2019/20 Premier League Thread - The Longest Season

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

First topic message reminder :

2019/20 Barclays season thread

Start off by asking how long you think Ole will last at the wheel? For me, sacked by February 2020

[JDizzle]

Shame for Leicester but they ran out of steam since the start of the year. Positive first full season for Rodgers but need to recruit well to fill out the squad

Starting fast and then tailing off at clubs has happened before with Brendan. Needs to show he can turn things around when they are going against him.

Excellent first season for Frank at Chelsea - winning a trophy next week would really top it off. Signing a competent GK will make a huge difference next season.

Even if the wheels do come off next year, Chelsea now have a core of homegrown players who (worst case scenario) can either be cheap back ups or sold to mid table sides for big fees to restock with top quality players. And best cast scenario, they develop into top tier elite players in Europe.

[Dolphin Ziggler]

Most not all Dolph.

Go and have a lie down. Seems the final day excitement has got to you.

I agree, we need a decent striker though.

You sure? Samatta and Davis are horrid, Wesley is like what Benteke became after the injuries!

[westisbest]

Sorry. Misread. Thought you meant the whole team are awful.

Striker wise, we are poor. Wesley looked ok when he got injured.
Samatta has been poor.
Davis still has a lot to do.

Vassilev will probably go on loan to get experience.

Likewise Barry.

It’s an area where if we had a good striker we may not have been in the position we were.

[Dolphin Ziggler]

Think a good striker could put relegation worries behind you. There's a good spine otherwise. Mings, McGinn and Grealish are too good to be battling.

[GSC]

Mings regressed badly didn't he?

Might be time for Grealish to take a step up, but equally not sure I can pick a likely spot for him. Everton makes sense but would guess he'd want to go higher

[Guest]

Problem is, he isn’t a top 4 player. Doubtful any side is willing to pay upwards of £60m for him. Rather anonymous for Villa since the return, bar the goal today. He’s similar to Zaha, wants the big move, but no takers. Think he’ll stay and Villa try and recruit around him.

[Duty281]

Could see Arsenal coming in for Grealish, who is essentially Wilshere part two.

[westisbest]

I’d love him to stay. Yeah Arsenal could be a destination.

Hopefully he won’t go somewhere, where he will sit on the bench.
Not that he would go there, but United he would do that.

He will want to be a regular.

Leicester maybe.
Thing is if he does stay we need to improve midfield area to.

He will want to be in the England squad next summer. Don’t know if he will do that staying with us.


Mings gives me a heart attack a lot of the time.

[compelling and rich]

we (united) have been linked with him fairly often, but I just don't see where he would fit in our team. also fairly slow compared to the players we already have. he'd be a squad player at best, a very expensive one

[GSC]

I'm not convinced he's really good enough for a top 4 club rather than standing out in a relatively poor team

[Crimey]

Grealish and Zaha are both in a similar position, in that they both want to leave but I just don't see why any of the teams they'd want to move to would sign either of them. They wouldn't start for any of the top 6.

[GSC]

Especially when you consider the sums required in probably a quieter window

[Guest]

Zaha to Everton is probably the most likely, out of the two. Ancelotti will just walk if nothing is spent.

[Crimey]

Zaha to Everton is probably the most likely, out of the two. Ancelotti will just walk if nothing is spent.

Is that what Zaha is leaving Palace for though? Everton finished 6 points and 2 positions ahead of Palace, even after Palace lost 7 of their last 8 games. Even with Ancelotti and Everton being historically a bigger club, surely if Zaha is leaving Palace he's expecting a bigger jump? Would Everton realistically spend £60-£70 million on a player who fills a role in the squad they've already got plenty of players for? Richarlison, Kean, Iwobi, Walcott, Bernard etc.

Not to mention Zaha was pretty poor this year for Palace anyway, so won't have encouraged anybody to sign him.

[Soul Requiem]

Zaha to Everton is probably the most likely, out of the two. Ancelotti will just walk if nothing is spent.

Is that what Zaha is leaving Palace for though? Everton finished 6 points and 2 positions ahead of Palace, even after Palace lost 7 of their last 8 games. Even with Ancelotti and Everton being historically a bigger club, surely if Zaha is leaving Palace he's expecting a bigger jump? Would Everton realistically spend £60-£70 million on a player who fills a role in the squad they've already got plenty of players for? Richarlison, Kean, Iwobi, Walcott, Bernard etc.

Not to mention Zaha was pretty poor this year for Palace anyway, so won't have encouraged anybody to sign him.

Who pays more?

When players say they want to play for a bigger team they mostly mean they want to play for a team that pays higher wages, do we honestly think any of these mercenaries care beyond that?

[Crimey]

Zaha to Everton is probably the most likely, out of the two. Ancelotti will just walk if nothing is spent.

Is that what Zaha is leaving Palace for though? Everton finished 6 points and 2 positions ahead of Palace, even after Palace lost 7 of their last 8 games. Even with Ancelotti and Everton being historically a bigger club, surely if Zaha is leaving Palace he's expecting a bigger jump? Would Everton realistically spend £60-£70 million on a player who fills a role in the squad they've already got plenty of players for? Richarlison, Kean, Iwobi, Walcott, Bernard etc.

Not to mention Zaha was pretty poor this year for Palace anyway, so won't have encouraged anybody to sign him.

Who pays more?

When players say they want to play for a bigger team they mostly mean they want to play for a team that pays higher wages, do we honestly think any of these mercenaries care beyond that?

I'd have thought Everton wouldn't pay much more than what he's on at the moment (£130k a week). That's higher than any Everton player (according to reports). Is he that much better than the rest of the Everton squad that he'd get a significant pay rise?

I think Zaha is likely wanting European football to improve his own personal brand, which of course leads to more lucrative deals. Any salary difference and personal sponsorship increase is likely to be marginal moving from Palace to Everton. 

If Arsenal hadn't got Pepe last year, they'd have been a possibility - given their lack of depth in wide forward roles they may be tempted, particularly if they can't keep Aubameyang. Tottenham may take a look, but he's quite similar to their wide options already.

[GSC]

Start the timer on Eddie Howe to West Ham

[westisbest]

we (united) have been linked with him fairly often, but I just don't see where he would fit in our team. also fairly slow compared to the players we already have. he'd be a squad player at best, a very expensive one

Also read United were interested in someone else. That and the crazy price tag we were asking for.

[Dolphin Ziggler]

Start the timer on Eddie Howe to West Ham

Would genuinely love it

[GSC]

Fulham promoted after a pretty dire game.

[Duty281]

Boring, boring Fulham and boring, boring WBA added to the PL roster.

Wished we had something different.

[GSC]

Can't disagree. Brentford had enough chances in the run in though

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