I think the relevant point is it's taken a number of months for players Forest have signed from the Bundesliga to get up to the speed in the EPL.
You could argue it took Mangala a season. It took Awoniyi long enough for the board to sack the recruitment team which signed him, Niakhate tore his hamstring very early on.
If we're signing cover for at No 10, we need someone who could slot straight in almost seamlessly, not someone who needs a few months of playing in the EPL to settle in.
So we should have brought in Ross Barkley?
Rather than Frueler, or a.n.other?
Absofuckinglutely (though it could quite easily not have worked out).
His contract is up in the summer. Will be interesting to see what happens (Barclay)
Imagine the uproar had we brought in an ‘old’ ‘injury prone’ player like Barclay.
Seen links to Man Utd. He won’t be at Luton anyway.
He tanked at Chelsea, Villa and Nice. I can forgive him Chelsea as they are dysfunctional and many struggle there but perhaps he is one those kinds of player who needs to be at a club where he is better than everyone else to fit.
MGW linkage with Arsenal. A move like that is a no brainer for him. May not be immensely easy choice for us unless they pay alot though as the profit margin on him is not going to be any Brennan Johnson level of thing unless they bust the bank.
To make it worth our while, they’d have to pay first choice money. And would he replace Haevertz? (Or would they move KH up front?)
Can’t see it, unless our price is low enough for them to make him a rotation player, like Trossard and Jorginho.
Suspect he'd get plenty of appearances in over all the competitions they will be in. I am not sure Havertz is that much better than him from what I've seen. From our perspective though selling Murillo is going to have a bigger PSR dividend as he was cheap so if we have to sell one I think he would be first choice.
I’d suggest that it would be easier to replace Murillo than MGW.
That depends if you you're bothered about having a centre half who can pick a pass and carry the ball forward at pace, in addition to defending.
Barkley was excellent at Villa. Dunno about Nice.
I would take him for a season.
Chicago: Quality control manager.
This is definitely not true. He started off ok in first 2 or 3 games, pulled his hamstring and then when he came back looked absolutely lost and was dogshit. Spent most of the rest of the loan on the bench or not even in the squad and ended up training with the reserves. The loan then ended, unsurprisingly Villa didn't make it permanent and Chelsea released him for £0.
He tore Liverpoo a new one in the 7-3 thrashing. Looked very good.
Anyway I would take him.
Chicago: Summer recruiter.
