Transfer Rumours transfer thread fact and fiction

Dan Kilpatrick claimimg that a deal for Jack Clarke is close and at an initial fee around £8.5m, which seems a bit of a bargain, if it's accurate...

https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/fo...rstteam-role-after-85m-transfer-a4174301.html

I'm torn on loaning him straight back to Leeds or another Championship side. If we keep him, we need to be committed to trying to giving him enough football at a level that will improve him or make sure that he gets more football elsewhere.

Recently, we've not seemed to get this right with KWP not getting enough football with us and Josh Onomah's loans not panning out as hoped. GKN has just gone backwards, whatever we've tried.

Too many recent signings have not been on the pitch enough, except for when we've been desperate......Sissoko, Janssen, Llorente, Foyth. The more senior ones have bounced back but it's more damaging to the younger ones.

 

Yeah you’d like to think that despite flopping in England he’d still attract interest from areas in Europe. Outside of Schalke/ Anderlecht a return to Fener may be an option.

A lot will also depend on our valuations for players. Janssen and GK are barely worth half of what we paid (£16m and £11m respectively).

 

This is partly on Poch.

In his first three years he was very pro-youth and gave many chances. In the last two, Skipp and KWP have had the smallest of sniffs, with Marsh and Eyoma making just one solitary cameo in the FA Cup against Tranmere. Amos in fairness may have gotten his breakthrough though, he had a strong pre-season and came on against Newcastle but then got ruled out for the season.

I said to PNP yesterday that I hope Clarke is kept and not loaned providing he gets his chances. I think a bit of youth could inject some urgency and excitement back into the side. He seems like a player who despite not being blessed with phenomenal speed, is very good at taking a player on and getting a cross in, we don’t see too many crosses into the box these days (in comparison to the Bale/ Lennon era) and so it’d be nice to add that back into our game in spells.

 

Tbh if we sold them both for a collective 10-15m and used that to cover the Clarke costs then I think that’s good business. Presuming we plan to start with two wide forwards next season that gives us Son and Moura as starters with Lamela and Clarke as backup.

 

Yeah I’d definitely take that. I don’t want to see the club making significant losses but guys like Janssen and GK just need to be moved on at the earliest opportunity.

I’d be willing to give Lamela one more season if we can’t sign another established wide forward. Fully fit he’s one of my favourite players as I love his work rate but he’s so unreliable with fitness nowadays it’s proven a massive hindrance.

 

We let Soldado go for a fraction of what we paid for him because that's what he was then worth and did similar with Fazio and 'Cheery Cheese'.

Another year will just devalue them further. Get what we can and move on, even if we have to subsidise GKN's move a bit.

 

It's being suggested that the young lad doesn't want to be loaned back. I like the attitude, it's what got Dele into the team when many thought he'd take a year or two to get first team football.

We need to be brave enough to get him on the pitch. No more flogging senior players into the 80th or 90th minute when we're 3-0 up. It's ****ing pointless (literally) and is holding back our fringe players. Unless they're getting 15-20 minutes, there's little point in putting them on and we end up with senior players with muscle injuries, who are fatigued.

 

Yeah I think we’ll keep him, he works hard and is probably a Poch favourite because of it. He can cover 10 at a push too. He’ll be fine if he can prove his fitness for once.

 

This is solely down to Pochettino.
There is a spectrum of starting XIs, with the Palace FA Cup line-up (A)
being at one end, and a PL match-fit best starting XI (B) at the other.

The job of the manager is to select starting XIs, from pre to live season,
to ensure that any potential starting XI, for both match fitness and
competitive game time in their legs, is closer to B than it is to A.

That process must start NOW, not the first week in January.

 

I agree. Last season it was imperative that we got as much as possible out of players who hadn't been to the WC, to protect those who had. It didn't happen enough, until we had no choice because there was nobody else left.

Last season, despite his injuries, Harry Kane played 300 minutes more than Lucas Moura. Trippier played more than Moura...and Trippier was carrying an injury and we had 2 other options (3 if you count Foyth).

Llorente played the equivalent of 7.5 PL games - 685 minutes. No matter his obvious limitations, that's just wrong. When we're 4-0 at 60 minutes, Kane comes off. He needs protecting, possibly from his own ambition.

 

It's almost as if Poch has become too scared to experiment/ change unless he has zero choice in the matter, which is odd considering in his first three seasons he:

Binned off established players who were underperforming.
Promoted lots of youth.
Altered certain players' positions (Dier to DM, Alli to CAM/ LW)
Changed the formation for practically a whole season in 16/17 and then reverted back in 17/18.

 

Ligue 1 Rando Watch
Ahh, it's been a while, hasn't it?

Estadio Deportivo (bloody hell, another Deportivo to add to the list...) are reporting we're one of a half dozen clubs interested in Rennes midfielder Benjamin Bourigeaud, with Rennes entertaining offers of €15m (although Sevilla are already testing the waters with a €12m bid)

While he isn't the most exciting name to be linked to us recently, and definitely not the most exciting Ligue 1 player we've been linked with lately, he certainly strikes me as a useful addition to the squad as he had a good return of nine goals and ten assists in all competitions last season, but what makes him useful is those weren't all in one position but as a central midfielder, both wings, and as a defensive midfielder

Here's a thought...
Can somebody suggest to Levy that we form some kind of Special relationship with Genk? Seriously, the list of players that have gone through that club is insane

...and, yes, I do remember that Sander Berge exists

The Dani Alves Conundrum
I know the thought of bringing in Dani Alves on a free appeals to a few people on here, but there's an angle that people are overlooking: with Alves leaving PSG this summer, this potentially has the knock-on effect of Thomas Meunier deciding to sign a new contract at the club as, with Alves departing, he would become PSG's first-choice right back instead of someone who routinely got dropped in favour of Alves for the important matches

 

I'm ITK:

 

New Juventus boss Maurizio Sarri has identified Tottenham right-back Kieran Trippier, 28, as the player he wants to make his first signing but faces tough competition from Napoli who have already made contact.

 

And the Italians are supposed to know all there is about defence.

 

Music to Levys' ears. < bidding war >

 

So Aulas said that if Lyon sign a CM that would likely signal the departure of a CM...

 

Scandi Watch
So it's two Skovs for the price of...well two actually, as not only are we once again being linked with Copenhagen's Robert Skov, but the Mirror are linking us with Nordsjaelland's Andreas Skov Olsen, and the similarities don't stop there: both play on the right flank, both had prolific seasons (24 goals and 6 assists for Robert, 19 goals and 3 assists for Andreas) but the key difference is that while Robert is a full international and contracted until 2022, Andreas is an U21 international and contracted until next summer - in other words, Levyable

 

Reports that Lyon have bid for Jordan Veretout, as well. Things would appear to be starting to roll............

Please let it be us!