If it's a choice, I'd rather we played Dalot/Mazraoui there and signed two central midfield players.
Ferdi Kadıoğlu | signs for Brighton
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I think it’s insane that people factor Malacia into anything. Guy wasn’t at a level where he could afford to lose a big part of his athleticism and hadn’t even established himself as rock solid in the PL yet. The poor guy will be lucky to be of the required standard once back, let alone any dependable feature in the fullback rotation.
Even if he does get back, he’ll need months to get his confidence and belief in his body, which should not be rushed. We absolutely need another LB.
Even if he does get back, he’ll need months to get his confidence and belief in his body, which should not be rushed. We absolutely need another LB.
The problem is what is a fit Luke Shaw? Does he even exist? He's got injured so many times that you can easily consider his bad patches as 'still recovering from injury', 'he's still coming to terms to tempo of regular football' or 'he is probably playing through the pain barrier'. Thus the temptation to just focus on the good games is high which tend to screw any assessment about him up.
A WC player gives a 7/10 performance on a regular basis, week in week out, season in season out. As they say form is temporary but class is permanent. There's nothing permanent with Luke Shaw apart from his injuries
You are not wrong but that means we need to create a space and no one is taking Shaw or Malacia off our hands.
Mazraoui can actually play LB, just like Dalot, and Martinez played there in community shield game, so we do have enough personnel to cover LB for now, this guy looks great but I don't see it happening
I'd rather see us buy a DM and a LB tbh. Ugarte is a work rate beast, Casemiro can handle a game per week and I have a good feeling with Collyer. We can't afford another season without a LB
A guy at work says it twice after anything you say to him.
"yeah... literally, literally"
You mean playing Casemiro and Urgate together? If so, fine. I don't want Mainoo to play 50+ games this season and burn out, though. Even if we buy Ugarte, I'd still like an additional option for the two deep midfield slots, personally (I appreciate that probably neither a left back nor an additional midfielder are very realistic if we buy Ugarte, though).
It’s infuriating
Sounds like nonsense anyway, this rumour. Maybe Fenerbache just want more upfront money from Brighton.
Yeah that’s my thoughts too. We desperately need a new midfielder, another full back would be preferable but isn’t urgent.
We aren’t blessed with many back up options at fullback. We’ve lost Wan Bissaka, Kwambala, Amrabaat, potentially Lindelof too, who all played there last season.
We will if PSG agree to a swap with Sancho.
Ideally we add 2 CMs ie a no 6 and a no 8 who can play as a 6. However if I have to choose between bringing in 2 CMs and bringing in 1 LB and 1 top CM then I'll go for the latter.
Ugarte is a workrate machine which is exactly what we need. Add Zirkzee whose also a workrate beast + Mount (who provide more legwork then Eriksen) and you've got a set of interesting combinations to work with.
Liverpool/Chelsea/City home - Ugarte-Mainoo-Bruno with Hojlund upfront
Liverpool/Chelsea/City away - Ugarte-Casemiro-Mainoo with Bruno/Zirkzee as false 9
against mid table - Ugarte/Casemiro-Mount-Eriksen with Zirkzee as false 9
against league 1/early Europa league clubs - Casemiro-Mount-Eriksen with Hojlund as striker
What we cannot afford is yet another season without a LB. Amass can act as cover but he's certainly not first team material just yet
As much as I would like this to happen, I don’t think there’s any veracity to this. We already have two right footers who can play left back in Mazraoui and Dalot, and while I think we need more coverage there, I would imagine we’ll prioritise a left footer and a cheap deal like a loan. Resources will be directed to midfield.
The one variable we don’t know is how exits are shaping up. If Lindelof, McTominay, Eriksen, Hannibal, Pellistri and Sancho all, or most, leave there would be plenty in the budget for Kadioglu, Ugarte and a lower cost midfield signing like Fofana or Rabiot on a free. But that’s a lot of movement in two weeks, and I’ll think we’ll focus on securing our primary midfield target first.
The one variable we don’t know is how exits are shaping up. If Lindelof, McTominay, Eriksen, Hannibal, Pellistri and Sancho all, or most, leave there would be plenty in the budget for Kadioglu, Ugarte and a lower cost midfield signing like Fofana or Rabiot on a free. But that’s a lot of movement in two weeks, and I’ll think we’ll focus on securing our primary midfield target first.
I think we’ll go for Hermoso as cover for two positions, as soon as Lindelof is sold
Couple we perhaps also see this guy as a midfielder too? He can play alot of positions and might be useful for us at full back, midfield and maybe even the right wing?
He might even show Rashford up.
That's why I thought we would go for him but agree the cost has probably played a big part in it
Also the numbers being bandied about seems extremely unlikely. We don't want to pay £50m for Ugarte, but we're going to pay £40m on Kadioglu? Seems very unlikely.
Yeah I agree. Even when he was fit it often felt like he was struggling due to his size and the physicality. He was good technically but I thought he was just about acceptable as a back up left back. Definitely didn't feel secure with him starting. I don't expect him to make any impact this season coming off of an injury and ideally would like us to sell him next summer. However, if he doesn't get any games to show that he's now fit and back at a decent level it may be hard to shift him.
Was unlikely when the rumour was £30 million. Its laughable now
Martinez, Amass, one of Mazraoui / Dalot and Shaw if he ever becomes fit. The situation is pretty dire but I think we can hobble along. If it was only one of DM / LB, I'd rather do DM.
Or the use of it is literally a travesty and the death of it is metaphorically a tragedy?
You never know, we managed to hijack Zirkzee and Yoro transfers so there's a chance.
All fair points. But Shaw is not going to another club, not this season at least. Say it’s now February and Shaw is fit and looking great in competition, and we somehow find ourselves in the top four hunt and deep in all cups. Do we not go with Shaw to put the next possible XI on the pitch in those cup finals?
Ah back before we committed to spending over £141 million on players already
Shaw needs to be phased away
Certainly sounds like most of our defenders medical conditions in the last year.
I agree that, as good a signing as I think Ferdi could be, we've mainly got to prioritise addressing the CM issues in the rest of the window.
A permanent decision over the LB issue will probably be delayed until next summer, when we reassess how Shaw and Malacia are physically, and how much Amass has (or hasn't) developed. For now, we'll maybe look to either make do with what we've got or bring in cheap short term cover as a free or on loan.
Why have you done this
Yeah I could see that and he's a free agent so could do the deal after the window has closed
Ain't happening.
Just a travesty.
Why ignore the money made from sales?
Who did we hijack big Z from?
Because its minimal compared to other clubs who have spent more than us to this point like Chelsea or Aston Villa and if we were to spend £30 million+ on a fullback we'd be spending the same as them with much less in sales. And thats before spending on Ugarte and selling McTominay for example for less. Our net spend is high already
We should of been in for him , but now we got Mazraoui we will probably end up paying Brighton £55 million in a few years.
AC Milan.
At the moment we're on a net spend of around £75m.
We normally spend around £200m on transfers. I think we've got enough for another fullback and two midfielders. That's not factoring in potential further sales.
See what happens in the next 2 weeks.
Good question
If we had loads of money we could had paid for Ugarte or any other midfielder we wanted ages ago. We could have been in for Onana and Joao Neves as alternatives to help negotiate the price too. They were both signed without us getting involved - we probably didnt have the money to keep them on their clubs on the line about a possible deal. I dont think theres any indication that we've got as much to spend this summer as normal not without sales and weve struggled to make significant ones like the premier leagues bigger spenders Villa and Chelsea have.
McTominay is an obvious one we should be looking to finish up but thats to free up funds for our midfield signing. Where we're going to find £30-40 million for another fullback is a mystery but if we did have that money we'd have been far better off signing Maatsen but yet again we had no involvement while he went to Villa.
I understand having optimism but I dont think this is it. I think optimism is that we finally get Ugarte or a half decent alternative and thats it. 2 midfielders and a fullback on top of Zirkzee, Yoro, De Ligt, and Mazaroui is more incoming first teamers than Chelsea made last season and were laughed at - then struggled to find a real team among them.
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