Paris sending out a PR announcement that it is not in Africa.
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Mali international 
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AFCON is a non-issue. Itās three or four PL games every couple of years and maybe an FA Cup 3 or 4th round tie that our first team doesnāt play in anyway.
If a player is good enough we will go after them, AFCON wonāt factor into that decision making. Weād be ruling out signing players from arguably the 2nd best talent producing continent (Africa has overtaken South America in my eyes) for the sake of a few games every other year.
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I wonder if it has factored in to the decision making - but in the opposite way. Other clubs may be more reluctant to sign these players, allowing them to be signed at more favourable prices?
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Ooohhh, hot take.
Thatās viable new thread material for a footballless summer.
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What I was interested in was if Africa is the 2nd best talent producing continent and itās ahead of South America, does that suggest that Europe is the best?
Big news if true.
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France by itself is pretty insane. In fact, Paris alone could challenge most countries.
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Nearly one sixth of the players who played in the most recent Afcon tournament were born in France.
As for the Paris thing, itās whatās made PSGās historical irrelevance so intriguing. Itās where most of Franceās top footballers come from, but there were also 2 full squads worth of Paris born players playing for other countires at the last world cup. Yet almost none of them had any youth association with PSG (I think Kimpembe is the only one), nor is there any other top professional club in the region who can pick up the slack.
Does this indicate that club focused youth development is getting it wrong? Getting in the way? What else does France/Paris have to develop these kids outside of that professoinal club structure?
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How many are 2nd generation refugees from Africa?
Saw 60 posts, thought there were some juicy rumorsā¦ā¦
Nopeā¦ā¦
Just people saying donāt sign anyone from Africaā¦.
What.the.fuck
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There is so much AFRICA in this thread now that I thought this is a tribute forum to TOTO.
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Playing devilās advocate, it was nearly a valid point, just very badly made.
At the levels weāre currently playing at weāre fighting for titles over single points. While itās impossible to be perfect the whole season, you also donāt want to deliberately handicap yourself by losing half your players for even just a few games, so it makes a little sense to try and ensure youāre not overloading a specific part of the squad with players who will be involved in midseason tournaments.
Even with our Brazilian contingent weāve see them returning ālateā repeatedly for preseason and also being fucked over during covid.
In the past, we never had the squad depth to cope well, but weāre certainly a lot better off this season. And thatās probably the salient point. To ensure you have a squad that can cope if and when you do lose these players. But more importantly itās better to have these players to ensure youāre in the title race in the first place.
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Kelleher loan spell?
Or Adrian leaving. So, a new third goalie.
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Maybe, but the link says the incoming keeper is for competition which would indicate he is staying
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Our players returning from England duty have probably missed more games through injury than any other nationalities in the squad?
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I would have thought we were well stocked for goalkeeper, even if Adrian is leaving. Alisson, Kelleher, then bump Pitaluga up to third choice. Maybe he is deemed not quite ready? If we are signing someone, I wouldnāt spend much money on it. Presumably there are some experienced keepers around at a low price who could do the Adrian role?
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This strikes me as the GK team having an idea for what effective training needs to look like and wanting to bolster the group to be able to deliver those sessions. Probably related to a non-playing member of it moving on, Adrian or the the other young kid.
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