Being linked today with Joao Palinha, Portuguese DM from Sporting Lisbon. The journalist reporting it is supposedly Tier 1 ( pinch of salt obviously). Knew nothing about him until I watched a YouTube video. He's quite a unit, loves a tackle and seems very tenacious. Reads the game well and plays on the front foot ( ala Romero ). Not sure we need this type of player though as we already have Skippy and Hojbjerg. Would prefer more of an elegant passer creative type to rotate with Bentancur. I suppose if Conte persists with 343 and brings in 2 very attacking wingbacks then having 2 DM's n our lineup Would work.
I wouldn’t be massively surprised to see Hojbjerg sold in the summer though. I don’t think the club would actively look to sell him but if the right offer came in then I think they’d sell.
Yeah that's possible mate but I'd hope replacing Hojbjerg is way down the priority list. Gollini, Rodon, Royal, Reguilon / Sessegnon, Winks and Lucas / Bergwijn need replacing first.
Yeah definitely other players need moved on before Hojbjerg but I’m not sure the club will be able to get good money for many of the above where as interest in Hojbjerg might make it easier to cash him on him.
We've been consistently linked with Palhinha since last summer The thing is, last summer it made a lot of sense in Nuno's midfield three, as he'd sit while Skipp and Hojbjerg did their thing - but now we have Bentancur and he makes less sense, especially when realistically the midfield upgrade we need is the box-to-box role that Hojbjerg currently occupies Of course, if the plan is to play 352 next season, then he makes a lot more sense
Alasdair Gold says we're looking to loan out Dane Scarlett next season, and if a suitable request comes in we may loan Alfie Devine too The interesting thing is that AliG phrases it as keeping Scarlett, Devine et al around the first team is to get them used to training at Hotspur Way, which of course is a no brainer but also indicates that Poch was right to a point about keeping the various youngsters of his time in and around first team training - it's just he neglected to give them game time, which is why things went horribly south for a generation of our youngsters
Fichajes say we're looking to sign James Ward-Prowse and Marc Cucarella this summer So that's two players we definitely won't be signing this summer then...
McKennie Watch Yet again Weston McKennie is being linked with us, with Calciomercato doing the honoiurs this week RB Watch Gazetta dello Sport are linking us with a £29.5m move for Denzel Dumfries, with Inter looking to have a bit of a clearout this summer
Remember how, a few months ago, I suggested the possibility that somebody quietly do a deal with Inter where they drop their interest in Dybala if it gives them first refusal on Martinez? Just saying...
Charlie Eccleshare’s saying we’re willing to accept lower fees than previously on players like Lo Celso, Ndombele and Bergwijn. It’s kind of an obvious statement I guess, we were never getting our money back on them. Daily Mail also mentioning Pau Torres may be willing to leave Villarreal this summer after rejecting us last summer. Gvardiol is/ was our main target but we’ll face heavy competition. Botman and Hermoso are also on the list of targets.
Realistically we can expect to get near as dammit to what we paid for Bergwijn based on his goals for the Dutch team, and it's certainly feasible that Lo Celso has clawed back a good chunk of his value at Villarreal (whether or not that makes him a straight cash sale or part of a cash + player deal remains to be seen) ...and this is where the commentary about players retaining or regaining a large chunk of their fees ends
On a side note, it's interesting to see that r/coys has turned on Dan KP in the last 2-3 weeks, mainly accusing him of clickbait - when the real issue is the Standard website is now paywalled, which is basically good news for any aggregator sites or feeds as they can steal a few clicks that way
Yeah I’d agree on Bergwijn, likely only looking at a £5m loss max. Doubt we’d get anything over £30m for Lo Celso though, albeit we’ll get a damn site more than we would’ve done pre-loan. If we could use him to get Torres, it’d probably be the best thing he’d done for the club.
I like Aarons and I think that his stature and heading become less relevant as a wingback. Not seen enough of him playing that role to know if he'd be comfortable in Conte's system, though.
His name seems to have been lost in the noise somewhat when RWB targets are discussed. I think he’d be a smart pickup and balance out well with the experience of Doherty.
