De Ligt claims that neither he nor his agent are aware of Spurs' interest in him, which definitely can't be linked with Barca being linked with him over the weekend. Best start working on the Kim Min-jae chants then...
Another day another South Korean being linked with us, this time Taurine FC Salzburg striker Hwang Hee-Chan Why does it sound like I don't believe it? :::EDIT::: FootballDotLondon have done their bit for journalistic integrity by posting an article linking us with Kieran Tierney, and their source from the article is BetStars Director of Trading Ian Marmion - and would you believe it, the article then goes on to list the odds for which club Tierney will join this summer. Unbefuckinglievable.
So this report from Voetball Primeur (via Google translate) makes for reading that's depressing and irritating in equal measure - while also going a hell of a long way to explaining De Ligt's claims that neither he nor his agent were aware in any Spurs interest Mino "****" Raiola represents all the interests of Justin Kluivert. Now at Ajax another top talent, Matthijs de Ligt, is well on his way to the stable of one of the most powerful players in the world. It puts pressure on technical director Marc Overmars as much as possible this summer. Matthijs de Ligt has been accompanied for years by his father, together with former footballer and trusted man Barry Hulshoff. But since the young defender has been in the spotlight of just about every top club in the world, with all the staggering amounts and interests that come with it, Mino "****" Raiola has also joined the talks. The Italian Dutchman is not yet officially his agent, but the 50-year-old "****" Raiola helps De Ligt & co in the big transfer game, as he has done for some time at Justin Kluivert, that other great talent of Ajax. For many Amsterdam supporters, it is a cause of great concern: "****" Raiola has the name players 'as quickly and as expensive as possible'. Kluivert has been waiting for months with his contract extension, to the frustration of technical director Marc Overmars. Around De Ligt it is relatively quieter, his contract continues until 2021, but the chance that the defender makes a mega transfer this summer is just as big, if not bigger. According to insiders, it is certainly not a foregone conclusion that Kluivert actually leaves. For his sporting development it would also be better to stay, many people think from his environment. But "****" Raiola plays the business game above all in his own characteristic way: as hard as possible. The best possible deal for the player and himself, that's what "****" Raiola is all about, even in the case of a contract extension. For example, the players agent screens with an offer for Kluivert from Manchester United, for example, for tens of millions of euros. With that, he simply puts Ajax in front of the block. Either the Amsterdam club compensates for that offer with salary and signage for Kluivert, or the footballer leaves. If Kluivert continues to renew his contract, he will become Ajax's best-earning player with his 19 years of age, whether through regular salary, or via the detour of a bonus or sign-up committee. This is a big dilemma for the club. Do you set the proportions within the salary house of your selection central to your policy, or the value that a player represents on the market? And are you prepared to invest millions to keep your best players on board, or do you spend that money on the transfer market, with all the uncertainties that come with it? "****" Raiola knows all the tricks to maximize the pressure on Ajax. He knows of course that star player Hakim Ziyech almost certainly leaves, so that Ajax can lose just three key players. Moreover, there is still the case Frenkie de Jong. This season extended his contract with Ajax this season, which paid a generous commission to De Jong's agent Ali Dursun. The Amsterdam club already paid a lot of money to agents last year, according to the official annual figures no less than 9.6 million euros. Much more than competitors like PSV and Feyenoord, and more than half of the total estimated by the KNVB in the Dutch league. Taking advantage Of course "****" Raiola also knows all that, as every agent knows the financial position of Ajax, and tries to profit as much as possible. The Dutch Italian is not like the committees themselves, with an agent charging a percentage of a salary. "****" Raiola earns his money largely from (large) transfers, whereby he stipulates a lucrative resale percentage or has already enforced it. That is where he hits his big strokes. In this respect, De Ligt is an even more interesting fish for "****" Raiola than Kluivert. The defender does not so much have an offer from one or two major clubs; De Ligt can choose from almost every major club in Europe, in every top competition. In addition, a good defender usually adapts more easily than a young winger like Kluivert. Within Ajax and beyond, hardly anyone doubts that De Ligt saves in the European top. That offers Raiola the perfect cards in the poker game. Formally, Hulshoff is the personal coach of the footballer, but "****" Raiola irrevocably sets out as soon as it comes to dealing and welling in the game with the European top. Ironically, Ajax does benefit from "****" Raiola in that area. Not sporting, financially, because when Kluivert and De Ligt leave, they only do that for the main prize. I may have embellished a little...
Rumours surfacing we are back in for Martial, which probably means some kind of player swap deal involving Toby and /or Rose unfortunately. I`d love Martial though, he is quick, can play up front and out wide, and has bags of untapped potential which is being held back by Maureen. Just the kind of player we could do with, he has PL experience, Poch is apparently a huge fan and I`d back him to unlock Martial`s potential.
What, you're telling me you don't believe Don Balon's statement, RCL? I mean, I've just gone and gotten a shirt with Bale on the back, mate. ****ing buzzing I am! BALE! BALE! BALE! BALE! BALE!
Oh, please let this be true..... but seems unlikely..... Fulham will surely not be negotiating until after the Playoffs, surely? It did occur to me that our pursuit of Sessegnon somewhat flies in the face of our expectations as to how our own players react to approaches from other supposedly ‘bigger’ clubs...... he’s a young lad, happy at a club who may yet make the PL this year. He already earns more money than he can realistically spend and if promotion does happen then his wages and endorsements will rise accordingly.
I usually throw salt over transfer links these days but it's only because Paris United seem a small but reliable source that makes it interesting. They seem to be a PSG-related ITK/ Media source and the full article says that PSG have lost out to us in the race to sign him. The fact they got the Aurier deal out there before anyone suggests it could be pretty accurate. Fingers crossed, phenomenal talent.
I read this as : 1. PSG have been in for him, and have been rejected. 2. The claim is the player rejected them in favour of Spurs. Based on the source , IMHO : - #1 is definitely true. - #2 is speculation on their part (he could be staying or going to a PL club, depending on the Fulham promotion campaign etc)
It's being reported that we've made an offer for Napoli midfielder Amadou Diawara - but it has to be said that while reports assume he'll be a like-for-like Dembele replacement, it's hard to ignore the fact he's only started twelve games in all competitions this season (compared to sixteen last season) and is usually used to shut down matches in the last fifteen minutes or so and, more importantly, his game is nothing like Dembele's - it's far closer to Wanyama's.
De Ligt Watch He's told Ajax he wants to leave...which happens to coincide with Mino "****" Raiola advising him in spite of the fact that Mino "****" Raiola is not De Ligt's agent. Place your bets which club with a bottomless reserve of cash will be paying the agent's fee (and, oh yeah, they'll also be concluding the remarkably unimportant task of signing De Ligt...)
As I speak, the Plan B transfer plans are quietly being fed into a shredder. Well we wouldn't want Chelsea or Arsenal borrowing it...
Levy should to do the transfer targets equivalent of that WWII dead man with the fake Allied invasion plans cuffed to his arm. Hopefully either/both of them will take the bait, buy the dross on inflated wages funded from their EL campaign.
Long-running rumours of our interest in Kieran Tierney have gestated into rumours that we're preparing a £20m bid for him. Oh great, we can look forward to eighteen months of "How's Tierney doing?" posts... In other random rumours, the oh-so-reliable CalcioMercato are suggesting we're taking another look at Dinamo Zagreb centre back Filip Benkovic, who we were linked with last summer when our attempts to sign Juan Foyth were veering towards the bloody ridiculous. While I'm taking the rumours with a couple of handfuls of salt (mainly from the dried tears of Chav fans after their attempts to put the pressure on failed...) Benkovic does sound like a good long-term signing as he's quite similar in style of play to Verts and has the physical attributes to deal with the Premier League, plus he's got a couple of seasons worth of first team experience (including matches against Juve, Sevilla and Lyon in last season's Champions League) - although if we were to sign him, the odds are he'd be mainly playing cup games next season alongside Foyth and/or CCV. CalcioMercato are also linking us to Ajax midfielder Hakim Ziyech...although Ctrl + F will soon alert you to the fact he's mentioned in the article about Mino "****" Raiola I posted a little further up the page.
As one of Hamburg or Wolfsburg will be join Koln in the 2. Bundesliga next season, it's once again time to look at the best pickings of their respective squads Hamburg Jann-Fiete Arp (striker, been linked with him all season) Kyriakos Papadopoulos (centre back, 29 Greece caps, has top level experience with Schalke and Leverkusen) Alen Halilovic (attacking midfielder, 9 Croatia caps, linked with us before signing with Barca, Las Palmas won't make his loan permanent as they were relegated too) Lewis Holtby (attacking midfielder, seller of a million Turfies) Bobby Wood (striker, 37 USofA caps, pretty sure he's been linked with us in the past) Wolfsburg Riechedly Bazoer (central midfield, 6 Holland caps, linked with him a couple of seasons back) Jeffrey Bruma (centre back, 25 Holland caps, would piss off the Chavs immensely if he was a defensive rock for us) Yunus Malli (attacking midfielder, 11 Turkey caps, one of the 632 Turkish players linked with us by the Turkish press in the last two seasons) Ismael Azzaoui (winger, chose to sign professional terms with Wolfsburg instead of us)
