Completely forgot about him, in hindsight I think he made a mistake by not playing on for Bournemouth for the rest of the season
Vulture Watch I was going to leave this one for this summer as the parameters of teams being completely and utterly ****ed are very different to the usual combination of teams being relegated/failing to achieve promotion of previous years...but holy **** has Peter Lim turned Valencia into a pile of burning wreckage in a hurry So with that in mind... Geoffrey Kondogbia (27yo, central midfield, Central African Republic via France) Perennially linked with us since LAdPCeV-B's time as manager - and that is a long time - is often spoken of as a DM, but he's better served as a CM as his style is quite similar to Sissoko's but with one key difference: Sissoko is a doer and not much of a thinker with the ball, while Kondogbia is more rounded in that regard Dani Parejo (31yo, central midfield, Spain) The fact that Valencia are willing to let him go genuinely surprises me given he's not only their captain, but he's their midfield engine room in much the same way that Modric is for Los Ladrones, and even if he likely only has a couple of years of elite football in him the thought of having someone who can both dictate play and lead the team dropped into our midfield has a hell of a lot of upside to it Mouctar Diakhaby (23yo, centre back, France U21) While at the start of the season he was third-choice CB behind Gabriel Paulista and Ezequiel Garay, with Garay cancelling his contract in February due to his ACL injury he's stepped into the team and certainly done shown that he's capable, and he's certainly a handful in the air which is something our defence has been missing for a while Lee Kang-in (19yo, attacking midfield, South Korea) While it does need to be said that he's rarely featured for Valencia, with 18 games since arriving there in January 2019, he has a ton of potential that some good coaching could bring out of him - although I should probably point out that his name isn't on the fire sale list...yet Kevin Gameiro (33yo, centre forward, France) We've been crying out for Harry Kane to have a true understudy for a good few years by now, and we know that the ubermensch likes a forward who is a handful in the air, and that's exactly what Gameiro can be for a year or two. Admittedly his scoring rate isn't that great, but if he can create space for others to score then that's exactly what we need Francis Coquelin (29yo, defensive midfield, Madagascar via France U21) A DM with a decade's worth of experience of playing in England, you say? I wonder if there would be any other bonuses in signing him, for example royally pissing off supporters of a team that's all mouth and no trousers...?
Spurs and Saints in discussion over the transfers of KWP and Hojbjerg but apparently another PL side have met his asking price of £35million. I think the player wants to join Spurs though. I’ll be very very surprised if he isn’t a Spurs player next season
Kim Min-jae Watch KBS report that we're close to agreeing a £15m fee with Beijing Guoan, with the ball in Kim's court as the Chinese season resumes on July 25th and Guoan want to issue resolved by then Right Back/Lower League Rando Watch We've once again been linked with Middlesborough's Djed Spence Right Back/Lille Bring & Buy Sale Watch Turkish sources... ...look, I know... ...are linking us with Zeki Celik, whose name has been linked with us off and on for a while, sort of like every other Lille player (see also: Tuttosport linking us with their keeper Mike Maignan, as well as other long-running links such as Victor Osimhen and Boubakary Soumare) Left Back Watch Sport (the Spanish one, not the "London bus on the moon" one) have linked us with Watford left back/serial loanee Pervis Estupinan, who signed for them in 2016 but has never played a minute as he's perpetually been loaned to various Spanish sides, just in time to say he's probably going to sign for Marseilles - which A Bola would likely report as LAdPCeV-B getting one over his mentor while nobody else notices
Don't see us bidding on anyone til we have sold or released some players. Vertonghen and Vorm are going but can't see who will buy unwanted players with the exception of Ndombele. Honestly do not see anyone buying Rose, Aurier, Foyth or Dier. Rose is ****e and Foyth is clearly not wanted while Aurier is a liability and Dier is no where near the player he once was 2 or 3 years ago. We'll be lucky to get a couple of million for Rose, Foyth might raise £4m or £5m. No idea who would pay more than £10m for either so in all I can not see those 4 raising more than £25m. With that in mind I'd be tempted to sell Dele. He could raise £40m minimum and considering he looks like he has lost his way with us I think it would be a wise thing to cash in.
We won't have any problems selling any of those players, though I can't see Mourinho wanting to move Dier on. Rose will almost certainly join Newcastle for about £5m, while Aurier's probably on his way back to France. Foyth would be an easy one to sell too, though it might be better to loan him out.
I've been saying for a while that our entire right flank has the look of some big ticket items if we're looking to raise funds, with Aurier being a liability as a RB and wholly ineffective as a RWB while Lucas has been full-on Andros Townsend when it comes to ending any attacking move this season Lucas seems to have twigged this in the last couple of games, though, with his tackling stats going from non-existent to Claude Makelele overnight. Funny how that happened almost immediately after he was suggested as a makeweight in any deal for Milinkovic-Savic...
Kim Min-jae Watch NaverSports (?) report that we have agreed a £15.4m fee for Kim, with him flying to London to agree personal terms
****ing brilliant news that, I know reports keep saying Jose is a huge a fan of his so I hope next season we get to see a lot more of him. Really think he can be a very good DM if given more game time.
Made up for Skippy, I think Jose is really bought into what he can become which is only good news for the lad.
Random Winger Watch The Times are linking us with Leicester winger Demarai Gray, who has a year left on his contract...which should set alarm bells ringing, given what us being linked with a player who has a year left on their contract usually means That being said, if there is a move it would surely have a domino effect: first there's the obvious implication that our interest in Ryan Fraser has cooled, then there's the likelihood that one of Lucas or Lamela would be moved on, and there's also the possibility that Jack Clarke's days are numbered
I'd love to see us bring in an Edgar Davids-type signing for him to learn from and compete with. Javi Martinez from Bayern, perhaps? Ki Sung-yueng is out of contract, if we want to fulfil our Korean quota...
Why do we seem to be interested in buying a left-winger? It's probably our most stacked position. I've said this before, but it's Son and Bergwijn's main position and Moura's been doing well there recently in his defensive winger role. Lamela, Sessegnon and Lo Celso are all comfortable there, Alli and Gedson have played there and it's Clarke's main role. It should be somewhere near the bottom of our priorities, yet it seems to be close to the top of them, for some reason.
Martinez would be pretty ideal. I've said before I wouldn't mind Matic either if Utd are willing to sell, seems to be behind McTominay and Fred. Knows Jose too. That said, both are highly unlikely as it looks as though Hojbjerg is the player Jose wants for that position.
There's talk that Wigan's youngster, Alfie Devine, is set to undergo a medical with us today and will sign a long term deal. Part of the England U16s and was supposedly instrumental when Wigan knocked us out of the FA Youth Cup.
