I wonder if the reaction would be different if the rumour was an unknown manager from Italy, Stefano Cooperio, who took a team from the relegation zone in Serie B up into Serie A and then comfortably kept them up - all the time with an absolute basket case of ownership and a thousand players he...
Hopefully De Zerbi goes to Chelsea and is a complete disaster. That way big clubs might look at him and Potter and realise that the reason these guys are successful is because of the the way the club is run, not them.
While we didn't spend in January (despite trying to spend £40m on Dewsbury-Hall), I don't think we had a terrible window last summer. Yes we lost MacAllister and Caicedo, but we bought in:
Pedro - 20 goals this season
Verbruggen - now Dutch number 1. RDZ rotated him with Steele. I won't miss...
Yes, that's the point. All former players will wane in popularity. It's the reality of aging.
And by the way, I still hear songs about Knockaert and Murray.
Very much agree with this. I think it's more likely now that RDZ will stay, and we'll be buying players with that assumption. I suspect there's a few players we've been tracking (and have probably been mentioned before) that we'll go for - players like James McAtee from City and Yaser Asprilla...
The thing about the midfield is that we've played Gross and Gilmour in the double pivot in some cracking wins... 3-0 away to Arsenal (Caicedo was at right back), 6-0 v Wolves, 4-1 away to Wolves, 3-1 v Newcastle etc. I'm not saying we don't miss Caicedo and MacAllister, but IMO we have missed...
He'll either be gone within a week of the season ending, or he'll get backed this summer with some significant funds. My problem with him is he too easily transmits his issues to the fans and the players. Some things shouldn't be public.
Well I have to say I was shocked at how friendly Burnley fans were a couple of weeks ago. A mate and I went into numerous pubs near the ground and every home fan there were sound. It did shake my preconceptions if I'm honest.
Apart from Burnley, I would also say Barnsley and Preston from our...