I'm sorry but we can't turn up our nose at 7.5mil euro for a player of his calibre. He could be worth £15-20mil come next summer... If he can buy into our project and ambition like RvW has then hopefully this would nudge other players our way
Omg! That sounds like a pretty solid link, but surely too good to be true!? Just looked him up- Alderwield has played in 5 of Belgium's 7 Euro qualifiers! Considering he has been competing with Kompany; Vermaelen and Vertongen for his place he must be some player? I can't believe the calibre of players we are being linked with! Altho signing a Defender is never a signal of attacking intent, he does sound like a technically good footballing CB.
To cover a few things: Ryan Harrison: Is a keeper who is currently a free agent, after playing last season in the South African Premier League for Bidvest Wits, this wouldn't be the first time we've been linked to him, Sky reckon we wanted him to cover Ruddy's injury.However, I suspect Sky are talking out of their backsides (surely not?), as he was only ever third keeper at Bidvest Wits, albeit playing 10 games and apparently 'impressing'. He's 27, transfermarkt value him at just £100k, so he can't be that great (Rudd is valued at £450k). No chance he's being consider to replace Ruddy, but as a third choice I guess he's younger than Nash at least, but I get the feeling Nash is a done deal we're just keeping it quiet? If we were to go into next season with Bunn, Nash and Harrison as keepers, I'll be a rapid convert to the Hughton-out camp, but I don't think that's likely. Toby Alderweireld: Young, valued at £8.8m, so to get him for anything sensible (by our standards) would be incredible, but I agree with Carrabuh that I'm not sure we can justify the outlay on a CB. Unless Hughton thinks that he's the signing that'll give him faith his defence doesn't need two shielding midfielders: Martin-Alderweireld-Bassong-Whittaker ----------------Fer----------------- Snodgrass-Hoolahan-Toivonen-Pilkington ---------------RvW------------------- ? As to strikers, we've still got 6-7 weeks to bring them in, I'm sure the club have several players they're chasing. I can't really see us playing 4-4-2, so 3 solid strikers would probably give us enough options, especially if we were to sign someone like Toivonen who could be an emergency striker should we get seriously desperate.
Where's the €7.5m figure come from? £6.5m for him would be a steal, although (oddly) still an expensive one.
Are you joking? That is DH's point. With a top class defence, one Def Mid is plenty, so you can pick attacking players to rip apart the opposition!
I certainly cannot slate Hughton for his transfers, that's his one big redeeming feature. My beef has always been with his playing style. Don't confuse me with those panicking about the lack of signings, I'd far rather we be patient and get right ones.
Don't forget wes has been playing deeper for Ireland, maybe Hughton might give him a go in that role next year? But more likely I see Howson given more freedom and less rigidity in the midfield
Don't get me wrong, I quite like Howson, but he is a far more rigid player than Hoolahan. Hoolahan looks left, right forward and backwards, Howson is very much face front and forward.
Yeah, perhaps looking at that XI I've put together, I guess Howson would probably be a slightly better fit than Hoolahan, but for the point I was making, I'd rather have Wessi's flair.
I totally agree, I think we're a better team with wes than without him as when we're playing well he's always at the centre of it.
But if it's true he put in bids for 4 of our players last summer all completely undervalued, why not put our foot in it
That is a brilliant looking line up, DH. Exactly what I'd like to see us play. You have Fer to run the disruption in the middle, you've got real quality in the defence to stop what gets past Fer, then Wes/Toivonen/Hoswon roaming behind RvW to pick up balls off Fer and with Pilks and Snoddy rocking the wings there would be plenty of flair and creativity for RvW to work off. Also, plenty of space for the full backs, you can have Whits booming forward, or Olsson if we get him! I'd be really excited if these transfers come off, hope Hughton would be willing to play that style.
"We realise you've got a wantaway striker, and wouldn't want him to disrupt your squad during pre-season, so we'll give you Becchio, and we'll call it even on the Steer compensation. What do you say?"
Much as I'd like it, if it's £6.5m for Alderweireld, £5m for Toivonen, ~£7m for Fer, that's probably more than our budget already blown, and Becchio would be our only other striker. Maybe this time next year though...
