Whoever we buy this far in will need the standard month or so to 'settle in' and past scenarios suggest it's not a month it's usually a fair few, if lucky. By then history also suggests we will already be playing catch up. Great planning in a season where we are going into our new stadium. I also struggle to buy into this theory that Levy has been too busy putting his all into the stadium that he forgot or didn't have the time to sort transfers too. So much so that he forgot that we are a football club and the team is the priority? Personally I couldn't give a **** about what kind of cheeses we can sell whilst sipping on some Champers and ogling at the players through the glass tunnel. Sort the team out Levy...you've got 5 days
I agree anyone we sign are gonna take time to get up to speed fitness wise to get to the level poch requires and that's time we don't have with our midfield injury problems at the moment. Lewis Cook of Bournemouth has been linked,he seems a good player but will he make the same impact dele made when he hit the ground running, who knows? .The one thing I am baffled about is what poch said last season about getting our transfer business done early just hasn't happened for some reason.Anyway as I have said before we have a very good side capable of finishing in the top 4 again and maybe a couple of our youngsters are gonna be trusted to step up when needed, I'd rather that than making another last minute panic buy on a sissoko scale.Onwards and upwards in poch I trust .
I have never rated smalling and don't even get me started on bloody Jones wouldn't want him if he was free and played for nothing.
In Poch I trust too...I just find it hard to believe that he isn't wanting to improve the team. Last season after we lost the semi final Dele was distraught, I still remember his sentiment with words to the affect of 'we can't carry on like this' after once again failing at the crucial stage That was telling for me...the team needs first team options. It's Levy though...he's not eager enough. What was Bruce saying a few days ago about Levy's embarrassing offer for Grealish? At the same time he wants full whack back for whoever we sell. Levy is taking the piss.
Calm down calm down it ain't over till its over the transfer deadline still has time to surprise us (HOPEFULLY )
I agree. And as much as I strongly disagree agree with the somewhat delusional 'Levy out' brigade, the ones that suggest that our squad is now 'good enough' are overly optimistic. If we had the same squad as two seasons back, maybe. Unbeaten at home all season. Thing is, some of those players are now slower and seemingly more injury prone than then, and annoyingly our 'best' CM paring of Dembele and Wanyama are amongst those that are no longer operating at peak and reliable levels. It reminds me of when Pochettino switched the core of Mason and Bentaleb after a relatively successful stretch of them forming the centre of the team. I fear we need a whole new CM pairing to compete at the level required. Plus, Toby is as good as gone. Sanchez, as good as he is, is not quite as refined, yet. The Walker / Trippier RB pairing was much stronger than the Trippier/ Aurier pairing too. On top of CM and defender stuff, we are hanging on to similar form by a thread of non-injury to Kane / Eriksen and by the poor form of other teams. Arsenal / Chelsea. The same luck may not be there to ride again this season, I'm sure Pochettino and Levy are aware of this.
Something tells me that there is a specific hold up that may have something to do with the stadium sponsorship deal not succeeding in the way Levy had planned. Another, possibly more likely, may be that they fully expected, ad need to, to get rid of certain players first. Seems nobody is buying from us either. As an aside, I sometimes think that there is an unspoken mini-conspiracy amongst certain clubs to maintain the status quo of the 'traditional' top four (five because they had no choice with City). These clubs have no problem strengthening each other if the price is right, but heaven forbid we become stronger and upset the order of things. I think Cook would be a very good signing, along with Brozovic.
I'm thinking our plans have been scuppered by various cockups along the way, for example... Ndombele: thought we could gazump Lyon like we did when we signed Toby from under Southampton's noses, but it appears they triggered the option to make his loan permanent ages ago Grealish: another club decided they would be the one to beat Levy, regardless of how badly it can go wrong (see also: West Brom & Saido Berahino) De Ligt: became problematic the moment Mino "****" Raiola started sniffing around, even though he isn't even De Ligt's agent Pavard: being a starter in the French World Cup team rather than a reserve strengthened Stuttgart's hand, now Bayern are sniffing around This still begs various questions, though, not least why we didn't just trigger Seri's release clause the moment it became obvious Ndombele would become a saga at best or a waste of time at worst
I think a lot will depend on who we sign to determine how long they'll need to settle. A good few of the guys we've been linked with are domestic based players - Grealish, Cook, Martial, Zaha etc. If any of those were to join, they could probably play within a week or so. Ones from abroad may need a bit more time, depending on their quality/ fitness/ language skills etc.
Prediction...... In: Grealish Out: Sissoko I think we'll keep Toby/Sissoko/Llorente etc due to not being able to get the players we wanted.
