Guatered

No wonder they like trimming the squad!

Agree, there's a video of him doing a post match speech and it's terrific. Manager speeches are almost always pretty cringe-making but he comes across as a v decent and emotionally smart guy

If you were Edwards union rep, you'd be getting him to challenge that division of labour

Swap deals are a beloved part of transfer rumours but pretty rare in real life. The fact that we'd need to offload at least one winger/striker as part of this makes it that much less likely. The club obviously had a purpose in leaking this but struggling to think what it is. Another high profile failure to land a big target hardly seems helpful to the reputation of Hughes or FSG

Jones on form is exceptional. I think the problem for his reputation isn't so much that he has bad games (all players do) but more that he has them in an annoying way where he looks far too casual (even if he surely is still trying his best) We've definitely missed Dom's energy, looking forward to having him back

Send Napoli the clip of that nutmeg against Southampton

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.

The journalist who they link to posted this - there's been contact and expects an offer of 15m Euros to be enough. Profile says he works for Lanus Radio so presumably knows what he's talking about

I think with De Zerbi a lot of people just can't get past the beard and hair And that's fair enough

No strong feelings on Edwards but great to get this resolved as insane to have so many key positions empty with a new manager to find

You'd have to guess the club are confident Edwards will accept if they're briefing the story. It would look embarrassing if he says no after already leaving the club once before. I'd be intrigued to know Jurgen's thoughts on it all.