03 Nov 2025 09:54:22
Here Ed001 if you were in charge of the last transfer window who is the player that you would NOT sign?
{Ed001's Note - that is a tough one, as it would depend on what the alternative signings would be. I mean if the alternative to Frimpong was Kayode, I would have taken Kayode all day long, even though I like Frimpong. But if the alternative was say Walker-Peters, I would then sign Frimpong. The only player we have signed recently that I still don't understand the reasoning behind is Mamardashvili. I hope he proves me wrong, but right now I don't see anything but a very average back up keeper.}
03 Nov 2025 10:58:33
Agree on Mama, the guy can’t kick the ball to a teammate and I would think it’s only a matter of time before he makes a massive error trying to play a ball out from the back. The way we play at times it can be a major issue.
03 Nov 2025 11:00:16
I agree with you ed and I was saying this on every thread on here about Mamardashvili, I am a fan of what he does and I love watching the Georgia team play, he is a very unique and pretty old-school type of keeper in terms of his height, reflexes, the length of his limbs etc. but he is absolutely not the kind of keeper for us or the way we play. I think the transfer committee just saw a very highly-rated keeper with a growing reputation and a very low price, and decided that he was a good market opportunity.
It could have been worse though, ed, we could have ended up with somebody like Trafford as a backup.
03 Nov 2025 11:06:38
Kerkez for me. and the alternative would have been Inacio. well Hato the ideal replacement, but seemed like he was destined for Chelsea
The way we are deploying our full-backs, I am struggling to understand why we bought attacking fullbacks who like to bomb forward on the overlap. was looking at heat map of kerkez for Liverpool vs his heat maps for bournemouth and Hungary and it so clear to see the difference in his role at Liverpool being less out wide and taking up positions inside his left wing.
Personally, I think Kerkez should be afforded time to adjust before he gets slayed, but that's just me.
03 Nov 2025 11:49:16
I'm going to be honest, I don't really understand getting Isak and Ekitike. It would be easy to say Isak in hindsight as Ekitike has hit the ground running and is younger and cheaper, but at the time, I didn't really understand signing 2 players who play through the middle, make similar runs and aren't particularly versatile. It would have made a lot more sense to get an Alvarez type in for that sort of money to me (even if it wouldn't be Avarez himself.
The rest of it, I kind of understood what they were trying to do, even if we probably need someone else in midfield to make it all work.
Hopefully I'm wrong on the Isak thing, but neither he or Ekitike are going to be happy on the bench.
03 Nov 2025 12:12:03
When we signed Frimpong really early, I thought that would mean we would likely get a left back that could invert like a Hato, Hincapie, Lukeba, Inacio.
But soon after that we signed Kerkez and Wirtz.
At that point I was sure we would need another ball playing CB that could carry and pass long and would add a defensive minded midfielder to be able to compensate for the attacking FBs and enable a no10 like Wirtz to play. We did neither of those - granted we missed out on Guehi at the 11th hour.
The Leoni signing made a lot of sense. We needed to bring in a young CB to nurture as a Virg successor in the long term. Hope he recovers strongly!
The Ekitike signing is excellent but I was surprised we went for both him and Isak. I suppose the Jota tragedy forced that.
Losing Lucho and Darwin without bringing in one more direct speedy wide forward. I will put this omission down to making a promise to Rio Ngumoha. Also, Cody signed a new deal recently.
Much like Ed, I am surprised we brought in Marmar given his footwork limitations.
To me, it looks like there's more business to do. Which is crazy given how much we spent.
Priority has to be adding a CB (possibly two if Ibou leaves), DM (to replace Endo) and wide player (ideally able to play either side) .
With Robbo's contract up at the end of the season, you wonder whether he will want to move on for a payday or look for a one-year rolling extension like Milly did. If he does go, we might choose a LB of a different profile to be able to invert giving us more options.
After that, Bradley and Frimpong will have to prove they are good enough. Again, Bradley would have been assured of a chance to step into 66's positions over the summer in order to sign his new deal.
03 Nov 2025 12:41:43
Mamardashvili Is a spit of Damien Sandow
I watch Liverpool in the hope Miz comes out trying to save a shot and Mamardashvili copies him ?.
03 Nov 2025 13:06:18
See this is why I love this site. You never know what’s going to be mentioned next and I certainly didn’t have a Damien Sandow reference in today’s bingo card ?.
03 Nov 2025 13:23:54
Isak for me. I would have preferred us to go all in for Alvarez, even if that meant waiting a year. Alvarez would have been a more complementary player to Ekitike than Isak, as well as covering the 9 and being an upgrade to Gakpo at LW.
03 Nov 2025 14:09:41
Babbity, we did go for Alvarez but he was never going to come back to England, let alone the PL as reportedly, his wife really hated living in England thru out his time at City. The City fans said that, btw. That was never going to happen.
Ed01 for me, I have no issues with the players we signed cos that is what we needed esp. as you say, with the alternatives available at the time. I wouldn't have gotten Kayode ahead of Frimpong, btw since I watched him play at Bayer and was very good, just like Wirtz was. Used to like Walker Peters but he has stagnated for years and kinda lost his way, I think.
Marmadashvili? I'll give it time. I think he is a good GK, very steady on his line but he still needs some work around the edges with his feet and decisiveness, for starters. Hell, even AB1 needed some fine-tuning when he came to us even tho, he was already on the cusp of world class status.
03 Nov 2025 14:47:26
I feel Isak may struggle for various reasons - the prolonged, agent driven move and bad vibes created by it, injuries, system, limited pressing abilities . I saw a stat stating that only 7/ 27 players over 80m have been deemed a success.
Mammar can be sold at a profit, or at least not at a loss if he can't improve his kicking.
03 Nov 2025 15:17:35
Oli, apparently the rumours about Alvarez hating England were fake news. Regardless it wouldn't have happened this summer anyway because he only moved to Atletico a year ago. But that is the profile of striker I would have preferred as opposed to an Isak.
03 Nov 2025 16:43:05
Babbity, not sure if it was fake or not. Just saying who said those things and it was the City fans who said so. Like you said, it was never going to happen.
For me, I wanted Isak too. I mean, who wouldn't at the time? Also, Isak is not fit as he had no preseason (hence, his injury) so let's see what happens when he is fully ready to go.
Now if you indeed never wanted Isak (cos there a lot of hindsight punditry going on out there) then, that's fine as I can understand such an opinion cos I wanted Alvarez, as well.
03 Nov 2025 17:08:36
Yeah, my issues with Isak were his fitness record and I think it's profligate to spend so much money on two clear 9s when there are other positions that need strengthening. I still think he's a great player. But it feels to me that with both Ekitike AND Isak, at least one of them is being set up to fail.