Fuck me, Arne doesn’t mess about.
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FSG bought the club for 300m; now it’s worth 5-6 billion, and I think it’s only going to keep increasing. Same with other clubs. The number of elite players is limited, so I think it’s likely that soon someone will be worth 500m, IMO. It’s ridiculous, but likely.
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Obviously there’s the general excitement aspect, but one has to wonder in this case, how will it all work?
I know we need two players per position, but in that context, you could ask if it’s the right move spending what would easily be more than €200m+ on two strikers.
And if we ideally see both of them starting, then there are serious tactical questions whether that could even work and how would the balance of the team be.
It’s easy for journalists to see on transfermarkt that Ekitike played 5 times in his career out wide so “Diaz goes and Ekitike and Isak can play together”.
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I assume the sporting director with Arne Slot have been on this already.
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Last summer i think there were some tactics videos on you tube suggesting Diaz might be the odd man out for Arne’s setup because he would likely prefer his attacking unit to play more narrowly. I think we may be seeing that finally play out here with the rebuild ( and if true it certainly helps explain the rumoured attempt to swap him for Alvarez last year).
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I just do not see us buying him. Not for that money. Not having bought Ekitike. It feels against our principles and data.
I may be wrong.
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Do think Slot wants his wingbacks to be the ones providing width while attacking. This can also be due to wanting Salah to get as close to the opponent goal as possible (where he’s more destructive).
I do see a usecase where Ekitike , Gakpo , Mo , Isak can be used with Gakpo and Ekitike being the second choice forwards and as @redfanman says, Diaz might be the person who’s expendable. A 4-2-2-2 or a 4-4-2 diamond of sorts sorta formation. We won’t need 6 attacking players to cover 3 positions. 4 attacking players + the likes of Danns (if needed) for the cup matches should be fine.
That doesn’t answer a lot of questions.
It’s actually in defence where we played more narrowly than before, in attack we do love our width. Not always with the same players of course. The first friendly and yesterday’s session showed that we still like that build up in a 3 man shape from the back.
If we go 4-4-2 with Ekitike slightly behind Isak, Salah on the right, Wirtz on the left… there are questions about balance. Regardless if it’s a 4-2-2-2 version of 4-4-2.
If it’s Ekitike mostly on the bench behind Isak (or the opposite, if Isak gets injured), then why did we go so big for Ekitike?
And I’m just waiting for those good old “4-diamond-2” shouts. The ratio how often that is wished in football and how often (rare) that happens is… 1:100.
I do see Wirtz and Soboszlai as the 10’s in a 4-2-2-2. Might even leave a pathway for Elliot to remain in that formation too as a backup. We’ve played that formation before the previous season in a couple of games and have looked fine doing it. I don’t think the balance of the team is going to be an issue with that. Keeping in mind that both Dom and Wirtz can provide more support to the wingbacks if needed as well.
I didn’t even realise Jen Chang was on the mod team!
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If we’re relying on Newcastle to actually complete a deal for another striker before we can sign Isak, I don’t think we’re signing Isak.
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To be fair the diamond was the last time we played two strikers in 13/14.
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Has Callum Wilson’s deal with West Ham been finalized? Maybe he could go back
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Maybe Micky Quinn is still available? 
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Well, we won’t be offering that.
Now we’ll see where his priorities lie.
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Isn’t that the Saudi club that was supposedly interested in Nunez.
Smacks of desperation that. Pay him silly money, essentially from the same pockets, to try to keep him from coming to us whilst also then blocking a potential avenue for us to make a sale.
If I was him I’d be kind of pissed off at them trying to buy off my career like that. I mean I’d be fucking minted and living in a desert but I’d have a pretty big solid gold bee in my massive diamond encrusted bonnet about the whole situation.
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It’s a test of character. If he takes that money to essentially go into semi-retirement at 26, he was never right for us.
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Stick him on the negotiating team.
600k a week…to paraphrase, that buys alot of principals…
its too good to turn down…lets say we offer 200k a week which is obscene by most peoples standards, this is 3 times that much…
its multi generational wealth for him and virtually his extended family
its too much money to turn down unfortunately
10 milliona a year is alot, 30 million a year though…