The wages are an issue I agree (for context, him and Lacazette's contracts were both running out in 2022 and we wanted to keep one, rather than spend on replacing two. Eddie's end of season form in 2021/22 was good, so he had more leverage back then), and that's a big reason why the move to Marseille fell through. Given their financial troubles, Lens were asking for a slightly lower transfer fee than us and Wahi's wages was 43% lower than Nketiah's. This, plus the fact Wahi is a few years younger and knows the French league already, made it an easier decision of who to pursue. So obviously this was more favourable to Marseille. Regarding his quality, he's not as bad as some make him out to be. Doesn't help that he's not had consistent starts. I actually think, if given a run of games, he'd do fairly well at a midtable/lower midtable club. But would he ever be a consistent 15-20 goal a season striker at PL level? Clearly not. I reckon he could get 10-13 goals a season, though.
Bring in a host of new sporting and technical directors, advisers etc to work on recruitment and transfer policy - and then still sign two new players who have played under ten Hag before
I don't know too much about De Ligt, other than watching him in both legs against us in the CL and wondering what all the fuss was about. But that was 5 years ago, maybe he's flourished into whatever the fuss was about.
It would good for clubs to at least show what the "GAAP" informally are. 1. It seems that player transfer fees are generally spread over 4 seasons max (the final payment being made at the end of season 4 etc) . 2. I have not seen anything similar for depreciation on players as assets (a new signing has a value of X to the club on day 1, how many seasons later is a typical player deemed to have no use or sale value at all) . Once you have such info, you can see what clubs might be doing (I think #1 suddenly becoming 6 seasons was the reason the FFP spotlight fell on Boehly FC) .
The follow-up seasons are more interesting 2018: PSV win the league, Ajax finish second 2021: Inter win the league, Juve finish fourth 2024: Leverkusen win the league, Bayern finish third
He was awful against us in the CL, that's all I was saying. 50 yards out of position for our first, and slow to react to our third.
Ludogorets v Qarabag is the Wish.com PSG v Man City. Both backed by dodgy oil money, linked to criminality and absolutely dominant domestically.
Rangers dumped out of the Champions League after a very, very poor red card decision: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/videos/cdxlnx7gdjdo The first one's definitely a yellow, but the second's barely even a foul, if anything. Ludicrous. Watch out for Italy's Marco Guida in the coming season, who was deemed good enough for the Euros in the summer.
I know it's not the most universally popular view, but I really do think second yellow cards should be allowed to be reviewed by VAR. Especially if they're given for bullshit decisions like this.
i don't agree review for first yellow even if its for that bullshit one that the rangers guy got but deffo they should review yellows that lead on to reds
Yeah, that's what I mean. Second yellows (leading to a red) literally alter the state of a game. Everything changes once a team loses a player. So they need to get that second yellow decision absolutely right otherwise it should be overturned.
