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He's really small. Looks miles off the 1.73 listed. Might lend him more to playing as a forward rather than a midfielder at a higher level.

He said he doesn't consider any move away as he has kids in Barcelona and wants to fulfill the last 2 years of his contract. Also no club actually wants Umtiti so there is nobody for him to refuse. I don't think he is blocking a move.

That team wouldn't beat Olot. Tells you all you need to know about the quality of the league over there.

They don't but their marking, physicality and 1v1 defending is of the highest level for both of them. I think sacrificing some offensive build up from the back (which like you said could be covered by Frenkie instead, an interesting idea) is a good exchange for having a literal brick wall CB...

That is a fake leak by the club. Ajax can attract better targets than him. But if they are genuinely interested he should leave now before he spends a year with zero minutes played. The gig has to be up at some point. He's literally a 9th choice forward. At that stage what's the point of even...

Bremer from Torino would be an amazing signing. We should try and hijack it from Juve. An Araujo-Bremer partnership would be one of the most dominant CB pairings in the world.

The squad on paper is one thing and the execution is another. If we don't manage to win La Liga and challenge for everything this year then the squad significantly underperformed. The talent is up there with those teams. But the execution might not be, which will be down to Xavi.

Up there with all of them. PSG don't beat us in any area so would say our squad is better, and then give or take on par with the others.

Well just from that video he doesn't look any taller than Ferran or even shorter, who was 182 at his medical. But these things are altered by video angles, posture etc.

Even actually more like 6 foot. At his Polish club they listed him 181cm. His anticipation and athleticism is what makes him so aerially dominant.

Inb4 Braithwaite wants to 'fight for his spot' against Lewandowski, Aubameyang, Dembele, Raphinha, Ferran Torres, Fati and Depay.

He won't be a disaster. He might not be that good currently but he's very experienced and clearly has ability so at the worst he could be a decent sub option/backup. And also the more depth we have the easier it is to prevent Puig/Sanz etc seeing the field.

Starting to appear that Xavi might like him for the next season. Some reports that Xavi is intrigued by him and he hasn't been excluded from training/preseason like the others.

I'll be damned if Aubameyang can adapt and fucking Lewandowski can't.

Guys like Lewa aren't signed for adjustment. He's a world class striker leaving his prime. That's a win now signing, so are Azpi and Alonso. After these signings we have a stronger squad than them and we have historically been better on LaLiga so it's reasonable to think we should win this season.

But is it calculated, with the losses in income accounted for and predicted with plans in case these signings go wrong/sporting objectives go wrong? Or is it just a roll of the dice?

Impossible to tell since both sides are leaking different information but the fact they set the release clause at €100m was interesting to me, given we usually set our release clauses sky high even for trash players. Seemed like a concession made to Dembele if he does very well next season and...

There's no way a striker of Lewa's quality can't pack hat tricks against the Alaves and Elches every game, that we've been struggling to take points from. This is one of the best 9s in the world we're talking about.

More generally, it is interesting how much we are managing to spend. 180m spent on Lewa, Raphinha and Ferran just in transfer fees alone and hundreds more in wages, with Christensen and Kessie's contracts too and possibly Kounde + others. Pay rise for Dembele etc. People keep saying it should...

We better be challenging for all competitions next season. No excuses anymore.