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He’s very raw. The media comparisons (with Haaland) are inevitable because of where he’s from and the similarly sounding names. If he’s half the goalscorer Haaland is, I’ll be delighted 😄. Haaland is a once in a generation talent. Comparing Hojlund to him won’t do him any good.
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Lucky, no worries at all. I thought the Chelsea site there would decline once Nine was no longer around. He’s a huge miss to both sites. He really is.
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I think Liverpool have bought well again though Sean. Nunez has had a season to bed in now so it’s at least a settled forward line, a settled defence and a settled goalkeeper. Mac Allister is top quality. Assuming Lavia comes in, I think Liverpool could hit the ground running.
For us, I think Mount will do ok. Never really thought he’s that good in all honesty but I hope Ten Hag knows what he’s doing. Onana looks good but it will be a big change to go from De Gea to him and I think we’ll make a lot of defensive mistakes trying to play out from the back more. The defence as a whole are still not really suited to that yet aside from Martinez and probably Shaw. Varane is a great defender but can be a bit careless on the ball. I like what we’re doing but I think we’re going to take time to evolve into what Ten Hag wants, just like Arsenal did under Arteta and even Liverpool under Klopp.
Not too worried about Spurs this season for the same reason. I think Spurs will take a while to transition from Conte/Mourinho to more of an attacking, passing game. For all Liverpool’s midfield upheaval, I think they can benefit from the likes of Utd, Spurs, Chelsea all being much further behind in their rebuilds.
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The Haaland-Hojlund comparisons are crazy. It’s easy to understand why the media want to make the comparisons. The names sound similar. They’re physically quite similar. Blonde hair. From the same part of the world. Likely to be leading the line for each Manchester club. That’s where the comparisons should end though. Hojlund isn’t anywhere near Haaland’s league yet, if ever. Hojlund is extremely raw and nowhere near as prolific as Haaland. The fact they’re comparing transfer fees is hilarious though. They always seem to somehow forget to mention the massive wedge paid to agents and Erling’s dad in the Haaland deal. I never understand why that isn’t talked about more. They never mention Haaland’s extortionate £900k a week wage either, which is about 10x what we’re paying Hojlund.
Hojlund has plenty of promise but I hope for his sake he isn’t compared too much to Haaland or his chances of succeeding will be very slim.
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Adlab, who on earth said them 2 would score more than Haaland? Absolutely no chance. His only competitor for the golden boot is Kane and he might well be leaving for Germany by the sounds of it.
Very tough season for predictions. I’ll save my full predictions for the specific thread but it’s Obviously City again winning it (who else?). After that, it does feel like it could be any 3 from Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, Utd, Spurs, Newcastle, Brighton (yes I’m not ruling them out despite losing Macallister and probably Caicedo too). Villa will be a force, too. I think Utd may just get 4th although I think we’ll still be better than last season and close the gap to the top. Beyond City, I think Arsenal and Liverpool will both finish above us as they are so much further ahead in their rebuild. We’ll be shaky as we get used to almost a whole new spine in a new GK, Mount and a new ST.
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I actually think Uefa will respond to this by removing the barrier of multi-club ownership groups competing in the same competitions. That would allow the Saudis (and the rest) to instead just buy ready made established clubs beyond what they’ve done with Newcastle and everyone (bar the “legacy” fans) would be happy. Uefa retain the premium product with the best players, the best competitions and the best fans. The oil states can buy as many toys (clubs) as they want and it will just become a farce. Uefa have already hinted at softening those rules.
If Sportswashing is the end goal, it’s a much slower process to sportswash in their own country which could take years, decades even, to get to a point where the quality is good enough. With that said, the likes of Henderson ditching his morals at the first sign of a big bag of cash, won’t help in terms of slowing that process down.
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Why on earth would Uefa let the Saudis join the Champions League? The Champions League is their cash cow. Their USP. Let the Saudis in and there’s no uniqueness to the product that is European football. You say “money talks” but there won’t be much money left if they dilute the Champions League and start letting others get a piece of the pie as there’ll be nothing left for players to stay in Europe for.
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That’s it Sean. They’re (mostly) all hypocrites. I know Bruno annoys a lot of people but it was great to see that he rejected multiple Saudi offers to stay at Utd. I’m sure there are a few others who have done the same, too. Jamie Vardy and Son a couple of others I’ve read who supposedly turned down moves there. It really does look bad on Henderson though considering his previous actions and words. As it would on Neville if Qatar took over Utd. Hopefully that will never happen. There are whispers now that the Glazers might be delaying things in the hope Uefa remove that multi-club ownership barrier. I really dread the can of worms that will open. I don’t want my club being a plaything for an oil state.
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Insane offer for Mbappe and for only 1 year. If we’re not already there, we’re very quickly approaching an age where football, as we know it, is gone. As soon as UEFA (as expected) remove the barrier of multi-club ownership not being able to compete in the same competitions, we’re going to see a situation where your only hope as a football fan (assuming you want to see your club do anything of note) is to sell your soul and pray for one of the oil states to come in. Seeing the likes of Henderson succumb to the lure of money and kiss goodbye to his morals is disappointing but probably inevitable and will pave the way for many more to do so. Removing that barrier for multi-club ownership is probably UEFA’s only hope in retaining the top talent but it’s a scary prospect imo.
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Be careful what you wish for Chucky. The PSG owners have been sniffing around your lot, as you know. It’s sad this is happening to our clubs. State ownership, just like leveraged buyouts should be forbidden. I stand by that.
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Exactly Chucky. “Ultimately” being the operative word here.
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They’re not directly responsible for any of our failings Chucky. They are, however, indirectly culpable for the fact that we’re so far behind our rivals. Just as a manager isn’t directly responsible for mistakes made on the field, they ARE responsible for creating an environment and a culture in which mistakes are less likely. If you take your point to the extreme, then even managers should never get blame for anything as it’s the players who make the decisions on the pitch.
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Spot on Threeps. Utd’s transfer spending, while woefully mismanaged, masks huge neglect in other areas.
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Lucky, am I going to warm to Mount? 😄. I really can’t get excited about the signing. He feels like a Jordan Henderson type of player where he will split opinion among fans. I have no idea what he’s actually good at, just as I don’t with Henderson. Yet, like Henderson, managers seem to love him.
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That’s it Lucky. I think only a non Utd fan could look at Utd’s spending and go “I see no problem here”. Football clubs, their futures, their level of appeal to players are about so much more than their net spend. The debt, the interest payments and the dividend payments have all been shameful. There seems to be a misconception that Utd fans want the Glazers out so we can spend more money. That’s about as far off the mark as you can get.
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I’m not following Chucky. What exactly am I wrong to blame the Glazers for? Your lot are no better banging on about Levy all the time and how it’s his fault you never win anything
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As I’ve always maintained Sean, the problem with Utd under the Glazers has been a case of spending with no strategy. They’ve spent when it looks like the CL money requires them to. A club like Utd shouldn’t be loaning strikers from Burnley and loaning Jack Butland. That is ultimately the Glazers fault. Not because they haven’t spent money but because they’ve not put the right people in place to ensure any kind of long term plan, just as Liverpool were doing for many years, as you say.
The state of our facilities are an embarrassment too, which could have all been kept up to date had the Glazers not paid out a billion in interest payments and dividends. That in turn means you have to pay higher fees and salaries because players simply won’t choose us if a club with better facilities offers the same money. Mac Allister a great example. We were after him but he chose Liverpool despite us having CL. Who can blame him? Us being shit with money in the past though is a very hard cycle to break because clubs see us coming and add an extra few million. It’s easy when you’re in City’s position to walk away at that point but we desperately need to strengthen so it’s a very fine balance.
They need to go but, not because we need to spend more money. I’d much rather we spent less money but it was better planned spending. I think we’d all like to see our clubs become more like how Brighton are run albeit that’s difficult to do at the top level where there is much more scrutiny.
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Lucky, there’s absolutely zero chance of any club getting any meaningful punishment through FFP so I’m not sure why you thought anyone was hoping or expecting Chelsea to get that. These clubs are far too smart to get caught out and know all the loopholes. As you say, the Utd and Arsenal money is by far the biggest help but you can’t tell me you haven’t questioned the convenience of the sudden Saudi influx of money considering their involvement in Clearlake? Chelsea are as good as state owned by the looks of things, just as we’re unfortunately likely to be soon too.
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You can thank the Saudis too Lucky. Very convenient considering how involved the Saudis are with Clearlake 🤔👀.
Not convinced by Mount at all but have to trust Ten Hag knows what he’s doing.
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@Sonof999 thanks so much for taking the time to give us this update at this difficult time. As you’ll have seen from reading the posts on this thread, Paul was very well thought of here and over on Teamtalk. I’ve been reading Paul’s posts for probably 15-20 yrs or something and have been fortunate enough to have had many discussions with him over that time.
Paul really was part of the furniture here and over at Teamtalk and will be dearly missed. Amongst all the chaos on various football-related sites where I’ve known Paul, Paul was always the voice of reason and the glue holding everything together. A true gentleman.
Rest in Peace Paul 🙏
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