Transfer Rumours transfer thread fact and fiction

The issue isn't whether it was leased or bought, it's that isn't relevant. The basis of your argument is quite sound so don't spoil it by red herrings!

 

Thanks. You're right. Less is more and brevity is the soul of wit.

I put it in because 'golf' and 'course' have only one syllable. I couldn't get NFL in for the opposite reason, so it got dropped.

 

So, what now?

Do we spend like we have done previously under ENIC - 1 out/1 in, with a low net spend, as our FFP compliant capability increases...or do you want the owners to put in more and back Conte with some of their cash?

 

We’ll almost certainly back him, there’s no reason to really think otherwise. Poch (towards the end), Jose and Nuno were all sufficiently backed, we just largely brought in a load of ****.

 

I didn't think that we did half enough business last summer. Plus, I don't rate Gollini, Bryan's not ready and Sarr...who knows?

We improved the team with only 2 first team players (Romero and Emerson Royale) . It wasn't enough and this summer there has to be a proper clearing of the decks with really good first team ready players coming in to replace half a dozen or so players, who need to leave and won't sell for what we'll need to add enough quality to the squad.

 

There's only one dance to express how the club's run the squad into the ground, ignoring what the coaches have said...

The headless chicken dance.

 

Many felt we could’ve added more, myself included but realistically all our issues weren’t going to be fixed in one window after 4-5 years of largely terrible signings and the failure to sell players.

Improving the XI with 2 of our 4 signings (I’m excluding Sarr as he’s not here) in the summer is pointing to what Power and I have mentioned with regards to having 50% success rates. When you go back to summer 2019 where £130m was spent on Ndombele, Lo Celso, Sess and Clarke yet we somehow got even worse, these small little positives will hopefully build up. Reguilon and Hojbjerg in 2020 were also positives, there’s room for improvement for both but they’ve been good additions and now this summer Romero and Royal have slotted in nicely, Gollini will likely do his job as backup albeit won’t challenge Lloris for the top spot, whilst Gil has an air of excitement surrounding him but he’s a long term project, we’ve gotta give him 2-3 years for him to really excel and shine. We also added a much improved Oli Skipp this summer too, without sounding too clichéd he’s as good as a new signing.

Conte’s likely going to want 2-3 in when January comes and I feel confident he’ll get them.

 

Yep, Levy had to do something as things were turning toxic, what he has done by hiring Conte is, get the fans off his back and buy himself some more time. Only time will tell how this plays out, but I`m not sure where Levy can turn should Conte not work out through lack of backing etc. Interesting times ahead.

 

One obvious question ahead of January: what do people, realistically, expect us to be spending?

On the face of it there does seem to be between £30-40m available, based on how we were reportedly offering £60m + add-ons for Lautaro Martinez, so even if we subtract the £26m we paid for Emerson from that figure that leaves us with £34m to play with...of course, given the figure being bandied about for Charles De Ketelaere is £20m when even five years ago we would have got change for £10m when buying him, what does £34m actually get these days after than a tense Deadline Day refreshing our Twitter feed to see if either of the Milanese clubs blinked and we landed Kessie or Brozovic six months early?

In other words, we're surely going to be trying to offload Sanchez and Doherty ASAP, aren't we?

 

It’s difficult to expect but if we could get Dele, Winks, Doherty, Sanchez and maybe even Lo Celso out the door early on that’d provide Conte with a nice little windfall to reinvest from players we don’t need.

Outside of that, I think we’ll have a bit more than £40m to spend if Conte requires, circa £60m I reckon.

 

Sanchez seems like the easiest to move given Sevilla were interested enough to accept a cash + Sanchez bid for Kounde in the summer, which works out well for us as that gets Tanganga into contention for starts

One thing I do get the feeling we might regret is not exploiting our relative liquidity in the summer compared to leagues where clubs were a mess financially such as Serie A or Ligue 1, for example it was suggested that we got such a ridiculously good deal for Sarr was because Metz's finances were as shambolic in the summer as their form has been on the pitch this season, and while we could still exploit this with teams who have a number of players' contracts ticking down (Inter with Brozovic, Milan with Kessie or Romagnoli, Marseille with Boubaca Kamara - and they deserve it after the Batshuayi/Nkoudou summer...), I do think we should've been a little more cutthroat in the summer to add another CM which basically every formation we play be it 433, 4231 or 343 demonstrates we clearly need

 

There’s rumours from various links that we’ve either agreed terms for Vlahovic or are putting together a €75m bid for January to try and get him.

 

Somebody is preparing themselves...

 

Lots of noise on SM about Spurs ready to seal the deal on Vlahovic, do I get my hopes up or as a lifelong Spurs fan just ignore it

 

Ignore. Better for your mental health

 

If this were to happen, one obvious question: what formation would we play?

The obvious suggestion would be the 3412 Conte used at Inter with Kane behind Son and Vlahovic, or maybe 3421 with Kane and Son behind Vlahovic

3421 probably works better for the squad, though, as Lucas can certainly play in the two and Gil was being used there in the ECL - although that also indicates that one of Ndombele, Lo Celso or Bergwijn may rapidly find themselves surplus to requirements

 

Not too sure but excited to see whatever it'll be should the move happen. Lot of goals in that front three so long as they get the service.

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I will be staggered if Conte does not look to improve central midfield as one of the first changes, our current options have been a bit meh and Skipp is still developing. We could do with an all round midfield player, a good technician who can beat the press and pass the ball well, with a good engine and who is mobile enough to stick his foot in. This type of player may not be easy to find or acquire but surely we can find some improvement on the existing candidates.

 

Fabrizio Romano has said on his podcast that a striker and a CM are our main January targets, with a CB also a possibility. In other words, basically what all of us have been saying since August

The one thing which did stand out was how, when talking about Conte sizing up players for the next 4-6 weeks to see if they have value for the project, he spoke of Dele and Ndombele in the same breath - which I thought only our Twitter admin did

He also appeared to pour cold water on talk of Weston McKennie, mentioning we wanted him on loan in the summer but Juve only wanted to sell, and in recent weeks he's hit a run of form so they're less inclined to move him on in January