Shaqiri was a 3-time title winner in Switzerland as well as a 2-times Bundesliga winner and Champions Leauge winner with Bayern before he even signed for Inter ...

I think we will respectfully have to agree to disagree on this matter.

Squirm all you want, but it was you who introduced Meyer to the thread and put forward the idea that the value of the fee was directly indicative of a player's quality.

Here is what you said: "Meyer was talked about in such terms but he came to us on a 'Free' and Riedewald cost less than £8 Mill which is 'Peanuts' in PL terms.If these players were that good they wouldn't have come to us and would have been acquired by clubs much higher up the Totem Pole.Furthermore a sum shy on £8 Mill for both does not suggest that they are as talented as has been suggested, besides I don't recall a great clamber for their services from other clubs."

I pointed out good players (albeit one name had a typo) who went to other clubs of similar stature to us, and did so for low fees. Hence you are, again, talking bulls***.

If you come to a fork in the road, take it.

I am hardly squirming - I have carried out a robust defence of my comments and stand 'Four square' behind them.I don't consider them a blizzard of obfuscation.

My comments were in response to the narrative that Meyer was one of the top prospects in German football and the next generation of top players from that country and that Riedewald was another hot prospect from one of the top academies in football.Richarlison was hardly heard of in this country so never came with any fanfare and whilst Shaqiri was much better known,played for Bayern Munich and was considered a talent he had issues with his consistency and defensive prowess.Besides, Shaqiri joined Stoke who had finished 9th in the PL in the previous two seasons and had at that time established themselves in the top-flight and hadn't been flirting with relegation season-on-season.

I really cannot be more clear about my line of debate on this issue so let's get back to the subject matter - any further comments I make on this thread will relate to Kouyate.We will have to agree to disagree.

Edited by Willo (21 Dec 2018 5.13pm)

Does that mean you think it was a great idea to have Harry Kane take corners?

Football managers are humans just live everyone else, and they make mistakes.

Trump lost. Badly. Hahahahahahaha.

In fairness, Riedewald could do himself a favour and drop a couple of stone. No manager can justify picking a lump like that (unless they're maradonna or fat Ronaldo).