If we shift Janssen and Nkoudou, which is now looking likely, I’d say we’ve got much more chance of a deadline day deal. We know levy likes to make wages available and shift players before he signs new ones.
A day or two ago it was reported that Leicester were leading the chase for Tielemans as they were offering Adrien Silva to go the other way. If sending GKN Monaco's way aids us, that begs the question: Adrien Silva can't be that bad, can he? Meanwhile, with Neymar out for ten weeks, PSG need a striker. Don't suppose we can send Janssen their way? Or maybe threaten to send him their way if Rabiot doesn't stop being a twat?
Would now be a bad time to mention that, if the fixture list managed it, he could get down to just 114 miles from the club if PSG were playing Caen and we were playing Brighton?
Along with other reports of Poch eventually pulling the plug on deals for Grealish, Barkley and Sigurdsson in the past, it now seems there's another to add to the list: Does make me wonder, just what, or should I say who, does Poch actually want? The only one of those I wouldn't have taken would've been Gylfi as I don't think he'd suit our style. Grealish and Barkley wouldn't have been bad additions to strengthen our CM and Malcom seems a pretty tasty player with bags of potential.
I think Gylfi suits the style myself but I doubt we could offer him the game time he would want, he’d be backup. I’m not a Barkley fan. And I don’t think he’s enamoured with the idea of loaning young players in, he wants to buy them and develop them, not do other coaches’ jobs for them. Grealish I would be more surprised if he vetoed as you might think that he’d be right up our street.
Well I'm convincing myself Poch is lining up a blockbuster signing in the summer and wants the funds to go on that...can't think of anything else as to why Poch would not want us to deepen our squad with decent potential quality at a time when we could do with depth.
I know that Barkley was initially injured when we first went in for him so maybe that played a part but when Chelsea signed him in Jan, I think he was pretty much fit or nearly fit to play. I'm not saying Barkley is brilliant but on the basis of what Poch can do with young, English and skilful players, I always feel they'd be a good signing (hence why I'm very much pro-Grealish as well). Gylfi is a class player but I don't think he has the work rate to cover the ground like our AMs do, a few on here have claimed Eriksen is lazy in the past yet he often covers the most ground on the pitch along with Dele and the full backs and I don't think that's something Gylfi could do in order to keep himself active in our play, could be wrong. Usually I'd agree RE loaning in a player but while there's question marks over our finances and the fact our squad is battered with injuries, a loan wouldn't seem such a bad idea as a short term option. It saves us splashing £30m+ yet provides an instant impact (or at least hopefully an impact!).
You've been drinking too much of what I have, because that's what I was saying/ expecting last summer
Poch's words about him wanting to be with us till the end has lightened me up a bit I dont really care if we sign anyone now...I just didn't want to lose the main man
Yeah I'm not expecting anything now anyway. A shame as I do really think we need strengthening but hopefully some more players can return and get us over the line. Must secure top four for financial reasons, thankfully it's in our hands. And what I'd give for a Pool collapse.
It didnt seem likely we’d do any business even before last nights game. Now we’re 7 points clear of 4th, I think it’s even more likely that the club will look at that cushion and feel we’ve got enough to hold out for the rest of the season. But I do get where @humanbeingincroydon is coming from regarding what/who Poch wants in terms of a player. On the face of it, it seems that there’s some good options out there which tick a fair few boxes, but Poch doesn’t seem to want any of them. So who do we want?
We need players better than the ones we have, not just squad fillers. There are not many of those outside the top ten clubs in Europe. Signing Barcelona rejects won't close the gap to Barcelona
