CM Watch Likely connected to the previous post, O Jogo report that we've enquired about Sporting midfielder Matheus Nunes, who has a €50m release clause but Sporting are reportedly willing to let him go for €40m While it has to be said his end product isn't marvelous, as since the start of last season he's notched five goals and four assists over 57 games, what he does offer is a fulcrum in the centre of the pitch who moves the ball both through dribbling and passing - or to look at it another way, the box-to-box role that Conte's system tends to use which Ndombele has failed to be (a sentence we can use for how many managers now?) while Hojbjerg is too conservative with his passing to be truly effective at Of course, don't get too attached: firstly because Portuguese sources are hardly reliable, and secondly because as we've learned in the last two windows Paratici likes to get several plates spinning so we're as likely to bring in Nunes as we are somebody from Roma who we completely overlooked until they arrived
Ally Gold says Skipp’s close to signing a new contract. Hopefully he’s also close to returning to action, albeit seems unlikely at the moment based on Conte’s worrying words about him.
Yeah good news on the contract but concerning about his injury. Would be typical to have an excellent young player with a really high ceiling break through, only for them to never recover from a debilitating injury.
Starting to get mildly irritated that Harvey White is a glorified ballboy Then again, our subs strategy is far too predictable at the moment
There’s talk hotting up that Haaland will join City in the summer with a rumoured £500k-a-week contract on the table. Potentially great news for us if true, massively reduces the chance of Kane possibly leaving, especially to an English side. No chance he joins Chelsea or Arsenal, I don’t think Pool have the funds nor do they need him and whilst Utd may have the cash, he’d be joining a side who barely has any better chances of winning stuff these days than we do so wouldn’t make much sense for him.
Tell him he’s only allowed to join PSG if he still is insisting he wants out in the summer. Can’t be selling him to a PL rival regardless of Kane’s personal pursuit of the PL goal record.
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Kessie Watch TuttoMercatoWeb report that we pulled out of trying to sign him in January due to his wage demands. They didn't name a specific figure, but I recall a figure of £150k+ was doing the rounds at the time (aka almost double what Milan pay him) If that's the ballpark of what he was asking, definitely better to hold off
IIRC Romero signed a contract last summer even though he's on quote-unquote loan, so the fee's been put aside
The Kulu loan fee is also split between this season and next, per Ali Gold, so I assume if we activate the buy option this summer then we don’t have to pay the second instalment to loan in a player who is already ours. No-brainier. As hbic says, Romero has already signed his long-term contract by all reports, so confirming the permanent deal is a formality.
Definite no-brainer, I've been so impressed with him. It may still be early doors and I'm sure he won't always pop up with assists or goals like he's been doing but he just seems so suited to the Premier League and Conte-ball especially. The fee we'd be paying feels like a sound investment based on first impressions, we either get a player who'll be a crowd favourite for a number of years to come or we double/ triple our money within 18-24 months. Similar applies to Bentancur and Romero though, all three "Juve Alumni" have settled in very well and been huge improvements for the team, we've been due some luck in the market for some time now so nice to see our wait is somewhat being paid off. I'll happily take any more Juve fringe players that Paratici knows too (and that Conte wants) if those three are the standard to expect, one man's trash and all that...
He’s been impressive for sure. But it also makes you realise how long it’s been since a player has come in and been truly transformative, fitting in straight away. Let alone half way through a season. Maybe Højbjerg? Though he’s still a conundrum, in a way. Makes you realise how long many of our signings have been living off promise.
Way too soon to declare Romero, Bentancur and Kulusevski success stories. Form is temporary and class is permanent and all that.
Very true. But I also think it’s fair to say that both have gotten further than the one or two-game flash-in-a-pan impact that the likes of Bergwijn had when he first arrived. On the limited showing so far, both look physically and mentally cut out for the PL.
Hojbjerg was definitely a positive signing but the bonus he had was that the bar was very low in that central midfield when he joined. The bar hasn’t been too much higher for the others in fairness but they’ve seemingly come in and looked like genuine top four/ six players. Been a long, long while since we’ve had that.
You've written players off after less time to be fair, King, so we’re doing the opposite . All seriousness I don’t think there’s much wrong though with getting excited at these three. As Hudd just more or less said, they haven’t been debut superstars then faded into the wilderness. All three have generally been amongst our better performers in most of their appearances so far, just a shame Romero had his injury, could’ve been even further along with his development by now. All three have joined with a solid pedigree too; Romero being the reigning Serie A defender of the year, Kulusevski being a former Serie A young player of the year and Bentancur being someone who’s won multiple league titles in different countries and has 180+ appearances for a bigger and better side than us bodes well for their long term futures I’d say. Appreciate there is of course the possibility they could absolutely bomb in time but I’ve got a good feeling about this lot, which makes a change, as usually my initial excitement over new signings in recent years has quickly faded after seeing them play a few games.
