Might they not think the same about us? We have a similar size and budget in the scope of the league so naturally we will be linked with similar players. It was Leeds last year and Ipswich this Have they actually beaten us to any players? Rumours are Delap. That is one. Szmodics doesn’t fit our system. We were never going to sign Greaves and Harwood-Bellis. Would have required Bednarek leaving. So they didn’t beat us to him. We weren’t in for Phillips and there is zero indication we wanted Broja either. Only our fans wanted him because lots seem to be bizarrely obsessed with ex players. We beat them to Downes. Making it 1 to 1. You’d think they had beaten us to all of our targets.
I’d understand that from a playing perspective and potentially from a manger perspective as everyone seems to absolutely lose their minds over McKenna. Physically living in Ipswich is a more questionable choice. I know I’m biased about location but Southampton is a lot more central with regards to the country
What is meant by a “verbal bid” in this case? Asking if he is for sale and about what price? But not submitting a written offer? If it isn’t progressed beyond that then I guess we didn’t like the response ?
Why? It would be confusing if he is the former because Charly is more of an out and out attacking midfielder and if we wanted to play with one of those then we could have tried using him instead. I gather Hugo can play DM, CM or AM.
Apparently a load of Chelsea U21s have been told to find new clubs. Wonder if there are any gems available
Because we now have 2 pure DMs and 3 CMs in the squad. What we don't have is AM other than Charly. EDIT - just looked and he seems to be an AM.
Think clubs only put in written formal bids if they get the impression from players agents that the player is happy to move to the club?
Whilst I'm not against selling Charly, I feel £15m and a youngster that was highly rated but seems to have drifted seems like we are being short changed. What's worse is I don't even think the club think it is that good a deal. We are doing it because our finances mean we can't have someone of that value sat on the bench, so its better to get some money to invest in players that will start, even if Charly is probably worth more.
I can only assume we have a level at which we think a deal is worth it or not. Unless Charly has requested to go. If we didn’t then Onuachu would already be gone and we wouldn’t be quibbling with them over a few million euros. Same with KWP - he would be at West Ham It just seems like people have set in their minds that Alcaraz is some kind of definite superstar of the future. When it’s only potential. And apparently potential that only our fans can really see since the offers haven’t exactly been flying in for him and the ones that have come in have not been setting the world alight The way he is spoken about you would think that in his championship games he tore the division apart and was utterly unplayable. Or at least showed that he had that potential. That wasn’t the case though
I agree that some of our fans really over rate him but I still think this isnt exactly a great deal for us. Pretty sure we paid not far off £15m for him in the first place, maybe that was euros so £12m. So a few £m profit and a player possibly for the future - not exactly fantastic is it.
Assuming Lis is sold & Bijlow comes in, then our current over 21 squad is below: McCarthy, Bijlow, Lumley, Bazunu Sugawara, KWP, Bree Bednarek, THB, Stephens, Wood, ABK Manning, Taylor Downes, Lallana, Aribo, Smallbone, Alcaraz Armstrong, BBD, Archer, Sulemana, Stewart, Onuachu 25 players, although ABK & Tall Paul are not listed as first team players on the website and providing they can pass medical examinations will both be departing this window.
Sporting and Flamengo have two of the best academies in the world, and Victor Hugo + Matheus were hugely impressive within these academies. I'm pretty excited about both, to be honest. Matheus had a brilliant season in senior football at Estoril, and Sporting fans seem gutted that he's leaving. Victor Hugo is a bit different - hasn't kicked on as well as initially believed he would, but is still seen as a massive talent and could easily launch himself into being a brilliant player for us. And Flamengo have been a bit all over the place in recent years, so maybe not the best environment for talent to develop. I wish we cheekily asked for Lorran from Flamengo instead - not that they'd ever say yes to that, as he'll be a world-beater in a couple years.
I don’t know how it works with player exchanges. I thought swaps didn’t happen anymore precisely because of PSR / FFP. Because as you say there would be a small profit on alcaraz and Hugo would be recognised at 0 in the accounts and then any sale would be recognised down the line at 100%. Which doesn’t help us now Unless they do what the other clubs do and have us pay 10-15m for Hugo and Flamengo give it all back as 25-30m Alcaraz fee. They get circa 15m profit in their accounts and we get something over 20m profit. But the cash all remains the same. It would be silly not to do it this way - but that isn’t how it’s being reported
If there is anything in that rumour of the 19 year old Ukrainian keeper then maybe he comes in for Lumley. Not sure we want him anywhere near the set up. But that was probably just part of the general goalkeeper speculation
Those are over 21 players only, if we sign that 19 year old he wouldn’t have to be registered Any player who is 21 or younger on the 1st of September doesn’t need to be registered
