Blimey, saw a report that we are aiming to sign one of Lavia, Caciedo or Tchouameni in addition to Rice. https://tbrfootball.com/report-arse...-86m-star-if-they-miss-out-on-two-pl-players/
Congrats, never took any of the rumours in seasons past too seriously as it wouldn't improve the teams mentioned enough to warrant the outlay involved. Arsenal were always the club I feared deciding to start sniffing around as he's been the type of player you've been missing since Viera.
I hope we keep Partey just for another Season. As I think... -------Rice------------Partey-------------Odegaard-------- Would be an outrageously good midfield trio. (I know they may opt to cash in now and go after Lavia/Tchoumeni as Partey is injury prone and getting older.)
The difficulty with Partey (putting aside his impending case) is that he has 3 Saudi clubs interested in him, all of whom have offered to treble/quadruple his current wages. And there’s interest from Juve too, who Fabrizio said he would open to moving to. If we get an offer of around £35m+, I think the club will sell. However, it means we will need more work to do to our midfield. I’d prefer we keep Xhaka but don’t think that will happen.
Of the two , I would also prefer to keep Xhaka over Partey. But if we do bring another DM in I think we can lose both Xhaka and Partey and still be well covered DM would be Rice Jorginho +1 (Lavia?) I'm not of the view that Rice will play further forward as some are. Actually think this is the set up for next year in most games (starter/back up) -----------Havertz/ESR-----------------Odegaard/Vieira -----------------------------Rice/Lavia(?)
This would be very good news - Nwaneri is a huge talent and it looked like he was going to prized away by City or Chelsea.
last I heard the case was not going to trial. (There is no impeding case) Thomas Partey is too good though - for six months last Season he was as good as any DM in Europe. He just can't maintain a high number of games. I feel like he's too good to just let go. Also Rice - Haverts and Odegaard as a midfield would be fine in Europe but would get bullied by many EPL teams.
This is great news. My friends son is in the Under 20's and has been raving about Nwaneri for a while. He's a special talent.
The guys ball winning ability is insanely good. He could play RB, CB and DM from what I have seen of him. For the PL he could be an extremely good RB in our system linking with Saka. Ben White has been excellent for us, but he's got a fight on his hands to keep this guy out of the team if we sign him.
Rice deal is delayed over when the payment is fully paid. We have to realise we are dealing with David Sullivan, a man who made his fortune as a pornographer, exploiting women and giving them a fraction of the money made off their bodies and then dumping them as soon as they weren't attractive enough to make him cash. He won't care in the slightest about Rice or what he wants. He'll want it all his own way.He's a vile human being and it would be best to just pay the money quickly and then shower for a year to wash off the contact with him.
Not convinced this is an ‘excellent fee’ as Charles Watts has reported, but it’s ok. Considering how influential he was for us last season, and the leadership/experience we’ll be missing in his absence, I think we should really be looking for more though.
Having bought Rice you have to ask how often Zaka would play for his wage. Sometimes it's better to get the wage off the books and get a decent sale fee in.
For sure but I’m concerned about losing too many senior heads/leaders in one window. If we get another seasoned midfielder in, I’m fine with him going but we still need more depth in the middle even with Rice’s impending arrival.
I'm concerned about us losing Xhaka and Partey in the same window. When they played together they were excellent. I can take losing Partey because he's injured far too often. But Xhaka was brilliant in that MF last season and he will be a big miss.
Great signing, if you lose Party no problem now, if Xaka goes then the team/structure should be the same or possibly improved either way.
If Xhaka and Partey go, which now looks likely. I think we'll move for Lavia. Chelsea have been strongly linked to Caicedo, but there's no deal there yet. So you never know, seeing as we're splashing the cash, we might go all out and try and get him too.
IN reality we've signed replacements to Partey and Xhaka if they both go. Havertz replaces Xhaka, Rice replaces Partey. It's a debate on whether that is an improvement. My view is that Havertz will be an improvement over Xhaka in an attacking sense from the attacking midfield position and that Rice overall is an upgrade on Partey - but that is due o consistency and availability more than anything. I think Partey's best is better than Rice can attain. However, even with these replacements to two potential leavers, it still means we've not added any depth. I am less worried about Havertz getting injured because I think ESR can play that role really well, but if Rice gets injured? Jorginho is decent but in a big game vs the likes of City? Not so sure. For that reason , if Xhaka and Partey leave, I think we need another defensive midfielder.
