Cartman

He's going to degrade too fast and possibly blow up?

We rejected him because he had no experience outside of Ajax making it difficult for us to determine what sort of coach he is, Ajax being a club with it's own identity when it comes to style of play. In any case he wasn't particularly impressive at Ajax, abysmal record in european competitions, Inter fans don't seem to impressed either. Another Van Gaal with possession of the ball an end in itself.

You think our 3 best forwards at passing and moving their way through tight marking in the final third will never be played together unless forced to by injuries? Interesting. Why?

Of course it will happen. Not always as we will rotate a lot, but a front 3 of Tadic, Redmond and Boufal will played at times. Wouldn't surprise me if it becomes Puel's preferred front 3.

Obviously not. Why? From the team that started the last game Boufal would probably take Austin's place on the left of the attack.

He wouldn't take Romeu's place though, he would replace Davis. I'm not sure I'd want him back though, hard to tell if the returning Morgan with his tail between his legs having failed at an elite club after making such a fuss to leave in the first place would be as good as the one who left. The motivation might not be there anymore. The Morgan from 2 years ago I'd obviously take back in a heartbeat. In any case, I'd take this guy, might be available in January: https://insideathleticclub.com/2016/09/28/could-athletic-club-tempt-mikel-merino-away-from-borussia-dortmund/

Two reasons: 1) Leicester are better than Be'er Sheva so it's logical to play our strongest team against the stronger opponent if we want good results from both games. 2) We will face better opponents in the knockout stages and will need to rotate then to give ourselves a better chance of going as far as possible, so we will need league points in the bank to fully prioritize the Europa without our final league position suffering to much as a result.

Wanted him this summer. After his performances this season I've been fearing that clubs higher up the food chain would be in for him and we would miss out. Very, very good player, one of the best defensive midfielders we could realistically get.

Doesn't really rhyme but still...

It's almost like people on here don't realize the only reason we have been selling players in the last two summers has been because the players in question entered the last two years of their contracts making them very expensive to keep. We haven't needed the money since 2014. The cost of keeping a player is the amount we pay in wages plus the decline in how much we get as a transfer fee. This last component is only a factor in the last two years of a player's contract as he get closer to become a free agent. With more than two years left his value to us will be more than his market value pricing him out. Or you can stupidly believe that we sell anything that isn't nailed down, although you will have to explain why we extended his contract on higher wages with absolutely no benefit to us, and why so many players refused to sign new contracts with us over the last 3 years if we get nothing out of it. And before you come up with some bullsh!t about us getting a higher transfer fee, clubs aren't going to pay more for a player with 5 years on their contract than they would for a player with just 3. It will be increasingly difficult to get players off us and other clubs like us because we simply don't need the money from selling players anymore. Our transfer policy is no different to Dortmund's who also sell a lot of players to clubs higher up the food chain but only close to the end of the player's contract. In fact they are even more extreme in forcing players down to the final year or in Lewandowski's case making him see out his contract. We won't go that far but we are not selling key players with more than 2 years left. FFS Ralph explained this, how is it that it all went over your collective heads! And the concept of paragraphs is lost on me:lol:

There will be plenty of interest, we will name our price and no one will come close to it. It will be far above the 50m Stones cost. A key player with 5 years left on his contract playing for a club with a turnover of about 150m and no financial need to sell comes with a price tag no one is willing to pay unless they also have huge marketing value. Because of the shortage of quality centre backs on the market and his homegrown status Man City were willing to overpay for Stones who had 3 years left, no one came in for Lukaku who also has 3 years left because no one was that desperate. He will go next year. Assuming he doesn't sign another contract Van Dijk will most likely leave in 2020, 2019 if someone is desperate.

With 5 years left on his contract? He's not leaving anytime soon. He will be priced out, it would take Pogba sort of money for us to even consider it.

That won't happen. We will only ever start 3 from Boufal, Austin, Long, Redmond, Tadic and Rodriguez.

Screw you guys, I'm off to KUMB

2015-16 conversion rate: Long: 10 goals from 64 shots = 15.6% Sánchez: 13 goals from 107 shots = 12.2%

I'd expect most people would last longer in their jobs without a boss evaluating their performance. A coach's job is to make a fit and well drilled team out of the group of players he's got, and to communicate to the DoF and recruitment staff where the squad is lacking in quality and/or quantity, not mess around with transfers.

Rather get to Stockholm and win something. Domestic cups are there to be won every year, the Europa is not.

-----------Forster Clyne Alderweireld VanDijk Bertrand ---Lallana Wanyama Schneiderlin ------Tadic Mane Rodriguez

Pick the team that will start against West Ham and replace all of them, so a mix of first team players that need game time and a few kids filling in the blanks i think: McCarthy Martina Stephens Yoshida Targett JWP Reed Clasie Isgrove Rodriguez Long Sims in for Jay if not fit.

I haven't got a problem with the money, players in the american leagues or top tennis and golf players make even more. The problem I have with football these days is that much of the money is going to a small number of elite clubs. Not only does this cartel hoard all the best players but worse still, they use their influence to fix the rules even more in the favour. Football is becoming less a competitive sport and more of a circus, obviously since a competitive sport has to be unpredictable and that is bad for making money. FIFA are worse than just corrupt, they are incompetent. The big club cartel wrestling the power to rule the sport away from them doesn't do anyone any good, least of all FIFA. And yet FIFA could put an end to it if they got their act together. The big clubs in themselves don't have any real power, that power comes from TV money and corporate sponsorship, which they only get because the big name players play for them. The power lies with whoever gets the big name players to play for them, take them away and so does the money and power. So if FIFA were to create a world league played every week with all the top players contracted to FIFA to play exclusively for their national teams we would have a competitive sport at the elite level as well as a more level playing field at the club level. It will be more like it used to be with international football back at the pinnacle of the sport and clubs as local community assets. Fans in other countries would get to see their top players playing at home and a mediocre rich country couldn't just buy the best players from a better poorer country like clubs do now.

I suppose this is the thread to report on the performance of english refs. Martin Atkinson and his assistants having an absolute horror show in the PSV-Atletico match. In order of occurrence (and this is just the first half): 1) PSV goal wrongly disalowed for offside 2) PSV denied a penalty when player brought down when through on goal 3) This one will be familiar... Atletico score when a player is down in the six yard box with a head injury (and is bleeding) 4) PSV dives and wins a penalty

433 with Tadic right and Redmond left cutting inside. Rodriguez as false 9. Changed in second half with Redmond as false 9 and Long on the left. See for yourself: https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/1080546/MatchReport/England-Premier-League-2016-2017-Arsenal-Southampton

Really? I really doubt Les cares about what our idiotic fans think. Maybe Puel should tell a joke about eating chips with Dijon mustard, that seems to be what some fans value in a manager, a rent-a-quote gobsh!ite.