Search results

OK, not quite what I said. I said that we will lose Caicedo (RdZ has said this on multiple occasions), and suspect that we'll also lose Ali Mac.

What are you not so sure about?

Yes to all of that.

We will lose Caicedo in the summer. I suspect Ali Mac will go too, but only if he and the club get the right offer. Mitoma I'm a little more optimistic of keeping hold of.

Happy to be corrected, but Ayari is a (D)CM

Nice interchange with @Brighton Lines here. Another thing to throw in the mix is that there are a fair few CMs who have been due a move for a while now (Rice, Bellingham, Tielemans, Neves among them) and some more whose stock has risen courtesy of the WC (Hernandez, Amrabat, Ouhnani). In other...

Agree with your broad sentiment here, but I'd add that Ali Mac has been our PotS so far (and was saying that prior to the WC). Tross is not far behind, ditto March and Gross. I don't think we've had a PL season where all the leading candidates are all forward-minded players.

Agreed, and I suspect the clause would specifically mention a CL club as it's hardly beyond the realms of possibility that Ali Mac would want to play CL football and, irrespective of the length of the contract and his importance to B&HA, he's not going to get that here.

This thread contains posters making the claim that 'Tony would never do X', and 'Tony holds all the hands'. When it comes to contracts, Tony is well aware that it's a negotiation between two (or sometimes more) parties, and both parties hold cards. Tony's skill is he is very astute at...

Fair. It was a long game, with a lot of incidents: -- agree about Messi -- don't think it should have been a red: it looked very bad live, and the bench milked it, but on seeing it as a replay, I don't think it was deliberate -- can't comment on the Berghuis one: was well into the second bottle...

Rarely, I'm going to disagree with you. Generally the refereeing has been of a high standard in this WC (will even attract further opprobrium by saying that, for the most part, VAR has been good too). That ref is one of the top Europeans, and I thought he had a good game last night. Few games...

Are you sure that there isn't a release clause in this new contract?

Some posters don't think the role Ali Mac has been playing this season suits him. I respectfully and wildly disagree. He's tailor-made for the quarter-back type role, and dovetails just delightfully with Caicedo. In fact, I don't think there's currently a better CM duo in the PL, certainly if...

Think I agree with you, but I'll just add to this debate by saying that I'm not fond of binaries which structure most of our thinking, and would say that there are (at least) three elements to consider: -- natural ability which at times can be related to physique (see, for instance, Usain Bolt)...

That is interesting. Worth looking out for whether this becomes a sustained trend, or more down to certain players and their expectations this window.

So you say :smile:

Chailey did say at one point that he was paid to post, leaving it suitably ambiguous as to whether he was jesting or not. He is a BBC journalist, so it's not beyond the bounds of possiblity. Also, the vast majority of his posts are incredibly factual, and his interpretations are normally good...

Well, unless you have a hotline to PB or someone else at the club, I'd agree with Swanny that, if it's not done this window and probably before the season starts, it won't happen. I like Ali Mac, and think he was our most improved player last season, but it's players that are now in the...

Pretty sure you need to add Webster to that list too.

Tross has got a year and another year option. So just Mac and Maupay with a year remaining, so it's hardly 'so many players'. Note too that this is becoming a much more prevalent factor in PL football, so I think we're actually under-represented on this front (but happy to be proved wrong if...