Maybe our pursuit of Olabe leads to little bit tapping up for Martin?
Isnāt teamnewsandtix the guy who said we were signing on deadline day? Iām not listening to these fools anymore
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Same. Not believing a word until itās actually done.
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To be fair he didnāt say that. Just that the Internet would break if 
was true
We just have to humour bl1nk with his twitter friends
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I secretly think that @Blink is actually one of these ITKās 
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I suppose but heās still got shit wrong in the past
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Your point still stands. Iāll add heās a waffling wanker that should stick to leaking lineups for FPL psychos and stop bothering with transfers.
I read this in The Athletic in the last week but canāt find the article now.
Apparently there is an idea to sign Zubimendi as soon as the season ends, as part of this accounting period(so before July). This will leave us more room to work with in the next accounting period.
Does check out because we know we had the capacity to spend money after we went in for Watkins.
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I really hope we are still going to sign him and makes sense what you say. Out of interest did the article suggest whether we were simply activating his release clause or are we talking about a negotiated deal with payments spread over a longer period?
I think it is going to be imperative to get all our new signings in early, ahead of pre-season.
No, it was just that detail. However, I think there have been reports already that suggest weāre willing to pay more than the RC to work out a better payment structure.
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Good player, but not convinced he will have much of an impact to be honest.
It also means Rice playing advanced which isnāt exactly working.
Personally, Iām 100% convinced by this transfer. I think Zubimendi is going to dictate the play from deep. Consequently, I think this signing has more implications for Odegaardās role in the team than for Rice.
Do you think he offers anything that Partey doesnāt?
Partey takes more touches, but is very strong. Zubi is capable of one touch passing but is feeble in comparison.
I think Rice works there fine if we switch our style of play up a little bit. The problem is his key attributes going forward are wasted when we just hold the ball for ages and pass sideways.
He doesnāt drive the ball enough through the middle but weirdly does this well in wide positions. Rarely ācrashes the boxā either. I love Rice, but he doesnāt really offer much rot out attack.
Not really creative.
I think he will offer a lot more to the team than Partey does, both in terms of passing and dictating the play and in terms of defence. I have tended to be pretty critical of Partey (maybe overly so), but do think the time is right to move on. Zubimendi and Rice would be a fantastic midfield partnership.
Plenty of teams are playing without ācreatorsā in the traditional sense. Look at Newcastleās midfield, just filled with steel and athelticism. I think Rice can be very useful in that type of approach.
I understand having a core philosophy but we donāt always have to play one style.
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