Transfer Rumours transfer thread fact and fiction

We got away with nothing though, we paid £25m for an utterly dreadful footballer. He's got to be up (or down?) there as one of the worst LBs in recent memory.

 

Different tone on the Maguire rumours today. Yesterday it was all “Spurs are interested” whereas now it sounds more like United are shopping him around to all and sundry. Hope we don’t touch him with a barge pole, he’s completely unsuited to what we need for almost all the same reasons he doesn’t fit at United.

 

Oh if the choice of selling him or Sessegnon was indeed an "or" not an "and" choice, I'd absolutely keep him as he's even better than Sessegnon in Sessegnon's own position but in reality Emerson isn't someone who's ever going help elevate the club and team. Compare him to the likes of Walker, Trippier, Corluka and even Chimbonda and there's a considerable difference in level of quality.

 

As Tilly's Owner mentioned, it does seem unlikely such a huge turnover will happen but it is quite scary how 17 players could easily depart and we'd barely feel the losses of most. It's a terrible state of affairs at how badly our squad has declined since the Harry or Poch eras.

Lloris, Whiteman, Dier, Sanchez, Tanganga, Rodon, Lenglet (loan end), Emerson, Davies, Sessegnon, Perisic, Winks, Ndombele, Lo Celso, Lucas, Danjuma (loan end) and Richarlison.

Lloris would be sorely missed for sentimental reasons as he's a club legend. Where as Davies would be missed as a reliable squad member. Realistically I don't think any other player would cause too many to reconsider the idea of selling/ releasing/ not buying them.

Realistically though, I think Dier, Davies, Emerson, one of the three loaned out CMs and Richarlison will all stay.

 

Winks

 

I'd rather him than Ndombele or Lo Celso.

Though I actually think it could be Ndombele. I've got a weird feeling the club still believe he can come good and there was a report the other day about how he wants a final crack at Spurs, as well as another article claiming his future was 50-50 dependent on Ange's evaluation where as the likes of Winks and Lo Celso were up for sale.

 

Gilberto
Zeki Fryers
Ben Thatcher
Paolo Tramezzani

Those are four worse Spurs LBs in recent memory, and that’s before bringing up obvious suggestions from other clubs like Pascal Cygan, Alex Buttner, Gonzala Jara, Armand Traore, Wayne Quinn etc

The issue with Sessegnon is the issue with so much of Poch's painful rebuild: teams were working out how to neutralise his tactics, but when refreshing the squad he was signing facsimiles of his 2016-18 squad, with Ndombele signed to be Dembele, Sessegnon signed to be Rose, and Lo Celso signed to be Dele and Lamela at the same time, when what we needed was a tactical evolution which would, in all liklihood, have steered us away from Ndombele and Sessegnon entirely

 

And Sessegnon isn’t far better than those.

He’s just crap, that’s the issue. Like a fair few of our other players, he’s a relegation standard/ Championship player.

 

Just when you think the club is turning a corner and starting to work with common sense, they go and do this bollocks.

Ladies and gentlemen, Tottenham Hotspur

COYS, Daniel

 

Given the basis of the links, at least according to Sam Mokbel and Matt Law, is "He's one of Harry Kane's matches in the England team so therefore..." it's starting to look less like we're interested and more like our name is being linked with him to drum up interest

So here's a thought: Man Utd are looking to potentially offload him to bring in Kim Min-jae, so surely the logical move for us to make is to sign KMJ from under them while they're stuck with Maguire - especially because, from a tactical standpoint, Maguire would be a horrific CB for Ange's system given his teams often have just the two CBs back when they're pushing forward and Maguire is simply too slow to not leave Romero and the GK high and dry on a regular basis

Ironically he would have been a better fit for the CCB in Conte's system, which I don't think sounds like an insult yet for some reason I think that sounded like an insult

 

Just imagine, after years of almost no serious investment in a backline crying out to be strengthened, our first act to do so is to sign pissing Harry Maguire

 

...who we could've signed for chicken feed six years ago, but instead opted to pay £42m for Davinson Sanchez that window instead

It's hard not to think that having Maguire as an option would have been so much better for our squad health, as he would've cost £12m as opposed to £42m (as that's what Leicester paid for him) leaving us with £30m to potentially spend elsewhere, he would've been a much more solid squad option at the time, and also left a non-HG spot open

 

Diario AS in Spain are saying Madrid’s pursuit of Kane is off, partly due to our asking price and partly due to Kane supposedly wanting €20m a season in wages.

Don’t give me hope like this you bastards!

 

La Liga has a salary cap in place, tying wage bills to revenue

Covid kicking the crap out of La Liga in particular is why it's in place, and also why Barca effectively took out a payday loan a couple of summers back

 

Matt Law said on a podcast that Lo Celso isn’t keen on returning to Spurs.

Oh damn… that’s a real shame

 

The annoying thing about that is he is a reasonably good fit to play as a No8 in Ange's system, as he likes his 8s to play like borderline 10s, and there would be an opening for him given Bentancur isn't expected back until November and we really need to give him the cotton wool treatment when he does return

But since Villa are reportedly keen, as are Villarreal (albeit their budget is Championship-level) it's obvious he's going to be raising capital while Ndombele continues to be a drain on resources unless the Saudi league fancies making an offer

 

There’s nothing annoying about a terrible signing wanting to leave. I hope a few more players share his desire to want out, should make it easier to bin them.

 

There's certainly something annoying about somebody wanting to leave at the same time a manager whose system he fits wanting to leave - while we have Ndombele, who has failed to fit the systems of Poch, the ubermensch, Mason, Nuno, Conte and Spaletti talking about how he wants one last crack

But presuming he does want to leave, he'd be topping up the Maddison fund quite nicely

 

There really isn't, I’d imagine 99% of the fanbase are elated he wants to leave. He’s been a dreadful signing and there were even reports a year or so ago that suggested he wasn’t liked around the place either. Sooner we’re shot of him the better. Let him go Villa and waste their physio’s time and club’s finances.

 

And maybe win them something!