Porro Watch Dan Kilpatrick's reported he's our top target, so it's go time Dan Kilpatrick Watch ...while also slipping in that a winger and a longterm successor to Hugo are also on the cards
Strong indications we are baulking at the £40m release clause and might wait until June. How much would we save already? £10m tops? To put that into perspective, signing him this month could be the difference between CL qualification or not, which is worth £18m for just turning up.
The obvious point is if we play our hand too soon we might get jumped on, especially as there's whispers of Barca and Chelsea both sniffing around Porro Realistically we need to be 100% sure that Porro wants to come first and foremost, because if we coughed up the release clause and then in came Barca or Chelsea or whoever and his head was immediately turned we'd be back to square one, just like we were last January when we blinked too soon with Luis Diaz and the Mousers threw money at Porto to get ahead of us (or, for a non-Spurs example, when Barca gazumped Roma for Malcolm a few years back when his plane was reportedly on its way to Italy) If all else fails, just kidnap him and when we offer to pay the release clause we casually tell Sporting that he's already at our place taking his medical so they better accept our bid or else. I mean if Man Utd could do that with Berbatov...
Rudy Galetti (as did Nico Schira the other day) claim we've got a verbal agreement with Porro on personal terms and we're now "putting pressure" () on Sporting to sell but they're insisting on his release clause... Just ****ing pay it for god sake, at best we'd only save about £5m which is nothing to a Premier League club. This is the exact point I was referring to on the Palace thread about the cons of us being too cheap/ prudent over transfers. Pete O'Rourke also claims we've had a verbal bid rejected for Trossard, Brighton have no intention selling this month.
Getting in Pedro Porro and Trossard would be a brilliant window. Love Trossard such an underated player. Versatile, scores goals, goes past players and has an eye for a pass.
apparently Chelsea are keen on Porro, too. We all know how this ends! Trossard isn’t a bad player, but this would be underwhelming for me. Not saying we need a marquee signing, but it feels like unnecessary bulking in that position where he’s not really going to offer us anything new.
I've been a massive fan of Trossard's for years now, such a versatile player who gets better year on year. I think he offers us a really important option which is competition/ back-up for Son's position, allowing Richarlison to play more as a central striker which is probably his strongest position anyway. I'd certainly prefer Trossard over Zaha for example, and for relative pittance we should just get it done, especially considering the facts that Son's form isn't improving and neither is Richarlison's injury record. He would also allow us to rest Perisic more often - vastly superior player to Sessegnon.
Yeah I think you could use him anywhere down the left in a pinch and could probably play RW as well. Good squad option.
Porro should be smart enough to know though that he’s basically got a free run here. At Chelsea he’ll likely lose his spot once James is back fit. Though it’s also on us to act serious, no pissing about, get the clause met and offer him a deal that makes him jizz in his boxers As for Trossard, just don’t let CK hear what you’ve said. Edit: He already has!
Really, didn’t know that. Not that Conte uses a 10 but interesting to know. Trossard neither under nor overwhelms me tbh, think he’d be a solid squad player and all he has to do is be frankly available, which a lot of our forward simply haven’t been for this season. EDIT: compete brain fart on my part, was thinking of MacAllister for the WC comment for some reason.
That likely explains why we reportedly offered him £85k a week right out of the gate ...well, that and the clear daylight between his proposed wage and what Doherty or Emerson (or Spence) take home makes it clear we're looking to invest in more ways than one
Ekrem Konur says we’re considering a move for a Madueke, as are Chelsea and Arsenal. So that’s both him and Edwards linked this window. I’d imagine it’d be one or the other though. Who’d have thought our ****ty handling of the academy over the years would come back to bite us? About £70m+ worth of talent we could’ve had for free.
