I love Ruben, but I can see why other club's fans (especially of elite clubs) don't rate him as highly as we do. I don't think Nuno fully got the best out of him, at least as much as we might have thought from our promotion season.
Summer 2021 transfer window
- Thread starter Jabbawolf
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Pretty much agree with all that. Certainly more comfortable with Rui and Joao going than Ruben though
Elephant Pyjamas
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Our own fans don't rate him as highly as they should simply because he hasn't hit a couple of worldies this season! I think this has been by far his best Prem season.
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Don't get me wrong, I want Ruben to stay but is just trying to look at it from the players POV. 4 years with us and will want to move on to the next stage of his career.
big mean bunny
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I agree with this. Neves going top side is going to be like a lesser version of Modric going to Real I feel, in the extent people will then suddenly actually watch and see what his role is, and be like "Wait, he is actually class".
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I can't see Neves moving sideways to Arsenal, he's better than that and should be going to a champions league side if he leaves us.
sycophantia
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When I had a look, quite a few Palace fans weren't keen on Nuno
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3rd highest finish for the club in 40 years.
I can't stand Arsenal myself, but I wouldn't start calling a move to them 'sideways' just because they're currently at a low ebb. They're a huge club and a much bigger draw than us, let's be honest
19th Holer
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We did the double on them last season in our 'poor' season, they aren't returning to the top echelons any time soon, from a football perspective it is a sideways move.
Jinky
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Missed the Patricio discussion while it was happening, but my take on that is, I would take £12m for him. We've had a good few years out of him, but last season his performance level dropped right off. He doesn't command his box particularly well - often stays on his line when he should come and claim a cross - and he let in plenty of sloppy goals that you would expect a top level keeper to save.
My issue isn't that we *might* sell Rui for £12m - my issue is who the replacement is. Sa is an obvious downgrade. He's 28, Portuguese and hasn't made the Portuguese Euro squad. I know goalkeepers have a longer shelf-life than outfield players - so at 28, I guess he could improve. But the Martinez example that someone else mentioned earlier in the thread is a good one. He alone was responsible for Villa probably finishing 6-8 places higher in the league when you look at the points he won them.
In conclusion; I don't mind us selling Rui for £12m. But I want a better replacement than Sa.
As for Ruben, I don't want us to sell him. I'm quite intrigued by the idea of him playing in a more attacking formation/team.
My issue isn't that we *might* sell Rui for £12m - my issue is who the replacement is. Sa is an obvious downgrade. He's 28, Portuguese and hasn't made the Portuguese Euro squad. I know goalkeepers have a longer shelf-life than outfield players - so at 28, I guess he could improve. But the Martinez example that someone else mentioned earlier in the thread is a good one. He alone was responsible for Villa probably finishing 6-8 places higher in the league when you look at the points he won them.
In conclusion; I don't mind us selling Rui for £12m. But I want a better replacement than Sa.
As for Ruben, I don't want us to sell him. I'm quite intrigued by the idea of him playing in a more attacking formation/team.
Not specifically aimed at you, but we can't just pull out 'we've never had it so good' every time when it relates to defending underperfomance/treading water from Nuno (or his core players), but then when talking about the next era go heavy on the entitlement in terms of expectations of Fosun/Lage.
Which is it? Are we happy to be pretty much where we are as it's the best most of us have known, or do we hold the club to PL standards and ambitions from now on?
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Lowest in the last 3 years.
First comment is a bit Cyber-esque. Should Dias have come to us last season cos we doubled City the season before??
As for your second comment, people said that about Utd.
And from a football perspective, they still finished (even in an 'awful' season for them) 5 places and 16 points clear of us. You're comparing the third most successful club in the English game in terms of trophies with a club that hasn't won a major one in over 40 years
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Before the final few games of last season, Martinez wasn't really seen as anything special. Loaned out all over the place then sat on the bench. He then put in some great performances after lockdown and was 2nd choice on the list for Villa (they went in for Ramsdale).
If we sold Rui and then signed a keeper that had played 15 league games for his main club and over a 6 or 7 year period of loan deals, the most he had played in 1 season was 18 games we would be hugely underwhelmed by it.
Obviously he has had a superb season for Villa so its easy to look back and say they nailed that one but his appearance record before hand is nothing to shout about (The Bruno Lage of goalkeepers if you will - not a lot of games but a couple of pieces of silverware won).
Deano
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Not really how it works though. Otherwise we wouldn't have been able to sign Scott Golbourne from Championship Barnsley when we were in league one.
We might have finished above Arsenal recently and done the double over them last season but Arsenal are a season removed from being able to carry a player on 300k a week that they weren't even using in their match day squad. They are a higher profile club, with bigger revenues bigger crowds and bigger potential to get European and ultimately Champions league football than Wolves.
AndyWolves
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I think it's both, and neither.
You can be grateful for where we are now and also want more.
For me, my expectations are based on what the club is doing. No more Fosun being a sugar daddy for us and the noises around self sufficiency suggest we may well have a number of seasons of organic growth which will be reflected in players we buy and sell.
I don't anticipate us being in the European conversions for a while yet but I would like to see us developing our youth proposition and signing more players with very high ceilings.
Success for me looks like seeing young players come in with huge potential, developing with us before being sold on for profits. At least for the next 3-4 seasons.
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If they decided that Nuno was too conservative and that a new fresh manager with new ideas and a couple of new faces could progress the squad to a better finish then I can go along with that. Still wouldn't be happy with tossing Nuno aside given his success but can understand the reasoning.
Dismantling the spine of the squad that got us to where we are now and by being creative in the transfer market doesn't seem to me to be a recipe for success. I hope I'm wrong.
You may have a short memory, but anyone trying to do that on here last season got short shrift, not to mention anyone criticising the past four or five transfer windows
