That's probably very close to what we can afford. We have very little chance of competing with Chelsea and the clubs directly below us. Liverpool are thinking of spending £60m+ on a central defender. Citeh are going to spend the fat end of £120m on full backs. Arsenal are going to have to spend and United want half our team and have limitless amounts of cash We'll concentrate on players others don't rate or haven't spotted and hope that we get it right. Also, the Academy lads might be ready to do a job as 'Forty' was last season. Any success is likely to be from hard work and unlikely to be from splashing cash in the transfer market.....again.
Foot Mercato are reporting we've agreed terms for Nice winger Vincent Marcel, who presumably has never heard of Clinton N'Jie or Georges-Kevin N'Koudou... On the subject things that happen to us every summer, the annual running of the Barca prospect has begun, and this year it's central midfielder Carles Alena, who every blog has long since been tripping over themselves to say is the next coming of Andres Iniesta...while I say that's someone getting in the way of Harry Winks' development while no doubt having a buy-back clause inserted into the deal.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not expecting us to start throwing around wads of cash like a jumped-up banker visiting Vegas for the first time. But by the same token, we need to make absolutely certain that the mistakes of the past few windows are not repeated. More of Wanyama, Dier, Toby, Son and less of the Njie, Janssen, GKN, Sissoko's of this world. We have the money - I reckon - to land one 'big name' signing then a couple of the £10-15m range we seem to excel in. That was certainly the model we followed last season, but fudged it badly by making Sissoko 'that' big name. He's big, he has a name, and the comparison ends precisely there. It may well be that we are waiting for silly season to quieten down for a bit, for all the big guns to pack up, leave town and take Raiola's travelling circus with them, which will consequently drive prices down as selling clubs will know that no-one on the bidding floor will be able to meet their rose-tinted hoped-for price tag. This might mean that much of our business will again be conducted after the season has kicked off. Would this be such a disaster? Not as much as it has been in the past. If we keep this group of players together, there are no glaringly obvious flaws at all in the starting XI and we should be just fine coping until NEW PLAYER has settled in. I tend to agree that - unlike our rivals- we aren't actively looking to improve on the starting line up. QED there is also no reason why we need to be spending fortunes of money this window. Cover at CB (if Wimmer leaves), cover at DM (if we persist with 3 at the back), more cover up front (this will need to be a big-bucks signing if Janssen leaves). The only area I strongly believe we need to open our inquiries at the £30-40m mark is a pacy AM. Currently Son is literally the only decent attacking player we have with pace. I don't think we can afford to spend a lump sum like that more than once per summer (unless the unthinkable happens and one of our starters leaves). So to spend it all on Barkley would be a waste of similar proportions to the Sissoko fiasco. Someone like Lemar makes much, much more sense as he genuinely fills a glaring flaw in the squad.
Looks like we can cross Goretzka off the list, with Kicker reporting he's more than happy to stay at Schalke next season and then head to Bayern for the princely sum of €0.00 On the subject of Bayern, they're also playing silly buggers with Douglas Costa, initially saying Juventus could sign him for €40m - then raising the fee to €50m when Juve matched that offer, which is frankly absurd considering Uli Hoeness publicly stated that Costa could do one this summer. In other words, make it two players to cross off the list...
Bayern are so far the dominant force in German football that they can do what the little angry Portuguese bloke has recognised that United can't do anymore - take players from anyone else in their league at their pleasure. Not only do they monopolize the best players but they tend to do it under freedom of contract paying bugger all to the clubs that have created the talent. Bizarrely the clubs affected by this do little to stop it and seem to accept it as a given and don't want to to destroy the beast. It has more than a look of sacrifices to the Morlocks. I guess it's a German 'rule thing' or because it makes their national side stronger? Anyway, getting top young German footballing talent out of Germany ain't looking to be easy.
It's hardly a recent phenomenon, either. While in recent years they've regularly helped themselves to Dortmund's key players (Gotze, Lewandowski, Hummels) or, this summer at least, rewarding Hoffenheim's qualifying for the Champions League by helping themselves to Sule and Rudy, it's worth remembering that fifteen years ago they cherry-picked Ballack and Ze Roberto from Leverkusen after Leverkusen bottled the Bundesliga, Champions League and German cup in the space of a month. I genuinely can't think of another league that operates as a conveyor belt for one team and one team only.
please log in to view this image I really should point out to whoever created this that their dates are messed up on a fair chunk of that list...
Marseille seem to have tweeted a video of players returning for preseason featuring the elusive Clinton N'Jie...all but confirming that we've sold him, apparently.
The annual Adrien Silva rumours are doing the rounds for the 3rd summer running. A signing I would've welcomed last year but this term I really think Winks should be given as many chances as possible to truly flourish.
Agree with pretty much all that but if for every two players we signed one turned out as well as Wanyama, Dier, Toby, Son and the other as badly as Njie, Janssen, GKN, Sissoko that would be a stunningly good result.
The Daily Star (yes, I know) have published a list of players who might be looking for a move for more regular football with the World Cup coming up next summer. There are many names that make all the sense in the world.....Wayne Rooney, Joe Hart, Jack Wilshire, Ross Barkley, Mamadou Sakho, Batshuayi, Fabregas, Kurt Zouma.......even Vincent Janssen which makes sense. They include one other Spurs player, as you would expect. There's a player who might expect to go to The World Cup at Spurs but hasn't been a first choice and may struggle because of it......yes, you've guessed it....... Kieran Trippier......... What do you mean it's not Moussaka Sissoko? How can that list not include Moussa Sissoko? **** me sideways! On his own he should be numbers 1 to 5, at least. Where are my blood pressure tablets?
The papers have decided that Pau Lopez isn't coming, so we're being linked with the following keepers instead... Carlos Abad (Tenerife, 22 years old, available for £3m) Pontus Dahlberg (IFK Gothenburg, 18 years old, available for £2.3m) It's also being reported that we've told Sporting what to do with their £26m valuation of Adrien Silva.
Wimmer's agent (and possessor of the world's most German name) Jurgen Werner is saying we want to keep hold of him. Here's the quote in full. "They still see him as a talent. If he remains, he will be a regular in two years' time...At the age of 24, Wimmer should have outgrown the definition of talent, but his position in England would be different. The top clubs in the Premier League are all the more reputable, and John Stones is the only regular under 25." He sort of lost it at the end there by simultaneously forgetting that Eric Dier exists while also describing John Stones as a centre back. Then again, it could be worse, it;s not like his agent posted this on Instagram...
