Transfer Rumours transfer thread fact and fiction

He's been displaced by a very good player who appears to have a lot of potential.
Chelsea were extremely unhappy to lose him, by all accounts, but he wanted to start regularly.

Walker-Peters would be a clear upgrade on Doherty, in my opinion and he's home and clubgrown.
Our balance in that area needs to be addressed if we want to improve our squad.

 

I knew all that, just checking if you did

 

Also probably worth nothing that Walker-Peters is playing for Southampton at the moment.
They've chucked him in at left-back, where he's played in the past. Won the U20 World Cup there, IIRC.

 

OK.. I think we've established I know feck all so just STFU already

 

Do we have any youth keepers we want to claim are valued at £15m?

 

So here's a question that's going around my mind

In the summer of 2018, this is effectively how our transfer business went
Poch: "I want to sign Tanguy Ndombele"
Levy: "Okay, we'll see if we can make an offer to Amiens and gazump him from under Lyon"
Poch: "Okay, I'll wait"
Levy: "..."
Poch: "What?"
Levy: "Turns out Lyon triggered the option to make his loan permanent a few months back"
Poch: "Okay, so we'll make a bid to Lyon"
Levy "..."
Poch: "What is it?"
Levy: "Lyon told us to sod off, but hang on a moment. Steve? Can you come in here?"
Hitchen: "Yes?"
Levy: "Can you think of a CM who can go into our team right away?"
Hitchen: "I hear Monaco are willing to listen to bids for Youri Tielemans. Are you interested?"
Levy: "Sounds good to me. What do you think Mauricio?"
Poch: "..."
Levy: "What is it?"
"Poch: "I want Tanguy Ndombele"
Hitchen: "But Tielemans is available"
Poch: "Ndombele"
Levy: "Also Moussa wants to leave as he can't handle the rigours of the Premier League anymore"
Poch: "Ndombele"
Levy: "But..."
Poch: "Ndombele"

While obviously paraphrased to the nth degree (or I feckin' hope so, anyway...) the fact Poch's attitude was the players he wanted or nobody at all, to the point that Levy and Hitchen were suggesting Tielemans only to have their suggestion turned down because of this - and Dan Kilpatrick is on record saying that is exactly what happened with Tielemans specifically - that's certainly a decent contender for the butterfly effect moment we're currently on the receiving end of

 

Our current predicament is not down to us passing on Youri Tielemans.

Decent player no doubt and an upgrade on Ndombele and circa 2018-21 Dele, but not a true replacement for either Eriksen or Dembele so we'd likely still have the same issues as we have now.

Also with the passage of time it is clear that Tielemans is miles off the likes of Chelsea, City and Pool. He's a top 6 player playing for a top 6 team, nothing more.

Our problems run far deeper than Poch's stubbornness in the market.

 

On the other hand, Tielemans would have been an improvement on Winks and Sissoko as well as 2018-19 Dembele or Wanyama, so would have given some stability in the middle of the pitch which we are crying out for, and it has to be said Tielemans would certainly be a much better fit in our midfield as either a pivot or a three with Skipp and/or Hojbjerg

Also, Tielemans isn't the only player Poch passed on in spite of Levy/Hitchen suggesting them in that timeframe: James Maddison has also frequently been mentioned, while Dan Kilpatrick has specifically said Poch turned down Marco Asensio when offered, so at the very least that's two positions where we could've refreshed or reinforced in the summer of 2018 but Poch refused as he wasn't interested in players other than those he wanted

 

Arthur Cabral of FC Basel has been called up to the Brazil national team.
Might be one worth watching, as he'd probably get clearance now and he's been banging them in.
Still only 23 and he's scored 20 in 16 in all competitions this season after getting 20 in 35 last time.
His contract expires in the summer of 2023, so he probably wouldn't be too expensive.

 

Sounds far too sensible for us to look at.

Trying to reignite the PL career of Roque Santa Cruz sounds much closer to our strategic thinking.

 

Sam Johnstone has bubbled up again

I'm still perplexed about how West Brom went from expecting £10m upfront in January to closer to £20m in the summer, given his contract is only getting shorter

 

His contract expires in the summer and foreign clubs can sign him on a pre-contract in two months.

 

He's still playing in his native Paraguay, despite being 40 and wracked with injuries. Sounds perfect.

 

Which makes West Brom upping their asking price in the summer even more confounding

 

Sounds like Fiorentina may have given up renewing Vlahovic’s contract.

 

Argentine Rando Watch
Calcio Mercato are linking us with River Plate striker Julian Alvarez, who has a €25m release clause in his contract - a contract which runs until December 2022, so it's possible we could get him for less in January

What sticks out for me is that he's just as capable as playing as a RW as he is a CF, switching between positions for River and also playing as both for the Argentina side and their U23s, so he could not only be an understudy for harry Kane but also a long-term solution on the right wing given he'll turn 22 at the end of the year - and, on top of that, if we did sign him in January that's potentially one player we don't need to look for next summer, because while he wouldn't go straight into our side come January having just finished an Argentine season, come the start of next season he'd have had plenty of time to settle at the club and acclimatise at the league

Of course, this is going to do a lot of stop people fixating on Marcello Gallardo...

 

Is he left-footed? Because if so you had me at left-footed Argentine to be honest.

 

Right-footed, I believe - but knows he has a second foot

 

Unacceptable, knowledge of a second foot reduces the probability of rabonas. So, it’s a no from me.