I think the most important thing at the moment is to keep Conte happy and give him some players he feels he can work with. Clearly he is a man who looks at a team and realises that not every player in every position has to be a world beater but they do have to be responsive to the game plan.
I had to unmute that account to see the thread, he’s one of the accounts I was referring to what I said a few days back here: I can’t trust people on Twitter that have their profile picture of someone other than themselves. Shady, usually proper spackers too… he definitely seems the latter. Begged for people to like those tweets as they “took him a lifetime” to write.
Julian Maynard reckons Ndombele is close to joining Lyon on loan. Another journo reckons there could be a buy option in the loan, pleeeeeaaaaaase be true. Gil also expected to join Valencia on loan according to multiple people, sounds like it’s just waiting for us to sign off.
Also, it's clear that the linkup with Getir is cursed Do an ad with Ndombele, we're willing to use dynamite to get him out the door this month Do an ad with Bryan, off to Valencia for 6-18 months (depending on who you ask) Do an ad with Son, out injured Don't suppose they fancy doing ads with Doherty and Gollini before Monday?
Apparently Lo Celso rejected Lyon, which could possibly be why they’ve gone in for Ndombele. How’s he rejecting a club like Lyon though? Idiot. Hopefully one of the Spanish team rumours are true. Getting Dumb and Dumber out the club, even if it’s initially temporarily, is a small victory for us.
These 2 signings are like most, a bit of a mixed blessing. Players coming from Italian football, especially midfielders and forwards, have a poor history in the PL. Jorginho is now considered a massive success, but looked lost for some time, even playing for a familiar coach. Bentancur seems a bit too similar to what we've already got and is said to have been in poor form for some time. He really is very like Winky in that respect. Kulusevski looks like a good footballer in need of a direction. He needs a strong coach, who will get the best out of his undoubted talents and limit his tendency to overdo it. I really like his running stats. If settling in is possibly an issue, working ****ing hard won't hurt him or us one bit. Bentancur is Uruguayan, so he'll be pretty damned tough and unlikely to behave like some of the delicate flowers that we're shipping out. Let's hope that Paratici doesn't sell off Bergwijn, without getting in a striker who can hold the ball up. If we lose Kane to injury, we are going to struggle otherwise. Especially as Sonny's from had been terrible for some time before his injury. Suggestions that Kulusevski 'could' play there aren't going to help this season. If he's played there in the PL, he'll get ripped to bits. I don't think that either we're likely to have been particularly near the top of our list of priorities...but they aren't Gedson Fernandes, either and Conte needs some realistic options right now. If we're getting them in on loans and aren't obligated to buy, it looks like decent business.
Bentancur’s a straight transfer I believe, Bri. Modest fee though at an initial €19m, rising to €25m, if rumours are true. So if he’s **** we hopefully won’t make a huge loss if we try flogging him 18 months down the line… and I hate the fact that thought already crosses my mind but I don’t think I can be blamed based on the last 5 or so years.
Hopefully these are players Conte has identified and wants, what I like is they both appear to be hard working players, whilst not appearing the best technically they look strong. There is always a bit of doubt taking other top clubs cast offs though, I much prefer it when we go after players that clubs do not want to lose rather than players they are looking to shift, hopefully they do the business for us. It`s a shame De Ligt and Dybala are not coming with them.
That is a shame, because he just looks a bit too much like our current options. Hopefully, he comes with Conte's approval Although, if I had to buy one of the two, it would be him. He's cheaper, is a bit more of a known commodity and plays a recognizable position. The other lad's got skill but if we bought him and he didn't make it, we'd more likely to be writing off a chunk of his transfer fee. Oh well, players have come in, before others have actually left, so progress is being made. Let's hope that in the summer, we've got some proper money to back Conte and aren't doing the last minute dash for options that weren't his preferred ones...and that these lads get us into a proper European competition next season.
I will pay to see someone consuming and doing the above to Minimal (be like a 78rpm dance to a 45 played at 33) .
I’m getting Chadli vibes from Kulusevski albeit he plays on the opposite flank. Lamela/ Chadli hybrid in a way, seemingly has the work rate but not the aggression/ ****housery of Lamela but has the silky moves and technique of Chadli. If he adapts well I think he could be a crowd pleaser… IF.
Very pleased with these two signings. Skippy, Bentacur, Hojbjerg , Winks and next season Pape Sarr give Conte some great options . Kulusevski could be a perfect Conte player and is so versatile. Just hope we don't let Bergwijn go, at least for now unless we somehow manage to get a top striker in by tomorrow. If we look at our squad now we need a better 2nd choice keeper (Johnstone) a LCB and obviously a top RWB. Just hope we can get one of these signings in by tomorrow and if we do I think that 4th spot is most definitely attainable.
I read something a couple of days ago that made exactly that comparison. Chadli annoyed the **** out of me. So much talent, so little heart and fight. I think this bloke's more of a worker, but needs to play regularly in a settled position for a manager who will be tough on him overdoing running into blind alleys. That sounds like Conte...what position, I'm less certain about.
Ally Gold and Jonathan Veal have said we’ve been offered Ousmane Dembele but Gold says wages and injury history makes the deal unlikely. Understandable too in my opinion, fantastic player on his day but he’s a huge financial risk to any club. He won’t of course but if he took a pay as you play deal it’d be excellent business.
Yeah it’s not a great way of working imo as you could end up with a different variety of player as what you initially wanted. Some could argue that Kulusevski is a winger like Luis Diaz but they play a very different game.
