Transfer Rumours transfer thread fact and fiction

It seems worse than it is for Llorente because he was the last one in a long list of failures. However, he was the only one who also had many of the attributes above that we got wrong, which could happen to any team. Rondon would only the second player of this type. I think we have much more chance of getting it right if we stick to this approach.

 

I never said it was likely! Hell, I don't even know if we're interested. I'm just dreaming like all fellow regular non-ITK folks are.

....but

Didn't Levy manage to wrangle Alderweireld from Southampton in a similar situation?

If anyone can, Levy can!

 

Probably not but I don’t see why.

Very good CB at a bargain price. Should be a no brainer. City tried signing him last summer and also in Jan for £20m-£25m but WBA wanted more.

 

Mahrez I’d take all day long, even though it’d result in one congested AM line-up lol. He’s a class player who makes **** happen.

Doubt Vardy would wanna play second fiddle while he’s top dog at Leicester unless he fancies joining a club in Europe. He’s on more money than Kane though so would be tough to prise away.

 

I’d have no beef with Rondon joining. My only worry is that he doesn’t offer anything too different to Kane so it’s not as if we can change things up if we need him to come on.

For me, Shane Long, 4 years later, still remains a good option for us in my opinion. Still has legs for pace and don’t stop chasing **** down, seems an ideal Poch player and yet is a completely different striker to Harry.

 

He's a twat who goes off and drinks himself into oblivion and steals a taxi when his side are supposed to be recuperating so they can come back and help their club fight relegation. Then he complains that people are being too harsh about the incident.

Honestly, if it weren't for that I'd agree with you though.

 

There's one obvious counter-argument to that: https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/harry-redknapp-warns-ledley-king-about-his-drinking-6803731.html

 

Sounds like a good night out tbh and could be a scene for “The Hangover 4”.

Doesn’t take away the fact he’s a pretty good CB with title winning experience.

 

You can’t compare Evans to King

 

True that he doesn’t offer anything different, but I guess it depends whether we plan to play any differently. This season has shown that we tend to usually only have a plan A!
For me, he’d be an upgrade on Llorente in those games where Kane needs a rest.

Biggest concern I have with Long, (and it’s quite an important issue) he ain’t scored many goals recently...

 

It’d be hard NOT to be an upgrade on Nando this season lol.

Yeah the Plan A stuff is annoying, Nando ain’t been great but I can’t help feeling if we’d had a Plan B with a long ball style it’d suited him much better.

In Long’s defence, have you seen that Soton side? It’s tragic lol. Besides, maybe if we signed a player with a poor record BEFORE joining us, it could then mean he’ll start finding form with us. In Soldado, Janssen and Nando’s cases, we’ve signed players who were in great patches of form but then hit dry spells the moment they put on a Spurs shirt. I’m clutching at straws here aren’t I?.

Seriously though, I do think the litte pikey would do well here.

 

It’s whether Poch would use a plan like that though. I don’t see him doing so.

Saints are better than West Brom... and look how well Rondón has played in that team!

 

Wouldn’t Ashley Barnes or (sticking with the Soton connection) Charle Austin be decent options? As with Long, they are the sort of forwards who let defenders (and in Austin’s case, keepers!) know they’re around. Barnes is flying at the moment so may not want a support role unfortunately.

 

To kill a little time, here's a short list of players who will be free agents this summer
(* denotes option of a further year)

Stefan de Vrij (Lazio, centre back)
Luke Shaw* (Man Utd, left back)
Milan Badelj* (Fiorentina, been a "target" since the Redknapp era)
HITC Favourite Max Meyer (Schalke, attacking mid)
Oguzhan Ozyakup (Besiktas, centre mid)
Keisuke Honda (Pachuca, attacking mid)
Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus, twat)
Domenico Criscito (Zenit, left back)
Georgi Schennikov (CSKA, left back)
Emre Can (Saltypool, defensive mid)
Marouane Fellaini (Man Utd, bantamweight class)
Mario Balotelli (Nice, complete and utter bumblefuck)
Bernard (Shakhtar, left wing)
Kwadwo Asamoah (Juventus, left back)
Ryan Fredericks (Fulham, right back)
Yohan Cabaye (Palace, centre mid)
Rob Huth (Leicester, Greco-Roman)
Hatem ben Arfa (PSG, internet meme)
Pontus Wernbloom (CSKA, defensive mid)
Facundo Ferreyra (Shakhtar, striker)
Abel Hernandez (Hull, striker)
Kevin Theophile-Catherine (St Etienne, who gives a **** where he plays, look at that name!!!)
Amin Younes (Ajax, left wing)
Jonathan Bamba (St Etienne, right wing)
Diego Reyes (Porto, centre back)
Zlatko Junuzovic (Werder Bremen, attacking mid)
Some overhyped gobshite (Arsenal, injured list)

 

Barnes probably fancies leading Burnley into Europe and Austin's injury issues haven't gone away. Can't see either, I'm afraid.

 

I'd take any of them.

 

Not really an argument, is it? We wouldn't be signing him and his team wasn't in the middle of a relegation scrap and I'm pretty sure he was injured too.

Heavy drinking every once in awhile doesn't bother me, what bothers me is doing it in those circumstances I laid out. To me it shows a player who has jacked it in and isn't taking football seriously. It's the exact opposite of what we need at the club. Townsend was hoofed out for a lot less.

 

QPR went down with a team full of title winners who were good players. Trouble is that doesn't mean a lot if they don't give a ****, like I'd argue Evans has shown, or if they simply were never that good to begin with.

As I said, if it weren't for that, I'd agree that for £4mill he's worth a punt. There's a good argument that we shouldn't be taking punts anymore, however. N'Jie and Nkoudou were punts, as was Fazio. Good players at a good price but they didn't do a damn thing to progress us. Can we still afford to get by saying to our most valued players, "look we didn't get the right players in this season but we'll do the same again this summer and hopefully turn up more bargains than duds"?

As the squad stands, I think we just need one quality attacker to put us right up there. Given that Toby is almost certainly going, whilst Dembele and Rose may also go we'll need to replace them too and not with teenagers that might need a couple of years, or decent players who are good value. Those kinds of players we can sign afterwards, if we still want them.

 

QPR went stupid though, they signed a load of cast offs who'd seen their best days yet expected them to immediately gel and propel them to the upper echelons of the Prem. They even paid Chris Samba £100k a week in January when £100k was reserved for world class players unlike now, that alone shows their stupidity in that period and it's no wonder they were relegated.

I wouldn't really class Evans as a punt, a punt would suggest you're taking a risk on an unknown quantity. The N' boys came with promising reputations and Fazio arrived after winning the Europa but none of them had Prem experience, they were punts that never worked out, unfortunately. Evans on the other hand is a proven CB in the Prem, with roughly a decade of experience and has a winning pedigree. Arsenal and City were rumoured to have made £20m bids for him last summer that were rejected, Utd have just recently been linked with bringing him back to Old Trafford, to me that shows the calibre of player he is and at £3m is without doubt the best summer bargain in my opinion.

For me CM should be the main priority. Dembele's done, unfortunately. He's no longer capable of playing to the level we need on a consistent basis, even if he stays with us we need someone to replace him in the XI. Then I think we should focus on improving the squad (CB, LB - if Rose goes, RB - I'd happily fob Aurier off, ST etc). I also think/ believe the club will go for a marquee signing, not sure who but I think it'd make a lot of sense to bring a big name in to go along with the new stadium.

 

One of the best pound for pound RB’s in the PL for the last few years is Séamus Coleman. 29 now and been at Goodison for 9 years, but still excellent after the bad break. Great attitude and PL experience. Definitely not a DL style purchase, but if Aurier is history I wonder if he would be interested in a couple of years at a decent club?