Just found out about Ten Hag getting sacked after three games. Arsebollocking hell.
Hope we’re all positively fizzing at the perineum at Qatar 
v 
Bahrain this afternoon! It’s not even pre-CUM, that’s how exciting it is!
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lovely stuff
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My gut feeling at the time was that it was a good signing. He had such a specific skillset which seemed perfectly compatible with how we played. Seems weird now that he was probably England’s best player for a brief period.
Nothing I’ve seen from him suggests he’d be any sort of trouble. Only ever comes across as an extremely likeable, very mild mannered and sweet bloke, but does sound like he forgot to turn up at training his very first week and when he did show up was considerably over the % over weight rule Pep famously insists on, though you’re never sure what’s being briefed from within a club.
I’ve never seen a footballer so absolutely petrified to be at a big club before. I’m a bit disappointed that Guardiola hasn’t been willing to put an arm around him and ease him in. He’s had a bad injury in recent months, so expect he would’ve been sold otherwise, but I think Pep just fundamentally doesn’t think he’s good enough. I don’t know how you realize that after months of extensive scouting, but whatever.
I wonder if there’s an argument we signed him when he was already on the dip. Not sure how good he was during his last season at Leeds, and if memory serves he’d had some sort of knee injury that season. Him carrying/masking an injury would make more sense to me than someone who played under Bielsa not being fit enough.
Getting him back to Leeds on loan would’ve been the best option for everyone.
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Agree with most of this.
He was injured most of his last season at Leeds, yeah, and around Euro 2021 was definitely one of England’s best players. Voted POTY that year. Still think England still haven’t really replaced him in terms of his profile and skillset when fit and on form.
He’s definitely a good egg. Surprised he was overweight and undisciplined as Bielsa was just as stringent on that stuff, probably even more so. Maybe after that period (and a bit under Marsch) he took his opportunity to relax a bit.
Unfortunately after his last two loans and three nothing years, I think the ship has sailed on him coming back. We’ve made other, probably wiser investments in midfield and even a chunk of his reported wages at City wouldn’t make sense for us.
With the obvious exception of Raphinha, who wasn’t part of the promotion side, you look at that Bielsa team and the theme is that all of those players reached a level you’d never have thought possible. Phillips would’ve had an ok Championship career ala Alex Mowatt without Bielsa.
Same applies to Bamford, Cooper, Ayling, Klich etc - none would ever have been Premier League players when you look at the arc of their careers and what they’ve managed before and after.
I think in 2020-21 season only Messi completed more ‘progressive carries’ (or something) than Ayling across Europe’s big leagues. That’s as close to a footballing miracle as you’ll ever see.
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Don’t really blame players wanting to get a message across in a second language but fucking hell surely the club has someone to help with this stuff
Actually probably is just some intern using chatgpt isn’t it
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It’s this. The club made a series of bad calls in and around the Haaland signing that we paid for last season and seemingly this one as well. I think most of them were driven by hubris more than anything - that decline or bad traits that the scouting team detected Pep would magically fix, because we’d gotten so used to him adapting whatever he was handed. Similarly just having a very thin team at a time when every rival has been stockpiling.
Whether he’s run out of the juice necessary to make those adjustments or we’re no longer providing him with tools that can be adapted is another question.
No idea what happened, but not even managing to get him a loan, when it’s clear that 0 minutes are on offer for him at City, seems like a fuck up for everyone involved. While no one will cover all his wages, surely anything is better than nothing?
He can’t walk at the minute, Clive.
Same applies to Sterling.
Crazy to look through England’s Euro 2020 squad now.
Alongside Sterling and Phillips, you’ve got Sancho, Grealish, Rashford, Coady, Calvert-Lewin, Chilwell, Shaw & Maguire.
All somewhere around their peak years, safe to say the last four years haven’t been kind to them.
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Didn’t realise he was injured, just thought he was the proverbial ‘forgotten man’.
Sterling, Maguire and Phillips were arguably our best three players in that tournament too
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Name some players people forget were at your club
Borja Baston
Tom Carroll
Tiago Ilori
Chris Samba
Grant Holt
Wayne Routledge
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Brad Friedel
Rigobert Song
Nuri Sahin
Fernando Morientes
Joe Cole
Nigel Spackman
Arthur Melo
Steven Caulker
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Antony saying he rejected Bayern and a pay rise to go to Betis. How desperate were they this summer? Basically puts the 13 goal-a-season, 90 million bundesliga wastemen in context, when the best team in the league by miles are sniffing around Antony, Jackson etc.
Fernando llorente
Stephen caulker
Steed Malbranque