This. As mentioned - the average online fan seems completely unaware that Perraud was injured pretty much all of pre season (carrying on from the end of last season) Twitter was ridiculous last weekend with people screaming about him not playing and Djenepo playing instead. I don’t like labouring this point but if that is the baseline level of understanding about what is going on with the side then other opinions should require a hefty pinch of salt. Note what I am saying is lots of people were specifically calling for him to start and asking why he wasn’t. Not asking things like “well why didn’t we bring in full back cover more urgently” or questions like that The fact that it made it into the forum as a question was pretty astonishing really. As to it being silly to make a judgement after one game - it is. Was this forum always scheduled to occur on this date? It seems strange timing
The Lyanco and Stephens numbers show why we can’t really shift them. And the Lyanco one seems crazy given his experience and profile when we signed him. But that move was strange all round and it seems like we really wanted another body in that position and in hindsight should have got a loan (but might have tried to be fair)
Reading that list makes my eyes water, I’m not sure what hurts more; stephens and lyanco or Walcott and Redmond.
Definitely the defenders. Walcott makes some degree of sense given where we got him from and that apparently that was him reducing his wages by 50% On Redmond attacking players usually get more But Stephens is a just about competent premier league player - and that is apparently now the average for them. And Lyanco to apparently get that off the back of a mixed record seems nuts (and hopefully isn’t right but you never know)
The for now and the future is an interesting comment. Not sure who that points to really. Maybe Newcastle because they have been apparently linked with signing a high profile shiny number one striker. So fans may not be happy with a “for the future” option
Nice move* for him. Needs to be playing every week at this point and Kompany wants to trust in young players, so let's hope it pans out. *aside from having to live in Burnley
I like Semmens (and have said as much previously) but I missed last night's fan forum. Caught up on it this morning and have to admit I thought he did himself a disservice and did not come across particularly well. Disappointing. Natural to brief off the back of one of these things though, whether they went well or not. Lord knows I saw it enough with David Ornstein at Arsenal!
Shame, I was hoping it was a permanent deal. I don't think Tella will make it with us in the PL, he's 23 and his contract with us runs until 2025. Even so hope he has a succcessful loan spell with Burnley and encourages a buyer to come in for him in January or next summer.
Report I read is that 20m is the opening offer. But it could be that the opening is lower and needs to get to this. If it is the former then it mights not be considered value
I damn well hope we are doing more than monitoring CB targets and are actively trying to shift a CB or two to make room for one. Really should have been right near the top of our summer plans to completely refresh the defence. OUTS AND INS! Bringing in one young CB who will take time to adjust is not even plastering over the cracks of our cavernous defence. Really thought and hoped Bednarek would be gone, is he the only problem? Absolutely not, and he could do well elsewhere but his time here really has gone stale and it would be better for both parties if he moved on. He should also be someone we could get at least £10m for too really, experienced PL and international defender, only 26 and contract runs until 2025. If the window closes and we are as we currently are with the defence then we are in for another torrid struggle of a season.
