ToffeeWeb

It is all opinions, my opinions are:
Pickford – great shot stopper but I get nervous on set pieces and collection of crosses. Borderline A / B.

Other keepers – cannot grade as not enough minutes played.

O’Brien – he is being played out of position and did a reasonable job at the start. Towards the end of the season he was pretty caked on and should have been moved central. Score of C is reasonable.

Myko – I feel for the guy, decent defender but so poor going forward. Lost count of the times attacks broke down on that side. Borderline C / D.

Other fullbacks did not play enough to be graded. Clearly need to prioritise both positions in the summer. Would have liked to have seen more of Patterson and Aznou, but I am not in training.

Tarks – not a great end to the season and some daft decisions where he has been lucky to stop on the pitch. Score of C reasonable.

Keane – he had a great start to the season covering for injuries. At that stage a rock solid B but had a poorer end and therefore borderline B / C.

Branthwaite – injury plagued season and our form dipped after his latest injury. Hoping he comes back strong, in an ideal world with a new CB partner (O’Brien). Not grading as insufficient time.

Thanks Steve – to answer your question, I honestly don’t know.

£250m would obviously help a lot – since we need both numbers and quality to really kick on.

Being realistic – I think our spending might be more around the £150m mark. Especially since we really don’t have much to sell.

That could mean we’re outspent by at least 10 other clubs – possibly as many as 15 other clubs.

That would say a lot about the Friedkins’ ambitions – for next season. It would suggest they are still thinking “mid-table” (i.e. stay out of any relegation trouble) – while they beaver away in the background sorting out club infrastructure and commercials.

Obviously that is a miserable prospect for fans who are well overdue much better.

But if you asked the Friedkins where they expect to be in, say, 3 to 5 years time I expect their expectations of the then manager would be:

– Europe as an absolute minimum
– Strong performances in the cups (i.e. FA Cup, League Cup and whatever European competition we’ve qualified for)
– Entertaining football + healthy goals tally
– Within spitting distance of the Champions League places (and ideally Champions League qualification)

No reason why we can’t expect that too. The problem is that it’s miserable to wait. Hopefully Moyes can deliver something next season – although obviously he polarises opinions, there would be something “nice” about him seeing out his second spell here by winning a cup and / or getting us back in Europe.

Liverpool sack Slot because Owners and fans want success.
The current manager merry go round is because Owners, and Managers have ambition, want to progress, want to win things.
TFG, not so much, stability provided by Moyes, stay in the PL, milk the stadium, at the cheapest possible outlay.
I’m afraid it’s not the most inspiring model.

I thought the call from Moyes to the owners was a very risky “Back me or sack me” call.

So, seeing it’s unlikely they will sack Moyes, the only question is how serious are TFG in backing the manager???

Thought the ref was good, he never fell for the Arsenal players diving or time-wasting.

Best team won, there was only one team trying to win. Arsenal played for penalties and it came back to haunt them. Well done PSG.