Summer Transfer Window 2025 Thread

Blast_of_Cannock said:
If that's correct it makes a mockery of the prize money for where you finish in the league. Imagine if City or Liverpool finished bottom but earned more than the champions because they're media darlings.
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The revenue comes from television contracts, it only stands to reason that a percentage of that is tied to television appearances.
 

Saint Domingo said:
Can’t remember too many league 1 level midfielders getting multiple motm awards in the premier league and starring against Yaya Toure and the City midfield in a league cup semi final. But yeah let’s just judge him on how he played rehabbing from a snapped cruciate.

Gueye is not good on the ball, spin it whatever way you want. He’s extremely good of the ball, great at making tackles, blocking passing lanes, blocking shots etc. but he’s average at best on the ball. He’s not going to spray balls from a deep lying position to spring forwrad players, he very rarely gets one through the lines (think his one to Ndiaye v Spurs is the only one I remember) at best he gives it sideways safely but there’s a lot of times he plays it blind across the middle of the pitch and we get in trouble.

We can, and need to, get better quality in there. Gueye has been a good player for us but it’s just pure sentimentalism to want to see him starting next season.
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I agree he’s not the best on the ball but… he does create a lot .

Players like James , KDB etc the number 10’s have an eye for a pass and that something special to unlock a team or create.

Gana does this differently , he wins the ball back when the opposition have conmited players forward and that creates opportunities

Think it was Klopp that said “ it usually takes 7-8 forward passes to create a chance or shot “

Or

You can press an will the ball back and create a chance with one pass

The difference is that doucs was our number 10 and took 5/6 touches to control it and then would play a shocking pass and we’d lose momentum

Put a couple of decent footballers in front of Gana and watch how many goals start with his interceptions
 
Tel001 said:
I agree he’s not the best on the ball but… he does create a lot .

Players like James , KDB etc the number 10’s have an eye for a pass and that something special to unlock a team or create.

Gana does this differently , he wins the ball back when the opposition have conmited players forward and that creates opportunities

Think it was Klopp that said “ it usually takes 7-8 forward passes to create a chance or shot “

Or

You can press an will the ball back and create a chance with one pass

The difference is that doucs was our number 10 and took 5/6 touches to control it and then would play a shocking pass and we’d lose momentum

Put a couple of decent footballers in front of Gana and watch how many goals start with his interceptions
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even just Saturday, the goal started from him winning it back and going forwards with it.

He also really isn’t bad on the ball. It’s not like he gives away possession lots. He keeps hold of it and generally finds his pass (the majority of time a forward pass).

87.1% pass success rate.
62% of his passes being forward passes.

So he essentially wins the ball and then starts the offensive transition for us.
 
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Tel001 said:
I agree he’s not the best on the ball but… he does create a lot .

Players like James , KDB etc the number 10’s have an eye for a pass and that something special to unlock a team or create.

Gana does this differently , he wins the ball back when the opposition have conmited players forward and that creates opportunities

Think it was Klopp that said “ it usually takes 7-8 forward passes to create a chance or shot “

Or

You can press an will the ball back and create a chance with one pass

The difference is that doucs was our number 10 and took 5/6 touches to control it and then would play a shocking pass and we’d lose momentum

Put a couple of decent footballers in front of Gana and watch how many goals start with his interceptions
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Yes, I've watched him over the years as one of the best ball winners anywhere, but his decision making with the ball has always been erratic at best.
Even at PSG he was striding forward and hitting 30 yard floaters out of the stadium.
In a disciplined team with ball players in front of him taking the ball off him as soon as he wins it, he would've been mentioned in same vein as the Kante's and Makelele's
 
Eggs said:
….i like defenders from that part of the world, they tend to be tough.
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Saying this the other day to my brother

Need to go out and buy some eastern block defenders

Proper war criminals that grew up playing and had to use barbed wire for their goal nets and played on mine fields as kids .

They are tough and do not have a moments hesitation about splitting their head open when challenging for a ball …

I used to love invanovic and vidic
 
Saint Domingo said:
that’s exactly the problem, we need to buy someone who can pass a ball like that. We need a midfield dictator who can mix up short and long passing, taking the ball off the CBs and playing between the lines. When they do this the opposition CBs have to back off because they don’t want to be exposed over the top and the opposition midfield are worried to press too hard in case they’re bypassed, so they all sit deeper and we have more of the ball.

When Gueye or Garner get the ball from our CBs, the entire opposition team know they don’t have a pass in them and can squeeze up as tight as they want because in all likelihood they’re either going to cough possession up or just go back to a defender to hoof it.
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You are 100% correct. We haven't had a decent distributor in midfield in a long time. Barry was probably the last although Gomes did it sporadically.
 
PeregrineT said:
Well, last year in the premier league he had 4 goals and 7 assists. Better than any of our CMs have been. He may not be amazing, but he may be a capable PL player.
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You can't judge players solely on stats. General play is the most important thing to judge a central midfielder by and it's too nuanced to be reduced to statistics.
 

Chrismac said:
Yes, I've watched him over the years as one of the best ball winners anywhere, but his decision making with the ball has always been erratic at best.
Even at PSG he was striding forward and hitting 30 yard floaters out of the stadium.
In a disciplined team with ball players in front of him taking the ball off him as soon as he wins it, he would've been mentioned in same vein as the Kante's and Makelele's
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Kante and Makelele are both much better on the ball though. Gueye has improved on the ball since he first joined but I still don’t want him receiving the ball under pressure and his passing is functional but lacks quality.
 
pfim said:
The revenue comes from television contracts, it only stands to reason that a percentage of that is tied to television appearances.
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I understand that, it still doesn't sit right that finishing position can make no difference to a team that gets put on the Tele more than others. Prize money for the Prem finishing position should be more of an incentive.
 
Let's look at some numbers for those who've played across the front behind the striker, strictly under Moyes. I'm going to list them in order of goal involvements against minutes played. The number in parentheses is total minutes divided by goals and assists.
  1. McNeil (58)
  2. Alcaraz (159)
  3. Ndiaye (169)
  4. Doucoure (259)
  5. Harrison (586)
  6. Lindstrom (675)
It's no surprise that the bottom three are gone, but it may surprise you, as it did me, to realize that McNeil was used by Moyes on the right almost exclusively. He's been successful when used there over the last two years, though mostly played on the left throughout his career. Moyes played Ndiaye almost exclusively on the left, and Alcaraz as the 10 (a little on the left when needed due to injuries). They all had relatively few minutes. but were all very effective in their roles in the minutes they had.

Moyes was forced to rely on Doucoure, Harrison and Lindstrom, and likely avoided starting Alcaraz so as not to force the purchase, leaving the club in a position to make a decision. But I think he would have run with Ndiaye, Alcaraz, and McNeil behind Beto if he could have, and I think he will very likely use them in these positions together in the future.

And so I think the biggest need for the club by far is right back. Obviously they need a lot of players in a lot of areas, but aside from depth, and considering how often Moyes has emphasized that they can't do everything right away, the biggest impact will be an attacking right back to overlap with McNeil.

Alcaraz driving the ball and feeding Beto, McNeil's deceptive screamers and creative passes on the right, Ndiaye's magic on the ball on the left. There's enough there to be excited about. Baines working with Mykolenko, etc. Of course, they should work to improve anything and everything, upgrade if and where they can, introduce competition, bring in versatile squad players — all of it. But nothing is more glaring or could have a bigger impact than a major investment at right back.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
 
Kevsleftpeg said:
You can't judge players solely on stats. General play is the most important thing to judge a central midfielder by and it's too nuanced to be reduced to statistics.
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So then how do you judge his general play? In your watching of him what does he do well and what does he not do well?

And often times stats are the outworking of the nuances. It is evidence of results. Not proof, but hard evidence.
 

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