Transfer thread for 2016-17 season

If you can have Stambouli, then I'm having Capoue.

 

Capoue at least had the excuse of being a member of the Fabulous Four and their dressing room rebellion against Poch. His early departure is understandable in that context. Stambouli was simply mystifying - signed to play in a position we clearly lacked options in, looked comfortable and promising whenever he played, then we decided it would be more sensible to not play him and sold him at the end of the season at a loss.

 

Pochetino seems to be no respecter of ability/form prior to injury once you are
injured, does he. Quite a list : Bentaleb, Pritchard, Mason, N'Jie, Son.

Though I suspect Son could well be paying the price for deciding to go to Rio
than anything else.

 

Harsh...but

 

It also probably didn't reflect well on him that Lamela refused to go, as did Eriksen IIRC. In his defense though, S Korea winning a medal would've meant him being permanently exempted from military service. Don't ask me how, but it does. That may have been part of the thinking in allowing him to go.

 

So we're shipping out all and sundry with about a week left in the transfer window and we're already a bit short in places.
What's the likelyhood of replacing those players with suitable quality in this short time-frame?
How many players do people think that we need to bring in, assuming that the deals in the rumour-mill are actually true?

We should make another exceptionally low bid for Berahino though, just to send Peace over the edge.

 

Son going was a no-brainer for that reason alone, for me. He was unlikely to start for us in the league, anyway.

 

I think he's probably on a beach somewhere, enjoying his retirement and laughing into his lemonade about how he beat Levy at a game of brinkmanship. New WBA chairman Guochuan Lai might be open to negotiations, although the supposed asking price of £20m is ludicrous, even in the current market.

If Mentaleb both leave, CM is beginning to look alarmingly thin on the ground. I'd say we should spend big on direct competition for Dembele. Not an up n coming youngster; established talent as Wanyama was when we signed him. I think rotating 4 CM's with Winks and Carroll as back-up should be sufficient.

I'd say the same about AM if Son and Chadli leave. Again - no faffing about on promising talents (with the exception of Tielemans); Onomah and GKN aren't likely to be anywhere near seriously challenging Lamela, Alli and Eriksen for their places. We need proper competition in those areas as Eriksen in particular looks to have fallen into a bit of a comfort zone.

Poch is clearly a 'quality over quantity' manager: 1 top drawer player for each of the untrusted partnerships is in line with his philosophy. Leaves with a trimmed but honed squad. Also leaves us praying to the God who created Darren Anderton's hamstrings that we are granted mercy for another season.

 

Sorry but we can't all claim to be in the know and it was today's standard

 

I didn't realise that Peace had buggered off as part of that whole deal.
I wonder if that makes Pulis' position stronger or weaker?

I don't see how Peace won, though.
He kept a pissed off player who's now running his contract down to leave on a free and West Brom had a **** season.
It also allegedly lead to a falling out with his manager.

I'd largely agree with this. A talented youngster might do a job as back-up for Dembele, though.

 

They're still playing the "We need to sign a replacement!!!" card a year later, as they trotted out that exact line when Stoke were in for him a few weeks ago.

 

[QUOTE="PleaseNotPoll, post: 9616196, member: 1009426"

We should make another exceptionally low bid for Berahino though, just to send Peace over the edge.[/QUOTE]

 

I really don't understand why they didn't make it a priority to cash in on him in this window.
He could sign a contract with a foreign club in January and they've sat on a talented player who's done nothing for them.
Why not sell up, preferably to someone that you don't see as a direct rival and bring in a suitable replacement? Bizarre.

 

From that point of view they would be better selling to us than to Stoke or Palace who are more their direct rivals, at the right price I would still have him, but my idea of the right price and albions would be probably be over £10m apart!

 

Good point that.

Here's hoping he dont wake up one day and decide to sell Wimmer

 

L'Equipe are claiming that we've agreed to loan Bentaleb to Schalke.

 

Win-win as long as no agreed purchase price. Does well then price goes up or he comes back in. Doesn't do well then we'll prob still get £10m next summer

 

I don't see that Son, Chadli, Mason, Yedlin or Bentaleb are going to do a great deal to improve upon last season's performance. If we sold the lot, I'd not lose much sleep. It's about bringing in Better players from the Academy or outside.

If we fail to replace them, then we've got problems. However, none of these players are central to our future. Sales are not an issue if our buying and judgment of when to rely on youth is spot on. It's going to be a very interesting week.

I'm hopeful that sales represent ambition in this stage of our development.