Jokanovic on January transfers: "I expect we are going to be clever in the January transfer window,we are going to try to find some additions to our squad"
The Gaffer has opened up about what he wants in the January window. Well, just a little. He told the local paper, "I need three positions, I need three players, I expect we're going to find three. All our supporters and if you follow Fulham know what we need, I don't need to repeat what we need." So, perm any three from Goalie, Centre Back, Left Back and Striker? What do you reckon?
New Year Predictions In Jimmy Husband - Left Back Tom Lees - Centre Back Dwight Gayle (at the 3rd time of asking) - Striker Out Rafa Soares - back to Porto Yohan Mollo - contract terminated Rui Fonte - on loan (to Spanish club) PS Not entirely sure about this but apparently Ragnar Sigurdsson's loan club, Rubin Kazan, haven't paid his wages for a few weeks now and he may be brought back early (he was on a season long loan). Can't see us using him and Ragnar will be more than keen to get game time ahead of the World Cup so imagine both he and the Club will try and accommodate a sale (to a norwegian club?)
Day 1 and no real rumours. Any takers from this list of Premiership players out of contract in the summer? Some 'big' names, including goalkeepers. https://footballfragmento.wordpress...r-league-players-out-of-contract-summer-2018/
There's no real stand out CBs in the list except two old blokes in Huth & Whitehead. WBAs Brunt and McAuley (again old timers who don't fit in the U29 bracket) I'd take Carzola & Carrick in a heartbeat but both have long term illnesses which I think will end their careers. There's a few we couldn't afford Mata, Young (ManU), Wiltshire. A few we could but not sure they'd be an upgrade. Marc Pugh, Charlie Adam, Two I'd like to try for Vorm (Tottenham) Sako bit injury prone ? (Palace) Rumours MF Yasmin Ayoub of Utrecht CB Sotirios Papagiannopoulos of Ostersunds
Rhoys Wiggins of Bournemouth was a superb left back who I wanted us to sign 7 or 8 years ago. He did well at Charlton but then his career seemed to stall in the last couple of seasons. He's now 30 and hasn't made any impression back at Bournemouth. If he's still got what he used to, he'd be perfect for our style of play but my nagging doubt is that I don't know why he has hardly played for the last 2 or 3 years.
So what would people accept for Sessegnon?? In a perfect world we would keep him and I honestly think the club, fans and manager want to but realistically he is destined for bigger things and as a championship team he will move on at some point... I think we would seriously have to consider a bid of £25 million 30% sell on Loan back til end of season
Part of me is reluctant to get into this, as I don't want us to sell him and I think that as long as he is happy to stay we should turn any bids down. But... £25M is way too low, even with the sell on fee as well. The answer of how much would it take has to be a ridiculously large amount, so that we only sell him if someone big is really serious about getting him. I wouldn't even start thinking about an offer below £50M, to be honest.
Captain in an ideal world we would keep him forever, I don't think anyone of us wants to sell him but realistically he will be going in the next few years! Also £50 mill is a lot, what's the highest fee paid for a championship player?? I think once we get higher than £25 mill the club will find it hard to turn down I'm just hoping we get a few extras like a decent sell on clause like QPR didn't with Sterling and maybe a loan back!
It was a strange sub by the Gaffer on Tuesday night, bringing on Soares to replace Ryan 2 minutes from the end of normal time and you could read into that a number of different scenarios. When Ryan came back on at the end of the match, unzipped his track suit top and patted the badge in front of the Hammy End I couldn't make up my mind whether it was to show commitment to the Club or his love for it and a fond farewell. Still can't decide! Perhaps the team selection for Saturday's cup tie will say something.
Talks with Ryan Fredericks about a new contract (his current one runs out in the summer) stalled, then re-opened but have stalled again and a bid of £3m has apparently been made by our old friend at Stoke. The usual conundrum of take the money now or get nothing in the summer? If he does go we of course are back to the persistent problem of limited full backs - currently the only cover for him is the 'jack of all trades' Denis Odoi or promotion for Stephen Sessegnon, who will become more than good enough but for a second half of the season push ... ? This, and the lack of any movement in signing Jokanovic's 'three priorities', may have been the reason for the Gaffer's obvious frustration and why he threw a strop at the end of today's press conference when he said, "[there are] no clear January targets and it could be good option to sack the manager if the club thinks it's competitive enough already!"
I agree, Cookie, it's almost certain that he'll move on sooner or later. Didn't we reportedly turn down more than £25M in the summer? His performances since then can only have increased his value. We should hold out for silly money, given that so many big fish are supposedly circling for him: if he has to go, supply (just the one of him) and demand (Real, PSG, City, United, Liverpool, etc all being linked to him) will push his value up. At the end of the day, it all comes down to Ryan: if he wants a particular move, it will be almost impossible to keep him (though we should work hard to get the right deal for the club); if he's happy to stay we can afford to turn down any bid and use them to get a high price in the future, just as long as we don't let his contract run down.
Looks like Michael Madl is heading back to Austria Vienna, his first professional club. Apparently he's having a medical with them next week while discussions on a fee take place - no surprise, they want him on a free! Source: https://peterlinden.live/fussball/zwei-steirische-neue-fuer-austrias-abwehr-madl-und-stangl/
At last some news that we are actually in the market. The Sun are saying that Southampton's left back Matt Targett is having a medical next week with a view to signing a 6 month loan. please log in to view this image Certainly a quality player, albeit he's had a mixed time of late because of injury. Don't believe the infamous 'Fulham medical' of old happens any more but hopefully it will be thorough enough for him to make an early start. Expect it also means some movement on the Rafa Soares situation.
He has indeed returned to Bournemouth but more rumours around over the weekend that we're looking to sign him. Wolves and Cardiff also interested. I read up a bit about him and read some comments from fans of teams hes played for, particularly Sunderland fans this season. A lot say that although hes a goalscorer hes a very lazy player, doesn't do much running off the ball etc. Thing is, if a striker is scoring goals you tend to over look his other contributions, its when hes struggling for goals you notice all his other faults. Personally I like him, he could be the first proper out and out goalscoring striker we've had since McCormack.
I watched him a few times in his first spell at Bournemouth. I can't argue with his goalscoring record in the Championship but I never really rated him from what I saw. I think that at best he'd be a player to get us out of the championship rather than to keep us in the Premier league, but if that's the case we'd be more than happy to deal with that 'problem' once it actually arose. I'm a bit ambiguous about this one. He's probably an improvement on what we've got, but I suspect that we can (and possibly should) do better. That said, if we sign him I'll happily give him the benefit of the doubt and let his performances prove my earlier judgement wrong.
According to The Sun, Middlesbrough, Sheffield Wednesday and Glasgow Rangers are after Kevin McDonald. please log in to view this image The story goes that they could get him for £1.5m, which is roughly what we paid Wolves for him. Yet, as the local paper points out, the same tabloid had a price tag of £7m on him when Forest were sniffing around in the summer. Kev is on contract till 2019 with a 1 year option. Goes without saying that he's been at the hub everything good about us in the last 18 months and he's staying put.
