Aye he’s on the upper end age wise but still got prime to come. We will have to ‘break character’ for a couple realistically. I’m still thinking we may shock and buy someone we are still convinced is above our level. Lewis Ferguson is the one that keeps coming up amongst the lads, it’s a logical link because he plays 8 through 10 and would fit exactly with what we all saying about allowing Enzo to play deeper. We’d need a more or less all out DM to then release them both, and the DM would need to be Kante like in terms of ground coverage. Ferguson would of course cost more than the Jobe fee. If we assume we were already putting 20m or so into that position plus Jobe, not impossible. Ferguson Larsson Lamine Camara Kenny Taylor Ivan Ilic Matty Svanberg Luca Sucic These are the main midfield names our group have been dissecting. We haven’t been linked with any of them like I really like Ferguson, Taylor and Ilic.
Think we needed to regardless of Jobe leaving though, so now need at least 2 players in - rather spread out the fees than pay that much for any one player.
Could probably get Taylor and Sucic for 50 combined. Any other combo you adding 10million plus to that
Anyone know why Utrecht played Adrian Blake so little? He had one goal contribution per 90 minutes last season from sub appearances which looks impressive on the face of it but I’m assuming there’s a reason his game time was so limited? Edit: I guess it could just be that he’s only 19 so they’re easing him in and using him sparingly. It’s easy to forget now that not all clubs afford a load of game time to teenagers.
I'll admit it is weird being quite calm about losing one of our best players. Guess I have finally bought into the club's philosophy. I still reserve the right to be negative. Its a Sunderland tradition, handed down from father to son.
Possibly, if their valuation of sucic has dropped from 40m then it's doable. Ilic was set to leave in January for £15m + 5m in addons so certainly more affordable. Need an out and out DM though and not sure that's the profile.
You can be as negative as you like marra,as long as you keep it to yourself and don't upset the rest of us.
I'm not as convinced as some that we'll go out and get a "starting" DM to replace Dan Neil. I'll be very surprised if Dan Neil doesn't start the first game of the season as captain. All that assumes he signs a new contract obviously.
Aye none of them are ‘proper DM’ to be honest, Taylor is an interesting one as he is a good goalscorer and link player, feels like he’d work with Enzo. He’d cost ‘half a Ferguson’ The DM slot in struggling tho think of one that’s PL ready we can nab, I really am. Would Dan, Enzo and Taylor (or similar) be ok? I think it could. Fortunately I’m not Speakman.
We absolutely should have a proper look. We should at least have him pre season with the group and see where he is at.
Jobe has gone, we move on to new talent. hoping the Aussie Rodri wants to stay and attempt PL football
Might be a bit small with nobody very defensively inclined - if we had 60% possession it's probably really viable but think we'll be pinned back and in a low block for most of the season.
Not saying we won't sign a DM by the way. We need to replace Salis in the squad. That replacement might be Nectar so we might wait until pre-season to judge him. We likely also need to replace Browne in the squad. So we may end up needing 3 midfielders. But I still think Neil will be earmarked to be a starter to begin with.
