I think it was 69 who said on another thread how good Struijk was. I said to Ben yesterday, Jack gets the hat trick, Raph assists all the goals but, wow, we’ve missed Pascal. Just immense yesterday and would have had my MOTM. Here’s a a question I asked Junior earlier. We have to sell three players of value to reinvest and improve the squad, so the more we get the more we can spend. Who would you sell? My three (for value not necessarily because I want to would be Raph, Rodrigo and Koch).
My three would be Roberts, Rodrigo, & either Koch or Llorente (as we seem blessed with CBs for the future as well as the present).
raph rod and paddy raph because we won’t be able to keep him anyway. Rod because he’s a depreciating asset so cash in while we still can. Paddy because after last year his value will have soared so he’s probably maxed out his value and at 28 that value will soon start to drop. Paddy’s proven very difficult to replace from within the squad but with a sizeable bank balance I feel we could get a younger and arguably better replacement. sacrilege I know!
Evening all. No matter what the team do the comments seem to get to who we need to get rid of at some point. What's wrong with just being happy with what we've got? We've got an injury ravaged squad that just beat a team going for CL. I want to keep all of them!
Robin Koch’s turning out to be a superb signing and is showing why he’s a German international. Can’t believe we’ve now started talking about getting rid
No way should we sell Koch right now. We got him cheap and he's just starting to show what he's all about, carry on in this vein he'll be a £50M+ player in another year or two. Raphinha we should hold onto at all costs until after the Nov/Dec World Cup, that's for the sole reason his value is likely to sky rocket. However we need him to sign a contract extension of at least one year to make it all happen. Logically he's the star man both for club and country at the moment so he should want stability before the WC. So my three to sell so we can trade up are; Phillips...he's at his maximum value this summer, so whilst it would be sad to see him go let's cash in. Cooper...legend and club captain but we have better in his position. We might not get a massive fee but at £15M he'd be good value for someone. Cresswell...what I hear you say but if reports are true and someone is willing to stump up £20M+ based on potential I'm happy to take it.
In my case, not really. I really believe that if we are forced to sell, our CBs are in abundance, especially the younglings coming through, so will not be as missed as other positions. Wouldn't get much for Coops, so he could be, as someone else put it - our new Berardi for cover. Roberts & Rodrigo I wouldn't notice if they left. (Actually untrue - would be a helluva party!).
How great is it though to finally have those quality CB’s in abundance? Llorente, Koch and Struijk can all cover DM if needed. And Hjelde can also play LB and will eventually make that position his own. Abundance is good
What did you think to Rodrigo yesterday Forza ? On the telly he looked very classy and apart from when he should have played it wide to Harrison he seemed to do well.
I actually thought he brought a bit of class and composure to proceedings just when it was needed. Gave West Ham another attacking threat to worry about. Obviously a little rusty after his layoff but was good to see him back.
Just to add, there are loads of teams who’d love to have an attacking four of Raphinha, Rodrigo, Harrison and James. Not too shabby at all. Sometimes we don’t realise just how lucky we are.
I’d have said Roberts but I assumed when Marcos asked who to strengthen he wanted more than a packet of crisps and a bag of peanuts in the coffers
