Mateta Contract

[pssguy]

I haven't got a clue what is going on. It seems disappointing that we are getting a few of these situations arising with nos satisfactory resolution. We did very well getting shot of the disastrous Johnson fellah, even if we did drop £20m on him. I totally fail to understand our last transfer window activity and the salary we agreed with Larsen. It is so far out of line with all our other players, it makes zero sense. Can anyone explain how such a high salary was agreed with such an average player? £125k/week seems ludicrously high.

We were panicking; strikers are expensive; he had scored 14 goals in the previous PL campaign; Hobbs knew him; he had scored a hat-trick against Shrewsbury (OK I'm getting desperate). According to capology, he was on 15,000 at Wolves so I guess they used Nketiah's salary as a yardstick 🙂

 

[Mark B]

But it's not reality, it's fantasy.

If it was a one game league it would be fantasy, he puts two into the net against Man City on Friday and the conversation on here changes.

I think unless there is an amazing deal for him in the next week that the club just cannot turn down, he isn't going anywhere until January. If between now and then he goes on a run then the conversation drastically changes on here.

And if he plays like he did on Saturday then Stand Larsen is going to see a lot of action and Mateta will be transferred in January for a half eaten ham sandwich and a tickets to a Taylor Swift concert.

 

[DenTyler]

I'll put my tin hat on in suggesting this, but I'd be tempted to try and swap Mateta for Gallagher.
My reasoning is that we lack energy, drive and verve and Gallagher provides this in abundance.
He's a box to box player who makes lung busting runs into the area and is a decent finisher.
He also knows the club well too.

If Munoz does go the need for more energy and drive in the team becomes even more important.

Gallagher does not suit Spurs, but I think he'd be a good fit for us.

Thank f*** for that… now I can get on with my season.

I wrote recently that it was just strange that nobody had mentioned Wilf, No nonesense from Mateta and nobody speaking about Gallagher. Lo and behold, Wilf popped up, Mateta started his nonsense and now Gallagher has been mentioned. All is now back to normal. Thank you

 

[Linford]

Re Larsen, it could well be that we haven't / don't / maybe never will , play to his strengths. Which others tell me is balls into the box.

That maybe explains why he hasn't been exactly prolific in front of goal. So I'm giving him the benefit of doubt there.

Why I'm not a fan is that the areas of play which he can affect himself, I haven't been impressed with. His touch, hold up play, winning the ball in the air and general strength/aggression for a player of his size.

Let's face it, you don't expect to spend the best part of £50m on a player that is then kept out of the team by a want away striker recovering from a knee injury.

When Mateta goes then I think we have a problem because Larsen is currently the only alternative.

Trying to put a positive slant on that possible scenario, perhaps Larsen will benefit from not having Mateta around and there will be more focus from Sage and his coaches on trying to get the best out of him.

When Mateta had his worldy spell, it was when we were doing exactly this, more than any other team in the league. We had insane service and JP was converting it into a top-four scoring record. JSL had a similar situation at Wolves where his prolific spell dropped off when that wide service dropped off. Both JP and JSL need us to keep pinging balls into the box to even try to recreate.

It was a huge strong point of our team at that time, and a large part of how we were built to play under Oli. Munoz and Sarr created the vast majority of it between the two of them, and Eze as well. We are still largely built in a system that is designed for it, but it doesn't happen nearly as much anymore for whatever reason.

 

[Linford]

There is a lot of hate towards JP yet Guehi got away with minimal criticism.

Guéhi was a model professional and if JPM had modelled his conduct on Marc's the hate would be way less than it is.

That was true even before JPM took us to court. It is now infinitely more the case after that.

 

[Linford]

Lets be honest - Mateta needs 10 opportunities to score one. I saw a survey showing he was the second worst finisher in Europe based on chances created.

Nail on the head. We held the best Chances Created record and the worst Chances Converted record in the exact same time period of time.

This was when Mateta was 2nd, 3rd, and then 4th highest scorer in the league. It looked amazing on him but the credit goes almost entirely to Munoz and the rest of the squad.