Transfer Rumours transfer thread fact and fiction

At least most agree Winks is ****. Taken some of you a while to realise it but I feel like my work here is finally done. 4 years in the making. He stuck out like a sore thumb for me back then, his only saving grace nowadays is that there are a number on his wavelength now.

Moral of the story - just listen to DH more often

 

You'll be claiming you spotted Jack Grealish next.....

 

I would argue that a player 25 years of age with multiple national caps with over 100 appearances at club level and in his 5th season of senior football losing confidence to the extent Winks has done is a major cause for concern and warrants scrutiny.

It bothers me and many others about Bergwijn as well. You cannot claim to be an elite level athlete if you effectively go into hiding for an entire season after a couple of mistakes in a crucial game. There is no way we will ever win anything if we tolerate such poor mentalities for so long.

 

I genuinely don't even think it's a confidence thing. The Winks from last season was no different to the Winks of previous seasons.

I think it's just a case of frustration of fans building up over the time to the point of boiling point with him, coupled with the fact that we have the poorest team we've had in about 4 years and so any poor bits of play get blown up, where as in our good years, a poor bit of play could often be overlooked.

Similar with Dele, couple years back one or two of us were beginning to question him, fast forward to now and I'd say that despite the OS constantly still hyping him up as if he's a key player like Son or Kane and him having somewhat of a loyal fan club, a large proportion of fans are now sick of him.

You can throw in Dier too, his form was being questioned from around late 2018 and still is now.

We've got too many poor players at the club and it's why we've regressed in each of the last four seasons. Until they're gone or completely removed from the first team (which will then hopefully force them out) we'll continue to struggle, I truly do believe that.

 

There is far too much dross at the club. Top clubs are usually ruthless and Spurs for whatever reason seem to give too much time to players (Sissoko, Aurier, Winks, Dier, Dele) in the hope that they will come good or regain form when it’s clear they won’t. Short term pain for long term gain would be to get rid of them and take a massive hit on the fees they would like.

 

There is no point in selling them unless we can get someone better. We bought Ndombele, Doherty, Sanchez, Hojbjerg and Lo Celso to cover these positions for a combined fee of approximately £170m. All of those have actually been selected in preference to the five you name at some point. So we know that spending £170m has made us worse don't we?

 

Thankfully Hojbjerg is an upgrade on two of those.

The rest show why we've hired Paratici.

 

I’d rather have nobody than some of them though. Plus we always hear how clubs need to free up wages and fees etc. So let’s get rid of the dross and then go from there. I’d rather see youngsters play in midfield than Sissoko.

 

I've seen it mentioned in the last few days that we and Man Utd are the only PL teams without a sports psychologist on the payroll this season

In our case that seems like something that should have been addressed 2-3 years ago, since back then we had things like Winks' fear of another ankle break dictating his game and Trippier throwing teammates under the bus instead of accept he made a mistake and try to remedy it, and given how the team seemed mentally broken after the CL final followed by the ubermensch spending eighteen months sapping them of all confidence it's absolutely something we need in place

 

We sort of tried that last season. Aurier, Sissoko, Winks and Dele were mostly first choice the season before and we came sixth. They played an awful lot less last season and we came seventh. The following players played more than half the matches...Lloris, Reguilon, Alderweireld, Dier, Hojbjerg, Son and Kane. Instead of Lloris, Aurier, Alderweireld, Sanchez, Winks, Sissoko, Dele, Lucas, Kane and Son the year before.

 

Agreed.

 

I've just caught up from last night. Harry Winks is just another Tom Carroll. We kept Winks and sold Carroll because he is younger. If he wasn't HG and not been trained by the club I think his career would be on the same trajectory as Carroll's.

With less than a week till the season starts I'm really worried about our CB options. We need a second striker but I think atleast 1 CB should be a priority. With Inter in such a mess why are we not all out for Skriniar or De Vrij? I think spending so much on Martinez will limit who we bring in at CB which is our weakest position.

 

I think who we bring in at CB is very much dependant on, and much more limited by, who can be shifted out in that position, same with RB imho. If Sanchez has no takers, and neither does Aurier, they both stay. What option is there?

Probably also a similar story with CMs and DMs, If Sissoko goes, maybe Denis Zakaria come in. If Winks also goes, maybe Joao Palhinha comes in too.

If Pochettino was still manager I think Winks would have definitely gone the way of Carroll and been replaced by Skipp, homegrown or not.

 

Sanchez and Dier are both not good enough, unless Kane is leaving I would say CB and RB is a priority over a striker. I know its not ideal but if Kane picks up an injury Son and Moura can both fill the gap.

 

Love how silent kane and City have gone on the transfer since Friday.
It's as though Kane’s joke of a statement and he who must be called Pep's comments about spurs not being willing to negotiate have not gone down well.

 

You're not wrong, but if no CBs go out we'll be piling up CBs if we buy any. I imagine Toby had to go before Romero came in, for example.

We only have one out and out natural striker. Son and Moura filling in the gap is far from ideal in the best of circumstances. We should never have gone down to just one. It's asking for trouble. Especially now when that striker wants out.

If Nuno wants to play two up front at all we need at least two more. One to cover and one to pair.

 

Sounds like we might be selling Whiteman. Bit of a surprise considering his impressive pre-season but he’s been linked with a move to Swedish side Degerfors to replace their keeper who’s heading to Malmö.

Austin is back with the club now and I have said in the past I thought he was the better of the two but still would’ve thought Whiteman may been kept around (or loaned). I suppose though at 22 and having only made one competitive sub appearance there does come a point where a player needs to move on.

Good luck to him if it does happen.

 

One of their inside men has backed this^. Whether it's City propaganda or legitimate remains to be seen.
They still won't make an acceptable bid either way, so they can go **** themselves.

 

Hopefully it's just a loan. Their season ends in a couple of months, though.

 

The Swedish site where the rumour has come from doesn’t say if it’s a loan or permanent deal but Whiteman’s contract does end next summer so I’m wondering if it may be the latter, especially as it sounds like he’s replacing a current keeper who’s joining Malmö.

Today is also deadline day for the mid season window in Sweden so we’ll possibly be finding out soon.