Someone's just hit Google and pulled the first source going Phillips is nowhere near that level but origi and Adrian are. Tsimikas was about the 50k mark. I sincerely doubt Diaz is taking that figure as a forward. Only time will tell I suppose but at least if true he will be hungry to perform lol.
If there's one area in world football where there's a surplus of potential talent right now then it's wide players, so I am surprised that we've been prompted into spending up to 50mil on Diaz. The club must rate him pretty highly.
There might be a lot of attacking "non strikers" but there's very few number 9s or absolute wingers any more Diaz is very much a guy starting on left and designs to come inside. The other thing is 50mil is a full back in the oil doping era.
West Ham apparently had bid rejected for Raphinha. Would be silly to go there. Guy will go to a top club in summer
Leeds won't sell him anyway as west sham will not offer 50mil never mind the 70 they think they can get. We will have to see if he would go there but I'm sure west sham wouldn't send anyone off to South American to catch up with him for medical.
Unless someone is leaving (firmino/mane/salah) I can't see any more arriving Having 5 is great. Having ox as emergency over is alright as no 6. Compare current assumed position to thinking oh **** shaqiri and origi and thats it!! That was 2 years ago and we even played the cl sf with those two. Now we have firmino aging out, mane, salah, jota and adding Diaz I'd be more focused on midfield with thiago, henderson and milner not being backed by ox and kieta. We ought to be looking at Jones, Elliott and fabinho now and thinking we need to add to this rather then being greedy up top.
In other news arsenal again reject an offer for nketiah from Palace. It must be quite small but they will lose him in the summer for nothing.
With 5 up top, Matip dribbling it forward and/or Virgil's pin point punts, we'd get on very nicely without the need for a midfield
Given the lack of talk on Mane contract (maybe it’s happening in background but just overshadowed by Salah) and now the signing of Diaz do wonder if the plan is the move mane on. Would then have Lw- Diaz/Jota CF - Firmino/Jota RW - Salah / Raphinha? If we keep Mane and Salah, can’t see us signing another player unless one leaves. 5 for 3 positions with Jota And Salah able to cover multiple positions seems like more than enough for the next 2/3 years until we have to replace again.
Mate, someone has to join the press to rob the ball off the ****e players palace and arsenal have so we can walk in and score.
We don't have raphinha though and are not close to that. We do have ox for robbo to pump the ball at. The plan might well be to move mane on but for next season I'd assume a direct battle between Diaz and mane personally as that would be forcing both to be at their best. We also underestimate mane at 9 and aerial ability. Imo he could easily take that role on from firmino and you could as easily go jota/mane there Finally he played rw first season for us and could play there though I feel it would be a last resort as he is then more limited. Imo Bobby is far more likely to be the one phased.out as he is moving less freely. But the current 5 for 3 is a luxury I've not seen probably ever but certainly not since 2001 when fowler was forced out.
