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claretspice

The average number of goals scored by the 4 teams finishing 14-17th in 2024-25 was 52 (and it was skewed by Spurs scoring 64 – more than several teams in the top 8). In 2023-24 it was 49. In 2022-23 it was 38 and in 2021-22 it was 45. Obviously it also depends on how good we are defensively (as Spu...

claretspice

Medicals are external, at least in the large part for obvious reasons, given the equipment and expertise needed. Not to mention the independent, external evaluation. And the availability of indemnity insurance in the event of a mistake being made. I'd be astonished if any club did medicals in house...

claretspice

JBL has proved he can score goals out of nothing at Pemier League level and seems to have the knack which a lot of players don't, especially high scoring Championship strikers. Unlike some of our our players who can flatter to deceive, JBL isn't a flowery/fancy player but has end product. (Would be...

claretspice

Id say Larsen offers more verticality in his movement and attacks space better than current options. If you go back and review his goals from last season they all, except Luton away, come from this. I found his general play lacking at times, doesn’t really ever beat a man with skill, or look partic...

claretspice

We do need players that can provide quality and a goal threat off the bench. Right now, who are our goal threats? Flemming and ? JBL at least adds there and has shown that he has quality to score out of nothing and bag half chances. That was the only negative mark of our team last year and it's loo...

claretspice

A little surprised by this signing. JBL is a decent and respectable player. He did fairly well last time and has similar qualities to Anthony - he's good positionally, works hard for the team (although Anthony offers more in that respect), and is technically sound with an excellent touch. However, p...

claretspice

One of our problems for a little while has been that we have a surfeit of players who want to play off the left hand side, and that includes Koleosho and Foster. I have always thought Foster has something but does his best work from the left side, not as a centre forward, and even we make allowance ...

claretspice

There is always an element of risk when you sign players at the veteran stage of their career, but on paper this looks a pretty smart signing. He obviously brings huge pedigree and his ability to play both right back and right side of a back 3 (and familiarity with that set up having done it many ti...

claretspice

Linked with Jens Cajuste of Napoli on Twitter. Played at Ipswich last year. Edit - link from Sport Sports Lyall Thomas. Palace, Besiktas and Sevilla also interested. From what I understood last season, he's a midfielder of a similar ilk to Berge, and he was one of Ipswich's better players last seas...

claretspice

Agreed. Keep seeing people say he doesn't have the fight/desire etc. He started his career in the 4th tier of Swiss football, moved to the 2nd, then the top tier. You can't do that without fight. I don't think that per se, Amdouni lacks fight or desire, but I do think there are a couple of issues w...

claretspice

Surprised no mention for Beckham's last minute free kick against Greece which (I think) secured qualification for the 2002 world cup. 25-30 yards out, 93rd minute, and absolutely perfect. For execution under pressure it's pretty well unbeatable I think. I'd probably say Jimmy Glass eclipses it for s...

claretspice

Tyler Morton is a good player. If he's available and we want a tall, rangy central midfielder, I'd be surprised if we're not interested.

claretspice

Not as convinced as everyone else seems to be about this. For me we needed two strikers in this window. Having re-signed Barnes I still think we need two strikers in but we’ve now one fewer space in the squad to fit them in. He’s got form for proving people wrong, but signing people because they’re...

claretspice

JR1882 wrote: ↑
Fri Jun 27, 2025 7:11 pm
Does the lack of forward activity point to Zeki staying?

I think it more points to it still being June. Those sorts of deals invariably come later in a window (and there have been links).

claretspice

Sargent is the better goalscorer but that is but a portion of the centre forwards job in the Premier League. The bigger part of the job is providing an outlet and providing the physical edge to give us a platform. I have my doubts that Sargent has that physicality.

claretspice

Captain of the second XI and the perfect man for that role. See him in the cups and perhaps the odd appearance off the bench, but his value will mostly be in the background. As others have said, it was a mistake not to retain him in this capacity two years ago, whatever the logic for his departure.

claretspice

dandeclaret wrote: ↑
Fri Jun 27, 2025 10:25 am
Could also look like

Trafford

Roberts New Esteve Pires.....

Yep. You need depth in the premier league. That means 8 or 9 defenders all comfortable at the level.

claretspice

Good signing on paper, and a sensible move for all parties. Hopefully if it goes well we'd be looking to quickly explore a longer contract. Primarily a centre back from whenever I've seen him, but it's not hard to imagine him playing at right back if Parker ever wants to adopt the flexible 442 in po...

claretspice

So just over 10m pounds - given he's just returned from one serious knee injury, and had another a couple of years earlier, it'd be interesting to know how much is performance related.

claretspice

Difference being that not many people had seen CJER play much and he was young with high potential that he could only fulfill with game time, Worrall has been around for years he is at his peak and is definitely not going to get any quicker. Forest saw enough of him in the premier league to see he ...

claretspice

I think a solid defensive setup can elevate a weaker defender but unless you have the forwards for kick and rush football a defender with poor distribution can't be elevated to contribute to attack. We simply don't have the attackers to soak up and hit on the counter in the PL without someone who c...

claretspice

Keane would be a good replacement for Egan-Riley if we intend to completely change how we build attacks. If Parker intends to keep the same patterns of how we build attacks then Keane would be an terrible replacement because he's not like for like in any way and Egan-Riley was the key cog in our bu...

claretspice

Personally I'm unconvinced by Harwood Bellis for the kevel we want to compete at. He's a good footballer (his short passing was more progressive than CJER I think but his long passing was good but nowhere near as outstanding as CJER) but when he was with us i was concerned he wasneither quick enough...

claretspice

Mee more than held his own in his ariel battles in the top flight. CJER won next to nothing in the air in the far less challenging second tier. This needs putting in context thought. Egan Riley is 22 and has one season of first team football behind him. When Ben Mee was the same age, he was just si...

claretspice

I think Wilder did a superb job last season, certainly up until January. He got a team who weren't especially fancied into the promotion picture with a string of astute, cheap signings and by promoting some promising young players (and despite injury to their best young talent). The business they di...

claretspice

I'm not sure what more we could have done tbh. He was very young when we got him and that first season it's difficult to make an argument that we should've accommodated him given that we went on to be perhaps one of the greatest championship sides of all time, and the meanest defence in the league....

claretspice

I don't like Multi-Club ownership, at all but that is a systemic issue rather than a club specific one and ALK have never hidden their interest in it as a model.

The news is a touch concerning, but lets wait and see how it pans out before jumping to conclusions about what it means for Burnley.

claretspice

This is disappointing news, and there are most certainly lessons to be learnt from this. If we're a club that has a model bringing in young talent, developing it and selling it on, you can't allow a player of that ilk to leave on a free at the end of a 3 year deal. Either his potential was not fully...

claretspice

Yeah, agree that’s the best write up I’ve seen. Still some points I disagree with, not least the assertion that our claim might be £10m! Unless it’s a typo and they missed a zero off it. It’s a fair point on Gray and Townsend’s wages, but it sort of underlines the complexity, because a whole host o...

claretspice

https://stefanborson.substack.com/p/explained-burnley-v-everton-to-be This is the best summary I've seen of the somewhat nuanced and complicated legal constructs we will need to overcome in order to make a claim stick - particularly around the idea of a claim based on a "lost chance" to survive. Reg...

claretspice

1. They should have stopped spending in the summer prior . That year they signed Mykolenko, Patterson, Gray cheaply and Townsend (free). I think we’ll do detailed analysis of their contributions to the season. Simplistically, summer signings that year scored 40% of their goals from the season. The ...

claretspice

Everyone needs to calm down a bit I think. No doubt if we were to lose all of Trafford, Esteve and Egan Riley that would make next season difficult. But Trafford and Esteve are under contract and will not be prized away cheaply. They may have release values, but other than that there’s no reason why...

claretspice

I have no idea what we're offering Brownhill or anyone else (although 80k a week seems toppish to me), but I would be wary about reading too much into headline figures for either wages or transfer fees given how much can be performance related. My guess is that a significant proportion of whatever p...

claretspice

The five best home performances that I saw were Watford before Christmas, Bristol City, Norwich, Sheffield United and Millwall. But of those, I think Norwich and Bristol City were the best performances in terms of quality of football, but neither were entirely complete. But I thought given the size ...

claretspice

There's a decent player in Amdouni, but I don't think his movement was quite good enough for the Premier League (too often, he wanted the ball to feet, stood still, and you simply don't get that sort of time in the Premier League) and his work rate wasn't quite enough - that's not to say he was lazy...

claretspice

Good player, good fee. To put it in context (and without any criticism of those players intended) it's half what we paid for each of Tresor, Amdouni and Ramsey. There will be a question about his physicality in the Premier League but a proper pre season will also do him a world of good. You can get ...

claretspice

Just seen the clip of the incident with who sounds like Ally McCoist summarising. As he said in that clip, it is a goal. No doubts a huge error at 0-0 with only 17 minutes left, no doubts the ref should have waited before blowing, no doubts the big clubs almost always get the decisions (e.g. a too ...

claretspice

The first British journalist to take a serious interest in foreign football and use words I had to look up in the dictionary. McIlvanney might well have been the better writer though. RIP Jim Lawton and David Lacey would be others of a similar vintage to be of the top drawer. I think those 4 would ...

claretspice

You can't beat a legend, who is good for the dressing room, coming back in a coaching role I'd have one for each player One or two is good and healthy. But you can have too much of a good thing and it can rapidly become a separate power base to the manager which is a very bad thing, and you also ri...

claretspice

It always strikes me as a bit of a ‘lazy’ suggestion that an ex-player towards the end of their career returns in a player/coach capacity. We have no idea of the coaching abilities of these players or whether there is a vacancy or requirement in the back room team for such a role. I agree. I can se...

claretspice

I'm not sure there's any real case for going back to Mee next season. He'll be 36 in September and given we have Esteve and Humphreys already in the squad, I'm not sure there's a case for adding a further left sided centre half to the squad even as back up. If he's interested in going into coaching ...

claretspice

Even if you accept there's a covering defender it's still an obvious goalscoring opportunity for Haaland once he's toed the ball past Henderson (and it still is if he's forced slightly wide). Same logic that applies if the foul/handball is by a defender and there is still the keeper to beat. But for...

claretspice

Played mainly off the left though Ramsey for Boro that season, no? I wouldn't call it growing pains when there's been fairly significant game time missed. Players like Cullen and Brownhill are invaluable due to their availability - it's a valuable trait to have. Again, I wasn't saying 'push the boa...

claretspice

I agree - especially with the priority being an imposing DM. My overriding point is that of (successful!) succession planning and having a player to fill Brownhill's role. Yes Hannibal and Ramsey can play that position, but I don't see either of them being 10+ goal /year players in the Champ, and R...

claretspice

Rudoni isn't really a deep midfielder which is what we need imo so to some extent I agree with you especially if the price means we would miss out elsewhere. But that doesn't detract from the fact that he's probably one of the hottest prospects in the EFL and would be a good player for us to sign i...

claretspice

Personal view - Rudoni is a good player who might well be capable of stepping up, but he isn't what we need. Whilst i understand the ball carrying comparison, I think the comparison would be more with Ramsey than Berge - he's more an attacking midfielder than a defensive midfielder. We do of course ...

claretspice

I'd also say that Humphreys is pretty quick, certainly by centre half standards. But Esteve is very quick.

claretspice

If Egan-Riley didn’t want to extend his 3 year deal because he wasn’t playing prior to this season and then decided to wait out the season once he had established himself, I’m really not sure what the club could learn. Unless the lesson is to sign everyone to contracts longer than 3 years or extend...

claretspice

I think the last paragraph is a tad harsh. What ALK have largely done since they came in is sign younger players and on long-ish contracts. To a degree this has paid off with big money sales of the likes of Odobert, Berge, Collins etc and smaller (but decent) profits made on players like O’Shea, Mu...

claretspice

if this is true and happens, then it's clearly a big blow. Egan Riley was outstanding this season and I was certainly someone who thought he had qualities that could shine in the Premier League. He's quick and he's excellent in possession - that ability to turn defence into attack with long, accurat...

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