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Andy Robertson

You just wrote, “if we win the Champions League”

We’re not going to be in Europe next season. We are going to be very bloated with any more signings.

England gets 7 European spots at the start of the season. It’s almost certain to be 8 based on co-efficient and with Arsenal & City bring in the League Cup Final that means the Europa & Conference spots are as follows.

FA Cup: Europa
6th: Europa
7th: Europa
8th: Conference

If a top 8 team wins the FA Cup the Conference League spot would drop to 9th. It’s not implausible we finish 9th or even 8th. It would also drop to 9th in the unlikely event Villa finish 6-8 and win the Europa League. Palace & Forest the same but that seems even more unlikely.
 
Wouldn’t have been surprised at Souza going out on loan for the rest of the season even before this development. A 19yo described as a “raw talent” with zero experience playing in Europe and you think he’s ready for first team football in the PL?
Funny thing is.....if he had signed for Brighton he'd probably be tearing it up within 2 months and we'd be thinking 'who's this guy!'
 
Funny thing is.....if he had signed for Brighton he'd probably be tearing it up within 2 months and we'd be thinking 'who's this guy!'

What gets missed with Brighton, Brentford etc is that for every player they go on and sell for 20x what they paid there are half a dozen that go on loan every season of play U23’s and get released on a free. Our fans will still be moaning about Kota Takei in 20 years if he doesn’t become a club legend though.
 
I think it was Mourinho who said he tried to build his team with as many captains as possible. The days of Terry, Carvalho, Lampard, Drogba (I'm sure there were more) all in one team certainly brought a level of authority and success.

Maybe we an add one more in the spine of the team.
Dennis Wise in that side too.
 
Well I think it could well be mate, however I think that if we stick with TF, that is our future (like it or not style-wise) and Souza's going to be loaned and trained in a similar 'art'.
Giiven we are where we are, I think as a short-term signing it works well. It's all very Harry R in terms of getting in short-term experience to wade through a thicket, and it's also (like Gallagher) a profile Frank likes with regards to 'characters' in the dressing room who roar and run. Personally, I would love to see an artisan or two signed, but the truth is I think it'd be wasted in this set-up. For now, providing the money is not massive, this is decent enough for me.

Definitely need an artisan or two. But some short term decent solutions to problem areas can be a good thing. I quite like the Harry R reference.

To be fair to Udogie, he gets injured a lot which means when he gets back on the pitch he is always searching for form and consistency. It's not easy to show the early high levels he did when he first arrived when it's stop start for him:

View attachment 21422
Absolutely think Udogie's problem is way more injury related than needing a kick up the backside related.

Robertson (declining, probably can't do many full 90s), Udogie (very good, but struggling with injuries, can't be risked to play that much), Souza (probably needs time to bed in, but can probably play a bit here and there). With 5 subs and the additional option of Spence that actually gives us good options and cover in a position we need some solutions for - that also gives us solutions for RB.
 
Andy Robertson would become our ~27th oldest transfer. Here's the list of transfers aged 30+ over the last 20 or so years.

The # column indicates where they sit on the list by age. A prize for anyone who can guess #1

CleanShot 2026-01-24 at 17.16.57@2x.jpg
 
I've spoken to a few die hard Pool fans last few days and they are genuinely unhappy at this transfer. And it isn't nostalgic. It seems to be a good measure although anecdotal.
 
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