Transfer Rumours transfer thread fact and fiction

And just our luck to pick up a Romanian Vlad Chiriches

 

Napoli sold Chiriches for more money than we paid for him.
He's still playing in Serie A, too. Signed for newly promoted Cremonese recently:


That is not a good look, though. They're going back down, aren't they?

 

Sell not loan?

 

Romania was similar to Russia, as the Bucharest teams got all the resources and the rest got trickle down, which makes Cluj's successes all the more remarkable

For reference, Dumitrescu came through at Steaua Bucharest, Popescu at (oh bugger...) Universitatea Craiova, and Chiriches at...Benfica?

 

I know you're joking, but Cluj's success follows the Chelsea model.
Get taken over by a massive crook, spend big and then pretend that you were always successful.

 

That doesn't necessarily work in leagues with an entrenched ecosystem, for example Dnipro and (oh no...) Anzhi Makhachkala tried to buy their way to success and rapidly learned that FFP rules actually apply to leagues outside those with G14 links

It went so bad in fact that Dnipro went bust in 2019 while Anzhi were dissolved last month

 

They both had the misfortune of being bought by billionaires with short attention spans.
Kerimov only bothered with Anzhi for two years.
Kolomoyski may have lasted a little longer at Dnipro, but their fall was even more spectacular.

A real pair of crooks and they both got sanctioned by the US.
Ended up on opposite sides of the war in Ukraine, though.

 

Harry ****espout presumably thinks both would be ideal for us, then...

 

Interesting how, early in the window, the talk was of loaning Gil to a team with CL or EL football - yet Sampdoria have neither

 

I saw something saying “sale”, but have since seen loan, too.

I can’t imagine we’d sell him yet to be honest.

 

It's not difficult, there are three must haves.

First touch
Can Tackle
Gives 110%

In that order

 

Anyway, here's Djed Spence's older sister...

 

Have you noticed that you get kicked ****less in the Croatian league unless your first touch is perfect, and you are skillful enough to get out of the way.

 

Similar can be said of the Argentine league: creative players need either skill or grit to get through a season with their ankles intact

 

It's her birthday, apparently. Nice present.

 

Modric also spent a season on loan in the Bosnian league.

From how it sounds, it's basically an 11vs11 MMA fight with a football chucked in for good measure over there.

 

I would've thought being Croatian and about 3'4" probably added to it, too.

 

Dan Kilpatrick says the next phase of our transfer business is trimming the fat

And when we can't shift Ndombele...

 

Looking forward to the Seventh Sealed.

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I think transfers are always a bit of a crap shoot, but there are a very few people who really know what they're doing, and Paratici and Conte are two of them.

It's interesting to see Conte auditioning wingbacks, for example. He seems to want four good enough to compete for big trophies. He's got one now, Perisic, and is looking at whether Sessegnon, Emerson, Doherty, Moura and maybe Harvey White are good enough. If they are, fine. If they aren't, he'll press to get players who are, and move on anyone who didn't work out, as he did Reguilon. It's cold-blooded, especially in the case of Reguilon, who genuinely cared about Spurs, but it's what needs to be done to win things.

 

One thing to mention, Sess has spoken about how Perisic has already taught him a few things

A little bit Football Manager that...