Muzzy_Larsson

Ferran Torres isn't in any sense a punt type signing, he has a release clause of 100m euros and Real Madrid have been desperately trying to sign him since he was 15. There's no world where he is even a possibility sorry.

OMG no, he’s shit. He doesn’t even look fit either.

As poor as Chilwell has been last couple of times I’ve watched Leicester and given the comments on how bad he was today I’d have expected his manager to take him out the firing line a bit and give him a couple of games on the bench to take the heat off him.

Agreed in the short-term, a significant outlay on anyone but a wide player would be daft, it’s quite clearly the weakest area of the side.

Iheanachooooooooo!

God Tielemans has been absolutely awful.

Been disappointed with Praet this half, first I’ve really seen him but he seems happy to play on the periphery of the game and play nice sideways passes as opposed to getting the game by the balls and dictating the tempo on the front foot.

Oh you haven’t seen nothing yet, try Scottish refs

Strong side out tonight. Should deal with Villa comfortably I reckon. McGinn is a huge miss for them and no natural centre forward playing for them either.

Vardy won’t go on forever and bleeding Edouard or whoever it may be in gradually may help ease the transition to life without Vardy. I’m not suggesting replacing him because no one can do that but you may be able to take the sting out of it a bit now by succession planning properly.

Probably about right.

This is a good point, attackers especially.

Tbf I think most Celtic fans expect Edouard to be away in the summer and wouldn't hold any grudge should he leave, to wherever that may be.

Lyon tried that with Dembele, Arsenal done the same with Tierney for the whole of the summer and we ended up getting our asking price for both in the end. I’m not his biggest fan but Lawell is a very hard nosed negotiator and consistently gets us fair prices for our exports. I’d be astonished if Edouard left for any less than £25m.

I’m not trying to even consider arguing the SPFL is even in the same stratosphere as the EPL, it isn’t, it’s of course vastly weaker but you can’t apply this high contrast logic to a player and say he’d be no good simply because of the league he plays in. Football, footballers and their development are far too variable for that and any such approach is the very definition of cutting your nose off to spite your face. Luckily the people who run your club seem to be very much on the ball and wouldn’t have such a simplistic outlook. Teemu Pukki was garbage in the SPFL and is tearing up the EPL. Van dijk made playing in the SPFL a cakewalk and has done exactly the same in the EPL. Gary Hooper scored a ton of goals in the SPFL and bombed in the EPL. There are success stories and disappointments, similar to any prospective signing coming from any league. The alternatives are go and sign someone from a stronger league, say Portugal, you could still end up with a Slimani. Or go and pay the EPL premium and spend some bonkers amount like £70m on Connor Wilson with not much more guarantee of success. Sometimes there is a snobbery on here with regards lesser leagues which is disappointing as most of the people who exhibit this are the same who have a near cardiac arrest at the snobbery of clubs such as Man Utd and their fans when they think they can just cherry pick Leicester players on a whim.

Yes of course, in the current market Maddison is worth close to double that, that’s my point. It’s a lot of money to Celtic yes, but that’s my point again, it’s not much in EPL terms these days though.

Your theory is pretty sound but for me Edouard is already twice the player Benteke is so for that alone any suitor needs to pay the going rate. I’d also argue that in EPL terms £30m nowadays isn’t a huge outlay at all, you see this sort of money changing hands very frequently now and for in many cases very average players.

As is every signing to some degree or another, did you not spend close to £30m on Slimani for example? Van Dijk was a punt when he went to Southampton is an example at the other end of the scale. Crystal Palace and Warnock had the chance to sign him for £6m but didn't think he was worth the "punt". There's a risk that any transfer can bomb whether it costs, 5, 10 or 50 million, that's just the way it is nowadays.

Given some of the carthorses that have went for that and more in the EPL, Benteke, Carrol's etc of this world then £30m for Edouard is the going rate I'm sorry. We undersold Dembele for £20m and we won't make the same mistake with Edouard I don't think. If guys like Solanke are worth £20m then £30m for Edouard is a snip.

No

Nah he’s not a target man at all, obviously not comparing him here but in style he’s like Thierry Henry, a striker who comes in off the left.

I don’t think there is anyway he’d be sold mid season, this season of all seasons when we are on the cusp o 9IAR and have a credible title challenge on our hands for the first time in years. Nor do I think Rodgers would rock the boat on this one, think he’d be happy to wait until the summer. The daily record is a gutter rag so typically I’d take anything they write with a pinch of salt. However Rodgers is a huge admirer of Eddy so I can see there being truth in this.

Morelos is a good player there is no getting away from that and I know there’ll be an inherent bias within me but bei big as objective as possible I have doubts over his ability to score goals in the EPL. First off he’s a headcase, he has serious disciplinary issues and will invariably get himself sent off when wound up. Think he was sent off 5 times last season and he’s been off twice this season and probably should have had another red he got away with. Casting the disciplinary stuff to the side, he’s a very good instinctive finisher but when he’s given too much time he sclaffs and snatches at a lot. He seems to need a lot of chances to score and I’d have concerns in the EPL that with chances at much more of a premium he’d struggle to score regularly. I’ve not looked at the conversion stats but I’d be amazed if Edouard doesn’t knock him out the park in terms of chance conversion, which conversely I’d say is one of Edouard’s biggest strengths, he’s cool as ice in front of goal.

So much for financial fair play.

Not sure this is the case just putting it out there from the couple of EPL games I've been at or people I know have been attended. Is the atmosphere not suffering at a lot of EPL grounds now due to them being a tourist trap for daytrippers? I understand it's a hard thing to address with secondary ticketing/touts nowadays but I'd love to see clubs go back to the days where a section of tickets are given to schools and/or working class sections of society that are now priced out of going to the football. If any league in the world has the clout to subsidise this sort of thing it should be the EPL given how awash with cash the clubs are.