Everton "closing in" on Dwight McNeil apparently. Good, get him off our radar so we can focus on Harrison, and more ****e in the Everton team to go along Alli and Van Der ****e.
I dunno, i was hoping to have at least one more attacking option now I guess, but I suppose Almiron and ASM's improvements may suffice for now. ASM-----Wilson----Almiron ---Joe---Bruno-Willock Targett-Burn--Schar---Tripps --------------Pope--------------- Not bad, but that's at best a top 10 challenger at most really, below what we want to achieve this season I'd hope.
Where's Botman? It clearly isn't a merely a top 10 challenging team at best as that team got 39 points from 20 games last season.
Botman is young, I'm not so sure he just walks into our team? Who has he proven he's better than? I thought he was a young prospect.
He's wayyyyyyy better than Dan Burn mate. He will be our best centre back by a million miles. I just have doubts on his pace but even that hasn't seemed too bad in pre season, one of his ex team mates said he realised it had been a weakness of his game and like Joelinton did last season, he went and got himself a private coach to help him with the aspect of his game he found his weakest which shows a cracking attitude.
He's had the friendly to bed himself in already. He definitely walks into the team cos he's class, regardless of age. Besides, he's 22,its not like he's 17. Botman and Burn I'd say for now.
Okay, put it another way. Your bank charges you a fee which pisses you off. You go and set up a new current account with a different bank. Exact same thing but due to the credit facilities they need to operate a business in, they have offered security. That's all there is to see here. It's not really newsworthy.
I work in finance, but I like to keep work and leisure separate. Hence I just drool about signings in this thread.
Think Burn goes back to third choice now - Schar and Botman for me. Think Burn's mistakes vs Chlesea and Everton put him third choice for now. Both ball playing CB's to help dictate possession and retention.
I'd love to know why you mentioned burn but not schar? Burn was our best CB last season. People have a go at him because he made a couple of mistakes, largely referencing the chelsea goal, but apart from that he was absolutely solid. Schar was making tonnes of mistakes on the ball at times towards the end of the season.
I referenced Burn as he was previously our best defender in my view. Nothing against the lad, just Botman is an all round better player. So more bigging Botman up than knocking Burn.
Botman still has to prove himself in this league, although I suppose I will simply trust Howe to know best.
Saying the above if we signed this lad at 6'4 I'd start Botman and Burn - no one would be able to touch us at set pieces
Burn's actually not as good in the air as his height suggests, he's just not a deeply athletic lad. Botman's built differently, you can see that from the pre-season cameos. He's a class above. Burn did really well and, yes, was at fault for some critical goals but we can't really call him crap because of that. Costly errors, but that's just bad luck. The Everton one was worse, real brainfart territory. He's not a next level defender - he's a cut above Clark/Fede/Lascelles, but below Schar's overall ability and nowhere near Botman's level (IMO). We need a better RCB but I suspect that's phase 3 (Jan) or 4 (Summer '23) purchase. We should be all in on Sesko. Looks way better than Ekitike. Suspect RedBull will want near 40m EUR for the lad, and it's a risk. But it's worth taking if we can't get Isak or David for the same kind of price. I'm still confused as to where the £30m for Ekitike went. If we've got that £30m + the loan facility, we've still got over £150m to spend.
I do agree, Burn had a couple of mistakes last season, but that doesn't change the fact that he was outstanding for the most part, and had cemented himself into the starting XI. The old guard of Schar, Laecelles, Feds and Clark had been creaky as **** at the start of the season, ok Schar improved, so did Laecelles to some extent and we ousted Clark, but Schar ain't a worldie right now.
