It's Quiet the £250m return

[Tugay One Cup]

Reis can play RB too.

Same tbh

 

[bell_mcfc]

It will be a complete failure if Bernardo plays one second on the wing next season

Yeah he shouldn’t but I wouldn’t be surprised if he did in certain big games if we wanted a more solid midfield.

But agree he’ll play the vast majority of minutes in the middle.

 

[BillyShears]

Same tbh

I heard that they looked at him in the six position in training and liked what they saw. Strikes me that he needs a full season somewhere in Europe that isn't the PL as a bridgehead into our first team. I've got no doubt he'll be a City player, but I do think the loan will benefit him.

 

[Zenmanc]

How often will Stones be even fit enough to get on the pitch....if he plays 10 games this season it will be a ircale of medical science!

EcclesBlue signed on as his personal handler so we are golden.

 

[bell_mcfc]

I heard that they looked at him in the six position in training and liked what they saw. Strikes me that he needs a full season somewhere in Europe that isn't the PL as a bridgehead into our first team. I've got no doubt he'll be a City player, but I do think the loan will benefit him.

Yeah reports are Pep wanted him to play as a 6 for the u21s but because of injury cover he was on the bench most of the time for the first team

 

[JWCH-99]

Or we could try and avoid the right side being an issue and fix it mate? Khaldoon saying in his interview they got it wrong was something most blues knew was a problem anyway? No point in admitting it after a season and then missing out of top 4 and then fixing it?

But they obviously don’t feel it’s the wrong decision to not buy a rb and as a club they are happy with the squad, so just cuz people on this forum think it’s a mistake doesn’t mean they are going to change their minds.

That takes me back to my original point- wait and see and then come the end of the season if we’ve underperformed and rb has been a major issue then criticise away

 

[Zenmanc]

Time to crack out the 3 ATB with wingbacks formation

Gotta say... if we're rolling with what we got and can have a better injury record on the back line than last year I'm in. Can't quite see how that'd look on paper yet.

 

[Ajm1985]

I mean, it's not out of the question. Certainly if you think about the treble winning season and how we ended up playing a 3241 formation. If anything with Ait Nouri and Nunes it makes sense that you use the full backs/wing backs for width. Doku has been deployed in narrower attacking positions already last season. With Foden, Cherki, Marmoush, and Reinjders in the squad makes sense to lean into that and dominate central areas and pack them with creativity and mobility.

Exactly this. Plus, depending on the personnel, it can also be more effective at stopping/dealing with transitions

 

[BillyShears]

But they obviously don’t feel it’s the wrong decision to not buy a rb and as a club they are happy with the squad, so just cuz people on this forum think it’s a mistake doesn’t mean they are going to change their minds.

That takes me back to my original point- wait and see and then come the end of the season if we’ve underperformed and rb has been a major issue then criticise away

Every season there's a "hole" in the squad which makes people predict we won't win the league. What happened last season is for once in a decade they were right, so now they all think they're soothsayers and fortune tellers!

 

[BillyShears]

Exactly this. Plus, depending on the personnel, it can also be more effective at stopping/dealing with transitions

100%. Look at the team we picked in the run in with no wingers. That was all about stopping transitions and flooding central areas. Honestly, I can't fucking wait to see the team in the first game of the season.

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

Time to crack out the 3 ATB with wingbacks formation

Wonder if Rodri could play centre of the back 3 and be a hybrid 6 at the same time.

 

[its a Barm]

A right back was the number one priority even before the end of the season I can't believe we would go into the new season without one.

 

[TonyColemansbagofapples]

If we can't win the league without a decent right back and there's no decent right backs about, doesn't that mean that all the other clubs don't have a decent right back so therefore no-one will win the league.
Except the only decent right back is Livramento which makes Newcastle the only team that can win the league. Am I correct?

 

[BillyShears]

If we can't win the league without a decent right back and there's no decent right backs about, doesn't that mean that all the other clubs don't have a decent right back so therefore no-one will win the league.
Except the only decent right back is Livramento which makes Newcastle the only team that can win the league. Am I correct?

You're not far off. Or alternatively everyone's right back is better than ours and that's why we're going to get relegated!

 

[blueparrot]

If we can't win the league without a decent right back and there's no decent right backs about, doesn't that mean that all the other clubs don't have a decent right back so therefore no-one will win the league.
Except the only decent right back is Livramento which makes Newcastle the only team that can win the league. Am I correct?

Besides which liverpool won it last year without one,and for what it's worth I don't think Frimpong is any better as a defensive right back than Nunes.Yet if we'd bought Frimpong a lot moaning would be happy.

 

[oldius]

A huge part of last season was the injuries but it was also due to one season too far of loyalty shown to the players that have brought us that enormous success. Those players are still here, as our the players who were and are most consistently injured, especially at the back. Which means another season of pressure being put on Dias, Gvardiol & Khusanov.

I agree that it does feel like an exciting time with the new coaching set up and DOF coming in, but so far we've only signed 3* players and we still haven't addressed the massive issue at right back.

*I purposely excluded the 2 keepers

LET IT GO!!!!!
In all seriousness you have to accept that Khusanov, Reis, Echeverri, Marmoush, Cherki, Ait-Nouri, Reijnders, Gonzalez Trafford, Nypan, and others (EDS and Academy) is a lot of recruitment in 2025. Some of those players were simply bought earlier but scheduled for this season's impact. I personally don't think that RB is an issue, but if the club wish to recruit specifically for that position then fair enough. I would have no problem continuing with Nunes and Lewis, but I get that the HG issue will require priorities to be made and some players to be released for the wider good.
It wasn't only injuries either: the psychological toil of relentless winning and reaching every goal possible is hard to imagine and I believe that some players reached a psychological peak from which they could not return and deliver once more.
I also don't support the idea of too much loyalty: we were having a torrid time and throwing inexperienced players into that cauldron could have caused dire consequences for their future. We finished third against that backdrop and now we live again.
We have a window that finishes in September, with players back from holiday two days ago. I am sure there will be movement out, as indicated several times here and elsewhere.

 

[youngbob]

We don't win the league with that backline

I don't disagree but this season isn't about winning the league imo, it's about getting to 80 points and getting the good vibes back in the other competitions. Pep will win his last title with us in 2027 and bow out.

 

[Cobwebcat]

We are fine, but I want us to be good, no great, I want to come away from the summer thinking this is a team thats going to win the league. I don’t feel that so far, do you?

Put it this way. The signing of a right back would not change my mind.

 

[Cobwebcat]

Not last season we weren’t.

These things happen. No team, in a serious league, wins a trophy every season. What we have done in the past decade is the exception not the rule.

 

[oldius]

No more transfers and are about to send some of our young talents out on loan. Don’t understand what logic is behind sending Reis away. We went from a rebuild to essentially patching holes in a team that has aged another year. I thought we would have learnt from not investing properly last summer and how our panic buys in January made no real impact.

Oh, you are back, but still wumming.