Cartman

Who said anything about Football Manager? He is out of contract in the summer, so what he is on now is irrelevant, on July 1st his wage will be 0. We will offer him backup wages because we want him to be our backup GK, if he doesn't accept the offer because he wants first 11 wages we let him go and get someone else. There is no shortage of cheap backup GKs on the market.

Instead of Diallo obviously. Livramento JWP Romeu McGinn KWP Broja Adams

Why would we assume anything of the sort? If McCarthy does sign a new contract why would he be one of our highest paid players instead of backup GK wages?

Announce Vlahovic! Realistically though, I wouldn't be surprised if we are already telling McAtee's agent that we want him to be next summer's Livramento, out of contract in 2023. Fabio Carvalho is another we should be all over, out of contract this summer.

Remember when they came on here with their list of firsts, giving it the big 'un and talking about ambition and how they were going to take over the world with Moshi la's millions? Good times. Deluded bellends.

Our new shirt next season... sort of. With a big red circle over their knobs.

fichajes.net 😂 Ignore it. In other news, he has been given a 61 rating in FIFA 22 😂. It's hilariously bad, to put it into perspective, Valery's is 71. I expect his FM22 stats to be more accurate @Matthew Le God.

Porto GK had a good game against Atletico. 21 years old so fits into our cradle snatching policy, called up to the recent Portugal squad and the best part... out of contract in 2022. His teammate Fábio Vieira, an attacking midfielder who was voted the best player in the under 21 euros is also out of contract in 2022.

Agree. We should be offering him a 5 year deal now.

Looks more like a 4-4-2 to me.

Not saying it's pie in the sky, just more like pie at the top of the Burj Khalifa with the lifts out of service. Expect Inter Milan to be after a new GK next Summer.

You would think he would go to a club higher up the food chain, turning down the first choice GK position at Ajax to join Saints would be unusual. When was the last time we signed a first choice player from a club of Ajax's stature? Celtic, Sporting and Feyenoord are below Ajax in the food chain, so not quite the same.

Not a transfer so wasn't included in the article, but Forster's ridiculous contract was also in the Summer 2017. 2016-18 was an absolute car crash, our hands have been tied to such an extent because of those years that it's a minor miracle we haven't been relegated.

Goalkeeper - 0/10 - No comment. Centre Back - 7/10 - Depends a lot on Lyanco being a hit, but if he is then it is one of the strongest positions in the squad. Full Backs - 10/10 - Gone from one of the weakest parts of the squad to by far the strongest. Top work. Midfield - 5/10 - Needed strengthening but not critical. Attack - 8/10 - Lost Ings but better depth and less injury prone. Looks good. Overall - 30/50 = 6/10

According the site you got that from, Lyanco and Livramento were free transfers, so... yeah.

GOALKEEPER!

75k is what we would have been paying him last season. There is no way he is on that now.

This. The "we are skint" argument is laughable when we had the money to sign Walcott who we didn't need, as is the argument that we have a fixed budget for goalkeepers and that we can't possibly increase it by decreasing the budget for outfield players. The money was there, we just decided not to spend it on a goalkeeper for some inexplicable reason.

No. Goalkeeper is the top priority by far.

Maybe we can get Strakosha for a packet of crisps in January. Out of contract in 2022 and didn't start for Lazio at the weekend.

They are not, that's the point. Villa and Leeds having a better defensive record than us is because of Martínez and Meslier. In fact we defend better as a team than Leeds but are let down by McCarthy. Of the 109 GK to have played at least a third of the league minutes in the top 5 leagues McCarthy was rated at 103*. What I am getting at is this: our CB are much better at doing CB things than our GK are at GK things. Getting a decent GK will result in a bigger improvement to our defensive record than any CB we could realistically get. *Post-Shot Expected Goals minus Goals Allowed per 90 minutes: Better luck or ability to stop shots. PSxG is expected goals based on how likely the goalkeeper is to save the shot. It's nothing more than an improved version of save percentage by giving a higher value to shots that have a greater probability of going in. Sort the table by /90. It makes for very grim reading. https://fbref.com/en/comps/Big5/2020-2021/keepersadv/players/2020-2021-Big-5-European-Leagues-Stats

Simple, it tells us which one of those we need most, the bloke in the nets keeping the ball out or the one kicking and heading it. It shows Villa and Leeds have far better goalkeepers than us and that defensively their outfield players are no better than ours, Leeds in fact are quite a bit worse despite finishing in the top half. Basically our goalkeepers (McCarthy in particular) are almost entirely to blame for our poor defensive record last season, much more so than the CBs. Or using the numbers: Us: xGA - GA = 54.2 - 68 = -13.8 Villa: xGA-GA = 52.9 - 46 = 6.9 This means that if both us and Villa had an exactly average GK, they would have conceded 7 more goals and us 14 fewer. Which is the same as saying if we had Martínez we would have conceded 21 fewer goals. The short version of this is: McCarthy is overrated on this forum, despite the general consensus being that he is crap. He is even worse than that.

Yep. This forum is a bit obsessed with getting a top CB as a solution to our defensive issues when the main reason for us conceding more goals than all but one team last season was our awful goalkeeping. 68 goals conceded from an xGA of 54.2. For comparison Aston Villa 46 goals conceded from an xGA of 52.9. Or Leeds 54 goals conceded from an xGA of 62.9. Play 3 CB and push the wingbacks higher?

To be fair signing Caleta-Car would be met with widespread approval on here but Marseille fans opinion of him is pretty negative, as was the opinion of Lyon fans when we signed Lovren and that worked out well despite him being a bellend. Just wish us going cheap on this meant the club woke up and decided to spend the money on a GK after all. I'll be clutching that straw like my life depends on it until the end of the transfer window.

Not the reason. 23 appearances in Serie A last season pretty much guarantees a work permit under the new rules. Sangaré would have got one had the new rules been in place a year ago.