re: 2018/2019 Transfer Thread

quote:

---

United, City, Arsenal and Everton have some fricking studs.

---

They do. I think all of those clubs reorganized their academies around the same time. Arsenal did it in 2014 by bring in Andries Jonker, and we are seeing the benefits now.

England would be so much better served if they had a unique national style, but the one they would revert to, the classic 4-4-2 with traditional wingers and little-man/big-man striker combos, is very hit-or-miss. The England teams of the 80's, before Heysel, could play an expansive sort of passing game, but that fell out of vogue for a long time, and only briefly came back, with the 'Pool team of 2013-14 the best example.

I think they'll try to jam all these players in rather than make hard decisions about who to leave out. Trying to make a Gerrard-Lampard midfield work when the better options would have been to include Carrick or Scholes should be used as a lesson on what not to do, in my view.