Aye, no arguments on that but ultimately money is what dictates this sport now unfortunately and they have a **** ton of it which makes them a bigger draw than us.
Batshit Rumour of the Day The Torygraph are reporting that PSG have offered a swap deal, with Toby headed to Paris while we get Thomas Meunier To be honest, while there's the obvious negatives of Toby Leaving and £0.00 appearing in the coffers, I don't hate the sound of this: Meunier would be a significant upgrade on our current right back options as he gets forward like Aurier but can cross like Trippier while also being more solid defensively than either, and considering Meunier has eighteen months left on his contract and is on roughly £55k per week it's not unrealistic to see this happening. In the unlikely even of this happening, there is one potential snag: Trippier rage quitting because he'd be losing his place in the first team, which would bugger up our HG quota no end and leave us either in the market for another understudy or putting a lot of faith in KWP - because, let's be honest, signing Meunier would guarantee Aurier is the player moved on.
I’m overstating my case for effect, but to make him someone who is a real mistake there would have to several matches where he came on instead of Lucas or Lamela and made a difference. I honestly don’t see many of those.
I'd take a straight swap for Thiago Silva. Even if he is at the latter end of his career, he's still a great CB who'd provide some phenomenal leadership and experience. Meunier would be an upgrade on Tripps and Aurier but I'm not sure where it'd leave KWP in the long run (even providing Tripps and Aurier made way). He'll be 22 at the start of next season and I can't imagine he'll still wanna be playing second fiddle for much longer. He's approaching the age where it's boom or bust for him and he looks too promising for us to say bust. I look at Wan-Bissaka at Palace or TAA at Pool and think that could also be KWP if given a run. I'm a big fan of Tripps but he's been nowhere near his best this season, would really like to see KWP given a solid run between now and the end of the season to gain an idea if he would be ready or not to take over long term.
I think that's the point. Yes City have hit the jackpot with the backing of a whole nation and had some world class players. Walker left because he knew City were going to spend to try win the league and CL (still failing here). He was right and he got a fat pay check for it too. It's also the same reason Kante left Leicester who were the champions, who is more likely to give him 1. more cash 2. more chance of glory
So we need Spurs to win the PL to teach Walker a lesson ?? Bit vindictive for some, but I could go along with that.
yup, if you win it this season then he could have been loved at you boys and show it was the wrong decision (unless city win the CL). That or he's actually really happy earning loads of money (i can't answer this i'm not mr walker himself).
Playing KWP or any new(ish) player is a risk and goes back to the question- does he improve the team at present and will he cost us points. This is why we will never know whether playing one player over another actually wins us more points- only 5 times we could have done this season. Are you going to point the finger at a particular player in those games? Moving to the next level is extremely difficult if you consider that the next level is champions. I believe we are almost at that level. I agree that one midfielder/striker could take us there but the £70+ mill question is who? It certainly isn't Grealish or Seri. They are not that level. We are talking the likes of Messi, Ronaldo, Mbappe, Neymar, Hazard (when he fancies). We cannot afford them. Next level is Sanchez, Aguero, possibly Rashford, Maybe , and this is our realistic choice- Ndombele or De Jong
(Alexis) Sanchez and Rashford wouldn't be regulars for us. I'm not sure they'd push us towards being champions tbh. If they're the next level down then we have a whole team of them already.
I think we have all of the superstar strike force that we need. Alli, Kane, Eriksen and Son are good enough. In my humble opinion, our problem doesn't lie with needing much more quality up top. It lies with strength in depth of squad. If Dembele and Wanyama were at their peak of two seasons back, we'd be further up the table. Sissoko and Winks are backup options that are playing more than the first choice pair because of injury. We are doing well to be where we are considering that. I agree that N'dombele, from the little I have seen, would help inject that control of midfield, that Dembele does when he's at his best, into our game. I'd rather two new CM/DM options though, as both Dembele and Wanyama sadly seem to be on their way out and beyond their peak. As much as we are looking at these big world class players, I honestly believe that with Pochettino at the helm, a Loftus Cheek or a Barkley would have been a good aquisition. (Of course Chelsea would never sell to us, and who knows why the Barkley thing didn't materialize before. Wouldn't surprise me if it was another case of the Chelsea hierachy hoarding players that we appear interested in. Especially when Conte wasn't keen. Pulisic looks very similar too.) If we had the strength in depth at CM/DM that we do at RB, we'd be laughing. Also, backup for Kane, and Eriksen, is lacking. When neither of them play, it shows. Kane needs an understudy or a partner/competitor in striking, much like Aguero did for Man City. We almost got one in Janssen. Eriksen has no real competition. Moura, Lamela and Son compete with each other to a degree, with maybe Alli in that group too. The Wolves game was a great example. They didn't beat us because they have much better players, they beat us because they had good, full energy, strong enough, game-changing options when it was time to step it up in the latter part of the game. Plus, our guys were seemingly, a tad frazzled.
On the subject of a Kane understudy, Jann-Fiete Arp posted this on Instagram last week... please log in to view this image In other news, Poch's response to questions about Jarrod Brown was a very diplomatic version of asking "Who?"
Disagree...Sanchez and Rashford would hugely push us forward on and off the pitch. Having those two to rotate with Son, Dele, Kane and possibly Eriksen would undoubtedly make us true title contenders in my view
Sanchez and Rashford would make great forward runs into space... ... While Harry Winks passes it backwards to Toby or Davies
Haha I know it’s bad but I just can’t stand watching him. For the best part of a decade I’ve been spoilt with Modric and then prime Dembele (not forgetting Mason and Bentaleb who I also liked) in the centre of midfield and now it feels like I’m having to suffer for it. I know people out there still rate Winks but I can’t warm to him from a playing perspective. Cracking bloke but - in my opinion - useless footballer.
Winks reminds me of Ray Wilkins who I never rated at the time and who often kept Hoddle out of the England team. Over the years I've come to appreciate the importance of a player like that in controlling midfield. Winks is not yet as creative as I'd like but I can see him improving a lot as he gets more experience.
