This would be very good. Good player and nice guy but injuries have been a problem and we've never really seem the best of him and therefore he won't leave a big hole. Shame because when he was doing those long throws they were a weapon! But I think that stopped because of some shoulder issue. Also capable of the odd cock up.
Worst case scenario is that we lose Murillo, Niakhate, Worrall, McKenna and Felipe, leaving us with Omobamidele and Boly as our only two senior centre-halves. Given the last three of those were non-factors last season and Moussa has managed 35 Premier League appearances in two seasons, or less than half of our games, I don't think it's too dramatic an issue, but obviously we'll need to sign a couple presuming there's no one in the Academy close to breaking in. I would hope though that selling Niakhate would remove the pressure to sell Murillo for anything other than a stupid offer.
Once the element of surprise was lost from his long throws, they weren't very effective anyway. Aina's flatter delivery is better.
But he didn't have any signficant absences through injury last season. Aside from AFCON, he only had one spell of two games where he wasn't at least on the bench. He wasn't picked much last season because of Murillo.
Readymade replacement for Murillo.
Seems short-sighted but given where we are financially, I suppose we have to be.I agree with you, but in the modern game of spreadsheets, there's no sentiment left for football decisions.
Wonder the odds on him turning up at Palace on loan in January. That sort of thing really shouldn't be allowed. 🙈
Wouldn't it have been easier to just sell him to Palace if they want him?
Man Utd have been banned from signing the Nice centre back due to shared ownership, but I think that’s from UEFA having a day as they’re in the same European comp next season.
Would be a nice problem for the Greek to have.
HWG from Fab for Niakhate. £20m
Chelsea can fuck off now as L'EQuippe in France say it's 31 Million Euros which is a nice profit. As I think Niakhate only had 3.3 amoritized to go.
So i think we don't need to sell Murillo and he can hang with his mate the massive keeper for another season.
I think we are buying more Brazilians so I think Yates, Neco, Aina and MGW may now have to learn Porto-geezer now.
I think David Carno might be on the docket for 17 million Euros as Olympiakos cannot afford him even though they would like him so we might be the ones jumping in. Bloke is a unit and can head. Not sure if he can run but hey ho.
Now we can work on those fantasy signings Xavi Simons and Matt Hummels ((c) Jim7).
Chicago: Feeling a tad more relaxed.
I would like to place on record my complete confidence in the competence of our club officials, whose abilities I have never doubted.
I still suspect Murillo will go before the end of August, but only if someone pays top dollar for him, rather than getting him on the cheap because they know we must raise money by 30 June.
After the continual financial shit-show of the last 2 seasons, the Niakhaté sale feels a surprisingly professional & competent piece of work by the club… which probably just means we’re about to do something nuts. I sincerely hope Miltiadis has lost Michi Batshuayi’s phone number, for example..,
24 goals in 46 games for Fenerbahce, and cost them 3M euros. I can list about a dozen deals we did that were considerably worse than that one would have been.
Cause spreadsheets.
If tricky thinks Harry Kane is a useless old goal hanger, I fear him watching Batshuayi in a Forest shirt could send him into overdrive and or cause a serious time / space implosion.
