Good result yesterday, but poor performance - still lots of question mark regarding our ability to control games against weaker opposition. A few additions might help, but I think we also need to find ways as a tram to break these sides down. The team we put out yesterday should've been able to produce much more going forward.

The squad is very unbalanced at the moment, with too many defenders and not enough midfielders. I don't mind Elneny as a squad option, but he's too close to the starting eleven right now. Say we sign Aouar and Partey - that would make Elneny slot in a more natural squad position considering his quality.

He wouldn’t sign a new deal as they had Daniel James in front of him, so they let him go. I watched him play and thought please learn the lessons from Bellerin and do the work now to stave off a serious knee injury as he’s all-action and rapid! Brighton look so well balanced as a team, we’ve got arguably better game breakers, but no way near as well balanced. Leicester too, they look like a mini Man City, Harvey Barnes really eye catching player.

He’s a great player. He should buy that Southampton defence a drink though, I hope they play that high line against Aubameyang! I think Hassenhutl has got them watching Bayern Munich tapes but not told them they aren’t actually the European Champions!

Let's be honest. RM didn't buy Becks for his talent alone. They knew they would recoup the money spent on merchandizing.
Park made a lot of money for Man Utd with shirt sales...a lot! Koreans around the world bought a ton of them. LA has the largest Korean American community in America and Park's shirt seemed like a requirement.

Also, many Koreans made the trek to OT to see matches. The club always make sure they were able to. I know a guy who went with his girlfriend.

The MLB has a few Korean players and they make money for their teams as well.

Salah is huge in the middle east. I was on lockdown in Dubai for Covid 19 and Salah's face is on a lot of advertising. LFC has a few stores. I asked someone about Elneny and they were like 'meh'.

City has a following but not as big as one may think because of politics. Qatar not as liked in the area these days. Salah is huge though, very, very huge.

Nevertheless, Spurs may be a handful this season

Is that the same handful Mourinho has when he looks at himself in the mirror?

Palace make a £19m bid with £6m add ons for Liverpool's Rhian Brewster. What is it with prem clubs that they want to chuck tonnes of money at Liverpool youngsters or reserves. Palace already paid Liverpool £60m for Benteke and Sakho, you'd have thought they'd have learnt their lesson

I'm amazed Madrid, Barca, PSG haven't made a move for Son over the past few years. I rate him far higher than Kane. He has amazing pace, great finishing and can play in a number of positions. I'm also surprised City or Man U haven't made a move for him as well. I'd put him in the top 10 players in the prem easily

Apparently Chelsea are looking at Guendouzi and Arsenal might be exploring the possibility of a swap deal. Supposedly immediately rebuffed when asking for Kante. Hudson-Odoi and Rubens Loftus-Cheek mentioned.
Both are interesting players who would meet home grown quotas and fit a profile of a more athletic, physical and pacey player. Hudson-Odoi was being chased by Bayern 12 months ago. Right wing isn't really a position we need to recruit in though. Loftus-Cheek, a player who's career is stagnating, but has plenty of talent.

I'd rather take straight cash for Guendouzi but perhaps there is a swap with cash that can be done?

A front 3 of Bale, Son, Kane is very good. Especially against team naive enough to play a high line and let Kane drop deep and feed acres of space for the other two to run on to. However, the rest of the team is nowhere near top 4 quality.

Time to bring Giroud home.

It won’t be Hudson surely, overloaded on both flanks the last position we need. Loftus-Cheek probably the only logical option from that list

Liverpool (and City) are at the level they are Barca or RM esque in that just to get on their books you are among the best in your age group.

I imagine that the thinking is that they have players on their books who are first team prem quality or on the cusp of but they are not going to move Mané, van Dijk, or Salah out the way.

If it wasn't for his massive wages (£120k for a 19-year old is bonkers) I'd take Hudson-Odoi in a heartbeat. Kid is a real talent.

I was a little impressed with Chelsea last year, when they pretended for a minute that they'd try building around their numerous talented youth products. Before they were allowed to sign players again and bought every attacking player they could find.

How can the clubs simply just crack on signing really expensive players even if they know they will have empty stadiums for the foreseeable future ? It must account for a 3rd of their revenue. Not sure how that’s possible.

Cash only, no swaps for players we don't want I'd say.

It’s not a cash market right now though. It’s nearly all swaps and loans. Chelsea have spent a fortune and swapping doozy for a homegrown Chelsea player makes sense even if it’s Hudson or loftus cheek.

I also believe we have problems with our homegrown quota. We’ve just sold Martinez who counted as homegrown and signed a non homegrown replacement

The boy has it. A star soon.

Ah Martinez has just saved a penalty

5.4.3.2.1....... go

Weirdest move in the transfer window yet is Morata getting another potentially expensive move. €9m loan to Juventus, with option to buy for €45m. Went to Juventus from Real Madrid for €20m, then back to Real for €30. Then moved to Chelsea for £60, and then on loan to Atletico who then signed him permanently for £58m. Since that first season in Juventus he has scored an average of 15 goals per season. In all competitions.

Surely the agents giving people brown envelopes. How can you explain that

That new Icelandic kid is going to punch one in his own net on Wednesday isn’t he then the cycle will be complete

Go on Alex give the people what they want.

Hi Goonie,
Maradona shirt sales haven't diminished either.

There is definitely some strategic accounting going on. Take for example Pjanic going to Barca from Juve and Arthur going to Juve from Barca. Both good players but they were each signed for about £50-60m. Easily double their market value.

Hmmmn isn’t there that rule in Spain where if the club chose the governments equivalent furlough scheme they can only spend a small percentage of incoming transfer funds on new players. It’s something like 20% and Barca did accept that government help. I wonder if that relates to it.

Just in general Goonie. Especially in Latino countries.

So the new GK Runny guy has the lucky 13 shirt..

And a very good save it was. That plus a clean sheet. I’m pleased for him.

And how many penalties has Leno saved this season!!!???

I’ll tell you!! NONE!! What a disgrace!! That’s infinity percent more Martinez penalty saves FACT!!

Sack the board, politically disavow Arteta, eviscerate the squad, push the stadium into Middlesex. I told you this would happen, we could have got a hundred odd Mil for Leno from Bayern...

Leno did look pretty flaky under their crosses though.

lol
Tomorrow a Leicester player is going to replicate the Maradona solo goal from the 86 World Cup and when he does ?

“BLOODY ICELANDIC KID!!!!!, should never have sold Martinez. Kroenke is a disgrace, Arteta is clueless rar rar rar “

Maradona is unique. He is like a proper god, in the old pagan tradition, full of foibles and drama and corruption, along with the heroism and divine talent. None of this 'holier than thou' Judeo-Christian malarkey about the divine Diego!

And let me be the first to admit it ... I did not foresee the non-appearance of Luiz and therefore the dastardly non-saving of non-penalities by the hopeless Leno ...

And let us go further ... not just you, but also the omniscient American Gooner predicting the entire fiasco. Such foresight ... just two games in an the entire season collapsing around our ears.

It will be very interesting what happens in the remaining 2 weeks of the transfer window. The latest government rules mean fans won't be coming back in to stadiums any time soon. This is such a huge financial hit for clubs. I can see far more of the loan with option to buy type deals where club are effectively kicking the cost of transfers down the road in the hope of a return to normality next season. This will only work if everyone else in your chain plays ball, much like selling a house. You're only going to loan out your player if you can get a player in.

If Atletico want Torreira and we want Partey you would hope there is some way for the teams to do a deal. Torreira + cash for Partey?

The loans also work for teams who don't think they'd get true value for a player in the current market, but after a year of the player actually playing and the market returning to normal next year they can sell him for closer to his real value.

Torreira and Guendouzi seem to be the players who would actually generate money we can do something with, but we do need to find buyers for Sokratis, Kolasinac, Chambers - Those 3 could add £20-25m to the budget.

There are a lot of good teams in the prem now. Most teams on their day can give any team a scare. If a top team is slightly off it and a smaller team on it I would back anyone in the top 12 to beat the top team.

After the 'big 6' you have Wolves and Leicester who both have very reliable stable teams. Everton now look a good side after Ancelotti crafted a whole new midfield and they've moved to a 4-2-3-1 formation. Those 3 plus the big 6 and you're already looking at one of those teams finishing 9th!

Burnley are always stubborn particularly at home. Palace have proven over the years they can cause upsets with their counter attack. Leeds will bloody a few noses for sure this season, Bielsa has them well drilled and they press and pass like a seasoned premier league side.

People often say there are very few easy games in the premier league, that wasn't always true as there have been some awful teams over the years, but currently every team has at least 1 player who can hurt you.

Hi Rich,

Wolves missed at least three gilt-edged chances in the 2nd half yesterday and had they taken them they could have easily snatched a draw or better.

Not long left now to get the players in we need.

However, as Rich pointed out, with the threat of Covid casting a dark shadow over football in general it may be that we do nothing.

Again, as Rich pointed out, teams are generally getting stronger in the top half of the table. It would be hugely disappointing not to have a couple more quality additions.

I must say, if we don't sign anymore players I am scratching my head as to why Aubameyang signed a 3 year deal. It can't have been about money. I had assumed he had received reassurances (been given the nod) over squad strengthening.

L'Equipe reporting that Guendouzi has handed in a transfer request. I'm pretty sure that usually weakens the selling club's position

I saw, that Podence lad looks very useful. Lovely nutmeg on De Bruyne before the assist for Jimenez.
Wolves doing a bit of a Leicester in the transfer market, selling Jota £43m to a big club and have the next player ready to take his place.
speaking of Leicester, I really like the look of Castagne, playing right back but will probably move over to left back when Pereira is back. Castagne was £21m to replace the £50m sale of Chilwell. Leicester do need centr backs though.

Morning socrates. You’ve said that before and I’ll repeat what I said the last time. There is no way that the club could give him any reassurances about squad strengthening. They wouldn’t have gone any further than saying words to the effect that they hope to make new signings, or that they’d like to.

Sorry, but thinking firm assurances would have been given to Aubameyang strikes me as a bit naive.