I see Can't Control has left Wet Sham - I should think we'll see the first of the rumours linking him to us soon.
Some suggestions I'd put forward of players to have a look at for next season are ** First Choice GK Kevin Trapp Eintracht Frankfurt (injured?) GK Maarten Stekelenberg Roma ** LB - Izaguirre Celtic ** LB/CB - Figeroua Wigan CB - Sokratis Weder Bremen CB - Lescott Man City CB - Vermealen Arsenal ** CB - Jim Larson Club Brugge DM - Jiracek Hamburg ** AM/LM Townsend Tottenham AM/LM Dries Mertens PSV ** AM/LM Inui Eintracht Frankfurt ** AM/LM Huszti Hannover96 (injured?) AM/RW Salah Basel AM/ Aaron Hunt Weder Bremen ST/LM Ibou OH Lueven ** ST Garry Hooper Celtic ST Arouna Kone Wigan
I know we don't particularly need wingers but Townsend would be a fantastic buy/loan, sadly I can't see Spurs letting him go.
I remember hearing about Jiracek... Where have I heard of him? Did he have a good international tourney recently? Also, I think Figueroa is available on a free.
Jiracek is a Czech international played in Euro 2012 and scored a couple of goals. He has long hair and a beard, hard tackler, but now we've got Boateng I doubt they'd go for him.
I don't know a lot about some (most) of the foreign-based players, so I'll leave them without comment. Here are my thoughts: Strikers: Hooper is a great shout, along with Blackburn's Rhodes and Burnley's Charlie Austin. I've cooled a bit on Kone since discovering that he's nearly 30. He'd do well for us, I think, but I'd prefer a younger striker. I can't quite make up my mind whether Adam Le Fondre would be worth a go too. Centre backs: I'm not sure we need another one, certainly not an expensive (in wages or transfer fee) one like Lescott or Vermaellen. Hangeland and Amorbietto, with Burn and Senderos (and Hughes, if he stays - I'm not convinced he will) doesn't leave us short at the back. Left backs: Izaguirre is interesting. Figueroa is 30, and I think we need someone younger. My first choice would be to try to prise one of Swansea's two left backs, preferably Davies but I'd take Taylor, from them. Central Midfield: Huddlestone is the obvious choice that we've all been talking about. Maloney from Wigan would be good, but again I'm a little put off by the fact that he's turned 30. I'd like to see us sign someone established like those two, plus a younger up-and-coming option from the lower divisions to be a squad player and fight for a first team place. My two favourites (as I've just posted on the other thread - sorry!) are Harry Arter from Bournemouth and Jose Baxter from Oldham, but there are probably others out there who wouldn't break the bank and have a decent chance of turning into good Premier League players. Keepers: I'm not really thinking past Stek at the moment, due to all the rumours. I'm going to be so disappointed if it all comes to nothing again!
I don't think we need another CB, if Burn gets a squad number we'll have four not including Hughes. Not sure why everyone thinks we'll be able to sign Vermaelen? I know he's out of favour but he's still their club captain.
Watch a lot of European Highlights and these players have impressed. AM/LM Dries Mertens PSV ** Out of my list the one I'd really like to get would be Dries Mertens (26) from PSV for me he'd be a good replacement for Dembele, some people would argue he's more of an Attacking Midfield than Central Midfielder. I expect one of the top clubs to come in for him, both Arsenal and Tottenham have been mentioned, but I think we'd give him more playing opportunities. AM/LM Huszti (30) Hannover96 (injured?) Take the place of Petric if he leaves AM/RW Salah(20) Basel impressed during Europa Cup Run - Aaron Hunt AM Weder Bremen (Dempsey like player) but has had a bad muscle injury which might effect form. AM/LM Inui Eintracht Frankfurt ** Takashi Inui (24) as a replacement for Dempsey, has the same qualities for ghosting in to score goals, but also good at linking play through midfield. CB - Vermaelen Arsenal ** CB - Sokratis Weder Bremen, CB - Jim Larson Club Brugge Vermaelen has lost a bit this season due to injury and being played at Left back, rumors Arsenal would take £5m, he would have been my choice but I suspect with getting Amorebieta we won't be interested. Sokratis (Papastathopoulos 24) impressed during Euro2012 and Larsen (Denmark 27) good solid Center backs, comfortable on the ball. ST/LM Ibou(26) OH Lueven ** Plays for a mid table Belgium club but has a good scoring record as a second striker and is good at linking the attack and has lots of assists GK Kevin Trapp(22) Eintracht Frankfurt (injured?) really impressed me as one of the best young keepers I've seen.
I think Burn will go on loan again next season, Jol knows that the gap from Premier League to League One is far too big to bridge in one season. Hopefully he can stay with Yeovil in the Championship for a season or two and come back ready to take Hangeland's place who will be hitting 35/36. I, like everyone else, would love to see Huddlestone finally come, and as Spurs are planning a clear out this could be the window it finally happens. In my opinion, we still need at least one creative CM to partner Boateng/Sidwell and one striker to either play alongside Berbatov or challenge him for a place in the team, as having Petric as our only out and out striker on the bench is the best, depressing.
how about this guy: Artjoms Rudnevs i understand we were linked to him a while ago and he has scored a bundle of goals in the Bundesliga this season for Hamburg. seems like he has got pace and he looks like a good finisher. Maybe a partner for Berbatov?
I don't particularly want another winger as we are ok in that position but if available I would def take salah of Basel he looked awesome in the Europa cup and tore spurs apart looked good technically and had bags of pace. Also for a creative midfielder stocker of Basel looked immense both young as well. Though I think they will both go to larger clubs than us.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/iffc Good interview with MJ, very revealing. He says he can't sign players like Enoh and Frimpong as "that would use all of the money we have for transfers". So it doesn't look like we have massive amounts to spend, as we suspected. He did, however, allude heavily toward more signings. He also talks about his future and, as we all know you can't rely on everything said in interviews but Jol sounded very positive and committed.
That doesn't sound good. Surely those two would only cost approx £8 million combined? You can't stay in the Premiership with a total summer outlay of £8 million, surely? I know they might not do it but Cardiff are looking at spending about £25 million - although probably coming from a lower base to be fair. Even so that's a pretty paltry sum.
Having missed last weekend’s game being at the ’Test Match Special’ and then this week being in Iceland (the country !) I’m just catching up. And very nice it seems so far, not least because we’re getting our targeted players in from the outset. However, like others I was surprised to see us being linked to wingers. Babel ? Couldn’t score for toffee. Downing? Perhaps last summer when he and/or Henderson were mooted in a swap with Dempsey but wouldn’t be keen now - he looked a bit chunky in our recent game against L’pool. Also like others I don’t think we need another CB but would agree to a LB, an attacking midfielder and a Striker (please not Brent but would be happy with Hooper as suggested by Captain). Midfield remains the key though. Frimpong I assume is out given his tweet that he’s please to be back at the Arsenal AND is going to have surgery after being injured (again) in the Swansea game. Enoh I think could be more attack minded (the only real glimpse we saw of this was in the Newcastle away game before he had to come off) now that Boateng is with us. It seems as though money will be an issue though and free transfers might still be the order of the day. So I’m sticking with my original suggestion of Brunt from West Brom.
So we rake in an estimated £25m last season, selling our two best players, and Jol doesn't even have less than half of that to spend? No wonder he wants to bugger off. No PL club can survive on that sort of budget.
The comment about blowing our whole budget on Frimpong and Enoh might just be a negotiating position, not giving other clubs the idea that we've got pots of money to burning a whole in our pocket. Or am I just clutching at straws now?
Yes. Does Jol expect other teams to believe we just sold our two best players and don't have money to spend? If the money was there he wouldn't be able to hide it, obviously the money has been re-invested in renovating the stand. Our three signings done on the cheap so far represents this.
If we have reinvested the money from Dembele/Dempsey back into the stand, I guess the good news is that the increase in TV revenue will cover almost the whole of the rest of the cost of the stand just in one season. I crunched the numbers and in a worst case scenario (i.e. finishing bottom and a very unlikely no increase in overseas TV revenue), TV revenue will go up by £10m next season. To be honest, there is no excuse for us to not have some money to spend this summer. Although I guess maybe the increase in Berba's wages might put a sizeable dent in our budget?
We did the same last season getting in Petric and Rodallega on free transfers early and Riether on loan in July. Then it went quiet for a few weeks then all the rumors went into overdrive, and we ended up, losing out on the likes of Benteke, Lukaku, Chadli, Boateng, Douglas, Stekelenberg. Before getting last minute deals on Berbatov, Dejagah, Richardson. But losing Dembele and Dempsey. And then more loans and frees after that. I reckon it will happen again.
