I read that EPL also postponed 3 next round games due to lack of police officers - Brighton v Crystal Palace, Chelsea v Liverpool and Man Utd v Leeds.
Ah wow, more games postponed. Not enough police, so understandable. Can't believe we had a 6-day break and still got new injuries to contend with... Chelsea clash off, shame as I really wanted to take them on before Potter gets his digs in...
I wouldn't get your hopes up for a winter transfer for Bellingham. If he have any sort of chance with him, it'll be in the summer. However, I think that's also rather unlikely to happen. Depends if FSG want to unleash the war chest that they've been building over the years. Although, they did just spend a lot on Nunes, so that might've had an impact on who we can sign in the next window.
I do think we'll be looking to add a player in the winter transfer window, I just don't know if we'll find someone who fits the bill. Hopefully, by then we've sorted out our injury crisis, and are doing fairly well in the Champions League, since I do believe that the title might've slipped away from us by then, unless we change our form rather quickly.
Yeah, watching his news for 3 years now and keep getting disappointed, but now we splashed out on keeping Salah and getting Darwin, I feel a 19-yr old for a big price tag would be keeping par (also if we trade out Ox or even Keita) -- but, if like you suggest, Darwin's actually lightened FSG's purse then we're going to have to dig in deep and hope we've got another under-the-radar-Diaz/Jota-quality signing.
This is feeling like 20/21 season all over again, except much earlier. Feels crazy to say so 6 games in, but...
I don't know. Yes, of course, a new coach wants to win the first game, but what are the stats on that? Do they often succeed?
I think in most other leagues the fact is they often succeed and I think in Premier League it is the same when the new coach has a team with a great name like Chelsea has been in recent years for example.
Can't find the article I read some months ago about this new-manager effect but it definitely seems to have a positive short-term impact on teams that have been performing poorly. Been proven in research in Europe anyway and most recently seen with Leipzig, but I have to remember Ten Haag started his tenure with 2 straight historic losses haha. They call it the "honeymoon effect". It's attributed to players desperate to impress new gaffer.