As per Romano, one of the Mansourites' board is holding up the Savinho deal, thinking it would be another Cole palmer An issue that board member presumably didn't have with any of Morgan Rogers, Liam Delap, James McAtee, Taylor Harwood-Bellis...
Di Marzio says that Bologna are looking at Bryan Gill and Manor Solomon as options if their bid for Jonathan Rowe doesn't go through (which it won't, because Marseille are dicks)
Miguel Delaney says we've identified Maghnes Akliouche as a Savinho alternative Just a reminder, Akliouche was linked earlier this window as a Kudus alternative Also the minor detail that Akliouche is a 10 that Monaco pushed onto the right wing last season
When it comes to Savinho, Fraudiola reportedly has no issue in letting him leave as he wants to trim the squad and has no issue in letting players who want to go leave - but somebody on the board, widely presumed to be Soriano, is holding things up And honestly there's no logical reason: if they're worried about another Cole Palmer why have they let the likes of Morgan Rogers leave with zero fuss, and if they're worried about their investment...they're outright lying as they paid £30m to themselves for someone Troyes never played
Eze covers both 10 and LW - more likely to play in the former position in the immediate future of course, due to other injuries. But I’m not sure we need another winger if we get him, to be honest. We have a lot of players…Tel, Odobert, Johnson can all play LW and are fit, and Richy has played there too. On the right we have Kudus and Johnson fit and Kulusevski a potential name there too, depending on how Frank sees him. So with that, Eze makes me happy with our options for the players around the striker. LCB/LB needs to be the priority for the end of the window. I’d argue one for each of those positions but we desperately need to sell some players too!
Have to wonder if that's how Alkiouche fits in: he primarily plays as a 10, though Monaco pushed him out to the RW That way we have plenty of options to play as a 10 in Eze, Deki, Kudus and Akliouche but also the ability of a few of them to switch roles during games given they can all play as wingers too
I generally find him to be a bang on, had a few wronguns but gotta be around 85% reliable I’d say. Of the perceived ITKs out there he’s probably the only one I’d trust the word of.
I think Bissouma, Solomon and Gil are the only players we need to sell. The last is tricky as he is recovering from injury. I think the other two will be gone by the window end.
