Transfer Rumours transfer thread fact and fiction

As a counterpoint, he is a Belgian.
Sell Aurier and Walker-Peters. Sign Meunier and Aarons.

 

It took us three attempts to sign a pacy Ligue 1 winger who could actually contribute on the pitch

Hopefully it only takes us two attempts to sign a Ligue 1 right back who doesn't terrify us at regular intervals...

 

L’Equipe also jumping on the Meunier story.

Can’t really say I’ve seen a lot of Meunier but judging by his height and build, I’d guess he’s more a Corluka than a Walker. Which I think ties in to what Jose wants with regards to his FBs, he has the defensive LB in Davies and the attacking one in Sess* but only an attacking RB in Aurier**, so bringing in Meunier gives us the defensive RB in order for Jose to be able to get the mix he wants.

* providing he rediscovers his Fulham form.
** if he stays, otherwise could be Aarons if we pursue 2 RBs. Aurier’s made no secret he’d like to play for PSG again too so I wouldn’t be massively surprised if we see stories of PSG looking to re-sign him from us.

 

WARNING: This might go on a bit

One obvious advantage with signing* Meunier is that it actually aids our system of the asymmetrical fullbacks, where the back four morphs into a back three when the attacking fullback gets forward, so the Corluka comparison is certainly fitting - although the main question is who the attacking LB will be to compliment him, because Rose is surely done for and Sessegnon has basically lost a season due to injury and bedding in, and that's before pointing out how Poch was undone in no small part because he was the one to introduce the asymmetrical fullbacks but was forever lacking at least one components due to Davies, Foyth and Sessegnon all being injured at various points so the system fell apart due to requiring Danny Rose to play** in spite our attempts to jettison him in the summer

Which leads me on to the Twitter/Reddit crowd assuming that, by the end of the summer, we'll have Meunier and Aarons competing for the RB spot, which in turn assumes Aurier and KWP will both be moved on in the summer. More accurately, this leads me on to how we got the RB options wrong a couple of years ago

The thing with the Walker/Trippier and Rose/Davies rotation in their respective FB berths wasn't just for tactical reasons, as Trippier and Davies offered very different options to Walker/Rose, but the system worked deeper than that: Walker and Rose were the senior FBs, with Trippier and Davies their understudies. So when Walker left*** Trippier had grown into a capable starter - but the problem is that, because he became a capable starter, rather than sign another starting RB in Aurier we should have signed an understudy who would then step up, with Ricardo Pereira the obvious name to mention given we were strongly linked with him before signing Aurier, or if all else failed we should've gone all-in on KWP

And this is the thing: we actually got this right**** at LB last summer, with Davies as the senior LB and Sessegnon the understudy...only for the whole system to fall apart with Sessegnon arriving with a hamstring injury, Rose not leaving, and Davies getting crocked meaning that the main LB for a chunk of the early season was the one player who shouldn't have even been at the club when the season got under way

So this is where***** a pairing of Meunier and Aarons at RB works, as Meunier is the starter and Aarons is the guy to rotate in for games when pace down the flank is required or ones where Meunier's being rested, with one eye on a couple of seasons down the line where Aarons steps into the starting RB spot while...for the sake of argument let's say Dermi Lusala steps up to be the understudy

* - Because getting a signing done early doesn't sound like us, does it?
** - Waddle up the flank and, if we were lucky, back down it by the end of the half
*** - Was obviously tapped-up
**** - To a degree...
***** - On paper, anyway

 

So...

 

And the latest addition to the third annual Ndombele transfer saga...

 

I think the biggest story here is somebody considers the Wail to be Tier 3...

 

Koulibaly rumours surfacing.

Though if you think I'm gonna get my hopes up over signing one of the best CBs in Europe who’ll probably cost a small fortune in a market where there’s likely going to be financial constraints for all clubs... you’d think right

 

To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if we were in the market for a CB this summer, for a very obvious reason...okay, two very obvious reasons, given Verts is likely leaving

Poch wanted CBs who could bring the ball out from defence, so he landed on his feet when arriving here because Verts was already in place for a couple of seasons already, and during his time at the club he added Sanchez and Foyth who both play in the same way and we were linked with other CBs who fit the profile, such as Joachim Andersen

Steptonho, on the other hand, wants at least one centre back who is physically strong and has good aerial presence, be it Lucio and Walter Samuel at Inter, Rafael Varane at Los Ladrones, Gary Cahill at Chelsea, Victor Lindelof and Eric Bailly at Man Utd...you get the idea

The thing is, I just can't see Koulibaly being a thing because Napoli have been playing transfer window chicken with him for a few seasons now with them adding increasingly huge release clauses in his contract, and considering he's contracted until 2023 we'd basically have to offer £70m upfront and see if they want to negotiate - and if they don't negotiate and try and string us along, walk away because we've wasted too much time in recent years with clubs stringing us along waiting for a bigger, better bid to come along (see: Olympique Marseilles with Batshuayi, Sporting Lisbon with Bruno Fernandes)

This is why I'm keeping an eye on the whispers linking us with a move for Diego Godin, because while he would obviously be a short-term option as he turns 35 next February, it has to be said that if we did manage to get a reasonably-priced deal to have Godin come in for a season having Sanchez and Tanganga learn from playing alongside him could pay dividends

 

I definitely think we’ll be in for a CB, it’s the who that I’m not sure of just yet.

Koulibaly represents the cream of the crop for me in terms of targets but he’ll be chased by all top clubs, so to have a chance we’ll have to really hope Jose can use his influence and Levy can negotiate the **** out of a deal for him to come. It’s not impossible but highly unlikely that he joins. Still gonna get my hopes up though.

I’d take Godin in a heartbeat, been a huge fan of his for years and whilst he’s not in his prime anymore he’d still represent an immediate upgrade.

I’d also keep an eye on any Ruben Dias links. Pretty sure we were linked with him pre-Jose and now with Jose here I’d say the odds will be higher.

 

One obvious thought with the Godin rumours: if we sign him (and the word "if" is doing some heavy lifting) that also means that both Koulibaly and Dias will get a year closer to the end of their contracts, with Koulibaly contracted until 2023 and Dias until 2024, and suddenly it sounds like we're playing the long game in getting an immediate upgrade to the back four for a reasonable price this summer, and next summer we look at the long-term option with both a little more wiggle room in negotiations and, more importantly, there might be some certainty to the club's finances by then

The obvious sore point is that, effectively, if we are taking that approach we're making Diego Godin the equivalent of a Stambouli signing

 

I can`t see Koulibaly being likely, Levy prefers to sign players whose value has room to increase, Koulibaly`s value at his age is only going in one direction and that is down. Add to that the cost of getting him will likely be quite a lot and with other areas of the team also needing attention, our budget (whatever that is) will likely not stretch that far. Unless of course, a major player is sold for big money and Levy changes his spots with regard to business decisions on transfers, which is also unlikely.

 

The only other avenue to explore is that of the vulture

A lot of Serie A clubs exist on razor thin margins, and I don't mean teams like SPAL or Lecce but teams much higher in the ecosystem who are regulars in Europe such as Fiorentina and Lazio (and, on a wider note, similar can be said of a lot of teams in Ligue 1 and the Bundesliga, let alone leagues a step below such as the Primeira Liga) and this is where we possibly have an in: Napoli were nine points off CL qualification before Serie A was paused, they routinely have anything between 20,000 to 30,000 empty seats at the San Paolo, they're likely losing Dries Mertens for nothing this summer while Arkadiusz Milik is loudly talking about his pretty affordable release clause of £36m, so come July their balance sheet might not make for pleasant reading

And that's our in: if they're struggling, that gives us a little wiggle room

That being said, I do think the Godin rumours probably have a little more to them, because there's a lot more wiggle room and signing him would have significantly less impact on our summer business than Koulibaly would

 

Reported Tottenham target Ted Smith has instead decided to retire.

https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2020/04/...hy-he-has-retired-less-than-three-months-sin/

 

Couple outlets suggesting we might move for Ryan Fraser despite a lot of earlier reports saying he’s set to join Arsenal. Free transfer as his contract ends this summer.

Was brilliant in 18/19, think he came second in assists but hasn’t matched those numbers this season. As a freebie there’s no real risk and it could pave the way to try and sell someone like Lamela to free up some funds.

 

I can't really see the point in this one, even on a free.
Don't get me wrong, he's a decent player. How does he fit into the squad, though?
Son, Bergwijn and Sessegnon all play in his main position, while Moura, Lamela and Alli are competition elsewhere.

I can't see many clubs paying out for players in the summer, so we'd struggle to free up a place, in my opinion.
It's going to be a weird window.

 

It does say a lot that the immediate response I've seen is that he'd help out a lot with our HG quota rather than anything about his attributes on the pitch

The obvious advantage for me is that, if he were to sign, he'd work in much the same way Trippier and Davies did: as he can play on either flank that means Son and Bergwijn know there's someone who can come in for them if their form drops, which obviously wasn't the case for the likes of N'Jie or N'Koudou as they were in the squad so Son, Lamela or Chadli could be rested for low priority games

 

Does he count as homegrown? I don't think that he does.

 

Typical, the only non-English player in Bournemouth's midfield who isn't HG is the one we're after