If Spurs get Lemar, who could play as a #10 or RW or LW in a 4-4-2 like he did at Monaco for us, I will puke. He's not a genius or anything but he's technically solid, good mobility and certainly better than our other options, and Spurs already have Lo Celso, Eriksen and Lamela struggling to get minutes. Basically, he'd give us a 4th playable midfielder to go with Pogba, Fred and McTominay ahead of the other guys who are squad level players.
No.10/CAM signing in the January window
- Thread starter luke511
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I don't think we will get Maddison or Eriksen this window so I would go for Bruno Fernandes who can play as an 8 or 10. If we get Maddison in the summer both could play in the same side.
Cam would be a good hiring for the staff, but I think he mainly knows american football.
Lemar is too French for Ole's United. If he was a good hard working British lad with passion & desire we'd be at the front of the queue. Instead we'll bid the same amount on Sean Longstaff.
Sigurdsson is apparently available this month. He'd do you a job short-term.
Just sign Fernandes, he would be a huge improvement and I don't think Sporting would stand in his way if we wanted to go given how much they hawked him around last summer.
And he did fail completely at Atletico, please stop with this nonsense already... evil Ole doesn't want failed left winger only becouse he is French... ridicules...
We have no interest in Lemar becouse he is a left winger and we have no need of that at all.
I agree with this. He could also play as a number 8 or 10. We could still go for Maddison in the summer.
Saltsburg?
I was joking mate. I would much rather have a Maddison or a Grealish over Lemar.
The decision not to sign Fernandes because his passing isn't good enough is looking fecking daft in hindsight, given that we can't string two passes together anyway. Might as well have someone who can at least go forward and put the ball in the net from midfield.
Not sure if mentioned but there is a typo in the title.
Saltsburg?
They’ll be salty as hell once we sign Hwang.
autocorrect. Hwang from SalzburgI know you're joking but Lemar works hard for an attacking midfielder, he'd probably be a good fit in terms of pressing in the #10 role we played with pre-season when we basically played 4-2-4 and relied on whichever 2 of Pogba, McTominay and Fred are playing to cover huge tracts of space behind them.
It's also possible he'd do well as a left-footed RW, he didn't get the chance to play there with Bernardo Silva being also left-footed and less vertical a threat at Monaco, and Simeone ball is a whole nother thing.
Have you seen Lemar's stats in Spain? He has been an utter failure for such an expensive transfer. I'd take him for a swap deal for Lingard and Jones, otherwise stay clear and look at better options at better prices.
Yeah he's done nothing but Simeone's style hasn't suited a single wide player (Cerci, Vitolo, others I'm forgetting) since Arda Turan, really. He prefers CMs there. 21 French caps at 24. He's not outrageously skillful but he's a 7.5/10 at basically everything which would make him a fantastic loan signing for us. Has played with Pogba. I think he'd end up starting basically every game for us across midfield as he's quite versatile.
We could probably finance a 6 month loan for him easily enough, letting Young go 6 months early and just promoting Laird or Dalot to 4th fullback would cover wages alone and we wouldn't have to watch Pereira or Lingard start every game.
Also I'm not comparing him as he doesn't have their talent, but De Bruyne and Salah failed at Chelsea. We seem to always buy player at their peak value instead of when they might be worth a gamble. If we'd bought Thauvin after he flopped at Newcastle we'd have had a productive RW the last 4 years. Probably not a star like he's been at Marseille, but far better than we've had there.
A failed move doesn't make someone trash, as we've seen with Tielemans, Lovren, going back Henry and Vieira and many other players. Lo Celso may well not suit Mourinho, but he won't suddenly be trash.
I think if we brought in some mobile, technically solid midfielders like Van de Beek and Lemar on a loan to join Pogba with one of McTominay or Fred holding we'd suddenly look decent in midfield, which would be a huge improvement. Imagine James being able to come off the bench to run at tired defenders, or 2 injuries or suspensions (let's say Pogba and Fred) still allowing us to field a midfield 5 of Rashford-Lemar-McTominay-VanDeBeek-James instead of the current situation.
Leicester are playing well, but even if you don't think they'll collapse 4th place is very open between Spurs, Chelsea, Arsenal and us and getting it might make signings and a manager easier to get, certainly worth a loan fee from our massive revenues.
Fair enough if you believe in Lemar so much, I have never watched him that much to be honest. Not sure that he is what we need, even if he performs to his supposed talent, at least I never knew he could play as a 10.
I'm with you @NoPace , a loan would be good a la tielemans. We should be taking these sorts of gambles in Jan. We really need players hungry to prove themselves.
Did Dybala sort his image rights yet?
Or...ya know...we could drop the obsession with playing a No10 when we have nobody worthwhile capable of playing there. Madness
The problem is we don't have competent people on board level that have any foresight or proper football knowledge to find these sort of deals. It's no wonder we get fleeced in terms of paying transfer fees and wages, the people doing these jobs have no idea what they are doing.
why we are not in for Eriksen is beyond me. Make an offer to spurs they are going to rather 20-30 million than nothing in the summer
We should find a #10 on loan for sure, we lack quality there obviously and #10s are the type of awkward fits who end up losing playing times on good teams.
Draxler and Lemar seem like the obvious two names, maybe Brahim Diaz or Politano (and they want Young apparently) if we want a right winger and try to play 4-4-2, there's rumours Odegaard could be recalled and loaned elsewhere, I'm sure there's other interesting players with fresh legs not getting time around Europe who might do well here for 6 months. Sarabia's move has gone poorly. Rony Lopes' move has been even worse and he looked quite lively for Monaco. Franco Vasquez isn't great but he's an experienced #10. Chernyshev isn't playing much and we could give him a go on the right (where he can cut in left-footed, which he hasn't been given a great shot to do) and go 4-4-2.
If the idea is to sign someone like Olmo, Grealish or Maddison in the summer to be our #10 going forward, a loanee in his 20s looking to rehab his career makes a lot of sense to tide us over for 6 months.
I don't watch MLS and don't know if they still do short term Donovan to Everton loans, but Vela seems to be the best player in that league ahead of even Zlatan, and a mercurial left-footed attacker who can play as a #10 or a RW would suit us real well til the summer.
Stats and the raves of Norwich fans suggest Buendia could be a player we regret missing out on.
A loan deal would certainly make a lot of sense.
Without trying to be negative here, I really don't think the club has any excuse not to bring in bodies this window, even if on loan.
Sure, back in SAF's day you could somewhat justify the no value argument as the pool of players who could improve us was comparatively much smaller.
These days however with the state our squad is in currently, the bar is low. Attainable improvements we desperately need will be everywhere. Maybe not the perfect players, but we aren't good enough to demand perfection anymore.
Fingers crossed the clubs working at it in the background!