Some talk on AFTV that we might go in for Marc Guehi from Palace, but that's only in the context that Gabriel leaves ??? Which we definitely shouldn't be doing. Also worrying hearing about ESR and the Chelsea links. I'd like to see him integrated back into the team this season as I think the best of ESR is still to come.
i would take Guehl over Gabriel TBH. ESR is s tough one… being held back because he’s injury prone. If we were to sell him then i would hope it’s abroad.
Guehi is a very good CB, but that Saliba / Gabriel partnership was proven last season (I don't know why Arteta isnt setting us up that way so far this season). You have to look at ESR and say that he's behind Odegaard, Havertz and Vieira at the moment, so his chances are going to come in the League and FA cup this season. That said, I want to see him stay and regain his place in the first team squad. It wasn't that long ago that he and Saka were on a par with their development.
So apparently the fee for Balogun is £34m and it’s inclusive of a 17.5% sell-on clause. I have to be honest - whilst the sell-on clause is respectable, the fee is not. Balogun scored 21 goals for a midtable side in a top 5 European league. By contrast, Cole Palmer, who has only had 13 starts for Man City over the past 3 seasons, is about to go to Chelsea for £45m. Obviously I understand that English teams have significant financial power compared to other foreign sides (hence why there’s been so much business between clubs domestically this year), but could we seriously have not negotiated a better fee than £34m for Balogun? Just feels like we haven’t mastered the art of selling our assets yet.
Think you said it yourself. English clubs have more money…especially Chelsea. The fact City would even consider selling him means they must think £45m is just too good to turn down. That said if we sell ESR to Chelsea but less than £45m it would be hard to argue against a point that we sell cheap.
Yeah, to be fair, it seemed like a lot of the interested clubs in Balogun weren't insanely wealthy. Monaco, Inter Milan, AC Milan, Lille, Leipzig and Marseille were the clubs who were concretely interested - none of those teams are habitually big spenders. Shame we couldn't get more, but I have a feeling he'll be on the move in a couple of years anyway. If he is, we should get a nice chunk of money for him. Let's see what happens.
Doesn't look like there's anybody coming in. Glad we've shipped out some players who aren't going to feature. Hoping we add Ivan Toney in Jan and possibly a defender.
Honestly, I find it insane that we’ve not gone for a defender, even on loan. We currently have 6 available defenders (White, Saliba, Tomiyasu, Gabriel, Zinchenko, Kiwior) for 4 positions. Two of those players are injury-prone in Zinchenko and Tomiyasu. The Timber injury is incredibly harsh luck, but we’ve known for 3 weeks that this was going to be the case. We’ve had time to rectify it and we’ve chosen not to for reasons that are unclear to me. There’s been some talk of Reuell Walters being integrated into the first team and getting minutes, but that’s immensely risky and unfair to throw the kid straight into the deep end when he’s never had any minutes as senior level. I really, really hope this decision doesn’t come back to bite us.
Oh, also, there’s an AFCON and Asia Cup in January, so Tomiyasu and Partey will both miss considerable minutes at the start of 2024. I’d argue it’s bordering on immense negligence if we don’t reinforce in January.
Nicolas Pepe has joined Turkish club Trabzonspor. Pity it didn't work out for him here, and he showed glimpses of quality, but he just never really suited us. £72m was a monumental risk and it's one that never worked. Conflicting reports on whether we get a fee or not. Some are saying we get £3m, others are saying he joined Trabzonspor on a free transfer. Either way, he's not our problem anymore.
Probably our biggest (most expensive) flop and still won more trophies than the entire Spurs squads since 2008
Wish him well but this was an awful signing that i am still suspicious about. We can’t be spending that kind of money on a player just because they have a good season in the French league.
The amount and the subsequent exit of Sanllehi. That guy seems like a crook. His Barca background is less than confidence inspiring. Just a suspicion.
