Genoa are reportedly trying to negotiate down our £8.5m/€10m asking price for Djed Spence Shouldn't they be more concerned with Albert Gudmundsson failing to understand that nei means nei?
Other potential clubs Albirex Niigata DC United Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo Inter Miami Jubilo Iwata Minnesota United Sagan Tosu Tokyo Verdy
No pressure for Archie Gray, given the number 14 shirt to join the list of great players such as Ivan Perisic, Luka Modric, David Ginola and of course, Clinton N’jie.
The good ol’ ITKs have resurrected in recent days. Couple of them are implying Doue is very keen and just waiting for the green light from clubs. I would usually say take that stuff with a huge pinch of salt but Ally Gold and others are mentioning we do have a keen interest in him. He also says Luton and Oxford are both keen on Donley for next season. Lankshear’s also had interest but we’re debating whether to loan or not as keeping him another year qualifies him for CG/ HG (I’d rather we loan him, I prefer development over quota filling, it’s rarely if ever caused us issues anyway). Dortmund are sniffing around Moore (on a permanent I think) but right now Moore’s happy at the club. Paul O’Keefe says Ange wants a couple more in sooner rather than later.
To be brutally honest I don't see a path for anyone in the near or distant future, despite this being a current golden patch for our academy. I've just lived in hope we'd see a few make it but no manager since the early days of Poch has given me the feeling they're willing to invest proper time in our academy players. They all seemingly the lack the bollocks and would seemingly rather persist with giving game time to certain squad players that don't/ didn't have long term futures. Bringing in Werner again more or less shut the door on Moore for this coming season as it is anyway.
I get what you say about Werner (I don't rate him as highly as you think I do), but one of the only reasons I was in support of signing him was that it gave Mikey a year to develop, either with the first team or on loan, before integrating properly in 25/26. So I saw it as only temporarily closing that door. Signing Doue closes it permanently, it's a huge difference.
I don't think Werner's arrival helps Moore in the short term at all. I don't believe players develop without playing games, definitely didn't work for KWP and Moore's chances of game time seem slim-to-none this coming season. It's unlikely we'll loan him out too, can't even do so until August and then it's rare to see 17 year olds go out on loan these days. If we didn't sign Werner then it's possible Moore could've got some game time in Europa this season. If Doue is to be the next big thing then I can live with a player like that blocking other's pathways but I don't like poor players like Werner or Emerson getting chances over promising players. Though it only closes the door permanently if Ange sees Doue as the long term LW heir. He played LW, RW and AM for Rennes last season so it's hard to say what our plan for him will definitely be.
Yes, given Moore is a LW while Doue is a CM/AM. If Doue is impeding anyone's path to the first team, it would be Donley or especially Devine However, there are certainly obvious awkward questions about minutes if Doue arrived, as his best positions have either Maddison or Sarr starting in them, and in the case of the former Bergvall is obviously going to want minutes too
The path into the senior squad has nothing to do with new signings of squad players. The better the academy pipeline functions, the better the squad becomes (more competition for squad incumbents) . Similarly as a PL top 6 side, Spurs have a guaranteed 46 game season minimum (plenty for a manager who can actually do squad management) .
Ajax have been told to slash their annual wage bill from €75m to €50m Got to be a way to take advantage of this...
A worrying amount of people tempted by Federico Chiesa being available for £25m He's been a shadow of the player he was at Fiorentina since doing his ACL in early 2022, so realistically the interest is based on how he looked three years ago - while ignoring his injury issues and how ineffective he's looked playing Allegri's Meloniball
Was chatting to a Leeds friend about Archie Gray. Sounds like a top prospect. He watched a fair bit of us last season (started semi following us after we pinched half their team in the early noughties) and his analysis was quite interesting: Archie's versatility means that he is very comfortable starting at RB but pushing into CM in possession, which is exactly how Ange wants his FBs to work. I find Porro is weaker than Udogie at this, most probably due to the difference in physicality but also because Porro has a much better delivery so it makes sense if Udogie goes central while Porro goes wide. But we currently don't have the option to reverse this and have our RB go central and LB go wide, which would give us a huge tactical advantage (think back to when Jose's master plan was to have Aurier push up and Davies staying back, which was both predictable and left us lopsided.). I wonder if a left-footed Porro is on the shopping list this summer.
It's now being said that Eze doesn't have a £60m release clause, and instead there is a gentleman's agreement Hang on: gentleman's agreement? please log in to view this image
Just sketched out our ‘depth chart’ (excuse the Americanism) to get a sense of how the squad is shaping up. I included some of the more prominent youth players (some of whom may go on loan again, like Phillips and Devine) but excluded the likes of GLC, Reggie, and Spence who we can assume are leaving in some capacity. For me, the immediate needs of the shopping list are - another CB for cover - fullback depth especially if they’re left sided - another striker, as at the moment the only dedicated 9s with any senior experience are Richy and Veliz Outside of that the RW slot is a little bare, but with the market looking pricey this year a lot depends on what the club think of Solomon. Johnson is first choice out there at the moment for me and deserves the chance to show more improvement after a decent, if at times frustrating, first season. If they decide to flip Solomon for easy profit then we’ll need to go big on an elite winger IMO.
