I'm not 100% on if he'd be good in a single pivot but I suppose our midfield will hardly ever leave him isolated. The link suggests to me that we want a midfielder who can compete in the air - this is something he's thrived in over the last 4 years despite not being huge. So even if it's not El Aynaoui I think we will be bringing in a 6 who's more capable in this aspect.
Sunderland is working to finalize Armand Laurienté from #Sassuolo.Offer of €18m+bonuses.Negotiations nearing an advanced stage.#SAFC
For me, critical positions to strengthen are GK, RB, CB (X1) and striker. RB because need cover for Hume and Huggins doesn't count (injuries not talent) CB because we need to replace mepham. I'm going to be in the minority, but I reckon others can make the step up including o9 (plus Ballard, Alese, Delt...) Striker because,well we need 3 and we only have 2 Nice to have would be a another CM Any more than that and we're just been ****ing greedy
If he's truly a target then the club think he can or think it won't be a problem. And that's enough for me, like you say he'd probably always have one of ELF, Sadiki or Diarra next to him defending.
Just sitting back and reflecting and want to say a massive ****ing well done to Speakman, Ghisolfi, KLD, Harvey, whoevers been involved. Getting 5, soon to be 6, signings AT LEAST in before the training camp is pretty impressive. Half way there. GK ; CB ; CB ; CM ; RW ; Striker to go
‘We need to replace the entire team’ is from the same place as ‘we can’t get promoted without experience and investment’ in my view. It’s a bit of a football trope that is only true until it isn’t. And given the club has succeeded precisely because it was willing to do something different to every other club going, it’s something that I’d like to see us at least attempt to disprove.
The 3rd striker may already be on the books - Abdullahi. Remember we paid, t the time, a decent fee for him and reports suggest that the club were very impressed with him once he recovered from his injury/operation.
It’s getting to the point where we will have so many new signings they will take a whlle to get to know how each other plays. Good that we’ve got them so quickly as it gives them more time. I don’t want to see 11 new signings starting against W Ham. I can see Enzo, Mayender, Ballard, Hume, Patterson, Cirkin and possibly Onien, Roberts and Mundle staring but if we do sign another 6 or so maybe only Ballard and Enzo might start and that would be too big a change.
The Premier League feels like a different beast to 10 years ago, the new style of play favours athletic players over non-athletic players with other good attributes, in that way it is resembling American sports more than ever, I wonder if we'll soon see another iteration where we can outthink the athletes with better position and tactics, and beat them that way?
Just a GK, CB x2, DM, RW and ST to go for me also can we make sure the centre backs and the DM have some height