To be fair, we have bought 2 CMs.
Frenkie de Jong | The last muppeting lap
- Thread starter davidmichael
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To be fair, we have bought 2 CMs.
Expected this after the win.
It's not really though, is it - we've tried to sign a particular holding midfielder all summer and have now signed another, stylistically different holding midfielder.
Casemiro being an alternative to de Jong makes sense.
14 million for Garner sounds ridiculous. He's 21 years old and was a star player in the Championship last season, surely you could get more. Hopefully we get a buy back clause in any deal, otherwise it seems ludicrous.
We just have 310 pages to go. That's 12,400 posts. So, in this vain:
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You think it smart to try and hijack a PSG transfer?
It is. Considering they will go after our players if that happens.
No harm in trying. Besides, deal has been hanging up in the air for close to two weeks. If they wanted him that much I imagine it would have been closed by now. If the fee hikes up too much or his demands are outrageous (though they'd still be less than De Jong's I imagine) we can just simply pull out then.
Hard to tell before ever trying, no?
People criticising the club for ‘chasing him all summer’ .. we’ve literally signed 2 other midfielders. Our midfield is improved from last year and is good enough to challenge for the top 4. Frenkie would’ve been the icing on the cake, but let’s not pretend we’re still heading into the season with McFred
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Murtough.....he wasted 3 months on this. Bloody hell.
Although, Barca has huge problems with player registration. Wait few more days and then offer them 1 euro for him ( with taking that 17 mil dept on us).
Although, Barca has huge problems with player registration. Wait few more days and then offer them 1 euro for him ( with taking that 17 mil dept on us).
cup
One could argue that Eriksen is more of a Lingard/Mata replacement.
Nonetheless, Eriksen + Casemiro > Pogba + Matic IMO.
That said, a good ball carrier wouldn’t hurt because it is a flaw in the make-up of our midfield and I’m unsure of Eriksen’s ability in such a role. Brazil’s midfield (Casemiro + Fred) doesn’t control and progress the ball like Ten Hag ball that’s for certain. We’d happily release VDB if such a player becomes available.
Priority is still getting in attackers though, so perhaps as fans we’ll need to temper expectations and accept a 4th - 6th place finish this season. Rome wasn’t built in a day.
“you can't triple stamp a double stamp, you can't triple stamp a double stamp! Lloyd! Lloyd!”
I can't believe we're lucky enough to get at least one thread update per day, this is unprecedented.
'sup?
Now this is the kind of 4d chess we need at the club! Get your details out there, man!Well I don’t see Casemiro playin like De Jong because De Jong is not a deep lying playmaker that many think he is just because he can be found very deep - he is a roaming playmaker.
Casemiro is more his partner.
Im starting to think that Rabiot was trying to be bought as the alternative to De Jong because they are more ‘on the ball’ players than Casemiro.
Casemiro as the alternative to De Jong seems like a poorly planned transfer in an emergency that just happened to work out because we got a world class player.
Super wishful thinking but I really hope an alternative is on the cards. Casemiro alone in midfield isn’t enough
There really is, but @ayushreddevil9 already has that angle covered!
This could just be another briefing to make Barca more desperate.
But we agreed a deal with Barca. It isn’t Barca who need convincing.
They need convincing to pay the 17m if they want rid of him
Erik must envisage a Casemiro and McTominay midfield partnership.
No way it's over. Let's wait. Still few more days to sort this out.
He's shit with an annoying face, didn't want him anyway!
I think we would have offered to cover that by now. We are not in a position (team wise) to be playing this long game. Especially based on recent spending and supposed budget increase I can not imagine we haven’t signed our number one target because of £17m.
Don’t get me wrong I hope you’re right, but my hopefulness on this one is waning.
I see where you're coming from, and that's what logic would suggest, but there's been a report about Frenkie insisting Barca pay it out of principle. Whatever the truth is, none of this mess is overly logical or rational
Refuse to believe that this is completely over.
If ten Hag only had to chose between spunking big money on either Frenkie or Antony, I think he would choose the former.
If ten Hag only had to chose between spunking big money on either Frenkie or Antony, I think he would choose the former.
This is bollocks IMO. The club trying to play it cool by saying it's over. Their leverage has increased since Casemiro signed.
No way we don't get another CM in. Eriksen was absolutely gassed vs Liverpool.
No way we don't get another CM in. Eriksen was absolutely gassed vs Liverpool.
We were after Rabiot and Arnautovic only a couple of weeks ago.
It's only since Brentford we've opened up the purse strings.
And also, why cover someone else's wages?
McDonnell and the Dutch sources said we wanted both Gakpo and Antony when none of the usual crew thought that. They also said we still wanted De Jong in those same reports. Now Whitwell is saying it might be both. Simon Jones and Shaveh both saying we want De Jong if he becomes available. They’ve been good for us all summer. There is no way if he leaves Barcelona we aren’t in for him. And Whitwell will just be repeating what the club are telling him - obviously we want Barcelona to think we’ve withdrawn as the whole thing is a game of chicken over the deferred wages and has been all summer. Barcelona think we’re desperate to buy and we think they’re desperate to sell - and they want FDJ to feel like he’s going to be a sub to make him leave without the wages.
I think this is more of an opinion piece than a brief or anything like that. If it was a brief it would be more than 1 report going out there, we'd get a lot within a very short space of time
I understand and agree but we are the ones with a terribly light midfield and only a few days left of the window. Being stubborn will cost us more on the pitch.
I agree but Ten Hag is fixated on De Jong.
Getting another CM, say SMS for example, would mean the end of the De Jong pursuit.
Yeah don't feel Christian is that guy who can make those dribbles through midfield and quick incisive passes, so will have to play a different sort of way until we sign one.
Yeah we do still need that tempo controller
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