The only thing I can find worth a shot is a rumour surrounding Kamil Grosicki (29 year old Hull winger) and alleged news this morning that Kieran Gibbs is likely to join. Both, particularly the Hull player, hugely underwhelming. Feels like if we can't pay less than £10m, we're just not interested.
So the rumour about Das Bost and a bid of £30M+ for him is not worth mentioning. Any rumour is as good as any other rumour. Nobody save those on the "inside" know who we are interested in or what the position is in relation to bids etc. Numerous times in the past we have bought someone out of the blue, who is to say that won't happen. Call me an optimist , call me a dreamer, call me anything you want but historically there are loads of players of quality who we have bought between the 7th July and the start of the season and/or the close of the transfer window. I still believe we will get another 3 to 4 "good" players in this window. We may not get "superstars" but I'd rather have a Cabaye than a Michael Owen any and every day.
No, given its source!!! It may be pessimistic, it may be early panic, but I'm just looking at facts here. It took us so long to get Lejeune. We haggled, failed, we wanted to pay instalments, failed, so relented. It took an entire month to secure someone with one year in a top flight, anywhere. We then trotted out press releases, social media, all lauding a very average-looking signing. There's a contract on the table for Gouffran. More rumours abound that Perez, Diame and De Jong will be the competition for the No. 10 shirt next year. Sure, it may be I look back and think "what was I worried about". It may be Chelsea cough up for Lukaku and we immediately sign Batshuayi. Yay for us. But is it not possible and acceptable that someone might find the above, as of right now, suitable cause for concern?
It may or it may not have taken a month to get Leujeune (sp) over the line but we weren't just dealing with that transaction for that month. We would have been making enquiries and possibly negotiations with other players/agents/clubs at the same time about a number of other players. Therefore we could already be 1 or 2 weeks into those negotiations already and not just starting now. The key thing is whether we achieve in who we buy the players that Rafa wants and whether they were first or second or what on the list of players for that position. Others have said and I agree we are not the attraction to players that say Chelsea or Man City or United (yes Tel I put you after City) are and therefore if we want top class players we have to hope the Chelsea's etc get their first choice so we may get someone who may have been their third or fourth choice and that will take time and is the domino effect which again others have mentioned.
My concern is that we have a bunch of players who are very good or excellent in the Championship but below par/ relegation material in the Premiership. We can't buy 11 new first team players (and don't need to) and are left with a choice of allocating our funds for 2-3 top players or 5-6 unknowns/ bang average players. I'm not convinced there's much 'value' around and the issue is which route you think we should go down. Most would probably agree that a dominating CM and a proven striker (just 2 players) who we break the bank for would be a safer way than a handful of 'maybe' players. Of course the ideal is cheap/free players who are all excellent, that's not overly realistic though. I find the lack of secured loan-players unacceptable though, feels an easy way to sort out one or two issues.
Mitrovic and Perez are better in Prem than Championship If Gayle can't be the striker we need he's shown in the past he is a capable PL winger. CM and RB- I'll give you that, we totally need them. But Yedders, shelves- Prem players (I'll just ignore Colback and hope he goes away) Genuinely think De Jong is returning to play, he said all season Rafas kept contact with him and said he has plans for him. Jury's still out on him mind. Clark I've always rated and can fill in at LB, lascelles will get by, Mbemba has looked Prem class before. Lejuene's defensive stats better than all those last season whilst playing for Eibar (****ing Eibar) in La Liga. Magic hat, gouff and Atsu. Okay, need another winger. Elliot- dreamboat. Isn't a bad team to me, if we spend all summer getting 3 good players in CM, RB and LW I'd be happy.
But, if Man Utd sign Lukaku (which seems to be case) and Costa is off, then Chelsea don't release Batshuayi because they have no other strikers Cause and effect of things we have no ability to influence
That's kinda why I'm confused. Seems ridiculous that we'd get to the first match of the season relying on Missrovic and blame Chelsea's inability to sign Lukaku when we go down. Obviously this scenario is why Batshuayi is still at Chelsea, but are we just going to sit there and wait, hoping he becomes available - then hope we can beat Lyon, Monaco, Marseille, West Ham, Palace and god knows who else to his signature? I mean, we only have to look at Abraham to work out how good a tactic this is.
Only so we can re-sell him to Liverpool for £50m this time around. Reports we are closing in on Samaris now for 17.5/18m. Will mean we need to shift on some others like Hanley, Murphy, Lazaar, Haidara, Colback, and a GK
Who is this Das Bost? Or do you mean Bas Dost? AKA Big Baz. Personally I don't think we can trust him, I think he'd do a Chopra.
