Matthijs de Ligt

I think this is actually pretty significant. Having someone of de Ligt's quality/potential as club trained would be very nice. Question about CL rules. de Ligt turns 19 this August (12th). Rules state: "players who were on a club's books for three years between the ages of 15 and 21." So does that mean the cutoff date for the 3 years at the club includes the year leading to the player's 22nd birthday?

A "club-trained player" is a player who, between the age of 15 (or the start of the season during which he turns 15) and 21 (or the end of the season during which he turns 21), and irrespective of his nationality and age, has been registered with his current club for a period, continuous or not, of three entire seasons (i.e. a period starting with the first official match of the relevant national championship and ending with the last official match of that relevant national championship) or of 36 months.

The English "national championship" aka Premier League officially starts on the 3rd weekend of August every year, and De Ligt's birthday is the 12th of August. The 3rd weekend of August in 2020 is 8th & 9th, so he would turn 21 after the start of the season, and get the entire season to qualify for us.

So his qualifying seasons would be 18/19, 19/20, 20/21.

He'd fit in by 3 or 4 days. Although that does of course assume the rules aren't changed, which they might well do.
 
A "club-trained player" is a player who, between the age of 15 (or the start of the season during which he turns 15) and 21 (or the end of the season during which he turns 21), and irrespective of his nationality and age, has been registered with his current club for a period, continuous or not, of three entire seasons (i.e. a period starting with the first official match of the relevant national championship and ending with the last official match of that relevant national championship) or of 36 months.

The English "national championship" aka Premier League officially starts on the 3rd weekend of August every year, and De Ligt's birthday is the 12th of August. The 3rd weekend of August in 2020 is 8th & 9th, so he would turn 21 after the start of the season, and get the entire season to qualify for us.

So his qualifying seasons would be 18/19, 19/20, 20/21.

He'd fit in by 3 or 4 days. Although that does of course assume the rules aren't changed, which they might well do.

Cool...I think you are correct. Cheers.

Edit...PL season seems to start on the 11 of August. His birthday is the 12th. If I am reading this right he would qualify as club trained by a number of hours!
 
I think this kid is the CB project Pep yearns for.. Think he's somewhat given up on Stones, look at the difference between when Pep got here working with Stones and now. Used to bark intructions, defend and praise him to the nines and now he leaves him out completely and says he's 4th choice not on the level of the other 3. This kid is already better than him as he has everything Stones has but is also an athlete(strong/physical).
 
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If we sign another central defender then one is leaving and I can only think it’s Otamendi.

Laporte and Stones are going nowhere, both young with a good future ahead of them and Vinny is basically an assistant manager for the club let alone the team.
 
I think this kid is the CB project Pep yearns for.. Think he's somewhat given up on Stones, look at the difference between when Pep got here working with Stones and now. Used to bark intructions, defend and praise him to the nines and now he leaves him out completely and says he's 4th choice not on the level of the other 3. This kid is already better than him as he has everything Stones has but is also an athlete(strong/physical).

Sorry when did Pep say he was 4th choice and not on the level of the other 3?
 
Sorry when did Pep say he was 4th choice and not on the level of the other 3?

Said he prefers Otamendi and Kompany for winning duels and maybe Laporte instead of Otamendi for building out of the back. No mention of when Stones would be preferred

and

‘Of course he’s not in the same level with Aymeric, Vinny or Nico but he knows the confidence I have in him and the work he has done over two seasons, especially this season,’
 
Said he prefers Otamendi and Kompany for winning duels and maybe Laporte instead of Otamendi for building out of the back. No mention of when Stones would be preferred

and

‘Of course he’s not in the same level with Aymeric, Vinny or Nico but he knows the confidence I have in him and the work he has done over two seasons, especially this season,’


Grim. Well that's a stupid thing to have said about a player with confidence issues anyway. Can't imagine we'll be shipping off stones though, homegrown and cost us an arm and a leg.

If I had to get rid of anyone it would be Otamendi but we just gave him a crazy long new contract so that's not happening. So that only leaves Vinnie and the way he's been talking about retaining the title doesn't seem like he's going anywhere.

Really makes me think there's nothing in the De Ligt rumours, or we're trying to sort something out for next summer.
 
Grim. Well that's a stupid thing to have said about a player with confidence issues anyway. Can't imagine we'll be shipping off stones though, homegrown and cost us an arm and a leg.

If I had to get rid of anyone it would be Otamendi but we just gave him a crazy long new contract so that's not happening. So that only leaves Vinnie and the way he's been talking about retaining the title doesn't seem like he's going anywhere.

Really makes me think there's nothing in the De Ligt rumours, or we're trying to sort something out for next summer.

Agreed 100%

Either nothing in this or we agree to bring him in next summer when Vinny’s contract is up.

Can’t see any other situation. Laporte, Otamendi, Kompany not going anywhere. All have maximum faith and respect from Pep. Stones as well. He is 4th choice now because he’s been injured and hasn’t had a constant run of games. A few errors have hurt his confidence but to sell him would be insane. Not only would we sell at a massive loss. We would tell every future prospect hey we’ll give you a chance but if you fail to perform for 4-5 games you’re gone. Stones pre injury was easily one of the best in the league. Will be a starter for England most likely so he a great opportunity to regain his confidence. Watching his interview after the title win tells me he’s happy here and isn’t going anywhere.
 
the answer is he hasn't.

Sadly though, he seems to have said exactly that.

Agreed 100%

Either nothing in this or we agree to bring him in next summer when Vinny’s contract is up.

Can’t see any other situation. Laporte, Otamendi, Kompany not going anywhere. All have maximum faith and respect from Pep. Stones as well. He is 4th choice now because he’s been injured and hasn’t had a constant run of games. A few errors have hurt his confidence but to sell him would be insane. Not only would we sell at a massive loss. We would tell every future prospect hey we’ll give you a chance but if you fail to perform for 4-5 games you’re gone. Stones pre injury was easily one of the best in the league. Will be a starter for England most likely so he a great opportunity to regain his confidence. Watching his interview after the title win tells me he’s happy here and isn’t going anywhere.

I hope you're right. The other option is that it has nothing to do with De Ligt and Wallace doesn't know anything. We could have been talking about any of Ajax's players, trying to sell them one of ours, or even trying to poach the scout we met with for our scouting team.
 
Sadly though, he seems to have said exactly that.



I hope you're right. The other option is that it has nothing to do with De Ligt and Wallace doesn't know anything. We could have been talking about any of Ajax's players, trying to sell them one of ours, or even trying to poach the scout we met with for our scouting team.

Exactly could be a lot of things. I remember Angelino was linked with Ajax.

No links but maybe they are interested in M.Garcia.

Hopefully we are agreeing a Naby Keita style deal. Would be the perfect Kompany replacement next summer.
 
If we sign another central defender then one is leaving and I can only think it’s Otamendi.

Laporte and Stones are going nowhere, both young with a good future ahead of them and Vinny is basically an assistant manager for the club let alone the team.
Perhaps Vinnie is retiring and joining the staff, or Laporte can't handle England, or Stones want a deeper color of Blue. We really don't know.

My vest guess is that Pep wants him as his DM if we are interested.

BTW, Pwp is failing my hand here: The DM plays right next to De Ligt. Why can't Pep see him :(
 
Perhaps Vinnie is retiring and joining the staff, or Laporte can't handle England, or Stones want a deeper color of Blue. We really don't know.

My vest guess is that Pep wants him as his DM if we are interested.

BTW, Pwp is failing my hand here: The DM plays right next to De Ligt. Why can't Pep see him :(

perhaps he can but just doesn't want to move. Maybe we make a success of De Ligt and De Jong would have a buddy for next summer if he's ready and we're interested?
 
Stones is going nowhere, he's going to be a big part of our future success. He's learning every day from the best coach in the world and the best centre half and ambassador in the world. He'll retire a legend.
 
I hope we won’t waste a good chunk of the budget on yet another obscenely expensive defender. It’s almost impossible to gauge a player playing in the Eredivisie. The only high-level competitive match that I saw him play in was against United, and he didn’t stand out as anything special. Davinson Sanchez looked the far superior defender in that game.

It’s funny how quickly some people seem to forget just how good Stones was for part of this season. Before his injury he was arguably our best player. He just needs to be afforded a bit more time and I’m sure that he’ll be able to show regularly that level of form.

We play with risk. The central defenders are often left exposed and, as such, any defensive errors are punished more frequently. This is what people remember and what gets highlighted in the media and in the statistics - not the errors that go unpunished. This is precisely why we have people claiming United’s and Burnley’s centre-backs to be amongst the best in the league.

The system employed by Mourinho includes a relatively high level of defensive redundancy. It should come under no surprise that, in contrast, defenders struggle under Pep’s system, where they often find themselves having to deal with 1-on-1, 2-on-1 and 3-on-2 situations. I believe that I recall Pep acknowledging this in an interview last season. As good as this kid may turn out to be, the transfer budget is far better spent in other areas. We could spend another £200m on centre-backs without improving the squad one bit.
 
Perhaps Vinnie is retiring and joining the staff, or Laporte can't handle England, or Stones want a deeper color of Blue. We really don't know.

My vest guess is that Pep wants him as his DM if we are interested.

BTW, Pwp is failing my hand here: The DM plays right next to De Ligt. Why can't Pep see him :(


I've never trusted VESTS Dax, underpants are more knowledgeable, ask them.... ;^ )
 
Sadly though, he seems to have said exactly that.



I hope you're right. The other option is that it has nothing to do with De Ligt and Wallace doesn't know anything. We could have been talking about any of Ajax's players, trying to sell them one of ours, or even trying to poach the scout we met with for our scouting team.


I'm sorry but if De Ligt joins us he is mad. We have a ready made future pairing of Laporte and Stones and a current very good pairing in Kompany and Otamendi. Even if Pep bins Kompany, which would be mad, De Ligt would have to be unreal to get in ahead of Laporte because we only just signed him. I'm a huge believer in Johnno but even if he never ever regains his form there wouldn't be any point in playing two left sided centre backs so thats not a route in either. The only player it would make sense for him to replace is Ota and we just handed him a new contract so that's not happening.

Posted by your good self and Stones is a right sided player, having covered for the blue dippers at right back in over 20 matches.
 

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