He might have been had his recovery gone different. Silly gamble to make. Could have at least waited until January but clearly we hoped for better with modern medicine and physio making some injuries much easier to recover from than in the past
I'll bet the 7m we've spent on BBD will turn out to be better value than the 40m on Rutter or the 40m on Evanilson.
Brereton-Diaz could be a great value signing, if he scores at a similar rate for us as he did in the second half of the season for Sheff U.
Not technically what was said though. “Better value”. For 40m then close to 20 goals is the bare minimum they should be expecting. I say close to because far fewer score 20+ premier league goals (especially outside of the top 6) than pretty much everyone assume - including almost all pundits when they talk of the need for a 20 goal a season striker. And then we are comparing to 7m for BBD. Assuming both clubs stay up then what would the goal ratio need to be for Evanilson to be better value? More than double I’d say and that is generous given the fee differences. Now if the goals fire the team to Europe or (in our case) safety - that tilts the calculation. So really the only way Evanilson would be “better value” is if BBD completely flops or if Evanilson does well enough to earn a double price move on in short order (one or two seasons). So Evanilson’s potential for better value I’d say is far more likely to be on future resale potential - something we are notably criticised by our fanbase for trying to look to. Albeit Evanilson looks like he can be both effective now and have future resale - but for 40m (close to double our record signing) - he really should
That would be 50% more than he managed in the Portuguese league. More than Solanke and Ollie Watkins scored last year. If he's really as good as that then Bompey could finish top 6.
Yeah, a lot would have to go right for that to happen. I'm not saying it's likely but he has the ability to do so IMO.
Only three players scored 20 or more Premier League goals last season: Haaland, Palmer and Isak. Foden, Solanke, Watkins, Salah, & Son are the next on the list, but none of them scored 20.
Can you shed any light on Armel Bella-Kotchap. We know he's been over in Hoffenheim but there's some slightly scary stories about him... RM: Yes, he is in Hoffenheim and it's progressing. With Armel, I think because it mention the heart it probably seems like a scarier story than it actually is. He's had a really standard procedure on it so Hoffenheim want to investigate and do more tests, of course. It's never caused him a problem, we've all been aware of it for quite some time and I expect and I hope, for Armel, that it will all still happen. As I said, it's progressing. Armel is fine, completely fine and I think this is a really good deal for all parties. So hopefully for him and for us and for Hoffenheim it all goes through. And if it doesn't, then we'll get him back here and reassess.
Well that's great to hear. Hopefully we get a decent fee for him and it's good to know this is isn't a sudden revelation that may end his career.
That’s a big ask. Since 2020/21 season, only 20 & above have been Haaland, Salah, Son, Kane, Palmer & Toney. I’d be surprised. Very surprised.
https://x.com/SkySportsLyall/status/1824094345328206264 So torn on this. Love Charly, but £20million is a lot for us, and he hasn't shown that he works in our style yet.
We could probably make more, especially if a Prem team came in for him don't get me wrong. But if it allows us to purchase players we need then I'm happy to let him go.
