Transfer Rumours transfer thread fact and fiction

He's been about as good as Davies, who himself is barely good enough for a top 4 side and certainly not good enough for a title winning side.

Lenglet couldn't get into the weakest Barca defence in a generation, let's not forget.

 

He really hasn't. Davies will never set the world alight, but he adds stability to that position and his attitude alone puts him above most of the current squad.

 

Manchester City and Real Madrid have made RB Leipzig's 21-year-old Croatia defender Josko Gvardiol their top centre-back target, and the German side would want £75m. (90min)


Cheap as chips for the chasm it would fill

we’ve blown near enough that on dogshit

only problem is Levy can get 2 defenders for that amount

can’t compete with them 2 clubs…we missed our boat with Gvardiol.

We should just accept that we shop where the almost rans shop and we should be doing a Brighton but we don’t have the personnel to do it like might Brighton et al.

 

Monster Energy Dusseldorf have been curating a transfer auction for Gvardiol for at least two years now, and that's before pointing out that they're rapidly getting up there with Dortmund as teams where it's worth asking not if you should buy the player they're willing to sell but ask who the player they already have lined up to replace them for a fraction of what you're paying would be

Ironically, the time we should've gone in for him was when he was still at Dinamo Zagreb, given he was picked up for €16m (as that's what Taurine FC paid, albeit in a buy-and-loan-back deal) which takes us back once again to the issue where, around 2017, we started looking at players who were the finished article (or close enough to it) and stopped looking at rough diamonds we could make the finished article, which has seen our spending go up but our hit/miss ratio in the transfer market go down

Better to pay £15m for a player who can become a £75m player than £75m for a player and then start trying to get a few extra quid when offloading Sanchez, Ndombele, Rodon et al so we can actually sign anybody else

 

One of FootyInsider's journalists is claiming Sampdoria will trigger Winks' buy option for £22m.

I wasn't aware there was a buy option but if we get anywhere near that sort of money then that's great business, I'd have taken >£10m to be honest, as I would with many others just to clear them off the books.

Here's hoping for once, FootyInsider actually get something right.

 

You've seen the Serie A table, right?

Sampdoria won't be shelling out £22m for one player this summer, considering they'll likely be playing in Serie B next season

 

You just couldn't let @Dier Hard have one crumb of comfort could you?

 

I'd say that Sampdoria were the Leicester of Serie A this season...but Sampdoria have been a shadow of the team they were in the 90s for a long, long time...and I don't want to be mean and compare them to Everton

 

Mike McGrath saying we’re leading the race for Maddison.

£50m quoted fee.

 

Conte out the door, and Maddison resurfaces

Funny that...

 

Or rather we get linked to Brendan then Maddison crops up.

 

Haven’t seen much of him. Would he potentially be a good buy for us?

 

I’d say we could definitely do with him, he’s a b-tech Eriksen (which isn’t a bad thing). Would be ideal behind Kane, should Kane stay that is, which right now I’m not hopeful of.

 

Sounds like he wouldn’t fit into our current formation so if we bought him, we would definitely need to change formation. That is worth £50m alone.

Kane will be sold if he’s still refusing to sign an extension this summer. So Maddison and Richarlison

 

The weird thing is that our midfield is made up along similar lines to the 3412 formation Conte used at Inter last season...just he didn't want to sign the 1

Put an AM in front of Bentancur and Skipp/Hojbjerg and the team makes a lot of sense - which also begs the question why we didn't try Deki as a No10 behind Kane & Son, given he says that's his preferred position

 

I wouldn't be so sure about that. I don't think Levy has the balls to basically admit he failed the most talented and consistent player in a generation by selling him. He's far more likely to float along blithely, pretending Kane is "in talks" for a new contract only to leave for free at the end of the season.

Even putting that to one side, selling Kane even if he basically forces the issue really isn't a simple decision: We'd fetch £80m for him tops which in theory is a solid amount of money to buy two good players, but our track record when it comes to spending anything above £20m is abysmal, plus the guy who would theoretically be in charge of spending that money is likely to be gone. Would we trust a new DoF, or even worse - none - with investing the Kane money wisely?

I don't think I would. I also don't think we have the squad to cope with a 'sudden' departure. Him leaving precipitates a collapse imo. We have bang average players all over the pitch alongside inexperienced youngsters. It is a delicate and dangerous mix and losing a player of his ability before we've strengthened the team and the youngsters have picked up more experience could be disastrous.

I'm leaning towards forgoing £80m (which would probably be spent on Adama Traore and Danny Ings) and let him go for free in a year, by which time hopefully maybe just maybe we've brought in 3 or 4 really quality players in the summer and January windows, while the likes of Sarr, Skipp, Gil, Spence, Udogie etc. are that much more experienced.

 

What do you think Levy will do this summer if Kane doesn’t sign an extension?

Sell him this summer or let him leave on a free next summer?

 

Play him for a year, then push him off the skywalk.

 

If I had any confidence in the club’s ability to recruit well I would seriously consider flogging Kane and Son in the summer and committing to a full rebuild from the ground up with likely over 100m from them two to add to whatever our budget is in the summer. We have to replace Kane’s goals at some point either way whether we get a fee for him or not and it’s a lot easier to do that with money in the bank. With Son at his age we’re never going to get more money from his sale than we would this summer and I feel he’s unlikely to come close to another 20 goal season.

I’m doubtful they’ll both be at the club next season in any case.

 

I’ve been saying for a few years that we should sell Kane. So I’m in agreement. Quite happy to throw Son in the reject pile too.