I've said it before, I believe the board think the squad is good enough already, and for them to change that view will be to admit they have ****ed up in the last few windows. A couple of big names will depart and we'll replace from the bargain bins by the checkouts.
Also, Morgan was brilliant in his last season. Possibly his best year with us. VVD has been alright but certainly not as good as least year. Worth pointing out that could be due to the injury. Either way, it wasn't right to sell in the summer but it is now.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2017/12/25/man-city-closing-60m-deal-virgil-van-dijk/ Would tie in with what I heard about City wanting him bad and had contacted us
Is it me, or is this story all a little odd? I’ve not watched too much of Dembele but happily accept lots of people raving about him.... yet £18m seems low and Brighton (with all due respect) seems too low a team, as did we last summer. I thought lots of top, top clubs were sniffing at him. Have some fans got his ability wrong, or have the Celtic board lost the plot?
Celtic gets sell-ons rather consistently (they're going to get a chunk of the VVD transfer, reportedly 10%), so it probably makes more sense for them to sell to a club where he'll get another move in the next few years. 18m is still a lot of money for them...heck, it'd be about 30% of their revenue last fiscal year. Beyond that, Dembele will walk into the Brighton squad, much as we often got players who the big clubs sniffed around but didn't pull the trigger. Those clubs would rather spend 40m on someone who has demonstrated that they can compete in the PL than 20m on someone who hasn't. Particularly the case given that he isn't considered home grown, so they'd have to burn a roster spot on him, something which is a precious commodity for some of the big clubs. Why we're not in for him, I haven't the foggiest idea. That's the sort of transfer we ought to be all over.
I had little ones around me yesterday, opening their presents, when I read the story on my phone. I got as far as exclaiming "what the". If we're not in for him, then sadly I can't say that it surprises me. Not anymore.
Surely we'd be in for him at that sort of price and with that sort of competition. He's only 21! His price will double/triple with one good season in the PL. That's got to get Les excited.
The papers have reported that Watford are interested in Shaw & Walcott. Saints are the bookies favourite for Walcott, now at 11/10 on Sky Bet
I would have thought £100,000 +......I am sure Laces said a while ago there was some truth in Walcott being open to offers .....but what's our top earner on? I have heard Fraz is on £90,000. But maybe(clutching at straws) he wants to go to Russia next year and needs to be playing/scoring to be in with a chance of being picked.
And in any event, whether he is or isn't on huge wages, he surely wants first team football? And a shot at a World Cup place? (It seems like playing three games, and scoring a goal, is enough to get Gareth interested these days). Plus, it doesn't have to be a permanent move. It could be a loan somewhere until the end of the season, with Arsenal covering some of his wages still. Yes that would then leave Arsenal owning a Walcott with 12 months left on his contract, rather than a Walcott with 18 months left, but Arsenal have proved in recent times that they're hardly bothered by players getting close to the end of their contracts. My gut is that he'll stay local, or he'll come back home to us. Looking in from the outside, both would seem to make sense from a family etc point of view.
