The ceramics company seems to still exist in some capacity - mostly bathroom fittings. I wonder if we'll get a limited edition Ben Brereton Diaz toilet out of this to be what is probably the most baffling and difficult to adequately explain piece of footballing memorabilia of all time.

I mean I specifically said in the post you quoted that I don't think he has justified the 7m, and the 5m was hypothetical about what another team might think he was worth now as a 22 year old full international. I feel like you've quoted my post, told me I'm dreaming and then agreed with everything I said?

Honestly my read on Ben is that it was stupid to spend that much money on him, particularly when we did with so many other areas that needed strengthening, he hasn't looked like he was going to justify the fee for most of the time he has been here and we are extremely lucky that he's had this opportunity and that it may well both help him kick on and increase his value long term should we ever sell him.

I also think, putting the transfer fee to one side, that he has shown consistent improvement, that improvement seems to be gathering pace and that he is now showing most of the attributes of a competent championship striker who will continue to improve. I like him and genuinely think he has a good chance of reaching double figures in goals next season if he plays regularly, and competent championship strikers who get into double figures are worth a few million these days, young guys with international caps more so. What's he worth now in todays market? £5m? If he has a decent season and we sort his contract out then more? lots of ifs I know, but still. 

There seem to be a lot of people who are either 'he isn't worth what we paid so he's rubbish' or 'I think he's decent so lets write off the fee' - I don't think that being optimistic about him as a player going forward and angry about the money spent on him looking back are at all mutually exclusive. 

Ran for a bit, lost control of the ball, ran into the back of the defender, fell over. That's more like the Ben we know and tolerate

The Chile game plan seems to be get the ball on the right and cross/cut back to Brereton. 

There was a point there when he tracked back to dispossess Di Maria only for the ball to break to Messi. They were the three players in frame. I've not seen something like that without the make a wish Foundation being involved.

Christ he actually looks, you know... good

We need to workshop nicknames - I suggest the Chilean seabass

Playing centrally as a main striker, in response Argentina throw on Sergio Aguero presumably feeling a little out gunned

It's 1:1, Argentina have brought on Angel Di Maria in a very competitive game and I kid you not Ben Brereton looks to be coming on for Chile

Edit: we have ourselves a bone fide south American international footballer on the books

Assistant manager at the worst club in the A-League  is way too good for him. They've got four players I've sort of heard of (and Rudy Gestede, who doesn't deserve Kean).

1 hour ago, Ulrich said:

To be fair my best tally for AA is 43m after a season in the Premier league. He is a decent advanced forward in FM 😂👍

I got £38m from Newcastle for Brereton in fm20. They immediately got relegated on about 16 points.

So yeah, pretty realistic game all told.

We have the players but somehow we are so much worse than the sum of our parts

Awful.

That was Armstrongs chance

Ben gets shoulder barged ref having none of it, ten seconds later one of their players gets shoulder barged and free kick given. Whether or not it's in the box shouldn't be relevant, a foul is a foul

When Harvey Elliott becomes an England international experience of playing in this sort of team should stand him in good stead

Elliott threatening straight away

Twice in 30 seconds the midfielders in defence run forwards too far to try to make a challenge and then get caught out of position - first Johnson and then Buckley...

For the goal they worked the ball right through our team until it was about six of their players running at our back four, completely bypassed the midfield. When I saw their player shaping to shoot I was relieved, I thought it was a mistake as he was miles out and they had the overload. I thought we had got away with one. Don't really think our centre backs could have done anything else.

Shocking keeping.

that was... not good goalkeeping

Buckley looks good on the ball going forwards, but he isn't a fullback. Trybull looks tidy as a defensive player but doesn't offer that much else. Bell is awful but I can kind of see why we play him - he is stretching their defence simply by being there and being fast. Dack is neat but not up to speed yet. Dolan and Brereton running at their defenders look the biggest threat.

Bell is playing very far up the pitch so far, with Downing tucking in behind him to cover when he gets forward- it's an interesting set up.

I'm logged into the player and have the stream 'playing', at the moment it's just a title card with the game info and kick off time. I assume coverage will start nearer to kick off.

On 22/12/2020 at 08:52, RoversSG said:

LOL! Any links? Would love to read how that season pan out.

https://www.reddit.com/r/footballmanagergames/comments/jh5dyh/phil_jones_paris_saintgermain/