It's Quiet the £250m return

decmancity said:
Akanji.

If you’re having to go back three seasons to justify his place then there’s no point having this conversation. He played well in the treble season, so did 99% of the squad which is why we achieved it.

Pep can have blind spots and make mistakes, he’s human. We can list them off all day alongside his achievements if you want.
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Akanji played most of the big games in the run in the last time we won the league, which was basically a year and a bit ago. I'm not sure it's a 'blind spot' if you keep winning titles either.
 
Goats left knee said:
Should we just go an sign Guehi for about 40m to solidify the centre of defence?
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Yes, though he’d cost nearer twice that. But he’s better than all of our centre backs apart from Stones, who’s injured most of the time.

Guehi in, Akanji out would improve our chances of winning stuff this season without any doubt at all.
 
Semper aggressus said:
Yes, though he’d cost nearer twice that. But he’s better than all of our centre backs apart from Stones, who’s injured most of the time.

Guehi in, Akanji out would improve our chances of winning stuff this season without any doubt at all.
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One year left on his contract and Palace fee is £40m. Or nearly one James Mcatee
 
simon23 said:
Obviously Stones is the far superior player BUT at least Akanji is available most of the time and able to get on the pitch....

For me its Stones we should have made a real effort to move on for that reason. If by some miracle he can manage to play more than 3 games in a run we have got a world class Rolls Royce of a defender who drastically changes the way we can set up a team - if only!
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Well he wasn't last season (akanji). Sadly came back towards end of season and was very poor in final in particular. Also always seems to be the biggest moaner about bring tired. Sure our owners loved his "no one wants to be here" interview on eve of wcc.

Really hope he can get back to his best again and vrs red shites etc will he our best current r/b option by a millions miles. So keep him and Stonesy. If Sir John back to HIS best we win league next season (more likely)
 
alexmcity said:
Akanji helped us to win 4 in a row 15 months ago. That's not 3 years. By your logic Dias, Stones, and Ake are the same, they haven't been good since the 23/24 season, Stones maybe since 22/23... Last season, Haaland was far worse than in 22/23. He's past it, isn't he?

Akanji is 30. He's not 35. CBs are in their prime in that age. He hasn't had bad injuries. We'd be happy with our CBs if some of them weren't injury prone.
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Lots of people helped win 4 in a row yet this forum is full of people wanting players out the door, why is Akanji any different?

You are completely right on the others, except all of them have shown ability way above Akanji and so probably deserve a bit more leeway they can get back to those levels.

Age isn’t Akanjis problem, he’s been the same for the past several years, the same criticisms. They just get more obvious when others around him are off the pace also.
 
decmancity said:
Lots of people helped win 4 in a row yet this forum is full of people wanting players out the door, why is Akanji any different?

You are completely right on the others, except all of them have shown ability way above Akanji and so probably deserve a bit more leeway they can get back to those levels.

Age isn’t Akanjis problem, he’s been the same for the past several years, the same criticisms. They just get more obvious when others around him are off the pace also.
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If you were right, Pep wouldn't bench Walker, Stones, and Ake, widely perceived as top defenders, to start Akanji. He did it, and he was right as shown by the best results in our history trophies wise.

It's obvious Pep and some fans see Akanji very differently. The latter are focused on his limitations, Pep sees his upsides. Pep was right after all.

Any of our defenders has weaknesses. Ake is loved for a reason, but he was poor in 23/24 and Pep benched him due to his mistakes. Those are not remembered, as fans love him. It's how the confirmation bias works: it filters the contradicting information and emphasizes the information we like.

Many fans have a negative bias towards Akanji and are fixated on his downsides, but didn't notice when their favourite players, say, Ake and Stones, helped United beat us in the FA Cup last year. Pep started them both in the final, after benching them in the run-in, and we were 2 goals down after 30 minutes against a very average United side.
 
BringBackSwales said:
Fucks sake tolmie I was having a quiet night getting ready for Fulham. Pep wants a smaller squad but we are spending £250 million?
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We will be the same. Or more. Our board are good at spending the cash. We are in for a guy valued at £5m, we offered £1.75m. No fucking about with us. Can you believe they rejected it? The world's gone mad.
 
alexmcity said:
If you were right, Pep wouldn't bench Walker, Stones, and Ake, widely perceived as top defenders, to start Akanji. He did it, and he was right as shown by the best results in our history trophies wise.

It's obvious Pep and some fans see Akanji very differently. The latter are focused on his limitations, Pep sees his upsides. Pep was right after all.

Any of our defenders has weaknesses. Ake is loved for a reason, but he was poor in 23/24 and Pep benched him due to his mistakes. Those are not remembered, as fans love him. It's how the confirmation bias works: it filters the contradicting information and emphasizes the information we like.

Many fans have a negative bias towards Akanji and are fixated on his downsides, but didn't notice when their favourite players, say, Ake and Stones, helped United beat us in the FA Cup last year. Pep started them both in the final, after benching them in the run-in, and we were 2 goals down after 30 minutes against a very average United side.
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Akanji as forced in for the CL final and made two MASSIVE fuck ups. One put Martinez through but thankfully Ed came out and stopped him
 
IrishBloodEnglishHeart said:
Akanji as forced in for the CL final and made two MASSIVE fuck ups. One put Martinez through but thankfully Ed came out and stopped him
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Miscommunication between Akanji and Ederson, but you prefer to remember that, and not, say, his outstanding performances vs Real, Bayern or Arsenal, or the great pass to Bernardo before Rodri's goal in the CL final. It's how confirmation bias works.

Walker, rightly seen as one of our best defenders ever, made mistakes as well. Stones was too slow to react and played United on for their first goal in the FA Cup final last year. Mistakes happen. For example, Van Dyke cost Liverpool 100 pts with an absolutely terrible mistake at Arsenal in 2020.
 
King Jay said:
He wants to keep them all until he leaves we know that. Stopping the rebuild so he can leave on a high while the club would need years to get rid of the some.
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You don’t half talk bollocks. You don’t have a clue what Pep is thinking. What we do know is that Pep won 4 out of the last 5 Premier Leagues but because he didn’t win the last one and only finished third people like you make disrespectful posts like this. When you say “we know that”, your sentence is complete bollocks, it’s you not we, and it’s think not know. A lot of our newer fans are spoilt brats aren’t they?
 
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alexmcity said:
Many fans have a negative bias towards Akanji and are fixated on his downsides, but didn't notice when their favourite players, say, Ake and Stones, helped United beat us in the FA Cup last year. Pep started them both in the final, after benching them in the run-in, and we were 2 goals down after 30 minutes against a very average United side.
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Call me out on my interpretation of years but think we lost to utd last year.

Hilarious you want to talk about fa cup finals as well.

I noticed Nunes didn’t play because Pep decided the best decision was drop our best RB and shove Akanji there and he was fucking shit, oh yeah we lost to a very average palace team as well. Pep does no wrong in your eyes though clearly.

Would anyone give a shit if Akanji left, genuinely.
I think we are all crying out for Khus or Reis to get game time or in an ideal world John gets new legs and plays 60 times this year and that’s all it comes down to.
 
decmancity said:
Would anyone give a shit if Akanji left, genuinely.
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Pep?

If the club or Pep are ready to sell him, that's fine. We have parted ways with legends, it's hardly a big problem to sell Akanji.

But if Pep wants him around, that's fine too. Akanji isn't a problem, especially before securing a top RB.

I'm more worried about Dias's form and the injuries to Stones and Ake...
 
BringBackSwales said:
You don’t half talk bollocks. You don’t have a clue what Pep is thinking. What we do know is that Pep won 4 out of the last 5 Premier Leagues but because he didn’t win the last one and only finished third people like you make disrespectful posts like this. When you say “we know that”, your sentence is complete bollocks, it’s you not we, and it’s think not know. A lot of our newer fans are spoilt brats aren’t they?
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Not so long ago, I had nobody on ignore. Now, I have 15.
Since we finished in third place, some fans appear to have lost their sense of reality, or they are not really fans and just come here to wind people up. I am not sure which it is, but it matters not because I no longer see their posts, and I am happier for that.
 
alexmcity said:
This is how Pep sees him, as evidenced by Pep's decisions: and it's not like those decisions didn't win us the Treble and 4 in a row. The collective bias against Akanji is weird, he is not the reason why we didn't compete last season.
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Without a huge slice of luck/other players bailing him out - Akanji costs us both the treble and 4 in a row. I've never understood the hype around him. ANd his lack of recovery pace/desire to getback in is hugely concerning.
 
Matt Diablo said:
Well he wasn't last season (akanji). Sadly came back towards end of season and was very poor in final in particular. Also always seems to be the biggest moaner about bring tired. Sure our owners loved his "no one wants to be here" interview on eve of wcc.

Really hope he can get back to his best again and vrs red shites etc will he our best current r/b option by a millions miles. So keep him and Stonesy. If Sir John back to HIS best we win league next season (more likely)
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Regardless of what he says or does off the pitch at least he is on the pitch. Stones is redundant if he can't even get on the pitch....no matter how poor Akanji is at times ( and it was only last season) it's better than a player who isn't ever available.

If the experts can't figure out what is wrong with Stones then I'm not sure how it changes. Let's hope it does
 
simon23 said:
Regardless of what he says or does off the pitch at least he is on the pitch. Stones is redundant if he can't even get on the pitch....no matter how poor Akanji is at times ( and it was only last season) it's better than a player who isn't ever available.

If the experts can't figure out what is wrong with Stones then I'm not sure how it changes. Let's hope it does
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Yes. A fit Stones is a world-class performer and can be a huge difference-maker in his final season with us, assuming he stays.
 
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