The Fish

Can we please put an end to this fucking circle jerk?

Sobbing into the teacakes as he pushes his Hovis pedal bike up the steepest hill in the world.

My best mate was so convinced we had the next Maldini, he got Pistone on the back of his shirt. There's tale of someone thinking the answers to our problems would be a young Irish winger called Shane Ferguson.

But Gordon's form means Joelinton and Willock won't join up on that left side like they did last season. We play with 3 in midfield. Bruno has to start, but to get the best out of him, he needs physicality and/or tenacity around him. So that means 2 from Joelinton, Longstaff, Miley and Willock. Of those 4 only Longstaff and Joelinton can be relied upon to give the bite we need in midfield. Willock is basically a more narrow left winger, imo. In that position we have Barnes and Gordon, plus Joelinton or Isak at a fucking push. As I've said, if we didn't have financial restraints, or if we had the full strength team, I wouldn't countenance selling Willock.

Sima, wasn't it?

Those troublesome bowling green pitches. I'm sure we all miss the days football was played on pitches like this

As the only person testifying in his defense, Jones admitted the Sandy Hook shooting was "100% real", and agreed with his own attorney that it was "absolutely irresponsible" to push falsehoods about the shooting and its victims.[264]

It's superb. Similar arc to Ted Lasso mind, but superb none the less.

And you're on the list.

Genuinely think Tonali was bought to usurp Longstaff, and if he hadn't spent his time in the local Guglielmo Collina we might have been talking about Longstaff's imminent move to Fulham, but we are where we are.

That's a fair point. That might shift Longstaff into my crosshairs.

And if we could afford it, I'd strengthen the team without losing any good players, especially Willock. But we apparently have fuck all FFP room to manoeuvre .

Trouble is, neither of them have a decent deputy. Almiron's deputy is currently Murphy, Wilson's is Gordon or Barnes out of position. So, selling either would still leave us short in those areas. e,g, say we sold Almiron for €30m, signed Wirtz for €60m. Now we've got an upgrade on Almiron, but no sub. Any injury to Florian and we're Wirtz off. We'd probably only get around €15m for Wilson, that's not enough for a 3rd choice striker for a team with lofty ambitions, let alone a 2nd choice striker who will likely have to play a lot of games to cover for the injured Isak. I take your point re: Tonali and Barnes, but given we've only just signed them, I'd be shocked if they were even considered for sale.

Lets be honest, none of us are exactly snowed under.

I think you're misunderstanding the central point. Say there are three groups within the squad, we can argue about which player fits in which group, but as a starter I put it like this. Group 1 - The 'Purple players' Group 2 - Squad players Group 3- the Fringe Nobody in group 3 would command a decent fee, so lets rules them out as options to increase FFP wriggle room. So that leaves groups 1 and 2. Without spending a LOT of money on a replacement, I can't see anyone in group 1 that we should sell and it would leave us in a similar position where we're either putting square pegs in round holes, or significantly dropping the standard of player by using a deputy from groups 2 or 3. So that leaves group 2. In that group you've got a couple of young lads coming through in Anderson and Miley, their stock is set to rise and we don't yet know what their real ceiling is, and you've got Hall who isn't our player yet so we can't sell him anyway, so lets scratch them off the list. Dan Burn and Longstaff have shown they can play on the biggest stage and while we will need to upgrade them both, right now they appear integral to how Howe wants us to play, so they're out. So, who does that leave you with? And of those, who'd command the biggest fee? And who plays in a position we have depth in? I mean, if everyone is fit, who does Willock get in ahead of? Bruno? Joelinton? Tonali? Longstaff? He's a great option to have on the bench, or for certain opponents, but he doesn't command a starting place ahead of those lads. So, if that is the case, and we need money to bring in players for expensive positions (DM, RW & CF), does it not make sense to sell our most valuable, least integral player?

This is like that lass in Ashington all over again.

It's not about 'want', you goober, it's about looking at what we've got and being realistic about where we can make moves, to make money. Who are our most valuable, least integral players? Just like your beau, Saint-Maximin, these two represent players who are not guaranteed starters, but who can command a decent fee. Murphy is a great pro and works hard, but he's limited in terms of quality and we could still get ~£15m for him, Willock is great and in an ideal world we'd keep him, however he plays in a position we're strong in and could command a fee upwards of £35m. That's £50m (plus their wages) to increase our ability to strengthen without breaking FFP rules. Due to years of neglect by Ashley we have little to no valuable depth in the squad. So players like Ritchie, Dummett, Hayden, Hendrick will get fuck all in terms of a fee but are eating up wages. At least the first two in that list are 'good characters to have around the dressing room' and won't mind not playing, and all that. I'd much rather we sack off those 4 entirely and spend whatever we like on replacements, but we can't, so we have to be clever and we have to be ruthless.

Don't go giving random people moderator badges, this board would lose it's fucking mind.

Just what, in the blue hell, is your problem now?

Doesn't seem to be a concern if you play in blue either, mind.