£9m for Szmodics seems excellent business for Ipswich too. Was he in the last year of his contract or something for the fee to be that low
Is it that good when we only paid 6mill more for someone much younger and has actually played in the PL.
No - contact was until 2026. Guess Blackburn really need the money. Also he’s had one amazing season in his career and is potentially a bit too lightweight for the premier league
He isn’t a like for like comparison with Archer anyway. He played in a position we don’t use (otherwise we’d put Alcaraz there)
I wasn’t aware that one good deal prevents others from also being good deals? Yes I still think it’s a good deal for Ipswich. Archer and Szmodics play different positions anyway. And only £6m more is quite a sizeable increase on £9m too. My comment had nothing to do with us signing Archer anyway… Szmodics is coming off the back of a 27 goal season and already got 3 in 2 games this season. And if it doesn’t work this season in the PL, people are expecting Ipswich to get relegated anyway and he’ll help them get back up the following season. £9m is very cheap in this market for that.
I'm a little jealous about Szmodics. I'm quietly excited about Ugochukwu - I don't know much about him, but Chelsea have seemingly seen something in him. So until I have any reason to believe otherwise, I'm pleased. I'm not excited at all about Archer. But if we do indeed sell Mara for £10m, which covers a big chuck of Archer's fee, then that seems pretty sound business all-round to me.
I think the following will conclude our business: GK (loaned) - Hopefully Ramsdale AM - Primary target is O'Riley but thats unlikely now. Winger - Fraser on a free. Depending on who the GK and AM are, If we finished with that then you'd have to say it's been a great window.
I think he was. But we’ve just signed someone in his position. If he leaves it will be for one of the other promoted sides I expect
A Bola in Portugal reporting that we’ve agreed a €19m deal for Sporting midfielder Mateus Fernandes https://x.com/sporting_cpadep/status/1824895441445834952?s=46&t=f0hgNyKSvvOD5qjGLJhsXQ
20 year old attacking mid who has barely played for the first team over there. If it’s true, after Blackmores comments about wanting both Carvalho and O’Riley, maybe we’ve pivoted to Fernandes and Ugochukwu
Yeah I get that but purely from a numbers perspective we can’t have them all. Charles looks likely to be going according to SF86, so that would leave us with Downes, Smallbone, Fernandes, O’Riley, Aribo, Ugochukwu and Alcaraz if everyone else stayed If we get both O’Riley and Fernandes then Alcaraz is definitely off. In this scenario the hope would be that Fernandes replaces Alcaraz as the “promising attacking mid” who hopefully fits Martins style better, and Charles comes back after a loan much improved and takes Ugochukwu’s spot when he returns to Chelsea. Definitely possible that is what the club is thinking. Very unlikely that they keep all the current midfield (minus Charles even) and sign Fernandes and O’Riley
Record in Portugal now running the story too https://x.com/record_portugal/status/1824897812074512658?s=46&t=f0hgNyKSvvOD5qjGLJhsXQ
It’s also possible that O’Riley is just too expensive and Fernandes is the cheaper option that hopefully allows us to address other positions as well (keeper being the obvious one). If the option was O’Riley as our only signing til the end of the window or Fernades and a keeper then I think most people would opt for the latter. That’s not even considering another striker or wide player which people also want
