Guatered

Ornstein and Joyce is all well and good but I was holding out for Grizz. Thankfully he's come through with some beautifully specific confirmation https://x.com/GrizzKhan/status/1877464319090213278

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I think at one stage in the summer he was linked with a move to a Turkish side and I doubt many of us would have minded too much if we recouped the fee we spent on him (assuming it would be reinvested, obviously) And yet now - it doesn't seem a crazy exaggeration to say that he's playing as well as any midfielder in the league Has any midfielder's reputation changed so much in such a short period of time? It's like a reverse-Fabinho, who went from world class to past it in seemingly a couple of months

It is brilliant to think that if any of us do sign for Liverpool one day, and also get called up for an international match, we'll be in this thread. Doesn't matter if it's just a brief substitute appearance in a meaningless u21 friendly. We'll be covered. In my case, it's only my advanced age and total lack of talent that's holding me back, but hope others go for it Awesome work oojason, this is a great service

Would love Menswear guy on Twitter to take a break from Republican politicians to do an analysis of this

A good thing about the United situation is not only did they keep ETH on, they actually fully backed him on the signings, focusing on players he had worked with previously. They must be sailing close to the wind on FFP so whoever succeeds him will have a lot of players chosen by ETH and with a lot less room/budget to reshape the squad

I guess we'll see how it feels once it gets going but I'm not a fan on first glance. All those matches just to eliminate 8 teams? Even the seemingly more interesting matches will lose something because of the lack of jeopardy. If we lose say against Madrid and Leverkusen, you'd imagine we'd scrape together enough to avoid being in the bottom 8 and therefore the only difference between being top 8 and 9-16th is one extra round of matches. I guess that's the point though - big clubs can afford to lose matches and not get knocked out...

So we don't want to sell him but also have a price for him?

worth a try at that price? From the limited amount I've seen of him, seems like a slightly more refined version of Kuyt, hard working winger and a good finisher Mind you, that last I convinced myself that an underpriced Italian was worth the gamble, it didn't work out so well...

I actually do like the basic idea that we don't buy a lot of players and invest in. smart, sustainable way. The way Chelsea are operating at the other end of the scale from us is just a mess. One thing I do remember from Moneyball is the argument that an expensive error can cause long-lasting damage. You can see that to an extent with Darwin - not just the fee itself, but the fact that we're still having to figure out what to do with him. So the basic approach of holding out for only players they're very confident can improve the first 11 makes sense. The issues this summer though are: 1 - the sense of lack of ambition, and in particular what it means for the likelihood of losing Virgil, Mo and Trent. I'd have accepted no signings if we got those 3 extensions tied up. Sometimes immediate circumstances mean you have to adapt the strategy 2- even if we're not going to commit on big signings, is the data not showing up some potential gems at a lower price range? i.e. Caicedo when Brighton picked him up for £4m, Alvarez, who City have just turned a huge profit on? 3 - mistakes happen when egos start to interfere with decision making. and now - the sense of ego that has started to permeate it all, especially through the briefings; that somehow this approach is brave and smart. how much smarter/braver will they seem if they hold firm and prove all the doubters wrong?

'nah' is the bit of the radar he appeared on Unfortunately most of the radar is marked like this

Saw a lot of new pages so was hoping for lots of exciting new briefings about how great Hughes is. Disappointed that there's just one Echo puff piece.

Is there any possibility City are struggling to sign players (except from themselves) because of the threat of serious punishment due to the 115 charges? Or is that just wild optimism?

If we'd tied up extensions for the 3 key players with one year to go, I'd be a lot less worried about the lack of incoming players. From VVD's comments, it's possible that the issues are linked too. Don't think either Arsenal or City have any key players about to run down their contracts do they?

Blimey! Hope we have a sell on clause, he's too lightweight for us but a good goal scorer.