On another note, bit saddened that Troure has gone and for seemingly little money as well. He always looked one of the better loanees and did well in the Europa final. In a world where Everton have paid 30 million for a young goalkeeper from a championship club, the fee seems low. Its all been a bit sell sell sell of late as well. Just of the top of my head we've lost Oscar, Ivan, Begovic, Troure, Bamford, Solanke since Jan and heavy rumours that Matic, Costa and Ake will be going soon. Shouldn't we be building the squad not depleting it ahead of a C.L season?! Obviously we are in the market but still.....
I wouldn't be too sad about Matic going to United. He's a solid anchorman but that's pretty much it. They have a load of lumps in there already and for 40m i'm happy for him to go there.
I've never seen this Bakayoko play, what's he like? Seems we want Alex Sandro aswell and i don't think we could find much better than tbh, pricey though.... Traore deal was disappointing. The fee too was about half of what i expected. It looks to me like the loan deals we sanction are just to make a profit on them further down the line and buy more established players from other clubs. He did as well as anybody out on loan, astonishing we've sold him for that little. Ake looks likely to be heading to Bournemouth too so i genuinely don't think anybody else is going to get a look in if those two aren't.
Absolutely. Solanke gone for peanuts as well and he looked as well placed as any of our youth players to break in.
Nothing is given or fair in life. Nobody will give a darn about Matic's family etc. Been in similar situations and know how it plays out. Traore fee is low due to the buyback clause. Heard it is a lesson learned from Lukaku. They said same for KDB Wolfsburg deal LOL. Or Traore's fees was made by keeping the following in mind? Traore (Lyon) -> Lacazette (Goons) -> Sanchez (Chelsea) Not sure our personnel management has the acumen to pull this off. On the Flip, Sanchez - Aguero swap deal looks like a no brainer. But not sure whether it will happen.
I really cant see Arsenal selling us Sanchez. Seems we are happy to sell to rivals but not the other way around! They have short memories re Cech that's for sure.
I've no problem selling to rival clubs. If the manager doesn't want the player why should the player be forced to compromise?
Bear, look at the post above yours. We are being Eternal nice guys when it comes to our players and selling them to our rivals to accommodate player's wishes. Not the other way around.
I don't mind selling a player to a rival club. If we don't think he's worth keeping then what makes you think he's going to significantly improve the opposition. It's not like we are selling them Hazard or Costa. Matic is a very good player but honestly i'm not sure how much he will improve them and at 40m we'd be silly to refuse it
Ultimately the Manager builds the team. He has to manage the individual needs of every squad member and balance it against squad unity. As soon as you have twelve players who feel they are of equal stature, the former degrades the latter. Good players go through bad patches and other players surprise you with an apparent upturn in performance. Nothing is guaranteed. Every squad choice is a gamble and mangers paid the price of failure, yay even his Eminence St.Jose fell into darkness at Chelsea despite the prior demise of his acolyte Brother Villas Boas from the same problem, so sayeth the book of judgement chapters Tommy D, Ruddi and Baldy V. Tinkering is dangerous, best left to the insane or terminally charming.
Lukaku bid of 75m apparently accepted, from United! Interesting twist. Watch this space I guess. May be bollox and a senior Everton official has rejected the report since. But could mean Morata to United is off. Maybe we will be in for him now?? Cant help feel we are going to get screwed over trying to get a half decent deal for Costa from AM and the delay may cost us targets.
Cant see how as we don't need the money, personally Id make him rot the remainder of his contract in the third team.
I think we should let Costa know that he either goes now, to wherever, or if he insists its Atletico or nowhere, then he stays for one more season and goes to AM next summer. None of this "going in January" bollocks. He will be cup tied for the CL anyway, so his value will plummet, likewise any half decent striker we bought in to replace him in January (Morata, Griezemann, whoever) would also be cup tied in the CL. I have no problem him staying for another season, there will always be strikers. I wouldn't have minded Lukaku myself, but not for that price, and there are many on here who didn't want him at any price. Why is no one bidding on Sanchez? Why haven't we signed a CB to replace the 3 that have left the club? When is this Bakayoko deal that was agreed 2 weeks ago finally going to be complete? Because so far in this window we have shifted 3 defenders and a reserve keeper, and signed a new reserve keeper who isn't as good. That's the culmination of a months work in the transfer market?
It certainly looks poor on the face of it. We also lost 2 first team squad members in January in Ivan and Oscar. So we're not buying anyone and not trusting youth. At this rate we'll have a squad of about 4 players! Deals are getting difficult to get over the line clearly because clubs know p.l clubs have a lot of money. When you're being asked to pay 60 million for a full back then you know it's gone mental. Sanchez has seemingly priced himself out of a move as I think Arsenal would have let him go to Bayern to avoid losing him for nothing to us or city in June 2018. If his wage demands of 400k are accurate, that is also mental. Bakayoko and the roma guy will probably happen. Christensen should come back. Zouma needs to go on loan and I think Palace would be a great fit (given Sakho situation). The Costa situation is certainly problematic. I'd be happy for him to stay if his attitude is right but seems like he wants to go now so he can play for them from Jan. If so they need to pay up. He's easily a 50m player.
Looks like Juan Cuadrado aka John Square has bagged as 20M Euros from Juve effective July 1st due to a predefined clause in his loan contract. That is a big one. No wonder Juve are trying to mug us over Sandro. Anyway - we have north of 70M pounds from Sales in this past 2 months. We should push for our targets now otherwise Conte will be royally pissed off.
If Emenalo is not sacked after all these fcuk ups, god save us.. Top 10 will be difficult at this rate!!
No to Gibbs. Stan he's terrible. We might as well keep Alonso first choice than Gibbs. Maybe make gibbs backup. If we're going to pay for turd left backs i'd rather Morono as a wing back than gibbs. At least he won't be injured.