Transfer Rumours transfer thread fact and fiction

I'm a huge fan of this guy. He has allowed Hojbjerg's game to a different level by being where we need him, when we need him and spreading calm, not the usual panic. He just glides around the pitch, looking unflustered, doing the right things at the right times.

I'm inclined to believe that the improvement shown by many defenders (Sanchez, Royal, Doherty, in particular) comes in part from Bentancur always being available to accept the ball and retain it. There's no need to panic, he will distribute the ball...and calm throughout the back line (Kulusevski has had a similar effect further forward).

He's also showing increasing signs of being able to move the ball forward very effectively. In a team with fully firing, top notch wing backs, he's going to be even better. I can't wait to see him and Skippy in tandem next season.

A really class act.

 

For years I tried telling you all…

 

I think this is the perfect summary for him.

He also cost just an initial £16m in a market where bang average players are going for £40m+. Safe to say this was a Paratici special of epic proportions.

 

Although it does beg the question why on earth we were inches away from signing Traore and Amrabat instead of Kulu and Bentancur.

The one huge concern I had when we appointed Conte was no so much his need to spend money (as I pointed out on the Gooner board, even Poch has spent £40m+ more often than he has), but his judgement in who to spend that money on.

Most of his signings at Chelsea were complete flops: Batshuayi, Drinkwater, Morata, Bakayoko, Zappacosta, Emerson, Barkley.

He's lucky that in among that shower there is Kante, Alonso and Rudiger or there'd be almost nothing to brag about.

 

I guess reining in the Drinkwaters is Paraticcis job. Good grief, Drinkwater is still on their books, albeit on loan to Reading.

 

Apparently Barca won't be taking up the option for Traore at the price Wolves want so that one could yet raise its head again.

 

0 goals and 2 assists since he joined them.

Looks like it wasn't 'just the premier league' after all. He's just ****e.

 

Deki we'd reportedly been in negotiations for since the end of December, which makes it look like the second bite of the Traore cherry may have been Paratici spinning plates so we had a fallback option. Amrabat certainly seems to be that as well: McKennie was the one getting strongly linked prior to the window, but he hit a purple patch so Juve weren't going to sell so Paratici once again started spinning plates until Bentancur came out of pretty much nowhere

In terms of Chelsea, a lot of those signings do appear to have been out of Conte's hands: Drinkwater and Barkley look like attempts to shore up their HG numbers which were perilously low at the time (less so now that James, Hudson-Odoi, Mount and Leftarse-Cheek are established, plus Chilwell was signed) while Morata has the whiff of Uncle Roman making a suggestion of who they should sign

Technically three, given he his inch-perfect square ball counted as the assist for Villarreal's second on Sunday...

 

Forster Watch

 

Bastoni Watch
Repubblica report that Simone Inzaghi is hoping that Inter only sacrifice the one player to raise funds this summer, and it's likely that Alessandro Bastoni would be that player

And on the subject of CBs...

Romero's Loan Watch

 

Sensible move as long as the terms of the buy clause aren't structured in such a way that another club could come in next summer and gazump us.

With Romero's move being made permanent imminently and for as much as £40m, we'll need to free up as much cash for other targets as possible, so it makes little sense activating Kulu's clause this window.

 

Its been said Paratici looks at around 10 players per position (I doubt it is 10 but “multiple” would be understandable) and therefore Amrabat and Traore were on the CM and RW targets just as Bentancur and Kulusevski, thankfully - for once - we picked the right players this time around.

As for Conte’a signings at Chelsea, some of them on paper made sense I guess. Bakayoko was class in that Monaco team that boasted Mbappe, Falcao, Fabinho etc so he seemed a great signing at the time. Morata had decent pedigree albeit ridiculously overpriced. Batshuayi was probably signed to spite us, not the first time Chelsea’s done it (Marko Marin) whilst I’m pretty sure Barkley was someone we wanted or had in interest in too, so chances are some of them weren’t even Conte signings. I think they signed Drinkwater because he and Kante were the driving force in that Leicester winning side, problem is they found out it was just Kante the driving force and Drinkwater took some of the credit.

For me though his past signings are irrelevant and I’m intrigued to see who he and Don Fabio bring in here as I have a feeling we’ll see a few big names come through the door.

 

Best of luck to him:

 

Daily Links Roundup
Yves Bissouma (The Times)
Christian Eriksen (The Times)

 

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Fraser Forster is the best goalkeeper ever - Messi (something like that, anyway).

 

Just don't hold your breath, everyone!

 

Bastoni and Bremer certainly feel like either/or

 

Ward-Prowse is a no, unless the PL suddenly introduce a rule whereby you can sub a player on for corners and set pieces then immediately sub them off again at the next break in play, as often as you like.