Spurs in shock Wiltshire signing! No, not that useless crock. Wiltshire. Sarah Wiltshere from Yeovil has joined Spurs Ladies. She's a Spurs fan, according to one of the comments. Must be a big day for her.
Walker to City looks done. £50m. Sounds immensely un-Levy like to be honest. Not happy. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/40598351
It's also being reported as £50m+ which makes it a world record fee for a defender. I'm reckoning that we have targets that we want to land and MP wants players in before September. As long as that's it on departures and we spend well and wisely, I can live with that. I want Pereira. I get Ligue 1 games on BT Sport and have seen him play for Nice and he's very impressive. Oh yes, and Aubameyang, who is available for £10m more than we just sold Kyle for. ****ing mental!
So how long before we see a headline about a Nice double deal for Pereira and Seri...which ignores the fact that Pereira ceased being a Nice player on 30th June?
I'm only willing to accept this transfer if Itchy Nachos is heading the other way (I'm fine with his £20-25m price tag), and we already have a replacement lined up. Periera as you say is my first choice and would leave the aforementioned money over to sign the aforementioned striker. Knowing us, we will arrive at the last day of the window without a replacement and Itchy will be a Leicester player.
I've seen it mentioned the deal is £45m + £5m in add-ons, which asks the question about how that £45m is divvied up: is it spread over a three or four years like the Bale fee (among others) or have we told them to pay upfront?
The highest figure I've heard is £50m rising to £53m with add ons. The lowest seems to be 45+5. Either way, Kyle is set to become the most expensive English player in football history. EDIT: However, when you consider that particular chart is propped up by Stones, Sterling and Carroll, perhaps it isn't such an accolade.
Walker OUT Pereira & Itchy IN Seems like good business and maintains a level of quality in one position whilst strengthening another. And can probably be pulled off with a bit of net profit for Levy to enjoy too.
Walker going isn't a surprise, and £50m is a lot of money, certainly for a defender. But it's a big loss, IMO, and I'm gutted to see him go. What concerns me more though, is how he is replaced. Trippier is a decent player who I personally rate highly and I'm more than happy to see him progress and play even more games next season. KWP looks good, but it's a lot to ask such a young player to come in and perform at the highest level with such little experience. Not many players can do a "Harry Winks". Therefore I think we need to sign someone, so KWP can be brought through gradually. But it's how we spend the money and on who. I can see us buying someone from abroad who turns out to be a huge flop and costs a lot of money. Our track record over the years doesn't give me much confidence that we'll get this right.
The obvious question, though, is whether Walker can make Stones or Otamendi look like competent centre backs. You get the feeling I already answered that question, but we'll see...
I'm upset that he's going, he's one of our longest serving players after all. Also it means that as ManC can't play their way into the PL title, they've got to buy it. And suddenly that makes PG a brilliant manger of course.
Sad to see Walker go, I would have preferred him to stay but I trust Poch, if Poch thinks we can become better without Walker then so be it. But why would we strengthen a rival though, that has annoyed me somewhat and these days is not like us at all. We better have a top quality replacement lined up because at the moment we have downgraded our right side while strengthening a rival in the process.
