Howay

Going off the pace of the cunt he’s usually wearing concrete.

To be fair to Arsenal fans they’ve always seemed like one of the most reactionary, un knowledge fanbase around. Maybe he is poor but they have a massive tendency to overreact to the quality in their players. I’m not just talking about AFTV here but my experiences with arsenal fans (lived with one at Uni).

We’ve always had interest in Nketiah, he’s definitely in the Wood/Burn type of signing where he’s being targeted to help us in the short term to avoid relegation. He of course has the upside of being young and he may kick on and improve. It gives us another option up front tbf whereas currently we have very little choice. If we end the window with Wilson, Wood and Nketiah as our central striker options I feel that’s a decent window, we can then go and get Haaland or whatever mental target in the summer

Aye, I was baffled by the Manchester United fans on twitter stating that it’s up to their club what he goes for and that it’s good business. People’s entire point was that they’re being pricks about the fee at the expense of a lad who has been nothing but a loyal hardworking pro for them, who wants to play in a WC year when he’s not being played he has 5 months left on his deal and there’s a very fair offer on the table. Of course it’s up to them what the terms will be but they’re still being enormous arseholes, additionally it’s fucking TERRIBLE business on their part, it’s going to cost them about £2.5m just to spite us when they could get a couple of million plus the expense of his wages taken off their hands, so a swing of £4m-£5m for a player they don’t play and have no chance of keeping.

Spot on. I also find it weird that they’ve always been promoted as this side that are always pushing the top sides, yet the reality is Shola Ameobi has more CL goals than them. They’re one of the most mid table clubs around but they’re constantly built up as pushing the “top 6” (which in itself is a ridiculous media concept since they have too many darlings to fit into 4). I saw somewhere on twitter that they even had a banner at a game saying “we demand the best” while ours was “we only demand a club that tries” the narrative about us seems to apply more to their fan base tbh.

Yeah that’s the big change a player like Guimeraes (if we get him) brings. He will completely transform our game as we will actually be able to retain some fucking possession in central midfield, as well as providing more incisive passes from that position. It suddenly makes games like Villa possible results whereas we previously wrote them off.

Good to see, would be good if we can use these local little lower league sides to give our youth some experience. The likes of Hartlepool, and Sunderland, are the type of really small clubs that are close to home that can give experience to our youth who are currently miles away from our first team.

So if all goes to plan, it seems we would be looking at a window of Trippier, Wood, Bruno fucking Guimeraes, Burn, a left back, and possibly a forward. If that happens I’ve never been happier about having all my fears dispelled and proven fucking wrong about how they’ve handled all of this. Must be a sickener for the “all the money in the world but no one will come” and “they won’t spend anything” crews, as we potentially end the window with a current England international and current Brazilian international signed . If we get Guimeraes finalized, a left back and forward in I think the last couple of days could be mad as I read somewhere that we basically have a list of secondary targets, young up and comers that they want in the summer but may try to sign sooner if they get their primary positions covered. Trying to stay calm and focus that currently we still only have Wood and Tripps in but fucking hell the Guimeraes signing is a fucking MASSIVE statement of intent and win for the project (people can say money talks but we aren’t breaking our wage structure so he will only get the same or less than Trippier I’d imagine, which is an amount he could have definitely got elsewhere).

It’s just absolutely mental that we are being discussed on things like that. I agree fully about the fee structure, Marcotti is talking shite as regardless of the cash on hand we have why give someone the full fee upfront when they can put that money to work and make more money with the money they will be making future installments with? My sheets are definitely in the dryer if this deal goes through. If we manage to stay up we go into the summer in a much better position and can really be deliberate and structure deals how we want, we were always going to have to bend a bit with the payment schedule to get deals like Guimeraes but it sounds like we didn’t have to break for it.

Remember when that bitch Edwards said they only had £50m to spend in January

So from what I hear, we have zero interest in going for Carlos in the summer, we will move for younger targets. Our CM options are Guimeraes and Sangare both are provisionally agreed with Guimeraes the preferred (despite costing twice as much). Again take it with a grain of salt it’s second hand info, but as essembee says remember where you heard about Carlos first Also hear Howe has an absolute chub on hoping we get Guimeraes in

That’s all fair and on the surface appears to be the case. I just find it very fucking odd and coincidental that the day after (or the same day but later on) we turn our attention to another CB and basically walk away from the deal Monchi goes and does an interview with one of the major press outlets in the country of the interested party to basically discuss a supposedly impossible transfer move. I’ve really never seen that before. He then goes out of his way to highlight that it was a good bid, but it’s purely the timing that was difficult and that they’ll hold out until summer, which can be read as screaming for more money. Again it could be reading into things but it’s a bizarre move by Monchi imo if they have no intention of selling, the same as entertaining our bids for 3 weeks was.

It kind of reminds me of how Dummett is viewed in our support base, in that he’s solid enough and a canny lad so he is well regarded but is really limited.

I can’t imagine he won’t be an instant improvement on Longstaff tbf, even if he’s adjusting. I also think France to the PL isn’t a bad adjustment compared to other steps.

Awwww ruffling some feathers are we? We literally are bullying clubs to sell btw, has he not realized this? Why does he think we are walking around agreeing all these personal terms, unsettling players and then coming in to bid? Can he tell Monchi to stop publicly flirting about a bid if Carlos is so out of our league then.

Agree, that’s why I really like the move for Burn. It is giving us at least some leverage to show we don’t absolutely need Carlos so stop pissing us around over the price and do a deal or dont.

Aye, I think if we stay up we are more interested in younger players on the up. I was reading somewhere last night that we are after a 21 year old striker at Marseilles and basically told his agent we want to sign him but have more pressing needs right now, if we get our primary targets we can try for him at the end of the window or wait until summer. If that’s true I think players like Carlos/Zapata etc will not be the targets they want, they also likely know this themselves and know it’s a chance to have a big contract late in their career so it’s mutually beneficial in the current situation.

I honestly see this as him posturing. I could be reading too much into it but having an interview with a foreign news outlet about a player you rejected a bid for is a bit weird to start with, Monchi knows there’s no chance we come in with a bid anywhere close in the summer as we have way more time and options by then (the situation could also be different given the league we are in too of course). I almost see it as him trying to steer the story back to Carlos after the Guimeraes and Burn deals have took attention away, after that I can see them coming back to us before the end of the window to see if we would do a deal tbh. This is different to the Botman deal in that Botman could potentially go for more in summer whereas this is the peak of Carlos’ price given all the circumstances. Of course they could simply want to hold on to him for a title push but it’s weird they spent 3 weeks entertaining bids if that’s the case.

90 fucking years of watching the mackems

So overall it’s a pet peeve of mine as I always find it disrespectful when reporters say “United” about Manchester United, but in a fucking story about two teams called United would it kill them to put Manchester for fuck sake. On topic £50m is absurd, it’s also a load of shite as it’s Manchester ‘not a real’ United holding our feet to the fire, West Ham paid £1.5m for him on loan last season supposedly so why is it 10 times that? It’s pure and utter greed, which is fine but the reporters don’t need to report shite about how it’s tied to valuation . It’s also shameful of them to do to a lad who has been a very good pro for them and come through their academy especially after they priced him out of a move last summer then have basically never played him all season. In short they’re a bunch of cunts, if it’s an Avenue that is allowed we should have him pay up his contract through the Webster rule to piss them off.

“I’ve heard of him but don’t know much about him” for fuck sake man.

Aye the fact they’re publicly listed gives much better background for why that tweet was made. The football world tends to be quick to announce things before all of the paper work is signed, even if it is all basically agreed Lyon can’t really allow wild speculation.

So it would seem they have likely agreed but it’s not all signed, so they release a statement like that as one final dice roll to flush out any improved bids? Guesswork on my part tbh.