'Even allowing for inflation, this thread is not worth 198 Terry Francises' - EPL 2017-18

Somebody had to explain to a bloke that this Calavalani lad who looked really good on telly for Uruguay was a PSG player and might be out of our price range

Chris (xp)

cavani has said that his earliest football memory is being huddled around a black and white tv in the montevideo barrio when he grew up watching the 1960 fa cup final, so...

ciao antonio:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44820563

bombshell

he's obviously been on the verge all summer but melania turns up and has a game of bowls with the chelsea pensioners and then he's gone within the hour just saying like

we just got Erik Durm from Borussia Dortmund. Versatile but injury prone fullback who was part of the Germany wc winning squad of '14. Wagner was the one who originally signed him at BD, and it sounds like we have just bought out the last year of his contract. It'll do for me.

is shaqiri to lfc official

still waiting for the double-eagle thumbs up!

oh no its offish!

surely a roman torture xp

Sobhi and Shaqiri both took the piss out of us in the draw at leeds rd, obv we signed the better one than Liverpool!

xp delayed lol!

Yes you are delayed

could you expand on that please Mr hilarity sock?

didn't think so, cunt!

Fenway Sports Group making it rain

grealish apparently en route

him and traore seemed 2 of the standout players of the champo playoffs.

cautiously optimistic about alisson but I actually didn't realize that he didn't start a single game the season before this one

rip Wardy! Not being able to supplant Karius is the ultimate vote of no-confidence!

Done it elsewhere at greater length but yes jack grealish is the finest English playmaker of his generation, certainly a vastly superior player to dele fuckin alli,!it's a great signing, by rights he should be the cornerstone of all England national sides in future, a pox on the poch that leaves him to rot on the bench until he's 27 and the moment is lost

We're not exactly overstocked in that position, especially if and when Dembele leaves, he'll get plenty of game time.

Idk that I guess would be the difficulty, he's not a centre mid and he's certainly no dembele

If he's gonna play anywhere in your current system it's gonna have to be one of the two spots behind Kane but ahead of the midfield, he's a 10 more than anything

I'll go big in my praise for him but obviously he'll never and shouldn't be picked ahead of Eriksen which leaves him competing with dele and son for that other spot

Most likely he fills the eriksen spot in cup games and the like whenever eriksen needs a rest, it's a crying shame, would've been better as a 1st choice elsewhere imo

most likely he replaces or challenges alli tbh

Dele Alli the best player in the world of his age and shame on you for forgetting it

Yikes. Oxlade-Chamberlain out for the season

jaysus, rotten luck that

xp lookit i can cheerlead against all logic when i love a fella but alli will be gone from spurs for far more than he's worth within two years and if we have plan b in already then thats fine by me

was only quoting from your own glorious leader, the eyeroll was implied. he's obviously got a touch and he scores some goals but i mean "raheem sterling" need i say i more. grealish won't get a game ahead of alli, better football brains than you or i have decided that he is the future and that's all there is to it

idng the raheem sterling comment, a player with no touch and no goals bar those handed by pep fiat

long may alli rep premium last, i think im at the stage of the sooner we cash in and get a player who doesnt lose the ball all the time the better

probably more astute than Dyche's dogged persistence in trying to get Clucas at a Buy British price.

huh? a post disappeared!

xxp alright well we can argue about whether or not Sterling has got a first touch (i think he does, it's the second, third and fourth touches that tend to ruin it), i mentioned him before bcuz he is the no 1 example out there of using the numbers (23 in 46 last season!) to justify the "he is a world class player delivering week in week out for a top level side" assessment regardless of how much evidence he may provide to the contrary in real time during games

Alli is also a much worse player than his numbers would suggest, you can make an argument based on the numbers that he is actually an extremely effective player, but he's NOT that's all i was getting at

ya ya all agreed

you think grealish is a better player, gods honest now, or dyou think in champo alli is like a god etc

Ha well how is one to be sure, he was singlehandedly pureeing defences as of Christmas last year while playing alongside some right tosh

I'm of the opinion that there is not much to call between a top 8 championship defence and a bottom 12 EPL defence, or at least there wasn't last year, this state of affairs seems likely to continue

All I can say is I've been going along to villa park for many many years now and even in the days when we were routinely contending for European places I never saw a guy so utterly assured in possession, making the right decisions and getting the execution right

adomah, grabban, snodgrass et al were scoring 1 in every 5 that he was creating for them, would fancy Harry Kane's chances of getting more

But yes if it comes to it he is a different and altogether superior player to alli, he will probably post worse numbers even if he gets the starts but that proves nothing

im of an opinion that a player with less of the big stats than alli who strung things together more consistently but with a more creative edge than winks would be a vg addition to squad.

doubt he'd be stuck for game time tbh, especially presuming dembele sissoko are likely departees.

in which case he'll do you just fine

as a direct result of this conversation i'm now watching this clip on repeat and weeping like a child, i hope you're pleased with yourself

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jp05xHqy2BU

Shit I forgot that Sissoko was still there. Guaranteed starter next season.

Son is at the Asian Games at the start of the season which might have some bearing on transfer policy. Just remembered that Moura exists as well.

moura gonna be great this season imo

are we allowed to start talking about the new domestic season now that the World Cup is done?

Liverpool looking immense on paper once the Alisson deal goes through but they've still only got one viable front 3, remove any one of them and the whole thing goes to pieces. Man Utd will be absolute waste again and probably still finish 2nd, Pogba and Lukaku will get the blame, Spurs a worthy 3rd place. Are Chelsea gonna be any good at all once they sell Kante to PSG?

Rumours are Hazard, Kante, Willian and Courtois all leaving Chelsea.

They'll need some great signings in the next couple of weeks if they're to mount any sort of challenge this season.

so

spurs title, we're callin it yeah,

Spurs to do a Belgium.

but they've still only got one viable front 3, remove any one of them and the whole thing goes to pieces

Shaqiri seems like a pretty able deputy, no?

Mou to win title. Calling it.

Utd's business so far has been deeply concerning. Fred is probably a decent pickup but after that all we've got is completely untested 19-year-old and a third choice keeper

if we go into the season with Valencia and Young still first choice and without a recognised right winger we might as well not bother

contrast to Liverpool, who seem to have intelligently addressed their issues and now look like the second best XI in the league

spurs, utd falling back with no activity is prob the simple narrative

dunno abt utd but spurs couldve used a few current squad players (Foyth, KWP, arguably Llorente more last year to good effect imo)

Wanyama, Winks, Rose, Alderweireld all spent significant % of season out injured.

Moura bought for this season and hardly used.

Bit of width, better alternative to Alli/Kane if such a hybrid exists, Sissoko out, be in good shape to challenge for top 4 imo.

I feel like Liverpool are the only club who really anticipated the problems that a World Cup and shorter transfer window would bring, their squad looks really well-placed to challenge for the title now (assuming City don't just run away with it again) and their new midfield + Alisson + a full season of VVD should ensure a huge step up on last year.

The next few weeks are going to be completely crazy transfer-wise so it's not really wise to make any predictions but I'd guess:

Spurs - will start very slowly due to most of the squad getting to the last weekend of the World Cup but once they get going will be about as good as last season
United - every time Pogba and Lukaku look laboured this season, everyone will know it's Mourinho's fault. This could be the season he burns it all down.
Chelsea/Arsenal - fuck knows. Aubameyang could come screaming out of the blocks though but both squads look far from complete.

Hard to see anyone else breaking into that lot. Everton + Silva really could go either way.