Transfer Rumours transfer thread fact and fiction

I'd keep Royal. I think there's a player in there. Same goes for Reguilon.

Would keep Lucas too for his attitude and effort but strictly as a squad player.

The rest of them can go work at Butlins for all I care.

 

Similar to Alfie and CK, it's tough looking at this squad and feeling a strong connection or being happy with many. There's about 6 I'd simply refuse offers for and about 4 I'd only sell if the offers were huge/ well above market value, so not even a full XI.

Untouchables:
Lloris, Romero (assuming we buy), Skipp, Son, Kane, Gil (huge hopes for him)

Not actively looking to sell, huge offers only:
Emerson, Tanganga, Reguilon, Hojbjerg

Everyone else I'd either accept market value for well or well below.

 

New contract for Martinez:

 

GK Watch

A few cliff notes

Sam Johnstone - 28yo, West Brom, England (3 caps), contracted until 2022
Alex Meret - 24yo, Napoli, Italy (2 caps), contracted until 2023
Alex Remiro - 26yo, Real Sociedad, Spain (U19 only), contracted until 2023
Emiliano Martinez - 29yo, Aston Villa, Argentina (12 caps), contracted until 2024

 

Sam Johnstone is home grown and on a free. Good signing for a cup keeper but not sure if he’s good enough to be number one.

 

The obvious advantage of Johnstone is signing him means we're one HG player up - or, to put it another way, we can move one HG player out

 

We can do that regardless of signing Johnstone and we can probably expect that this January too, I'd be very surprised if Dele's still here beyond the window and Johnstone will likely be a summer signing should it happen.

Dele's departure could also open up a chance for White in the ECL as he could start in central midfield and allow Lo Celso to play further forward. Or maybe a spot for Markanday in the front four.

 

In terms of January, the obvious thing that stands out is we have two Non HG spots left open (but not for Europe, because UEFA) so feasibly we can move on Dele without having to pay English Tax for anyone in January to balance it out

 

Well we ended up having to replace Bale with… Bale.

Just sayin’…

 

He wouldn't be allowed to play in the Premier League either

Most likely he'll be headed back to Ajax, given Daley Blind is allowed to play there

 

Why, Daley Blind was.

 

No he wasn't, as he didn't have his pacemaker until a year after returning to Ajax

 

Ligue 1 Rando Watch

On the one hand this sounds a lot like agent bullshit, trying to get him a bumper contract from Nantes by throwing a bunch of names around

On the other hand he does have similar attributes to Marcus Thuram and Alassana Plea as he's got a combination of good control coupled with enough physicality to hold off defenders trying to get the ball from him, and is capable of creating as many as he scores, and given Paratici was looking at Thuram in the summer this might be a backup option

 

We're after a Nantes attacker? Prince Andrew better watch out...

 

The main thing to be wary of is hiring an agent who is banned from practising in this country to sort out the deal, then after flying him into the country for the photo ops at the stadium skimp on the cost of a flight back to France to say goodbye to his former teammates and let the first bloke with a single prop plane take care of it

Oh wait, last time that happened people just ignored the first three parts...

 

January Splurge Watch
TuttoMercato have been first to nail their colours to the mast and suggests that Conte wants the following in January
Stefan de Vrij
Marcelo Brozovic
Dusan Vlahovic
Federico Chiesa
Matthijs De Ligt
Alessio Romagnoli

On the one hand it's reasonably safe to dismiss the majority of that list out of hand as TuttoMercato click farming, but then again...
De Vrij - out of contract in 2023
Brozovic - out of contract in 2022
Vlahovic - out of contract in 2023
Chiesa - obligation triggered in 2022
De Ligt - out of contract in 2024
Romagnoli - out of contract in 2022

While it's worth taking the list with a couple of handfuls of salt it's certainly feasible to go in for Brozovic and Romagnoli in January, and in case of Vlahovic a buy-and-loan back does seem feasible if it gets the price down as he's patently running his contract down and Fiorentina might be swayed to sell him to us rather than lose him to Juve next summer

But, yeah, Chiesa ain't going to happen

 

What's the chance of us going to Metz and getting Pape Matar Sarr early in the winter window, surely Conte will want to get his hands on the best available to the club

 

January Splurge Watch

 

Posted it in the Conte thread too but:

Looks like Conte’s already gonna secure his first signing as reports in Italy are saying we’re close to agreeing terms with Kessie for a free transfer in the summer.

If it does get agreed, I wonder if there’ll be intent on our part to do a Holtby-esque type deal and try speeding up the moveby paying a small fee to Milan in January?