Transfer thread for 2016-17 season

He's Dele's less gifted cousin. A sort of Ali Dia to Dele's George Weah.

 

Harsh!

I thought that Koeman might get more out of him, but he hasn't really done it yet.
Early days, I guess, but I thought he'd have been pushing on now and attracting a lot of interest.
I think that a lot of Everton fans would be fairly ok with it if he went for that amount, though.
Not all, as fees have risen again recently and he's a youth product. It would be unambitious of them.

 

And he's gone to Wolfsburg. They're currently one place above the relegation zone, on goal difference.

 

Ian Broomfield has left the club at the expiry of his contract. All change.

 

I used to like Barkley but he just hasn't kicked on since his early promise and is now looking like one of whose who peaked very early on and then never done much, he's also far too inconsistent for my liking.

His signing would only stunt the growth of the likes of Onomah and Winks and he'd probably cost upwards of £30m in this market, so no thanks.

 

Barkley is a bit of a meathead who thought he had made it thanks to the desperation of the media and pundits, English ones.

He's bang average.

 

So, we're in for Barkley and Zaha? Colour me unimpressed if that's the case.

Barkley's gone into reverse gear since Hodgson took him to the WC - sounds familiar doesn't it? Given the potential fee, the only possible way he comes to us is as a swap for Sissoko. That might appeal to Koeman but do we need another young player who's searching for form and confidence?

Zaha is fast and strong but doesn't convince when cutting inside and running at goal. He's most effective going outside so he'll be getting in the way of our full backs a lot or missing good chances when he runs into the area.

Last January I recommended Dwight Gayle and Moussa Dembele as Harry Kane's back up. I want Paul Mitchell's job.

 

Barkley has all the talent in the World, but he needs to match his talent with workrate.

He's been ruined by that bell end Martinez, who spent 3 years blowing smoke up his arse instead of telling the lad straight that he needs to improve his levels of effort over 90 minutes. Koeman has given him some tough love, and the rumour is he's not taken to it.

I've no idea whether the Spurs rumour has been started via his agent or whether the interest is genuine. Us selling him would send out the wrong signals and for that reason I'm against it. Albeit Ross has the rest of the season to prove that he's capable of stepping up his game to match the demands of the manager - or he could be deemed as surplus to requirements.

 

I don't know what Barkley would add to our team that's worth our efforts in pursuing. He'd cost a fortune as others have said, and doesn't bring us any variety or attributes that the team craves right now.

As for Zaha, that would be a bizarre signing having sold Townsend fairly recently... he's another one that's massively overrated.

 

That meathead would only get in the way of Winks.

 

Cheers HBIC ...OP updated

 

Have to laugh at how nobody has even bothered to pass comment on our being linked with Memphis Delay...

 

CalcioMercato are reporting we've bid £19.35m for Atalanta midfielder Franck Kessie - although it wouldn't surprise me if this was agent talk, given the number of clubs being linked with him right now

 

My Football Manager scouts recommended Kessie to me just a few weeks back... Bit of foresight perhaps?

 

They do have a remarkable scouting network, by all accounts.
Sounds crazy, but teams really do pay attention to that game.

Let's assume that this is true for a second: What would that mean for the club?
Isn't he essentially backup for Wanyama? Does Dier would become backup for Alderweireld or a switch to 3 centre-halves more regularly?
Seems like an odd one to me, so I'm not convinced that there's any truth in the alleged interest. We'll see, I guess.

 

I've seen him compared with Dembele, mainly due to him being able to bring the ball up the pitch with his strength and dribbling ability, and he's got an eye for a defence-splitting pass - although this asks another obvious question, though: doesn't that sound like the bloke we paid Newcastle £6m* for in the summer?

There's also the potential issue that he won't be eligible for a work permit until after the ACON which would likely delay any move until next summer, so any deal in January (that is assuming one even happens) is likely to be a land grab ahead of a summer move.

 

4.5 years left on his contract and 125k a week. If there is any Levy magic that can be done with that I'd go for Payet in January. That would be a rocket up our front 3's backsides. Can only be good for the Spurs. I think Payet at 29 would welcome the move and he would massively improve us up top.

 

I take it that "he will massively improve us up top" is a euphemism for .... it'll really piss off the scammers

 

Yeah it's a brilliant game, I've been buying it since the 2006 edition, it's just so addictive. I think the addiction stems from how accurate it is, you genuinely feel like a manager and have a sense of pride when you win a trophy . The scouting is just superb, so many times I've scoured the database and game looking for players with high potential and a vast number of them really do become top players in the real world.

Pretty sure Sven said when he was at City that Elano and one other were signed on the premise of good FM stats and that he himself hadn't actually seen either of them ever play, astonishing.