goodrobotusses

The fact he isn't really being linked anywhere since those stories about him and Slot being in contact could suggest maybe something is already in place.

I've convinced myself it's gonna be Frimpong, who will be primarily an option as a winger but also backup/rotation for Bradley at right-back, with probably Curtis/Quansah as the smash-glass, we're-injury-f***ed third and fourth choices.

The best I've ever seen. When he's at his best, it's like having a cheat code. Love the man.

The mad thing is I can imagine Nunez going to Atleti and actually being the player we were hoping to get.

Would have agreed before this season but now has 24 in 47 so far. For a lad who does a fair bit of link play, that's a good return. That said, Atleti bought him as their long-term replacement for Griezmann, so think it's very unlikely they'd let him go, especially given what they paid for him.

Okay, great. Now bring it back to Delap, which was the topic of conversation.

Not a target man in the mould I'm thinking. I'm thinking more Benteke, Lambert.

Don't want a back-to-goal lump, even a refined one. Have any of the target men we've signed since Crouch been successes?

Isn't he supposed to be going to San Diego or something? Gonna learn to surf and join a Drive Like Jehu tribute band.

Nothing surprising in what Northcroft writes. We potentially have some saleable assets, but it'll all depend on who's buying or if there is any interest in the player at all. Diaz might have interest from Saudi, but if he has his heart set on Barca and we have a minimum price for him (which we will have), we might be facing a summer of waiting for Barca to find some spare coins down the back of the sofa. We can't force players under contract to leave nor make it obvious we want rid if we want to get good value from their sales (see Man Utd for a cautionary tale), nor can we force players to go to destinations in which they have no interest (e.g. Saudi). Think Salah signing probably puts an end to any pursuit of Isak, unfortunately, even if it would be amazing to have both. If that were the case, would love it if there were a deal to be done involving Alvarez and Nunez but that's probably fanciful given what Atleti paid for Alvarez last summer.

The good news is it looks like Madrid are planning to do to Arsenal with Saliba what they've done to us with Trent.

Van Dijk is one of only two outfield players to have played every PL minute so far this season. That's great, and if he can do the same at the same level of consistency for two more years, then happy days, but there's no guarantee Konate has another season of relatively high levels of fitness and VvD stays healthy for every game. If we go out and sign a CB that is an obvious back-up (let's say, Tsimikas level), we're risking a lot on the chance that Van Dijk and Konate stay healthy, and we probably already have that in Quansah. We should be spreading minutes more evenly where we can, so I would rather sign an up and comer with world class potential than assume the two main guys from this season are in the position to do the same again next year. If Gomez could stay fit and were happy to continue as a Jack of all trades, maybe the need would be less acute. But Joe is Joe, so we have to plan ahead because Virgil is turning 34 and Konate has a year left on his deal and a patchy injury record.

Yeah, I get that, but I don't think Konate's general levels of fitness are such that he should be playing every possible game. He has been playing through knocks again this season. Even in the best case scenario, in which Ibou signs a new deal, I still think it's prudent to have three (potentially) top level centre-backs, with maybe a fourth who can cover at full-back. Even if all three are fit for 90% of games, competition and rotation mean there will be plenty of opportunities for each of them to play. There is also the reality that VvD is 34 in July and will be turning 36 at the end of the contract we assume he's signing. If Huijsen turns out to be a top-level CB, we could have potentially boxed off VvD's replacement, with the bonus that Huijsen gets to apprentice alongside him for two seasons before, y'know, fecking off to Madrid.

But also a chance Konate leaves in 12 months so we need to be planning for all scenarios, especially as Gomez can't stay fit, Ibou himself hasn't exactly been Salah-like in his availability and the jury is still out on Quansah. Nineteen-year-old Konate wasn't as good as 25-year-old Konate, nor was 19-year-old Virgil van Dijk for that matter. If the recruitment team likes Huijsen, and a bunch of big clubs including Real Madrid also rate him, maybe his ceiling is far higher than what we've seen so far.

Think I saw something earlier from the Athletic journo that covers Real Madrid suggesting they wouldn't spend 50m on a 19-year-old and he's expected to join a club in the PL. Edit: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6270147/2025/04/11/real-madrid-centre-back-transfers/ Not sure if the excerpt is verbatim, lifted it from an aggregator website.

Read an analysis of him the other day that suggested he is incredibly gifted, but a highlights player who basically does what he wants and doesn't do any work off the ball. Add that to him not being the quickest and suggestions he has a bit of an entourage around him, and you can see why maybe the biggest clubs might pass him over even at a cheap price.

Does Google have a new phone out?

Turns out they were DMing him rather than doing public tweets. How could we know?

If they’re still here and regulars, VC should go to one of Ali or Robbo. Both experienced and leaders. Otherwise I think it will probably be Salah. Maybe not an obvious “captain type”, but captains his country, an automatic starter and one of our most experienced players.

Don't want to single him out because plenty were crap yesterday, but there was a moment in the second half when there was a switch to the left open to him. First he had it on his left and didn't want to try it, then he shifted onto his right and still decided not to and played a simple ball to the lad nearest him. There was also a hospital ball to no one when he was being pressed on the touchline, which has happened a few times this season in similar positions on the pitch. Think he can get a bit tunnel-visioned when he's surrounded by opponents.

Newcastle bullying us in the final felt like what happened to Wenger's Arsenal towards the end. The squad still has plenty of big, powerful lads, but we need to offset some of the smaller ones, yeah. Grav is big but he's not a dominant protector of Mac Allister, for example (although Alexis can fair put himself about despite being small).

Yep. Because history shows us that FSG/Edwards (and by extension Hughes) won't lump on what they perceive to be higher risk targets and would rather leave the squad short than buy the wrong player or an overvalued one. Can argue till the cows come home whether that's right or wrong, but that's what I'm expecting again this season. We'll sign very good players but enter September thinking we're short in a couple of areas. The difference this summer is I think we actually need to sign and move on (either by choice or otherwise) more players than we have done in a long time.

Think the fee and wages for Wirtz will get out of our stratosphere very quickly with City and Bayern sniffing. And at 21, he'd be getting a pay bump by the time he's 24-25 to boot. Great player, though.

I actually don’t think he’s hit his ceiling, he’s young and will definitely keep improving under Slot. Have to stress I want him in the squad, no question, it’s more about the type of player he is. He’s a Red Bull product, can run all day and has characteristics built for a transitional game. That serves us great a lot of the time and given his age, I expect him to get better and add more end product. I just feel we need someone to challenge him, someone with characteristics more suited to breaking down deep defences. And if that mystery player replaces him in the team, I would still expect Szobo to get a lot of game time, given what he gives us off the ball. It just might be in different positions to what we’ve seen so far, or still as the No10 when we need horses for courses against high quality teams we want to counter-press.

Respect your view but just don't really agree. Nunez ballooning that chance Szobo laid on on the counter aside, haven't seen a lot of evidence that Szobo is creating lots of chances that are being wasted by our forwards, and that he would become a more subtle, creative player with better forwards ahead of him, although of course it would be nice to have better forwards either way. Also not sure how how we lined up under Klopp is relevant now. Different coach, different shape, different squad to our peak Klopp team. Under Slot we have a player just behind/alongside the No9, usually Szobo. We rarely lined up like that under Klopp. The midfield's job was to compensate for an unreal forward line and very attacking full-backs. Szobo can do a great Gini/Milner-esque job off the ball, sure, but on the ball I think we're gonna need more from him or some other player, based on how we line up now and the fact our most creative player is leaving.