It would actually be a great move for Alli and Newcastle but THFC can't allow it to happen. I said this as much on the NUFC forum but their players will be playing as if they're in Squid Game this weekend. A lot of lower-end PL and playoff Championship teams will be tracking their players closely. Every NUFC player now has something to play for.
Unless their manager spends the next few months saying how, after the takeover, that means they can get a bunch of new players in when the January window opens in a few months I can't think how QPR's players looked shockingly unmotivated that season...
The Pathetic report that we could have signed Donny van der Beek, but failed to do so because we couldn't offload Ndombele He really is the gift that keeps on giving, isn't he?
Andrea Belotti has rejected Torino's final contract offer, which means he will be a free agent in June. Not a prolific goalscorer but an absolute handful, powerful and strong in the air. No brainer imo if we can sneak ahead of Milan.
Ligue 1 Rando Watch We're now being linked with Metz's Malian midfielder Boubacar Traore ...okay, slight problem is that it appears to be Murdoch's Hate Comic doing the linking, meaning you can almost see the line of thinking "Oh, they already signed some [insert racial slur here] from Metz..." coupled with "Oh, they were already linked to one [insert racial slur here] named Traore this season", and basically not a single scouting site have looked at the kid yet so unless the best I can do is say that last season's Football Manager lists him as a more defence-minded Pape Matar Sarr - and Metz seem to agree, given he usually replaces Sarr whenever he comes off the bench
Other out-of-contract possibilities include: Sardar Azmoun. 26-year-old Iranian. We apparently bid for him this summer but Zenit turned it down. Ben Brereton Diaz. 22-year-old at Blackburn. Club can extend for a year. Homegrown. Danilo. 22-year-old at Ajax. Scored 17 in 36 for Twente on loan, but can't get into the Ajax side. There's also quite a list of Premier League strikers that are set to leave their clubs. Cavani at Utd, Origi at Liverpool, Pukki at Norwich and Ayew at Palace are good examples. Lacazette and Nketiah at the filth are set to go elsewhere, but are unlikely for us. Welbeck at Brighton, Rodriguez, Vydra and Barnes at Burnley and Tosun at Everton are also out.
I mean we can rule out Tosun for obvious reasons, namely we've told the Turkish press we won't sign any of their players if they insist on linking us to a dozen of them every season...
Other Bundesliga Rando Watch Jeunes Football report that we're scouting G Fuel Vienna striker Roko Simic, who has scored 7 goals in 10 games on loan at FC Liefering in the Austrian second tier this season and is already lazily being called a Croatian Erling Braut Haaland, not just for his scoring rate but also because he's a second generation player due to being Dario Simic's son In other words, either he gets loaded on the conveyor belt for Leipzig in the next 18 months, or we'll have to act soon because at present he isn't signed with a complete smeghead agent For context, Karim Adeyemi had a couple of Lieferling loans between 2018-20 and has scored 8 in 10 this season for the Taurine Empire as well as picked up his first few Germany caps
FC Liefering are the depressing end product of the City/RB franchise model. Anyone understandably out of the loop probably hasn't heard of them. They're Salzburg's feeder/loan club. That's right, the feeder club of a feeder club. Adeyemi's being linked with Dortmund as a Haaland replacement. Not sure he's the same kind of player, but it would be a fairly typical Dortmund signing.
Kessie Watch La Repubblica report that Inter are showing an interest in Franck Kessie as his contract continues to tick down Looks like Paratici has found which of Milan's buttons to press if we're considering a January move...
I have for some time harboured a secret wish that we would sign Fabian Schärr from Newcastle. And now recently I've added a further couple of wishes. Could we somehow entice that nice young man who's just made his mark in the Man City first team, Cole Palmer, to come our way? And could we persuade his former fellow City-slicker Paul Lake to put his injury problems, age, and official retirement to one side, and turn out for us - maybe just once? Just think of it! Then we could boast not only Sonny & Schärr, but Emerson, Lake & Palmer as well!!!!! We'd realluy be rockin' yhen, dontcha think?!! [Sorry - just a bit of silly fun - had to share it so I didn't forrget it!]
Serie A Rando Watch Tutto Mercato are linking us with Roma's 20 year old DM Ebrima Darboe, who has broken into the team this season and by complete coincidence has eighteen months left on his contract Moving on... Ligue 1 Not So Rando Watch Lille president Olivier Letang has said that, if the club receive a suitable offer in January, they will let Renato Sanches leave Jupiler League Rando Watch The Daily Wail are linking us with Genk's 27 year old Nigerian striker Paul Onuachu, who is reportedly available for £20m after a ludicrously prolific season where he scored 33 goals in 28 league games, and given he's 6'7" he does fit in as a way to change things up off the bench
Just a reminder... Gareth Bale Sam Johnstone James Tarkowski Jesse Lingard Eddie Nketiah Sean Longstaff Jack Stephens Todd Cantwell Matt Grimes Are all available for nothing next summer and all count as HG, and by the looks of things we probably need to sign at least two of 'em...
Bale an absolute no brainer if he wanted to return... again. Johnstone, Lingard, Cantwell and Tarkowski all also welcome, albeit would depend on departures for some.
Johnstone as backup is certainly a no brainer for me, especially if we don't take up the option on Gollini Nketiah might be useful for non-banter reasons as we do need a Defoe-like striker in reserve, but signing him would effectively mean that we don't think Parrott or Scarlett are ready to pick up the slack in low priority matches Of course, the obvious thing is if Dele is moved on we do need a HG player to fill the gap in the squad, so if we can do that quickly without paying English Tax that would certainly go a long way to balancing our squad somewhat