Transfer thread for 2016-17 season

To be blunt the same accusation can be leveled at the majority of Premier League teams since the time Walker was in our side.

For example, take a look at the list of England since Walker's cap against Italy: Seaman came through at Leeds, Flowers at Wolves, Martyn at Bristol Rovers, James at Watford, Wright at Ipswich, Robbo at York, Green at Norwich, Kirkland at Coventry, Foster at Stoke, Carson at Leeds, Hart at Shrewsbury, Butland at Birmingham, Ruddy at Cambridge, Forster at Newcastle, Heaton at Man Utd - and that's not taking into account how Forster or Heaton had to drop down a few levels to get their careers started.

Goin a step further, various Premier League clubs signing promising keepers from lower leagues doesn't always translate into success, either because they hardly play (as happened with Kirkland and Carson at Liverpool, or Foster at Man Utd) or they get exposed as a steaming pile of Alnwick.

 

Sorry Croydon, but you've lost me. Who's this in reference to?

 

It's been reported that Hart wants to go out on loan, as Guardiola is considering other options in goal.

Let's just pretend that if it were Pellegrini soundly snubbing Hart you could picture TalkBalls going berserk with rage that some Johnny Foreigner thinks there's better options in goal than IN-GER-LUND's number one - but Guardiola gets a free pass because of reasons.

 

He's trying to sign Claudio Bravo, according to the media. Hart's definitely on the way out.
I wonder who'd be interested in signing him, though? Most of the sides that could afford him already have a settled keeper.
Liverpool, perhaps? Mignolet's probably not ideal and their new signing is injured.

 

We could do with a motivated international goalkeeper for the next few weeks - who would serve as more than adequate backup when Hugo returns...

 

So Vorm, then?

 

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New Inter coach Frank de Boer is interested in a swap deal involving Jan Vertonghen and Marcelo Brozovic, according to the media.
I'd assume that we have no interest in offloading one of our starting defenders, but if the Croatian's available, then should we be interested?
He's young, talented, versatile and we appear to be looking to shift a few of ours.

Liverpool, Stoke and Everton have already been linked with the midfielder.
Could he be suitable back-up and competition for Dembele, as we don't really have anyone else that can fill that role?

 

Interesting rumour today: reporting in Italy say that Frank de Boer is offering cash + Brozovic to take Vertonghen to Inter...although it's mainly interesting as it says Brozovic is available, and he could be a superb addition to the squad. Given the reports that Bentaleb is only going to be sold and not loaned this summer, a swap deal for those two could be a smart bit of business.

 

The pile of Alnwick is where Hotspur came from and they also have (maybe the original) White Hart Lane.

Show some respect please HBIC that's our heritage you are trashing.

 

Guys, i've just heard that Brozovic might be available in a swap deal for Jan! He sounds like some sort of gym joke!

 

Looks like we can cross off Rafa Silva, as L'Equipe are reporting he'll be joining Benfica for £12.9m. So...Tielemans?

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Meanwhile, the Spanish press are acting like children: AS (the Catalan-based paper) says we have agreed a deal with Espanyol for Lopez, while Marca (which as you can probably guess is Madrid-based...) says we haven't, no doubt followed by blowing raspberries at us before running two dozen articles saying how great Lamela would be at their favourite club in the whole wide world.

 

Are we only going for Lopez due to Lloris' injury? Seems a bit silly and unnecessary to me if so. Providing Hugo is only out for a month, I'm more than happy with Vorm in goal for a period and have McGee acting as understudy.

Besides, Vorm barely got any game time last season as the number two keeper, why on earth are we looking at a third option from an external source? Surely promoting within (McGee) is more logical and cost-effective...

 

We were in for Lopez before the injury, but I think that Vorm was being tipped to move on if it went through.
No idea how accurate those reports were, as they could easily have been adding 2+2 and getting eleventy billion, as they normally do.

 

If Vorm does well while Lloris is out, would there be an argument for rotating them to an extent so as to keep both ?

 

The argument is that with Lloris suffering injuries of late, that Vorm should be
getting more games than he has been purely for this eventuality.

 

Ah right, I remember seeing a Vorm to Celtic link earlier in the window but sort of rubbished it. I can understand agreeing a deal for Lopez but I think he'd be better off staying at Espanyol this season as I can't see Poch selling Vorm now due to Hugo's injury and seeing as it'll only be around a month or so until the latter returns, having three recognised keepers here is a little pointless. Vorm will be 34/35 next season and I'm not sure if his contract is up this or next year, so Lopez coming in the summer of '17 would make a lot more sense I'd feel.

 

Espanyol bought Roberto from Olympiakos this summer, so Lopez will see his starts limited if he stays.
I'd prefer to bring him in, loan him to a Championship club so that he can experience English football and get an older 3rd choice.
Another Friedel-type would be ideal, in my opinion.

 

Vorm was being linked with a summer departure as far back as May, while Lopez was being linked before Hugo's injury.

 

SSN are reporting that we've finally done the N'Koudou deal....