There is a lot of difference between Leicester and us though.h69 wrote: ↑Fri Sep 18, 2020 5:13 pmRice will leave one day either this summer or in one of the next two windows. It will always happen to players like him. Players like that leave Leicester to go to top 4 clubs so its not like we are any different.FatPigIron wrote: ↑Fri Sep 18, 2020 2:53 pm In a very unpleasant moment, the horrible thought (headline above) just occurred to me.... My thinking:
£35m on just 1 player? What about the others we need - LB especially? We only got 26 odd milllion for players who have been sold, so there's a big shortfall - especially if we are to buy a LB...and reserve striker....all which, I suspect, would be funded by the sale of Rice....It is the only scenario that seems to make sense.... What do you reckon?
I HOPE I'M WRONG!
Rice has become SO good, he's basically been doing the job of 2 midfielders IMO = all the way across the defensive midfield (left, right and centre)....in that, if you wanted to find a replacement, it would probably need 2 midfield players.... Yes?
IE At the end of last season, with Rice, I think we were basically able to play 4-1 (= Rice) - 4 (= Fornals, Soucek, Noble, Bowen) - 1 (= Antonio/Haller).
This allowed us to be very attack minded, and we scored pot-fulls of goals.
HOWEVER, without Rice we'd need to be, say, 4-2 (= Cullen Soucek) - 3 (= Fornals/Anderson, Noble/Lanzini, Bowen/Yarmolenko - 1 (= Haller/ Antonio)
= Far less attack minded, and could cost us at both ends: Continuing to let in goals but not scoring as many....Oooh dear; NOT good!
So Rice leaving could well turnout to be disastrous.
And, could Cullen step up to the plate now? He's been v impressive, but good enough for the Prem? As such, I do have quite high hopes for him; Cullen could turn out to be a revelation...but not likely to be as good as Rice, eh?
I also do have high hopes for Johnson. I think Johnson's woeful performance v Bournemouth was a protest at Grady going. He was impressive again v Charlton
No good crying over spilt milk, BUT I wish we'd not sold Grady, and struggled on by scoring more goals than we concede this season, and then looking to re-enforce the defence next summer. Agree? ....(Too late now of course.... Grrrrr!)
Well, what do you reckon on that little lot, folks?
We may or may not sell Rice but the above has absolutely no bearing on whether we do. As for him being SO good. He is a good player yes but I believe we hype him up because he is at our club and shines in that MF. I believe Chelsea are not convinced he is worth £80m. I think he probably is but mainly because of the English tax that seems to be on players.
You mention £35m on one player. That is not a huge amount for an English capped player. There is always a premium on players who are English and I just think Moyes wants the player.
As for Johnson playing badly v Bournemouth as a protest ? Thats laughable conspiracy theory. Its more likely that he is a young player and will have good and bad games.
Grady Diangana may turn out to be a good player or a poor one....time will tell. My guess is he will be like Stanislas and be an average PL player. I wouldn't have sold him but I wont lose sleep over it.
As for Cullen....too early to tell but a different type of player in my opinion.
They have an infrastructure. When they sell,they have a ready made replacementAs you know,we just buy anyone that will come to us for a substantial wage. That`s how they do business...25 years,they have been in the game and on the Footballing side,they still have no idea.Pretty damning tbh.