Speculation The hysterical and annoying, but traditional, totally unfounded spring/summer 2019 rumours thread.

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popillius said:
How exactly? One of them we shipped out to play second division football in Scotland whilst the other got a few hundred minutes or so, most of which were under Claude Puel and his brand of nonsense football. Most of the training sessions they have been involved with have been in the systems used by Celtic and Puel respectively. Other than paying them and helping them to learn English, what have we done to ready them for PL football in the heart of our defence and what evidence is there that these 'adaptations' have been successful enough to bank on them?
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It's easy to forgot these are people we're talking about. There is much more to settling in a different country than just your job. Particularly when you don't know the language.

I really don't get your point through. All players we sign carry risk and you just don't know until you play them.

I would imagine fans would be quite happy if we sold HM and them went out and bought a young European central defender for 20odd million...but don't want to play the one we have...
 
I'm going to go out on a limb here. I reckon (with a combo of gut feel and reading between the lines) that Maguire is staying. I don't reckon anyone will pony up what we're asking.
 
I agree. He looks good sometimes because he carries the ball forward but that can leave a space at the back if there isn’t cover for him. A good traditional CB may be just as valuable Huth was great with his head at corners as is Morgan. Carrying the ball forward does not make HB a one trick pony but it does seem to have inflated his novelty value.
 
popillius said:
How exactly? One of them we shipped out to play second division football in Scotland whilst the other got a few hundred minutes or so, most of which were under Claude Puel and his brand of nonsense football. Most of the training sessions they have been involved with have been in the systems used by Celtic and Puel respectively. Other than paying them and helping them to learn English, what have we done to ready them for PL football in the heart of our defence and what evidence is there that these 'adaptations' have been successful enough to bank on them?
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Okay, imagine we'd never already signed two replacements for Maguire.

Imagine we'd kept Huth for another year instead.

Now imagine that we signed Soyuncu and Benkovic this summer instead of last summer. Two highly regarded international central defenders.

Would you be happier now?
 
Wide player and a striker
 
Brown Nose said:
Okay, imagine we'd never already signed two replacements for Maguire.

Imagine we'd kept Huth for another year instead.

Now imagine that we signed Soyuncu and Benkovic this summer instead of last summer. Two highly regarded international central defenders.

Would you be happier now?
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I'd still be very anxious indeed that we'd let Maguire go only to replace him with CBs that have had little to no experience of the PL. I'd still be very nervous about this season, with all the potential it has, being thrown off course by a possible lack of real quality in defence. I'd still be perturbed by the fact that, once again, as with Slimani, Musa, Silva, Diabate, Ghezzal and a host of others, we'd have spunked umpteen million pounds on players who seem good on paper instead of bringing in proven PL players ready from the off.

Of course, all of that is completely and utterly irrelevant. The bottom line is that we do have the capacity to try and replace as best as possible, one of our best players, should he leave and we must try to do so.
 
TommyK said:
It's easy to forgot these are people we're talking about. There is much more to settling in a different country than just your job. Particularly when you don't know the language.

I really don't get your point through. All players we sign carry risk and you just don't know until you play them.

I would imagine fans would be quite happy if we sold HM and them went out and bought a young European central defender for 20odd million...but don't want to play the one we have...
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I understand the concept of them being people. The point was about their adaptation or preparation to play football. They've had precious little of it of any real worth.

Of course all players carry a risk but like I've already written umpteen times it is about managing that risk. We have been stung so many times over the past three seasons with the shit that we have brought because none of them were remotely good enough for the PL having cost gazzillons of pounds. That was a pretty stupid risk to take.

I certainly wouldn't be happy with the latter having seen our approach to the transfer market over the last 3 years; I'd be petrified that we'd done it again when we had the chance to purchase someone proven in their position in the PL.
 
The Maguire replacement debate is an interesting one (well, to a point... it's going on a bit now).

Essentially, none of us know yet if Soyuncu and/or Benkovic are ready or capable yet to step up and fill Maguire's role, should he leave.

Soyuncu didn't look ready last season and he didn't fill me with confidence when I saw him play - but he had very few opportunities. Benkovic impressed in the SPL, but that's the SPL.

Centre back is a tricky one, more so than probably any position other than goalkeeper, because you can't just test them out and bed them in by giving them 20 mins here and there like you would with a winger. The only way is to through them in at the deep end.

It's very hard to know, and with the transfer window closing early, we don't even have the option of seeing how they get on over the first few weeks of the season and then going for another centre back if we need to on/around deadline day.

Luckily, Rodgers will know better than anyone what Benkovic capable of and whether or not he's ready, having managed him through the whole of last season in the SPL and Rodgers having plenty of Premier League management experience, so he knows what's required.

I guess what I'm saying is all we can do is trust Rodgers' judgement on this one - but I feel we're in a safe pair of hands to make that call.
 
P
Graz said:
Why did Villa release him if he's highly rated?
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probably like the vast majority of Prem Clubs they were not willing to take the punt, I agree that if he was highly rated then surely Villa would be looking to give him another contract. Hopefully Villa have made the same decision as they did with Albrighton and we have secured another gem.
 
with him being 20 I'm not sure how it works with regards to what type of offer they have to make to get compensation
 
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