He's certainly good with the ball at his feet, and is a good shot stopper - case in point, on Saturday he kept out a couple of chances that likely would have gone in against most keepers
Best compliment I could pay him is that I’d say he’s like a B-tech Ederson. Solid shot stopper but very sound with the ball. Sort of opposite to prime Lloris, who was an amazing shot stopper but abysmal with the ball.
Lloris' biggest problem was his distribution: he could send it to midfield as long as it was in the centre, because whenever he aimed it wide it usually went out for a throw in - and that's before the obvious issue that finding the centre was a viable strategy with Dembele/Wanyama as the target, but has been less viable since the Winkssoko pivot and beyond There was a chart a few weeks ago comparing all PL keepers, and it really demonstrated the difference between Hugo and Forster, as when Forster sends it long and wide he is far more likely to find the target instead of the dugout
Some suggestion that Schmeichel will leave Nice at the end of the season. That would fit in pretty well with the older rumours about Lloris rejoining them. He may still prefer a Saudi payday, of course.
David Onanist says we're monitoring Valencia's Giorgi Mamardashvili Technically not new news, given his name has been bubbling up for a couple of months now, but it does give an interesting choice: one one hand we have Raya who has proven to be dependable and is entering his peak years (and also helps our HG numbers), or do we go with Mamardashvili who isn't as dependable as Raya now but has the potential to be at least as good as him if not better in a couple of seasons?
Raya. Unless there's a standout elite goalkeeping prospect who can give us many top years like Hugo did (which for as promising as Mamar is, he isn't that promising), then I'd rather focus on getting a keeper who's either in or entering their prime and then replace them every 5 or so years.
Rumours that Dier now hasn’t agreed a new deal are surfacing. Keep it up boys and girls, we might be able to “Gattuso” the new deal and then we can work on other targets.
There's more talk that if Slot does take over he wants to bring Kokcu with him. I would prefer a move for Maddison if I'm honest, just because we know he's likely to make an immediate impact plus is HG but Kokcu would seem a decent alternative, technical midfielders from the Eredivisie generally do quite well in Europe. Besides, Maddison will likely favour a move to Toon now that they've got CL secured.
The thing with Kokcu is he can play as either a CM or an AM, with Feyenoord mainly playing him in the pivot this season with Sebastian Szymanski (yes, I did have to triple check how to spell that, assuming he'll wind up being linked too...) as the AM, while he has played as an AM for Turkey in the past So that doesn't necessarily rule Maddison out yet, as if we play the 4231 that Slot uses at Feyenoord it's most likely Kokcu would be in the pivot - although that would also suggest a potential cull of our box to box midfielder pile, because outside of playing 433 next season there's no way we could fit in Kokcu, Bentancur, Bissouma, Skipp, Sarr and Hojbjerg into our squad regularly, and that's before the inevitable DM question
Methinks of Kante 2016 when it comes to decent Lesta players deciding what is better for them in the long term.
If you’re a neutral right now thinking what’s best for your career either short or long term, you’d probably have to say Newcastle have the edge at the moment. Better style of football, a manager in the groove, unlimited funding and the guarantee of elite European football next season. Toon have gone about a year or two ahead of schedule, which is a real problem for most of the league now barring Man City I’d say.
Hopefully the Toon will take a leaf out of the Levy Playbook and having jumped two years ahead of schedule, won't sign anyone at all next year. #levylifehack
So have they skipped to the part where clubs and agents see them coming, or are they already at paying £50m+ for players that get their first PL start in May?
Could say exactly the same for Lesta in 2016 on nearly everything. Kante sacrificed that for the better long-term PL + wage option.
I can definitely see them having a £200+m window in the summer, probably bring in a few very good, possibly world class players. A Robinho-esque type or two that City done at the start of their bankrolling.
Leicester didn’t have the wealth of a whole country behind them though. Now that the Toon have CL football so soon into the Saudi’s tenure, I think it’s going to be very hard knocking them out of those CL spots now. Many players are gonna want in on that project now. Wouldn’t even be surprised if they make a move for Kane.
When it was Thai instead of Middle Eastern money bankrolling them, their approach to transfers was so weird as they were signing reliable midtable players like Roque Santa Cruz, Craig Bellamy and Joleon Lescott for grossly overvalue (both in terms of transfer fees and wages) coupled with the occasional mid-90s Premier League move where a reject from a larger club was picked up, which is what Robinho was to them (as Zola and Vialli were to Chelsea, Bergkamp and Henry to Arsenal, Ravanelli to Middlesbrough, Klinsmann's second stint for us, etc etc) Funny how that stopped the second Mancini took over...
That's child's play in comparison to us spending £60m on a pigeon that had been in relegation battles at separate clubs.
