Transfer thread for 2016-17 season

Moronho is apparently in the market for a centre back. If only we had a two-time Europa League-winning international centre back who we could offer him for £28m...

 

How good is Chaka Khan - anyone seen much of him? Is this a big step forward for them or like for like?

 

Who are you dropping, Alli or Dembele?

 

I'm going the full Bielsa on this one: Lloris; Alderweireld, Wimmer, Vertonghen; Dier, Dembele, Alli; Lamela, Eriksen, Gotze; Kane

 

No idea. Can't be all that or one of the big fish would've snapped him up. You can tell by browsing the Wanderer's thread on him that none of them have ever seen him play either as I counted at least 5 opinions on what his actual role is. The only thing they can agree on is that he is a midfielder. Beyond that - anyone's guess.

 

I was going to say the same thing. Superstars are all very well but not necessarily in our TEAM. Indeed, get a big ego in there and soon perhaps you don't have a team anymore. We must be very careful about what an individual can bring, fitting in has got to be equally important. Get Zlatan and suddenly its all about him.

 

He had a cameo in The Blues Brothers I believe. So he's older than he looks.

 

He's a Kosovo Albanian that plays for Switzerland - so he's the perfect fit for a South London team that plays in Finsbury Park.

 

Poch was spotted at last night's friendly between Holland and Ireland. Some sources say he was scouting Shane Long, based mainly on him being sat next to Long's agent, while others say he was scouting Alkmaar striker Vincent Janssen.

 

There's been tweets from someone sat near both of them (who also took a photo to prove it) who claims he/she knows Longs agent. Apparently Poch was there to watch Kevin Strootman.

 

I haven't seen much of Janssen but from what little I've seen he seems a bit like Kane - can score lots of different kinds of goals, strong off both feet, capable of making goals too, good movement. Question marks are that we'd probably have to pay quite a fee for him given his age and recent goalscoring exploits, and transfers from the Dutch League to the PL can go very much awry, though we've had some good ones recently.

Long is a handy player and a right pest to play against as he's quick and tenacious. I'm not sure he'll be joining us though.

Strootman was being linked to all and sundry a few years back, what happened? Bad injury wasn't it?

 

Wikipedia says he's only made 31 appearances since 2013!

 

Can only presume Roma want rid of him due to his long list of injuries. A fit Strootman is a class player... Problem is, he's barely been fit for about 2-3 years!

If he can be signed for a dirt cheap price then it might be worth the risk - albeit still a big one - because he's a lot better than Mason, Bentaleb & Carroll and arguably as good as Dembele & Dier in his own right but if Roma want anything over £7m-£8m I'd personally say leave it. He's probably worth £30m when fit but there's no way they'll get that.

 

The latest bunch of rumours...
* Saido Mane's been linked - which is either the papers lazily linking us to Southampton players again, or Poch thinks what the team needs most is a diving ****bag
* As we haven't been linked with any Ajax prospects for a couple of weeks, now it's central midfielder Riechedly Bazoer. That old tabloid favourite, the double signing, will no doubt rear its head by the weekend when they remember we're also linked to El Ghazy
* It's become very, very public knowledge that serial transfer target Marc Bartra's release clause has dropped to €8m, and apparently that also removes any buy-back clauses - so either we might be interested, or the last three years of transfer stories are pure hokum
* Remember how we couldn't think of a single Villa player worth signing? The papers have decided we might take a punt on Jack Grealish
* As we seem to be perpetually linked to Bundesliga attacking midfielders these days, today it's Leverkusen's Karim Bellarabi - just in time for him to miss the cut for Germany's Euro squad too
* Lastly, we've been linked with Rennes' fantastically-named centre back Sega Coulibaly - even though he has the grand total of 0 appearances for Rennes, despite being 19 years old

 

Sky are reporting we are prepared to sell Alex Pritchard. This will disappoint many I am sure, but I always felt the writing was on the wall for the lad when he was allegedly allowed to choose which club he went on loan to last season. Would a manager really allow this if he saw a player as part of his future plans ? Surely you would send the player to where you felt he and Spurs would mutually benefit ? I also felt it was significant we didn't recall him when he wasn't getting any decent playing time.

He'll get snapped up pretty quickly I would imagine and I hope he can put this past disappointing season behind him and remain fully fit and kickstart his career.

 

I was a little worried this might happen, a damn shame as I think he can be a great player but the season gone was meant to be "his season", the fact that Lamela has now become a key player while Alli has been a sensation, the room in the squad is looking very thin for anyone else to fit in.

 

He was given the choice and chose to work with Pulis? What was the other option, Blackpool?!

 

Sad news if true about Pritch. I guess it also indicates that Son and Njie will be given at least another year to prove themselves, in which case there really isn't much room at all for him in the squad, even if Chadli leaves. I think him and Mason would do very well at Bournemouth if the rumours of a double-deal are true. In fact, as long as Eddie Howe is manager there and they are at PL level, I would like to see the two clubs develop a much stronger relationship. Ideal place to send our youngsters on loan and also worth a regular look at to spot any talent we can poach - being as we are much higher up the great food-chain of football.

 

Mane doesn't surprise me at all. I think that he fits in well with what Pochettino's trying to do.
The diving would be a massive annoyance for me, though. He's terrible at it, in every sense.

Grealish has been linked with a number of clubs and I assume that part of that is his agent trying to drum up offers.
He might be a talented kid, but his off-field antics would put off a lot of people and that would include us, in my opinion.
We just cleared out a bunch of players because their attitudes weren't up to scratch.

 

The part that gets me the most about this is how "sources say" that, while Pritchard's representatives were told there was no place for him as Spurs, so far Mason's representatives have not been told the same thing.