8 Comments

Thoughts on us getting someone in attack as well? Rice, Caicedo, an RB/RCB and someone in attack sound reasonable to you?

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Of course I'll say yes, but it's all up to the budget. I'm greedy for Rice/Caicedo, and think an RCB/RB is a necessity, but am fully amiable otherwise.

You know who looks like they could fit into a reasonable budget? 😧

https://twitter.com/FabrizioRomano/status/1668753800155529217?s=20

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Great thread, but that's normal. Thanks for all the great content!

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Great thread. With Rice on the verge of signing (reported by Plettenberg) and also us being interested in Caicedo, do you think those 2 players should be enough for next season or should we look to sign one more RCB/RB?

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Definitely another defender, IMO. Can ball on a budget for it, as needed.

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Can you talk more about cancelo?

I am being naive but it seems to me that he seems to be kinda talent that we should be happy to fail with (e.g. pay 50 million (is 50 close enough?) and either get a potentially toxic player or a real game changer: for former, we move him out for let's say 30 million in 1-2 years; for later, we as you said would have unlocked an arbitrage.

Put this way, can we risk 20 million losses and a potential fault line in the team spirit to unlock an arbitrage.

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I have trouble lining everything up for him, budget and otherwise, considering other needs. He wants to play every week, and Caicedo/Rice could probably form enough of a base for he and Zinchenko to coexist and just run a wrecking ball through weaker opposition, alternating their adventures. Against better teams, one of them still has to be on the bench, I figure. That's why I'd be curious to explore secondary roles for him; I'm not one for video games, but I imagine Cancelo is one of the only players you can actually go FIFA with in real life, positionally, and I generally like targeting players who have had enormous narrative changes in short periods of time (value-wise).

The risk is still high, though. In your scenario, on budget, there are no guarantees of suitors for a 31-32 year-old with bad PR on high wages, particularly if more teams follow Pep, as they usually do, and are moving away from YOLO full-backs. Man City may be having trouble moving him as-is.

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Thanks, good point!

I didn't realize he is >30.

Btw this makes me think: are we getting too many all-rounders (if you are familiar with cricket). This is prompted by Haavertz speculation. Is it because we want to play (as pep does: something close to total football, though next exactly).

I wonder if it is a fad or a fact of life in football today?

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