c1982

I read somewhere that he’s off to Dortmund.

I think we need a top quality first choice right back signing and have Seamus as a more than capable back-up/ competition. I don’t see Kenny as being good enough and think we’d be wise to sell while his stock is ‘high’. We’d probably get £15-20m for him. Don’t sign Sidibe saving £14m and move early for Max Aarons at Norwich (maybe £30m), who has really impressed me and has a quality that our back line is desperately short of - PACE!

I think I’ve made my mind up on him now! No thank you!

...and a right back.

Offside/ in goalie’s vision are exactly the same explanation of why it was disallowed. I haven’t disagreed about us being stuffed by VAR - we were as I don’t think Gylfi affected the play - as rightly said de Gea was already wrong footed. Your original post said, ‘They're still saying it was disallowed because of offside but surely it can't be offside if a defender got the last touch.’ I merely pointed out that, it was a deflection and if the ref/VAR (wrongly) saw Gylfi as offside and interfering in play then it CAN be offside if the defender got the last touch with it being a deflection.

Or interfere with play as Palfy points out. I don’t think he was interfering with play but that’s the reason the ref/VAR has disallowed it. The example you’re giving is when players ahead of the game are not interfering with play. Exactly!

The moment the ball is played forward, Sigurdsson is offside so it doesn’t matter that it hit the defender. If the defender had control of the ball and passed it back then there wouldn’t be any offside.

The left winger coming inside a lot has been a clear tactic since we’ve had Ancelotti. He likes his right winger wide and direct (that’s why Walcott has been important) and the left winger to come in field more - something Iwobi and Bernard can do (I think this role would suit Gordon too). Walcott may still have a role next season but I can certainly see a rapid and direct right winger being a priority signing.

I like McGregor - think he’d suit our league.

Very well! (Sorry to sound like a Chuckle Brother!)

I think it was more that Kroenke held the majority vote so Usmanov’s ideas/vision weren’t ever going to be ‘passed’. My impression is that many Arsenal fans wanted Usmanov to have more control as he wanted to really go for it whereas Kroenke was maybe just keeping things steady and sitting on his investment. I have no doubt that Usmanov is and will continue being an influence here. The big thing we need is getting our commercial income much much higher (and above board) as without the evidence of income, we’re hamstrung with our spending on wages and transfer fees and having a multi-billionaire is almost pointless. Seeing what happens to Man City will be very interesting as there’s a chance that FFP will be abolished as all it’s doing is protecting the already top teams e.g. Man U and Liverpool as they are commercially miles ahead of all others - they can spend hundreds of millions more than other teams legitimately under the current rules... how can a team like us or say Villa or Newcastle catch them? Man City and Chelsea have got there through money when there were different rules but obviously now have the ‘comparable’ worldwide fan bases and sponsorship deals.

Looks like Kean just behind the Portuguese speakers.

This is my stance. I’d like him to kick on here despite not being his biggest fan. I don’t think his England slot is as nailed on as it’s been as I think Southgate will have a look at Henderson in some of the upcoming games - that may actually be good news if Pickford’s got a bit of real competition for his spot.

Schneiderlin - very good today.

Fair point - the stats only show so much.

Mike Walker is the worst EFC manager in my lifetime! FRIGHTENING!!!

The worrying stat is that only Kepa and Southampton’s keepers (combo of Gunn and McCarthy) have a worse save percentage than Pickford. At one point, early December I think, we’d faced the fewest shots on target but conceded the most goals. I just think he’s very replaceable and with his stock being so high we could get well over what he’s worth and at least replace him with ‘as good’ for a lot less. https://fbref.com/en/comps/9/keepers/Premier-League-Stats

I don’t rate our squad particularly - I’m just highlighting that we have more squad depth than Wolves. Who, beyond their core 15 odd core players, are very light on numbers beyond untried youth. You may not rate those players you’ve mentioned but they are all international and proven players in the Prem. We’ve had Gomes, Gbamin, Sigurdsson, Delph, Iwobi, Schneiderlin and Bernard missing at the same time in recent weeks - we’ve ‘coped’. An injury crisis of that proportion would leave Wolves with very little hence my original point on squad depth.

100% we have a better squad. They have individuals who would massively improve us but I’d confidently say we’ve got a better squad overall. Wolves’ success has been hugely (not solely) down to Santos and his team - he’s got the players really fit and playing in a very successful system. Wolves are a very good team - they are a local team to me so I know a lot of Wolves fans and the general consensus amongst them is that they have some top class players but not much squad depth. Most felt they were short and worried after the summer window but obviously they have coped really well (an injury crisis could have changed this) and most thought they would get a few more in during this window. Ask any Wolves fan and they’d place Nuno as more important to keep than any single player.

On the basis that I don’t particularly like him or think he’s as good as many think - Pope - better ‘old fashioned’ goalkeeper but his distribution is poor. Henderson - although he seems a bit of a div. Dubrovka - I was very impressed when they had him on-loan, made a couple of mistakes recently but don’t most keepers? Ryan - solid keeper. Schmichel is the ideal keeper in my opinion - top keeper and excellent distribution - seems a really steady character. He’s much older and not realistic though. There will plenty of keepers in other leagues, who I’m not aware of that are more than capable and if we got £50m + for Pickford, I’d be confident that we’d be able to replace him for a lot cheaper and not be any worse off because of it.

They have used less players in the league than any other team this season and that’s remarkable given they’ve played all of the extra Euro fixtures. They have been extremely lucky with injuries - having Saiss and Dendonker’s versatility has been massive for them as each can cover cb and cm - something Gbamin may have been able to do for us.

I don’t like Pickford particularly. Decent enough keeper but massively overhyped as he is ‘England’s number one’ and I think that’s gone to his head a little and rather than flourish in this he’s plateaued. I wouldn’t lose any sleep over him leaving and think there’s plenty who could replace him quite easily and for a lot less money.

The Wolves fans I know acknowledge they’ve got some top quality players but worry about the lack of depth in their squad. They’ve been incredibly lucky with injuries this season. They’ve done well to cope without Boly but they haven’t had our wretched luck when it comes to injuries.

Hard to defend his time at EFC so far but putting that aside... never a red today - very harsh!

Wolves have no squad depth whatsoever. What they do have is a very good manager/ coaching team (and Mr Mendes pulling a lot of strings!)