For £47m we should be all over that. The dreamer in me though hopes that it means Villa will sell us Rogers at the last minute.
Rodger’s is quality, but isn’t it fair to say that Xavi is now that player? surely we need to be looking at a top quality left winger, who gives us what Son used to provide? Many of our wingers don’t solve our problems (some may in the future, some may never), and it’s become glaringly obvious how weak we are down the left hand side in particular. the striker situation still remains a concern. I’m surprised that Frank is happy about this. Especially with both being so injury prone and/or not exactly setting the world alight in terms of performances/goals on a consistent basis.
Pretty sure Simons plays both LW and 10 so if Rogers ever joined Simons would go on the wing. I don’t see us getting Semenyo unfortunately so Rogers in the 10 and Simons out wide could be a decent alternative. Agree RE striker. Both our strikes are “decent”. Neither are good enough for sides aiming to be near the top though.
Luca Bendoni says that Manor Solomon is keen to continue occupying remain in the Premier League, so he's probably going to get loaned again
Not so sure about that: they're drip-feeding stories to the press of his "unreasonable" wage demands of £200k a week while neglecting to mention to minor detail that his current wages are £20k, and also briefing journalists to emphasise he's behind their captain in the pecking order Even if this is an effort to try and get him to lower his wage demands that's doomed to fail, given Casemiro takes home £350k a week so of course the squad will be fully aware of that - as will our board, given for comparison Lucas Bergvall takes home £65k a week Obviously there's the issue that Mainoo plays in a position we're well stocked in, so he could wind up being a very expensive understudy to Sarr, but having someone who can retain the ball under pressure is an obvious plus
Spurs don’t particularly need him, Utd would want a huge fee to sell. The window closes tomorrow. I’m as certain as can be it won’t happen. It’s just paper talk to make deadline day seem exciting
I get the feeling that tomorrow is going to see more loans than actual transfers, not just for us but in general Our most likely business is Savinho or Lookman On the subject of Lookman, Romano has said Atalanta will only accept a permanent deal or a loan with an obligation - while both Ornstein and Plettenberk has said Bayern have only offered loan with an option, while naming us and Galatasaray as alternatives
I’m fine missing out on both. Don’t think they bring anything that the club doesn’t already have. Won’t happen but the need for a striker and another keeper would be more of a priority for me. Bonus would be a decent centre back.
Savinho would bring creativity to the left (presuming Simons plays through the middle) while Lookman is a useful utility player as he can play either flank or upfront...but has pretty much said he doesn't want to play in England Frank said something along the lines of a striker being something to look at in January, which I can see the logic of as that gives Solanke time to get fit so we could potentially have decent rotation upfront - though given the wildly different striker profiles he had at Brentford in Toney, Watkins and Maupey it's kind of difficult to predict which type he might go for, though based on our squad a Sheringham/Firmino seems the most likely option there
I'm very concerned at how we appear to be neglecting the defence, again. It'll all be fine and dandy until fixtures and injuries start to rack up.
Yeah you need a quality squad with at least 2 players for each position. Spurs are still miles off that for me. That’s why my expectations are low this time around.
He said defence not just centre backs. Maybe means fullback area. Porro gets injured and it’s back to playing Archie Gray there again probably. Centre back has number but lacking quality. Takai hasn’t played a minute yet. Dragusin has been awful so far and will be coming back form a long term injury. Danso is ok for a back up but I wouldn’t want to be relying on him for a long period. Romero and Micky both frequently get injured. It’s definitely a position to keep an eye on
I think Danso’s been really good when played. I doubt we’d get a much better quality backup than him tbh. I also think Dragusin is better than people have seen, a lot will depend on how Frank utilises him though I guess. RB agree we could do with depth.
The only likely weakness is we're one FB short, as Davies feels more like a 70th minute sub to nurse a game home than a starter. There's also the question about where Spence is actually the backup for, as he honestly feels more like our backup LB at the moment even though RB is his natural position For me, midfield is still the area to address as we don't have much in the way of press-resistant players, given how we prioritised physicality over skill n midfield for the last couple of seasons and it does show in games we need somebody to collect the ball and relieve pressure like Bentancur could before he got his ankles broken twice
KH has made most of the points I would have made, so I will only add the fact that our first choice CB pairing have missed big chunks of the past few seasons through injury. Now, that could have been solely down to Ange's bonkers tactics, or it could just be that thet are injury prone. We seem to be gambling on the former, and that isn't worth the risk imo.
