It's silly season once more so time to debate over the endless rumours, transfers, speculations etc. Maybe we need a sticky mods? Anyway, just seen we have agreed a fee for Shurrie so looks like this could be our first signing of the summer.
Very excited about Schurrle, just hope it doesn't involve KDB going elsewhere because of it! A lot of this depends on Jose's choice of formation, but here goes. My shopping list would be: GK - With Turnbull and Hilarious ****ing off we need adequate competition for Cech. Courtois should be kept at Madrid where he's getting better every game so someone with experience would be good. Cesar or Given would do me! CB - not a clue who . DL suggested Lovren from Lyon who may not be too much. LB - I'd love to secure a purchase of Luke Shaw and loan him back to Southampton for a season. CM - I think we need to replace Malouda and Benayoun with quality and not like for like position wise. I'd go for Gundogan IF we are actually going to sell De Bruyne. ST - One of Cavani, Lewandowski r Rooney. We need a world class striker to challenge for titles and all three of those are IMO. First choice would be Lewandowski for me as I think he's be cheapest. As you've said previously 100, surely Dortmund would rather sell to us than Bayern! Now for players going out. We all know who is and who we'd like to. But key area is the ST position. Personally I'd like Torres or Ba gone, preferably Torres, and one of said strikers in. Lukaku as rotation 2nd choice and Ba for the cup games. Aside from that I hear Monaco are after Ivan for 20 odd million. I would snatch their paws off.
Good summary Drogs. The Shaw 'deal' looks a no brainer. Given us another year at least with Ash then Shaw and Bertrand to compete for LB 2014. My only reservation is I heard Van Aarnholt was doing wonders on loan and I always liked the look of him too. I'm torn re Courtois. As Ive said elsewhere, if he goes on loan again we really need to extend his contract, it's clear this guy is going to be one of the best in the world and he'll only have 2 years left on his deal in 2014 without having even played for us. I like the idea of a Given or Cesar as back up. Both better than what we have currently behing Cech. Delac presumably will be 3. Shurrie gives us options and I presume he will be played wide, opposite to Hazard with the likes of Moses, maybe Piazon and De Bruyne as back up. This leaves Mata and Oscar as our options at '10' with the likes of Mikel, Rambo, 203, Essien, Ake and Romeu as central midfield options with Oscar and maybe De Bruyne being able to play there also. If we are lucky, we may even see Josh and Chalobah return though I suspect loan deals to P.L clubs. Walace coming in to compete with Ivan and Dave at R.B just really means 2 positions to be filled for me; a centre half and a centre forward. You know my view of Lewandowski. I'd have him, Torres and Ba with Lukaku having one more season on loan at say Swansea, with a view to him replacing one of Torres / Ba in a years time. At centre half we need a beast to play alongside Luiz. Terry of 2005 would be ideal if I can just sort out that damn time machine.
With The Schurrle deal now pretty much done we will have 2 genuine winger's on either flank for the first time in years all we need is a holder in the middle and a forward im hearing we are very intrested in taking Cavani however price is the issue there cant see any less than 40 million unless a player is thrown in to bolster the deal Lewandowski is a no go Dortmund have to sell him this summer and the players wants a move to bayern we are better off staying away.
Options that we have been linked with ST : Cavani, Falcao (GONE), Lewandowski (GONE imho), Rooney, Gomez, Jovetic CM: Modric, Fellaini, Khedira WM: Schurrle (Done Deal), Hulk, Isco CB: Mangala, Lovren, Garay, Papadopolous, Subotic LB: Shaw, Coentrao GK: Courtois, Diego Lopez,
Right here goes *intake of breath* For the keeper... I'm happy both Hilario and Ross are leaving as tbh... they were ****e when needed! Apparently Jose wants to bring Lopez (the Real keeper) with him... He seems alright as a number 2. I do think Courtois will be sensational and we should do our best to keep him happy until Cech is ready to move on. As a third keeper... Darlow of Forest or Bond of Watford. Both look really impressive but would they be happy to sit on the bench? Luke Shaw is someone who I'm sure will come to us. He supports us and you could see him talking with Ash after the cup game at their place. He would be quality but not for now. Maybe buy him now and loan him out back to Saints for 2 seasons? For centre back... I'm a bit stuck... Who is there!? I like the look of Subotic and Hummels tbh. Both seem good old fashioned centre backs and have been rocks for Dortmund. Also both quite young. In centre mid... I really really want us to sign Gundogan and to me after signing a striker, he should be our most imperative signing. He looks class. He is really young and he ran the show against Bayern last weekend. If we bring him in we'll be sorted. It seems Schurrle is a done deal but I don't know enough about him to comment. As for KDB... Again I'm unsure as haven't seen enough of him tbh. Up front... Well it's tough. If we can get Lukaku back and swap Torres and cash for Cavani, then we're sorted. Lewandowski would be perfect but it seems he's off to Bayern. Malouda seems on his way as are the 2 keepers. Getting rid of the dead wood. Remember we have Essien coming back as well! So as a team... This would be mint: Cavani Hazard Mata Schurrle Gundogan Ramires Cole Luiz Hummels/Subotic Azpilicueta/Ivan Cech Subs: Lopez, Cahill/Terry, Azpilicueta/Ivan, Oscar, Lamps, Moses, Ba That still leaves Lukaku, Mikel, Essien, Marin, Bertrand, Cahill/Terry and others.... We need strength in depth because this season we had a small squad and it was a miracle that they lasted the season! It should be an interesting summer!
With Lamps getting another year (and maybe Essien returning with a year left), I think that spells the end of getting another CM at this window. Jose loves both players and I suspect they will both feature next year. I think both will go in a years time and then next summer our priority will be a CM. Don't think we will buy a LB unless it's to loan Shaw back for a year for when Ash (probably) moves on. I would assume Shurrie will be our last attacking midfielder being brought in. With him, Oscar, Mata, Hazard, Marin, De Bruyne, Piazon and Moses competing for probably 3 places we look set (Hulk and Isco are brilliant players though!) Leaves probably a CB and a striker and a keeper if Courtois doesn't return (which I think he actually will under Jose). Lukaku may be the striker though I suspect we will try and get a big name in.
Out of interest, did anyone see much of Essien for Madrid? I gather he played a lot of games for them so just wondering whether we were getting some of the old Bison back or merely a case of Jose picking a favourite?!?!
I think he played most if not all of his games at right back! Did a sound job I think... Nothing special but nothing wrong... Good squad player
My squad GK - Cech , *Lopez* , youngster RB - Azpilicueta , Essien LB - Cole , Bertrand CB - Luiz , Ivanovic , *New Signing* , Cahill , Terry CM - Ramires , Mikel , *Gundogan or Vidal* , Lampard , Romeu AM - *Schurrle* , Hazard , Mata , Oscar , Moses ST - *Cavani* , Lukaku , Ba OUT ON LOAN - De Bruyne (Leverkusen), Shaw (Southampton) , Piazon, Chalobah and McEachran
Essien has played more games at RB than CM for Madrid this year and I see him covering both positions We will be blessed to have Ess, Ivan, Luiz, Hazard, Rami, Schurrle and Oscar who can shift around the pitch without a drop in performance