Summer Transfer Window 2023

[stokeriño]

God bless that man.

[Gazz]

He's going to go out and buy the most sensible, economic small car he can find.

Absolute animal.

[Baddar]

 

Anyone else think Fab is getting paid for tweets like these? Sometimes he switches into agent mode to get names out there.

[METALMAN]

Does he actually like football or is he only interested in business to business sales?

[Naitch]

@METALMAN Like this?

[gunnar hendershow]

1 hour ago, Baddar said:

 

Anyone else think Fab is getting paid for tweets like these? Sometimes he switches into agent mode to get names out there.

His sources are likely agents. They're definitely feeding him news and he definitely copies and pastes "agent speak" from his text messages over to his tweets.

Basically all of these sports journalists who drop a good number of big stories first are in the same boat. Either agents, team executives/managers, or the occasional intermediary has a direct line to them. See also Adam Schefter (NFL) and Adrian Wojnarowski (NBA). Over here ESPN pays those guys a ton of money to make sure ESPN is the one with the scoops before anyone else. Much so that even when the news breaks first elsewhere, those guys have the direct lines to get more detail. It makes their employers the "trusted sources" for breaking sports news. I'm sure Sky treat Fab the same way. 

[Lineker]

 

[Hobo]

Still a silm chance Liverpool will sign Jude Bellingham

[METALMAN]

13 minutes ago, Lineker said:

 

Why’s he wearing the completely unique special edition Italy shirt?

[DavidMarrio]

2 hours ago, Hobo said:

Still a silm chance Liverpool will sign Jude Bellingham

He doesn't have a chatgpt song set to Ecuador by Sash. 

He's shit. 

[Gazz]

J. Bellingham has signed for Sunderland.

[Lineker]

The Guardian are reporting that Man Utd are out of the Harry Kane race.

[stokeriño]

If we're quoting Guardian reports, they also claim that Arsenal are super keen on Kai Havertz.

[Lineker]

 

[stokeriño]

Home Office could just simplify their own immigration rules, but no, over-complicated bollocks it is.

[Szumi]

I genuinely don't understand the hype around Kai Havertz. What has he done to remotely show he's worth what Chelsea paid for, outside of scoring the goal in the Champions League Final?

[stokeriño]

It does feel like he's the sort of player that everyone agrees "has quality", but completely fails to excel with it. I think if he weren't thrust into the status of Big Talent by the one season where he scored 17 goals in the Bundesliga at age 20, he wouldn't be where he is now.

For 3 full seasons at Chelsea he's been played almost entirely in a False(ish) 9 position...(except for maybe those few months when Lukaku was here and not injured). They say it's not his best position, but even when he plays as a 10 it always struck me as a very odd fit.

Anyway, in this mostly-a-striker role he has scored 32 in 139 games, so a rate of less than 1 in 4. In his best season with us (21/22) this was closer to 1 in 3, which is still nothing special from someone playing in that position.

"Ah," you might suppose, "but the job of the False(ish) 9 is to enable goals for other players cutting inside from the wings". Yes indeed, but no one scores any bloody goals from our wings, so he's not exactly been doing a stellar job there either.

So I dunno. I am honestly not sure what position in what formation in what kind of team is meant to get 'the best' out of him. But then maybe I am an old-fashioned sort whose appreciation of player roles is stuck somewhere around 2010.

[Gazz]

Havertz is that one player you always have on FM who, regardless of where you play them or what roles they have, always scores a 5.8 to 6.1

[Colly]

This is very niche to anyone who didn't watch Newcastle regularly a decade ago, but he reminds me of a better Haris Vuckic. Technically very good, but too big to be a proper winger/ten, not clinical enough to be a striker, and not good enough in the air to be a target man. He's definitely a good footballer, but who knows what you do with him.

Edited June 15, 2023 by Colly

[Baddar]

Some players just don't fit in the PL full stop. Hasn't Werner been banging in the goals again since returning to Germany?