Much as I want Walker to stay, his value must be going up by the day. 17m for Harry Maguire creating the latest increase. I don't consider myself to be an expert on other clubs players and my opinion of Maguire can only be based on the brief highlights I have seen and the facts regarding his career. He has a one season of premier league experience, a few matches in the championship, 134 matches in league 1 and he has 1 England U21 cap. He appeared to play well for a team that was relegated and had the worst goal difference in the league (though the 7 they shipped on the last day without him didn't help that!). But getting back to my point if 17m is buying players with that level of experience and capability then currently Kyle is 4 times the player that Maguire is and therefore anyone wishing to make a bid should not expect much change from £70m.
Sam Wallace in The Telegraph continues to run the Eric Dier to United story. The price has gone up £10m but there's still no basis other than José wants to sign him. Eric Dier was commenting about next season's challenges just 2 days ago, I don't recall him saying anything about leaving? There's also the issue of Daniel Levy putting a ceiling on what we can fleece from clubs like United. You just let purchasers bid on and keep saying "No". Also, he's worth a lot more than £50m to us, no matter that United are briefing that it's too much. He covers a lot of positions and is only going to get better whilst the market is still flying upwards and nowhere near its peak as more Chinese money floods in. If Southampton are talking about £60-70m for VVD, then a more flexible English player isn't leaving Daniel Levy's club for £20m less. Selling players right now is for mugs. They'll be worth a lot more in a couple of years or so if they are going to to leave at all This story is still a load of bollocks. I would put money on Eric Dier staying put no matter how often The Telegraph run it. Plus it would break Dele's heart, unless they want him included for £40m?
I saw an odd comment yesterday that made two rather off claims about last summer's transfers, namely... i.) N'Koudou was a signing by the (since departed) transfer committee ii.) Sissoko was a player that Poch wanted It's the second item that sounds completely at odds with what Poch wants from his players: Poch has no time for lazy players, and yet there was at least thirty games worth of evidence (and that's me being polite) from the season prior to our signing him that Sissoko was a lazy player, so that simply does not add up. Far more likely is that Levy decided that we needed a "marquee" signing and Sissoko was it.
Man City bought the Aussie side for £7.5million and sold Mooy for £10million. For once City have done good business.
BBC Gossip states Mo's in for a possible deal to sign Chris Smalling as cover for centre back, thoughts please gentlemen as I'm not sure about this one.
He is bloody awful. He has all of the physical attributes to be top defender but seemingly none of the skills. How he gets games for England is a joke. Mauricio Pochettino has worked wonders with players like Mousa Dembele and our wing backs but this would be a bridge too far, even for him.
Another newspaper reports that we are in talks with Swansea regarding Alfie Mawson for a reported 15m, but the report also states that he could replace Toby! I will let you all pick the bones out of that!
Like farting in a lift in a multi-story car park - wrong on so many levels! Swansea want £40m for Siggy. Why sell Mawson for less than £25m? They stayed up, unlike Hull. They don't need the transfer money or to save on wages. Like us with United and Citeh, they can ask for the moon with an add-on of all the stars to come. Also, what about CCV? What about Ben Davies becoming Jan's stand in? Spending big on a central defender seems highly unlikely. Selling Toby Alderweireld is just nuts. Writing that should result in being sectioned.
We're being linked with Monaco right back Djibril Sidibe, which begs one obvious question: when will he be signing for City? Also it's worth mentioning that, eighteen months ago, Lamine Kone was so in demand that Sunderland slapped a hefty pricetag on him - but now he's available for somewhere in the region of £10m following their relegation, those clubs aren't anywhere near as interested.
Very concerned with the ETA on four players on the walking wounded list, especially both Lamela and Son together. Talk of Onomah perhaps fronting up in place of Dembele, but no Danny Rose-Peters to promote from the academy. Will be risky to ramp up transfer activity the later it becomes clear said players will not be starting XI ready for the beginning of the season.
While we do have Edwards, Shashoa and Tracey who can fill in for Lamela/Son, I very much doubt they'd hit the ground running as we'd need players in that position to do come the start of the season. On the face of it, we're likely to play 3421 at the start of the season out of necessity - because that's the only formation where we could expect the strongest xi to be fully fit.
