Right Back Watch The Standard are reporting that we're once again looking at Ricardo Pereira, with a fee of £30m being bandied about Just a reminder that we could've signed him for £15m a couple of seasons ago, but decided that spending significantly more than that on Aurier was a better option...
It makes me sick to the stomach looking at Leicester. Maddison, Tielemans, Ricardo...all having superb seasons, all heavily linked with us. Remind me why we didn't buy them?
Maddison I understand as we have Eriksen (this was pre-slump of course), so him joining us wouldn’t have made sense when Leicester were guaranteeing a starting spot, plus Maddison did chat **** about us years ago (not that it would’ve really mattered tbh). Poch supposedly didn’t want Tielemans (LOL) and well, he and/ or Levy picked Aurier over Pereira - that went well.
Because for years, a lot of people at Spurs thought new signings weren’t needed and allowed the current squad to get old and stale with no competition.
So... Out: Aurier, Toby, Wanyama, Winks, Dier, Eriksen, Lamela. In: Aarons, Ake, Koulibaly, Grealish, Soumare, Fernandes. Yeah that seems pretty simple to me
We are stuck with Toby...if the figure of £150,000 per week are true then double Aurier refuses to leave...did that in the summer along with Rose and Wanyama. All three should be told they will NEVER play for us again so they best find another team. Think Rose and Aurier will go at least. Ditto Eriksen. There are good players in Winks, Dier and Lamela but maybe time has run out for them with us. Ake has a £14m Chelsea by back clause according to some press bloke on talksport (before xmas) so can't see us getting him. Got to admit that Grealish has really impressed me but do not see him leaving Villa before the summer tbh. I have no idea about the others
Wait. Hold on a minute I need to sit down. Now I need to take a breath. One more breath. DID YOU JUST PRAISE SUPER JACK?!?! THIS IS THE GREATEST DAY OF MY LIFE As I said on the match thread, we've done an Ozil with Toby. No one wanted them after running their contracts down in the hope of securing a move elsewhere and then somehow managed to con their clubs by more than tripling their wages. It's now becoming clear as day as to why no one offered the £25m fee, he ain't worth 25p at the moment. Agree about Aurier/ Rose, Vic seems to be have been told that already though (barring the Bayern cameo - which made no ****ing sense). Winks is poor and always has been. Dier is now poor. Lamela is poor on the basis he's always injured, there's a real player in there but there's a stat showing he's missed something like two and a half to three seasons worth of football here, unbelievable. Can't see Ake's release clause to Chelsea being just £14m as they sold him for £20m+. I do think they have an X amount they can re-sign him for but not that low. Been a fan of his for a while now though, hopefully he hates Chelsea for letting him go and begs the Cherries to join us in order to spite Chelsea... Let me cling to that hope!
Aarons - Unproven Ake - Average Koulibaly - could be good but the pace of PL football compared to what he’s used to in Italy could expose him Grealish - Won’t leave Villa before the summer and will be expensive Soumare- Like Koulibaly, no experience of PL and could struggle or take time to adjust Fernandes- Need a DM rather than a creative type as Mourinho doesn’t play the creative players anyway
Ake definitely ain’t average. I’d take a bloke in the crowd over Aurier, so an unproven promising young player is more than welcome. There aren’t any proven DMs out there really other than ones who’ll cost far too much, unless you go for has-beens like Matic who are likely just as useful nowadays as an unproven DM like Soumare. Tanguy, Gio and Eriksen started against Norwich and all three featured today so I think Bruno would definitely get game time, especially due to the Portuguese factor.
Surely the main reason for not buying Bruno Fernandes is that he’d be hella expensive and there are 4/5 positions in the starting XI that need sorting before we think about attacking midfielders... Over the next two windows both FBs, DM, CB and probably GK need prioritising over attacking areas, depending on if we lose anyone of course. Not that I expect us to do any real business this month, in all honesty
The defence is definitely the priority right now but if the chance to sign Bruno arises we must take it. Our attack is so inconsistent at the moment (whilst our defence is consistently ****) and I think it largely plays down to Eriksen. Over the years we can find posts on here saying when he's had a bad game the team has a bad game and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that his downfall this season has seen some of the worst football this team has played since AVB. Bruno isn’t as good as him but he offers a similar style of goals AND creativity and we really need that going forward in my opinion.
A couple of examples of various outlets having remarkably different takes on our approach to January The Athletic says that Steptonho is looking to streamline the squad and get an Eriksen replacement Sky Sports are saying half a defence will be signed, namely a left-footed CB and a right back, plus another winger/striker similar to Sonny ...the fact that neither of them even mentioned a DM says it all, doesn't it?
Exodus Watch Fabrizio Romano is reporting that we'll gladly let Eriksen join Inter if they pay £17m upfront Exodus Watch II Napoli and Ajax have both been linked with a January move for Verts Lower League Rando Watch West Brom right back Nathan Ferguson is once again being linked, and since he was initially being touted for a move back in November I guess this could (remember, I said could) imply an actual move rather than the usual tactic of an agent using our name to get a Championship prospect a bumper contract Take a drink Player We Don't Need Watch FootMercato are reporting that we're in discussions with Atletico Madrid to sign Thomas Lemar, because of all the things our team desperately needs right now it's a pacy left winger...
Two conflicting pieces on Sky today regarding Jan. One says he's about to be used in a player plus cash deal for Koulibaly. The other says he's on the brink of signing a new contract. Who pays these people? And the Lemar rumours won't go away. Add to that suggestions that Maureen doesn't consider Lamela a part of his long term plans due to his injury record, and we might well be looking for an attacking player with more than 36 minutes at Leeds under his belt.
There’s seemingly a lot talk today about CBs. The Jan plus cash for Koulibaly that you speak of plus the new deal. Jose seems to think Tanganga will sign a new contract. Bayern supposedly offered us the chance to sign Boateng. Ake’s need keeps popping up. On the non-cb side of things, Aarons for £30m has been something the mail have been running with, which on paper seems fine, except we’d apparently send him back to Norwich for the rest of the season...
Jan and Toby are both past their best but Toby has signed a new deal so swapping Jan plus cash for a new fb seems logical, then get Tanganga to sign a new deal and centre back looks ok for a while. Max Aarons for £30million would be good but I’d prefer it if he came ASAP and Spurs could maybe sell KWP on loan there for rest of the season as part of the deal.
Today's random link: Gedson Fernandes, who was linked to us back in the summer but had a prohibitive fee slapped on him, but now Benfica are willing to sell because he's got the hump after they decided that he isn;t a central midfielder but a right winger and then dropped him because he's not very good on the right wing Let's be honest, he couldn't be worse...
