Transfer thread for 2016-17 season

In a recent interview Poch said there could be upto 3 more players arriving before the end of the window.
We can probably assume GKN is one of them and Lopez is another. However, these are the only 2 (since wanyama and janssen) that SSN have continuously reported us having a concrete interest in, and the stories have now run on both players for some time.
However, I've not seen anything (other than potential tabloid crap) that indicates who the 3rd player could be, presuming there is one. There's been so many names, and although we take the piss out of SSN at times, they are pretty much the most reliable source, it seems.

So, who should/will that 3rd player be?

 

Adrien Silva or Rafa Silva. Or both please. One to cover Dembele. Another to cover Eriksen.

I wish.

I also doubt it'll happen. If either does, I think it'll depend on Chadli and or Bentaleb leaving.

 

More or less what I said earlier.
If we put McGee on the bench he will get the feel for the big games and if by some misfortune (or good luck for him) he gets game time then we will see if he has what it takes .

 

Rafa Silva has joined/ on the verge of joining Benfica according to reports. I don't really know much about either though to be honest, never really been a follower of the Portuguese League. Are they similar to Dembele/ Eriksen?

 

I really the hope it turns out all this delay with N'Koudou turns out to be because we were filming a Pogba/Stormzy parody video for him with Chas & Dave.

 

With both Trippier and Yedlin linked with moves, hopefully a right back - although there's not been any linked with us.

Assuming that we keep one of those two, though, it comes down to one of the following options:
* Adrien Silva - although with Sporting in the CL, that might be costly
* Ante Coric - but given the clubs being linked with him, I sincerely hope we're not gambling on their result in the CL playoff before trying to spring a Levy
* Youri Tielemans - Anderlecht failing to qualify for the CL gives us an advantage, but Burnley signing Defour could negate some of that
* Marcelo Brozovic - de Boer has said he's available, plus we have CL while Inter don't

Sporting's midfield is set up pretty closely to ours: William Carvalho is in the Dier role, while Adrien Silva is in the Dembele role - and the similarities don't end there, as Silva is also able to muscle his way past defenders when he's got the ball at his feet.

Rafa Silva, meanwhile, is pretty much Nkoudou, and it's no surprise we started being linked with him about the time that Marseilles started doing a Marseilles.

 

I can see yedlin going, but I'd be surprised if Trippier was to leave us after 1 season. IMO he's been decent for us when called up on. There's certain elements he can improve on as has been discussed numerous times, but I'd be surprised if right back was our priority position.

As for the others, you seem to be well clued up HBIC. What I'm more surprised at, is that these players you mention haven't been mentioned in anything more than foreign tabloid-join-the-dots crap. I'd have thought by now that we'd have a fair idea of who it may be with reports being a bit more concrete. If something is happening, it's being kept very quiet which is great, but nothing seems to go under the radar these days, which makes me wonder if after GKN & the goalkeeper, we're done.

 

Rafa Silva also plays Attacking midfield. N'koudou is a out and out winger.

Of the two Silva's I'd prefer Adrien as he could effectively cover both Dembele an Eriksen as he plays CM or AM.

I would love to see Coric come in, but I don't see the bully buyers of the pre allowing for that to happen. Same with Youri Tielemans.

 

Braga primarily played Silva on the left wing for the past couple of seasons, and the pair of them are both known to dribble and pop up in the box to chip in with some goals.

The Sun have been linking Coric with City, which is a large part of why I hope we haven't been playing transfer market chicken.

 

Good news about GKN but surely any further incomings will need to be offset by some more outgoings? Last season was the first in ages where we showed a net loss and even that was rendered defunct by the end of January when we sold Townsend for £12m for a season's net gain of around £5m.

The dilemma is that there appears to be little interest in potential departees - Chadli was linked to Swansea but that went very quiet after they signed Llorente and Baston. As for Bentaleb I personally haven't heard of any interest whatsoever. A couple of foreign clubs have expressed a desire to take him on loan - perfectly understandable for a 21 year old who didn't play at all last year - but the club are apparently insisting on holding out for a permanent transfer.
They are the only two 'assets' at the club who are likely to fetch £10m or above - other potential departures would barely make a dent on Levy's audit sheet.

 

A bit more desperation from teams at the wrong end of the table should shift the Deadwood. Expect the Gooners and Spammers to be bidding for our cast offs in a week or so.

 

There's no way we'd sell anyone other than Fazio to either of them. I personally don't want Bentaleb to leave and if he must - certainly not to a PL rival as he has the makings of a superb midfield engine perfectly suited to this league. West Brom are sounding increasingly desperate as the days tick by, but Chadli is just not a Pulis player. Doesn't kick people enough.

 

We've allegedly rejected a £10m offer from Schalke for Bentaleb, either because it doesn't quite match the £12m valuation we put on him - or we remembered that we got £15m for Townsend and have adjusted the asking price accordingly.

 

SSN reporting we're chasing Yarmolenko (again). I guess it wouldn't feel like a transfer window without us being linked to him.

Confused as to where he'd fit in tbh unless the rumours of one of Son/Eriksen possibly heading for the exit carry some water.

Glad to hear we've rejected Schalke's bid for Bentaleb. If Pritchard is worth £8m, Nabil is worth at least double that.

 

Then again, if we bought Wanyama for £11m isn't it possible that Bentaleb's worth £10m?

 

Wanyama had a year left on his contract, Bentaleb has four years left on his.

 

Not really - contract length plus age plus amount of first team football he already has under his belt. He isn't that far off Wanyama's total PL appearances and he's barely 21. My preferred comparison is to Pritchard who sold for £8m with a grand total of 50 minutes of PL football under his belt. As the astronomical fees for Sterling and Stones demonstrated, the market is hugely potential-driven nowadays, and potential is something Nabs has in abundance.

 

Without knowing the full details personally I think rejecting £10m was a mistake. Outside of England clubs aren't going as over the top with transfer fees, and frankly I'd rather we sent him abroad to a non-competitor even if it meant achieving a lower price. Bentaleb isn't getting in our first team, and barring major injuries doesn't have much hope of doing so. Yes he did well for us for a season, but not so well that the whole world stood up and took notice, outside of Spurs fans he's not rated highly at all, its also clear the club don't rate that potential very highly otherwise we wouldn't even entertain selling him.

Clubs with a decent scouting network will be more than capable of finding alternatives to Bentaleb for £10m, and probably even better players for that price if there's a discount to be had from contracts expiring (as you point out).

 

As we haven't been linked with a Barca second stringer for a couple of weeks, we're now being linked with Munir El Haddadi - even though he signed a new contract just last month.

 

It's a real shame about Nabs because I do believe there's a great player in the making with him. His one full season was brilliant when considering his age and still only at 21, he's got more learning to do before he reaches his prime. £10m for a player who we paid nothing for at a time where he was released by about three other clubs and is now deemed surplus to requirements here after an injury hit season is probably fair price, in fact it's probably very good money. It's not going be easy to demand premium for a player who's been openly told he's no longer needed at the club and barely featured in the previous campaign, I'm not sure the price that Levy has in mind but I'd take a guess and say if Schalke came back in with a slightly improved offer, it'll be enough for Levy to accept. Whichever price he goes for though, I hope the club puts in a sell on fee, because I reckon with the right development and game time, he'll be worth at least double in a couple years time.