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James Maddison

HairSprayGooners

My brother posted it ⏩
Chelsea signed Havertz for £62m. World class potential, scores the winning in the CL starter for Germany.

The lad will be one of the best players in the league in next 2 years.

He'll be at Madrid or barca for £100m in 3 years.

£60m is an investment....Maddison would be a poor one for that price.

Arsenal signed Pepe for £72M. Havertz is yet to show any world class potential. Very hot and cold, but he did this at Leverkussen. Always had half a season where he was very off.
 

LG10

Well-Known Member
I guess it makes sense we want someone inferior to ESR. Makes sure he and saka remain the main men.
 

2Smokeyy

5.0 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (49)
Trusted ⭐

Country: England
Chelsea signed Havertz for £62m. World class potential, scores the winning in the CL starter for Germany.

The lad will be one of the best players in the league in next 2 years.

He'll be at Madrid or barca for £100m in 3 years.

£60m is an investment....Maddison would be a poor one for that price.

Offer that same amount for 17 year old Jude Bellingham. BVB would surely consider 60m as they’ll be close to tripling what they paid for him.

We’ll have a exceptional HG talent that will be worth more than 60m in 3 to 4 years when Real Madrid show interest.
 

Trilly

Hates A-M, Saka, Arteta and You
Trusted ⭐

Country: England
Offer that same amount for 17 year old Jude Bellingham. BVB would surely consider 60m as they’ll be close to tripling what they paid for him.

We’ll have a exceptional HG talent that will be worth more than 60m in 3 to 4 years when Real Madrid show interest.
You make it sound so easy. 🥲

Until we’re back in the CL though I don’t see why Jude would leave them for us. Dortmund is such a unique environment for young players. The domestic league is much easier so they get to statpad and dominate most games which is a perfect audition for a big club, and they also get to experience the pressure of being in a title race most seasons. On top of this they still get to play in the CL against the best of the best.

Compare that to Arsenal where most games are a struggle, your starting spot isn’t guaranteed and you don’t get any European football. :(
 

2Smokeyy

5.0 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (49)
Trusted ⭐

Country: England
You make it sound so easy. 🥲

Until we’re back in the CL though I don’t see why Jude would leave them for us. Dortmund is such a unique environment for young players. The domestic league is much easier so they get to statpad and dominate most games which is a perfect audition for a big club, and they also get to experience the pressure of being in a title race most seasons. On top of this they still get to play in the CL against the best of the best.

Compare that to Arsenal where most games are a struggle, your starting spot isn’t guaranteed and you don’t get any European football. :(

I actually think that bad vibes Mikel could sell him a dream since that’s the only thing he’s good at plus the bag can make a massive difference and living in London just look at Thomas Partey and Aubameyang, they both gave up CL football to take a step down to us.

Ben White and Bellingham both for 110m.

#OurNewBritishCore2021
 

akhil

Well-Known Member
Chelsea signed Havertz for £62m. World class potential, scores the winning in the CL starter for Germany.

The lad will be one of the best players in the league in next 2 years.

He'll be at Madrid or barca for £100m in 3 years.

£60m is an investment....Maddison would be a poor one for that price.

Barca or Real are never paying that for Havertz or anyone anytime soon.

Still 60 million is steep for Maddison, less riskier than Pepe but we're still overpaying.

Buying English for big money has it's perks. Less likely they go abroad and if they go within England, we'll make our money back pretty easily. White?, Maddison?, Tierney, Saka, ESR is a very good young core to start with. Injuries permitting, they can be the core of the squad for a good 5 years provided they all develop to become class players.

Also if they become England regulars, refs and media treatment will be a lot more favorable.
 

Wozman85

Member
I'm all for going down the buying from the Premier League route for a change. We've tried the European market and it hasn't worked out very well for us.
I'm not saying the quality isn't there, but my word some of the signings we've made have been awful.
We need players ready to hit the ground running, and make the most of not having any sub par European football clogging up our fixture list next season.
 

Gn1212

Well-Known Member
Yes he does.

But Pepe, Saka and *shudder* Willian all take a good set piece anyway. I guess if Willian leaves then we do need a right footed set piece taker.
I disagree with this. Most of them can put out a good shot from a set piece but we've been pretty poor trying to find our guys in the box.
Willian is probably the exception but he has been overall poor himself. Quite a shame really, didn't we get set piece coach last summer? Went to waste.
 

dka1

100% Dark Chocolate
Trusted ⭐

Country: England
Chelsea signed Havertz for £62m. World class potential, scores the winning in the CL starter for Germany.

The lad will be one of the best players in the league in next 2 years.

He'll be at Madrid or barca for £100m in 3 years.

£60m is an investment....Maddison would be a poor one for that price.

Yeah.....I get the feeling this move is a bit more "Manchester United" and less of a "Liverpool" type.

Then again you can never be 100% certain how these things will pan out and Maddison is a very good player no doubt.

But still you'd never call this shrewd business.
 

Barry

Definitely Not An Old Poster
Still 60 million is steep for Maddison, less riskier than Pepe but we're still overpaying.

Buying English for big money has it's perks. Less likely they go abroad and if they go within England, we'll make our money back pretty easily. White?, Maddison?, Tierney, Saka, ESR is a very good young core to start with. Injuries permitting, they can be the core of the squad for a good 5 years provided they all develop to become class players.

Good post. Let's be realistic about this though. If you pay £60m for any player there is absolutely no guarantee about making money back if they flop. It's far more likely that you don't in fact. There's maybe 10 clubs who pay those sort of fees and they do it when the hype is high, not low.

That said, I still get the logic in a Maddison. Kai Havertz may have higher potential, but the gamble Chelsea took is that he can develop that and transfer it to the PL. It takes time and he didn't really shine last season. Maddison's more likely to have an immediate impact and less likely to really struggle. He wouldn't be my first choice but he's decent and lower risk than some others.
 

truth_hurts

but Holding’s hair transplant was painless
I can't believe the negativity here. Everyone had their cocks out for Buendia when Maddison has had far more impact in the Premier League. 60m is steep, but we know what we're getting and I thought fans wanted the Kroenke family to spend?

I'm less sure on Ben White, but we know he's Premier League level. Two hungry, British players would improve us and im here for it. Mix that with two stars in Auba and Partey, established zpremier league players like Leno and Tierney us some of the world's best young talent in Gabriel, Saka, ESR and Martinelli - we're moving in the right direction.

For the record, I can't see us landing Maddison.
 

AbouCuéllar

Author of A-M essays 📚
I can't believe the negativity here. Everyone had their cocks out for Buendia when Maddison has had far more impact in the Premier League.
Not really true.

Compare Buendía and Maddison's stats on FBref between Buendía's 19-20 season and Maddison's 19-20 and 20-21 seasons. Buendía's 19-20 looks better than Maddison's 20-21 despite playing in a side that finished 20th, and their 19-20 seasons are quite similar with Buendía again edging him in a number of categories.

Frankly, it's a bit hard to understand not signing Buendía if the plan was to go for Maddison. Makes it seem like the plan was really to go for Ødegaard (which is fine, if we had done our due diligence and were sure we could sign him), but that we then realised we couldn't and pivoted to Maddison. Which just smells a bit of incompetence.

Trying to keep my mind open about this signing, Maddison is a good player but for his price tag we really need a fine player--I hope he is that, but I am not at all convinced he is better than Buendía, or Brandt and Aouar for that matter.

The only reasonable hypothesis I can think of (other than the extremely unappetising one of us just not moving fast enough for Buendía and getting beat out by Villa for that reason only) is that our scouting of Buendía drew questions about his ability to play as a central #10, rather than an interior right (or left) winger as he has played. But I kinda doubt that, his skills seem translatable to the #10 to the highest degree.

Hoping I am wrong here and underrating Maddison, but from stats and the eye test it is hard to find anything that distinguishes him from Buendía, Brandt, or Aouar, and indeed I can find a good number of things in both the stat and eye test that seem favourable in those three.
 

SingmeasongSong

Right Sometimes
Maddison wont get me excited at all, Buendia and possibly some other options fit us much more whilst also being better footballers overall.

But, the one thing I can acklowledge here, even though I see it money wise and in terms of better options hilariously bad to spend 110m+ on White and Maddison, is that they will definitely improve us.

That's actually something with Arsenal, we've been buying players that dont even improve us in positions of need on high wages that just bloated the wage bill and kept youngsters from getting a chance.
 
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Football Manager

Copy & Paste Merchant
Not really true.

Compare Buendía and Maddison's stats on FBref between Buendía's 19-20 season and Maddison's 19-20 and 20-21 seasons. Buendía's 19-20 looks better than Maddison's 20-21 despite playing in a side that finished 20th, and their 19-20 seasons are quite similar with Buendía again edging him in a number of categories.

Frankly, it's a bit hard to understand not signing Buendía if the plan was to go for Maddison. Makes it seem like the plan was really to go for Ødegaard (which is fine, if we had done our due diligence and were sure we could sign him), but that we then realised we couldn't and pivoted to Maddison. Which just smells a bit of incompetence.

Trying to keep my mind open about this signing, Maddison is a good player but for his price tag we really need a fine player--I hope he is that, but I am not at all convinced he is better than Buendía, or Brandt and Aouar for that matter.

The only reasonable hypothesis I can think of (other than the extremely unappetising one of us just not moving fast enough for Buendía and getting beat out by Villa for that reason only) is that our scouting of Buendía drew questions about his ability to play as a central #10, rather than an interior right (or left) winger as he has played. But I kinda doubt that, his skills seem translatable to the #10 to the highest degree.

Hoping I am wrong here and underrating Maddison, but from stats and the eye test it is hard to find anything that distinguishes him from Buendía, Brandt, or Aouar, and indeed I can find a good number of things in both the stat and eye test that seem favourable in those three.
Buendia, Brundt and Aouar:thumbsup:
 

zilfy

Active Member
I can't believe the negativity here. Everyone had their cocks out for Buendia when Maddison has had far more impact in the Premier League. 60m is steep, but we know what we're getting and I thought fans wanted the Kroenke family to spend?

I'm less sure on Ben White, but we know he's Premier League level. Two hungry, British players would improve us and im here for it. Mix that with two stars in Auba and Partey, established zpremier league players like Leno and Tierney us some of the world's best young talent in Gabriel, Saka, ESR and Martinelli - we're moving in the right direction.

For the record, I can't see us landing Maddison.
The problem is we actually don't know what we are getting. If we can get the Maddison that was acing it in 19/20 then great, but the 20/21 Maddison was really nothing special at all.

It's a huge risk with his ongoing hip injuries and his recent poor form. There is no guarantee he will rediscover that earlier form. For 60 + mil, you would expect less risk of floppiness
 

Mitch

Blonde Brigade Grand Wizard
Adding Maddison to Tierney, Holdini, Chambers, Pepe, ESR, Willock and Saka - thats a real quality group of players there. More players of this quality instead of the likes of Elneny, Runarson, Partey and Bellerin level is the step in the right direction.
 
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