Transfer Rumours transfer thread fact and fiction

Just being fit for most weeks would be a great start

 

Skipp can be one of them. Hopefully sign someone else in January though.

 

I think either way one of them was getting carded, depending on where the ball ended up!!

Do we think Skipp is ready to play at this level? I'd be a mite concerned about him - though if course delighted if he proved me wrong.

 

I get the feeling that, if the club are looking to sign players in January, they'd probably be looking at players in two groups: once who can be signed immediately, and ones we'd have to wait until summer to sign. Based on that, I get the feeling they'd be broken down like this

January
Adrien Rabiot
Wilmar Barrios
Sander Berge
Stanislav Lobotka
Youri Tielemans?
Bradley Dack
Declan Rice*

Summer
Tanguy Ndombele
Frenkie De Jong
Nicolo Barella
Aaron Ramsey (because )
Declan Rice**

Add to that the problem we have with needing to move out a non-HG player to sign another one, our approach needs to be something like this

i.) Move out GKN, even if it's only on loan (Non-HG +1)
ii.) Identify the key player we want from the January list and sign them (Non-HG 0)
iiia.) If reports of West Scam interest in Wanyama is accurate, attempt a cash + Wanyama for Rice bid (Non-HG +1, plus an U21 player)
iiib.) If reports of January interest in Dembele is true, consider offer and return to the January list (Non-HG 0)
iv.) If agreeing a deal for a summer signing in January, remember Vorm & Llorente are out of contract in the summer (Non-HG +2)

 

I don't think that we need worry too much about Winks/Skipp. Given their Academy status and Skippy's age, they are effectively outside our squad numbers calculation. They will stay with us to the end of the season, no matter whether we sign nobody or replace Mousa Dembele and/or Big Vic. Such replacements won't be MP compliant straight away and will be used as and when necessary. Winksy will be part of the central midfield rotation and Skippy's likely to come off the bench and play FA Cup ties against lesser opposition.

I think that those 2 Academy graduates may well be long term members of our first team squad but they'll have to earn that right. Maybe they'll need to perform better than a £20m, £30m or £50m signing over the next few years? If that's what it takes to make the grade at Spurs, then so be it. No preference can be given to home grown players because they are home grown and there can be no holding a place open for someone who might be good enough in a season or two. They must produce the goods when selected

I'd be up for selling any member of our squad if we had enough players who are better and it wouldn't weaken the collective. We're not there yet, but ideally it would be great to be able to sell Dele or HK or Davinson Sanchez because we've produced a better player from the Academy or developed a better prospect. That's kind of where we got to with Ryan Mason and Andros Townsend and any other graduates must accept the same fate if they don't play at the level of a club fighting for the PL.

 

Good luck explaining that to the people who'll be having a meltdown in the summer when we sell Marcus Edwards...

 

I think he can play a part, but we'd be naive to think he'd be ready to play a significant role in the side when rotation is needed. Cup games and ten minute cameos are good enough for him at the moment but any more and I think it'd be putting too much pressure on him.

 

Pass.

 

Think that's his 42nd contract extension in the past two years. Great news though.

 

Not to be confused with May's announcement

Or the one from August 2017

Or the one from February 2017

I have to say, four contracts for 547 minutes of playing time is a good return

 

I'm not worried about Skipp long term but just wary of throwing him in before he's ready, we need to be able to rotate Dier with someone who can feasibly start PL and European games as Eric is such an important player for us. Skipp isn't there yet but I would be happy to see him getting starts in cup games particularly given our FA Cup draw.

 

He has travelled with the squad to Barca, so clearly Poch has faith in him.

 

Good for the lad, it'll be a great experience and he deserves to be part of the squad. I'd be a bit nervous if he started the game though! Though if Poch trusts him that should be good enough for me...

 

Rando Watch
Today I learned that Steaua Bucharest have rebranded themselves as the completely non-confusing FCSB

By complete coincidence we've been linked with 20-year old FCSB winger Dennis Man, who appears to find the best way to prevent any obvious jokes about him being the crappest superhero in existence is to be a reliable source of goals, and he has been in good form for The Club Who All Too Recently Said "Steaua" for the past couple of seasons, bagging 12 goals and 8 assists last season while this season he's already racked up 7 goals and 3 assists with his name being bandied about between Zenit and Fenerbahce, as well as his agent trying to claim Expensive Stoke are interested

There's also a rumour saying we sent a scout to watch him in yesterday's match against Viitorul Constanta...but the game was rescheduled for this evening due to the weather in B looked more like something you'd get in Transylvania. Of course, I'm sure this news will be welcomed due to the club's long history of Romanian players that have never been prominently featured in discussions about our worst-ever signings...

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Agent Lamela appears to be up to something...

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It's worth mentioning that Quintero's loan at River expires at the end of December (albeit they have an option to buy for €5m), and Porto have been loaning him out for the past couple of seasons

 

Random Prospect Watch
We've once again been linked with Riqui Puig - although the difference between when we were linked with him in the summer and now is the fact that Samuel Shashoua utterly tore him a new one for Baleares back in October...

 

Message for us or United??
Next round!!

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#COYS #UCL

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Just saying, Monaco finished bottom of their group so have no European commitments, although there is the small issue of Youri Tielemans being cup-tied in the CL...

 

27 Mar, 2018
UEFA announced on Tuesday it had decided to remove the "cup-tied" rule from all European competitions.

This means that, for the first time, a player could play for two different clubs in the group stage and the knockout rounds of the Champions League, or the Europa League, in the same season. Players could switch between competitions in the past, but not stay in the same one with a second team.

 

Departure Watch
So here's what Llorente said in an interview with Cadena Sur the other day

“My contract ends at the end of the year, and [Spurs] has the option to extend another year. I want whatever God wants, we will see...I would like to go back to Athletic. My priority is to feel important in the team. Going out in January? That’s not up to me, I’d have to talk to Tottenham and [Daniel] Levy.”

Good news for Janssen, bad news for everyone who realises we're spending the summer back on the Harry Kane's understudy treadmill again...