I liked Dijks, but now aged 29, I expect he's looking for a longer contract, not just a few months gap filler. He used to fly back and forth every week on the KLM service from Schipol, but he was dependable when he played.
Dijks expected to sign with Vitesse apparently, shame. But Danny Rose has just been released by Watford, 9 Prem appearances at LB for them last season....? Looks like that loan failed, unless we desperately need him in the U23s?
I believe he played three matches for them so was not out in the cold. He will join the development squad. Strange outcome.
German transfer deadline has passed, so presumably we'd have heard by now if Aarons was linking up with Farke.
Am I recalling correctly that we agreed a fee for Kone, but personal terms were the sticking point? Assuming Montreal aren't demanding significantly more from Sheffield United than they were for us, we presumably had similar funds available, but chose to spend £3m or so on Nunez instead. Does that mean there's £1.5m or so available for reinforcements?
If Aarons goes do we have a replacement for him? Perhaps Byram could play RB with MaClean playing LB still?
I don't think money was the only issue - his attitude during negotiations sent all the wrong signals about character and the ability to fit in. Núñez has been just the opposite since he arrived and has already shown his abilities on the pitch as well which suggest that he's a much better player than his fee suggests. He's also got far more experience than Kone. Marcelino has scored 1 goal in six games so far and is our top rated player on WhoScored at 7.25 with a pass success rate of over 82%. His defensive work has also been very good. I'm confident that SW made the right call on this one.
According to one Walsall fan on Facebook he was virtually non-existent in those 3 games and was poor when he did have the ball. Perhaps a case of wrong club for him at the moment
It seems quite a big gamble to me but let's hope it works. We still could sign a free agent like Danny Rose if we need to.
We also have a bunch of players who have played LB when required, so it is a risk worth taking I think
I’m sure he will go on to have an amazing season now and we will hear it was just because Norwich are ****. £7.5m fee however says that Chelsea weren’t that excited about him either though. Garner went for £9m and he only played in the Championship.
So, after all the speculation, yet again Max Aarons remains at CR. It looks like Byram at LB and Aarons at RB for the foreseeable future. Was there ever a need for a LB on loan?
Not as long as Byram and Mclean stay fit, Gibson has played left back before as well. We need to get our midfielders back as well i.e. Hayden, Gibbs, Sorensen
DS has just said in his press conference that he is looking to arrange a behind closed doors game for Hayden in the international break. That is 3rd and 4th week of September. We have 4 games between now and then. Hopefully he should be able to feature in our game against Blackpool on 01/10/22 in that case
It's amazing to think we've brought in Sara and Núñez to replace Gilmour and Lees-Melou and Hayden to replace Normann. Central midfield was our weak point and now it looks like becoming a strength. Gibbs is an additional bonus.
So 4-5 games to get through until hopefully Hayden (or Gibbs? Not sure on his timeline) can step into midfield and McLean and Byram can share LB duties, with Gibson available in a pinch. Then probably another 4-5 games until maybe Sorensen and Giannoulis return? It's not ideal, and clearly the club don't think so because they apparently made 4 approaches and got into advanced talks over one player, but it's not to dire that they want to explore the free agent market. I suspect that's because generally free agents aren't anywhere near match fitness, and we need someone to step in immediately.
