Transfer Rumours transfer thread fact and fiction

Son hasn’t actually been bad the last two games albeit he’s not been great either but did get better when he switched to CF once Richarlison went off yesterday, played a few nice passes including the one-two with Udogie for Kulu’s goal. None of our wide forwards work well with Richarlison though as he can’t hold up the ball or play meaningful passes, and when you add that to the fact he’s never been a good scorer anyway, he’s such a pointless player in this system and stifles the other two.

The reports claim that Johnson’s being targeted as a “right sided attacker” too, so it seems more competition for Kulu than anything.

 

He also intercepted a ball and played maddison in for a 1 on 1 which he scuffed near the start of the game. Hes been holding the ball up well

 

Forgot there was a premier league winter break...did covid and the world Cup disrupt it?

 

At the very least that probably rules out Sarr until late February/early March, though, given Senegal might go far into the tournament and he'd need a few weeks rest

On top of that Mali might be in the tournament longer than we assume, though, given four of the six third-placed teams go through to the Ro16 - although when the full list of qualified teams is sorted out we can see the likelihood of that

 

I don’t want him

what does he improve for our starting XI?

would be a waste of money but quite a typical signing for desperate Hotspur deadline day bullshit

 

"We need to back the manager and bring in the players he wants!"

(Ange wants Brennan Johnson)

"NOT LIKE THAT!!!!!!"

 

I dont think any of us are against giving Ange whoever he wants. But when it’s £50m, you also know that’ll be it. No more money left. And other positions that need strengthening as a priority.

 

I am.
The only sure way of underperforming on transfers is to overpay to get players the manager wants. He should specify what sort of players he wants and the recruitment team should identify the best match we can afford.

 

The thing is it's not £50m, and it's not £50m on a couple of levels

The first level is Forest want £40m upfront, with £50m the fee when the addons are totted up
The second level is how a few of our players have been linked with Forest in the last week or two, most obviously Spence and Ndombele (while Sanchez has been linked today, albeit by Paul O'Queef), and it's fair to presume that will get us at least £10m back (probably a minimum of £15m in Spence's case) which in effect would mean the actual spend was £25-30m, and if we somehow manage to shift two or even three of our deadwood their way that figure drills down a little further

 

I’m not against signing him as I do think he’s a decent player with significant scope for improvement but feels like we’re prioritising a wide forward/ winger when it’s a centre forward/ striker we need to address and the money we’d be spending on Johnson would likely impact spending on a CF/ ST. The XIs coming along really nicely but that central attacking point sticks out like a sore thumb.

 

that’s what I mean. Find the players or type of players he wants, but for the right money. £40/50m is way too much, especially if no one ends up going the other way.

 

I actually agree that I’d rather we get a 9, but I think Ange has said that we’re not looking to sign a like for like to replace Kane? So Johnson, who would give us primarily Kulu competition but also an option centrally or on the left, or Orban, who is more of a 9 but could play off the left, are the candidates to follow.

I also think that it’s important to keep level headed and realise that we were always unlikely to get everything done this window. There will be gaps and things that need to be fixed long term. With the contractual situation of some of the players we want out, and the window of opportunity with Ange being longer than one season (unlike Conte or Jose who need everything yesterday) we may well get 75% there this window and look for further progress over the coming season. The squad is a mess and that’s not something you can entirely fix in one window. I’d have liked more done but the fact we got the key first XI players in before the opening game of the season was good progress. Depth will come with time and further outgoings.

 

The thing is we have been looking at similar players, as Ebereichi Eze and Jeremy Doku have both been linked in the last two weeks - yet both would have likely cost more, as Palace are reportedly expecting around £50m upfront for Eze, while Doku moved to The Sheikh Mansour Team for £55m upfront when Rennes saw the petrol dollar signs and jacked the price up once we and (IIRC) Chelsea made enquiries

Add to that there are a couple of similar players who would have been cheaper that we have been linked with...and our fanbase moaned en masse when they were, namely Harvey Barnes and Ernest Nuamah (the latter getting moans due to playing in the Danish league), and similar can be said when we were linked with Anthony Gordon and Daniel James in the Conte era

 

In other news, Reggie's now being linked with Fulham

 

I don’t think anyone ever expects to replace Kane with a like for like because there isn’t one but we just need to actually replace him.

I agree about the impressive nature of securing key positions in time for matchday one and that depth will come in time but Kane’s sale means the first XI is still lacking. If we didn’t accept Bayern’s bid we’d have had our best XI since the prime Pochettino era but right now - as I think RWAERB put it on a separate thread - we have a black hole of possession currently in the number 9 spot and I think sooner or later that’s going to come back to bite us if it isn’t properly rectified. I’d argue it even cost us in the Brentford game, a decent-to-good striker, let alone Kane, could’ve been the difference between that draw and a possible win. Spread a few of those out over a season and it’s potentially anything from 7-10 extra points from losing or drawing positions.

I’ve no issues Johnson coming in, as a player I rate him, but I think we’re leaving ourselves massively short if that comes at the expense of a proper number 9.

 

corect me if I’ve misunderstood you, but are you saying that fans moan over someone costing too much, but they also moan over unglamorous names that are cheaper?

if that’s right, i think it’s just more of a case of the fans looking at what they feel is value for money, or perhaps “worth a punt”. For example, I know very little about Orban, but his goal record is excellent, he’s young, and the fees quotes are around £30m. In todays market, that seems like it could be a good move for that money.
To use the Johnson example again, it seems a lot for someone in a position that’s not the biggest necessity, meaning we’ve less funds to use in other areas of the pitch.

 

I do think a lot of scepticism over Johnson is the fee and not just because of feeling burnt from the Richarlison deal last summer. As long as you don’t go crazy on the wages you offer, 30m on a player isn’t too bad and Orban has enough pedigree that if it doesn’t work out in England you’ll probably still be able to offload to a European league and recoup some of the money, maybe 10/15m, and as the original fee is amortised that’s probably an acceptable gamble to take when it comes to balancing the books (in isolation that is. Obviously we’re flush with the Kane sale).

C.50m for a player already in the English league system is a far bigger gamble because they’ll expect more wages and the market for offloading such a player if it doesn’t work out is going to be much smaller. We need to be much more careful on how we recruit players from other English clubs, and just in general. I think we’ve been burnt with examples like Sanchez and Tanguy where we perhaps took risks re. contract offers on the basis that we expected revenues in other leagues to rise as the PL’s did, but a combination of Covid and other factors have seen the financial power of clubs outside the PL, apart from the truly big fish, not recover since the pandemic.

 

Orban I get. Johnson (for anything more than £25m) I don't. From what I can see, we have other priorities and even if the club are able to cover all bases, I don't see him providing the cover we need.

TBH, I saw 2 or 3 good 'line-leaders' on display over the weekend who would be better - and realistic - targets.

 

Like you I’d prefer we get a 9 of the right profile but it might be that Ange disagrees, and those seem to be the noises coming out of the club - that we want someone a bit more versatile. He’s hardly put a foot wrong so far, Big Ange, so if that’s what he’s asking for then the club should strongly work to give him what he wants. Johnson looks like the right kind of player, frightening pace and a sweet right foot. If we can get him for more around 30m and send a couple of players we want out the door Forest’s way too in addition then I am more than comfortable with that. Even if I’d prefer him and a 9.

 

It's more a case of fans moaning about spending too much, but also moan about not spending enough, without ever actually suggesting what the "right" amount of money actually is. Case in point, £40m+ on Anthony Gordon, Harvey Barnes or Brennan Johnson is "too much" - yet at the same time the £18m we spent on Vicario was "not enough"

Realistically it comes down to fans apparently looking for a reason to beat somebody over the head with a transfer fee, either the player for not performing like a £50m+ player should when they miss a sitter, or Levy for not spending double on a different player