who don't feel obliged / need to sell all the prime assets each year. https://www.pinkun.com/sport/norwich-city/delia-smith-on-max-aarons-future-7563808
Not sure I agree with that. We're going to be very fortunate if we produce one player a year with the potential to be a top Prem player, we're never going to build the squad that secures us as a top-table Premier League club by relying solely on our academy. So we're going to need a way to make money to flesh out the rest of the squad. Until we're an established Premier League club, that's going to have to be billionaire owners or player sales. I'd rather we have an atmosphere where players know that if they improve and impress, they'll get chances to fulfil their potential at top clubs. And also know that we're not going to sell them to the first bidder as soon as we need a bit of cash. I think with Maddison, Godfrey and to a lesser extent Lewis, we've done that. Fundamentally, selling Max this summer for £40m, allowing us to sign a £5m RB, £10m central midfielder and £10m striker, probably improves us significantly more than Max staying and no further investment in the squad.
More speculation with regard to Buendia. If we sell Aarons, Buendia and Cantwell (£100m is being speculated) and we get promoted, where do you expect the replacements to come from? Are there suitable candidates in the club?
Not suggesting it's like-for-like but, Mumba's getting plenty of praise so I suspect he's in mind for Aaron's spot (plus Byram don't forget). The mids are a bit harder. How do you replace Buendia? No doubt SW has a few recruitment ideas up his sleeve. Josh Martin's stock seems to have fallen off a bit. I'm keen to see if Regan Riley and Soto kick on but I don't see any obvious equivalents for Cantwell and Buendia in-house at the moment. Onel will get another shot and we're still to see if Placheta can nail down a spot. There's the issue of Skipp likely leaving too. Maybe Sorensen will grab that opportunity. My concern is I don't see us maintaining our current level if Buendia and Cantwell leave without suitable new hires coming in. Maybe there's another Buendia gem currently being scouted in some Euro 2nd tier as we speak. Even if we do sell those 3 for big money, I still don't see us spending a huge amount. Covid has made our accounts look even tougher than usual plus we've got some likely cash commitments to pay over in the LB slots.
I think Dowell could potentially be the Cantwell replacement, they have similar playing styles, hopefully if Dowell gets a bit more game time he can step up. Sorensen to replace Skipp, Mumba to replace Aarons like you said. The real problem is Emi, how do you replace Buendia? Josh Martin has the potential to be a good player for us but I think he’s another year or 2 away from holding down a regular first 11 spot, great as a sub and occasional starter.