Iborra is apparently in Spain right now - the deal with Villareal is apparently a loan with a fee and a compulsory purchase at the end of the season. Rumour is King could be staying - is a lot of interest in him but seems like it is for a move at the end of the season. Also apparently Sporting are being tight with Silva so we have told them to sod off - they don't want to pay a loan fee or all of his wages even though he has agreed to cut his wages.
Good if all that did happen! Would free up opportunity to bring in a central mid with the skill set we are missing. We won’t sign anyone in that position with all the above still at the club
We aren't linked with any CMs though and very likely won't be bringing in anyone in the window at all. Lets see if any of the reserves are in the squad to face Newport...
I’ve been clear I’d rather Silva get another chance and Iborra has never let us down. However if Puel isn’t planning on using them they’re wasted. I’m not sure not being linked with any is necessarily a factor. We always used to do our business quietly and we seem to be better at that again recently. Some of our recent signings have been completely very quickly with not much mention beforehand
We are actually linked with one CM - Elneny from Arsenal. I think the last player that I can remember that came in under the radar for me was Leonardo Ulloa - from what I remember, we were linked with him one day and he came in a couple of days later. Every other player since wasn't really a surprise - we do our due diligence with scouting and the like which is where the rumour mongers get their stories.
Even in the summer just gone I’d say Ward, Ghezzal, Soyuncu and Benkovic were all under the radar. Only really Maddison and Ricardo I can think were time in the waiting. Oh and Evans. Summer before I’m sure Maguire and Iborra just happened pretty quickly? Oh and no to Elneny
You are right we did - I remember making a post lamenting how much we paid for him. Guess then there hasn't been any real surprises for along while.
We made crazy bids for strikers that year. Deeney, McGoldrick and Ulloa would have cost us £10M each had all bids been accepted Obviously we wouldnt have signed them all
I remember making posts about all of them in this thread before their transfers were in place - I remember being dismissive of us being linked with Liverpool's third choice keeper when we had the mighty Jakupovic already and calling Soyuncu an Arsenal target and Benkovic a Celtic target. We were linked with Maguire for a while - he was our second choice behind Michael Keane who ended up at Everton for twice as much. We got the better of that deal imo. We were linked with Iborra a while as well - I remember being excited as he seemed to be versatile enough to fill all of the gaps where we needed plugging only to find out he was just a DM in disguise.
Of the current squad I think Simpson came out the blue. We found out we was in talks and he signed the next day Im this day and age nothing is going to happen without hearing something prior to it being done
We were signing a lot of ex Man Utd youngsters then - can't remember who it was who was tight with their academy but wish he was still around.
Pretty sure it was Steve Walsh wasn’t it? From memory it was because we kept loaning them and doing good things with them and then we just signed them all. James, De Laet, Lingard, Cleverley, Keane. Have I missed any?
Al-Hilal in Saudi Arabia are after Slimani - they are managed by his old Sporting manager and have more money then sense. Forest are interested in taking Benalouane off our hands - they have bugger all money so can offer nothing but I'd still bite their hands off.
I felt they were all relatively out the blue. Could just be in comparison to the previous summer when we were in the headlines and maybe I just wasn’t showing as much interest as normal so they seemed more out the blue to me I guess
I was working in a crappy job glued to a desk so did spend a lot of my time trawling through the rumours. Is nice to be surprised and I hope that there is a good one this window and none of the Chilwell to Mancity, Maddison to Man Utd and Vardy to Arsenal that I am reading...
