Non-Big 7 Prem players we might be looking at

scottser said:
How do we feel about Patrick Bamford or Jared Bowen?
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Bamford isn’t close to being good enough and Bowen would not be an improvement over any of our current wingers.
 
MyOnlySolskjaer said:
Sign Palhinha, would be devastated if he went to another Premier League club. Think Raya is the guy to get though.
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Bwuk said:
Very good shout. Rotation/long term replacement for Casemiro.
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I liked his game when I first saw him at the Euros 2020 but there's gonna be little chance, unless we offer something like £40m+ i.e double his transfer in the summer and he kicks up a fuss and Fulham want to sell. Worth way more to Fulham that what we would realistically pay for imo.
 
Tielemans for me. On a free he is a no brainier. We can't keep complaining about the likes of Fred, and turn our noses up at someone who is much younger and a much better player.

Toney as a backup striker also seem enticing, as is Walker-Peters as backup right back. I think he is a far better player than a lot of the ones we have been linked to. If Soton goes down then he's one of those we could be looking at.
 
rajds89 said:
If it’s young centre backs with a bit of potential we are after then Nathan Collins at Wolves is ahead of Harry Souttar for me.
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I don't think either are good enough, Collins has been benched with a better manager in there which seems like a red flag.

I can't stress enough that I think Souttar makes sense only as a 5th CB (since Shaw is really in the top 4 now) but there are dozens of aerially solid CBs who also make sense and now that Souttar has gotten his Prem move, he's too expensive anyways.

He's not a prem player, but I didn't realize De Vrij is expiring this summer. I could see him making sense as a Maguire replacement and backup.

I just don't think we'll spend a ton at CB unless Ten Hag signs Timber to play there. Feels more like the move is a cheap CB option this year who can play on the right side and then a big signing of a highly rated young CB in 2024 or even 2025 to actually give us quality depth and be Varane's long term replacement. This summer will be about signing a #9 and then the De Gea and Sabitzer decisions will determine if we're going for big signings in those spots.

The more settled our squad looks, the more I could see Ten Hag just buying Timber because he rates him.
 
criticalanalysis said:
Glad you said it first before me. Left winger to play on the opposite side and further back on the pitch. Bruh.

Tbh, we'd probably should avoid most or all Brighton/PL rivals prospects simply because they will be extremely overpriced for us or will be poor value. Brighton turned down £70m for Caceido ffs.
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I'm assuming our team will look like this most weeks:

-----------------------#9--------------------
Rashford------Bruno------Antony
-------------#8------Casemiro-------
Shaw-Lisandro-Varane-Dalot

and then you have promising backups in Garnacho at LW, Sancho at #10, Amad at RW. So there's not an obvious need for Mitoima.

But we could use a genuinely attacking RB option in games where we're trailing, especially since Antony seems to need one and Ten Hag spent a ton on him so will want him to have a partner who helps him play his best stuff, Amad likes to cut inside and Bruno is a #10 who's going to mostly play quite narrow. Adding someone like Lamptey or Walker-Peters would make sense right? But from what I've seen they don't actually defend any better than Mitoima and since Mitoima is out of contract in 2025, he very well might move to a top Prem team in 2024 with a year to go so Brighton get at least a decent sum of money for him. Chelsea have bought Mudryk, Arsenal brought in Trossard to backup Martinelli, Liverpool have Diaz and now Gapko. City have Grealish, but they could play Mitoima at LW and Foden and Mahrez. Newcastle also make sense.

But yeah, he looks a capable wingback to me, and we could use one one the right since Malacia is bad overlapping but a useful player tucked in, and Shaw is a quality defender and we probably want Rashford to have tons of room at LW anyways since our plan A (sometimes even when Garnacho is on) seems to be getting the ball switched quickly out there for him to run at defenders. So balance-wise, adding an attacking RB makes sense. Ideally we'd just sign Reece James or Hakimi, but that isn't going to happen, and Chelsea have signed Malo Gusto and Spurs Porro. There are other options and new ones always emerge, but I wouldn't say i'm certain that say Vanderson (who I liked when I watched the PSV-Monaco games to see Gapko), Frimpong or Livramento (now that he's had a serious injury) are definitely going to be better options than converting Mitoima and having him as a wide utility man if he refuses to re-sign and Brighton don't want to sell this summer but will take 30M with one year left on his deal.
 
BarryWinks said:
Tielemans for me. On a free he is a no brainier. We can't keep complaining about the likes of Fred, and turn our noses up at someone who is much younger and a much better player.
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I think Tielemans is just too slow. Sabitzer and Fred are very mobile and we still look porous without a #6. Casemiro is only going to lose pace at his age, so I don't think we can sign someone like Tielemans (or Neves) to play next to him. And I don't think we're better defensively with Tielemans backing up Casemiro.
 
skeeta said:
Iheanacho, Olise, Raya, and Jacob Ramsey stand out as the best choices. There are a lot of reasons why we should try to get at least a couple of these excellent EPL players.
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I didn't include Olise because Amad looks really promising, but he's obviously a quality player at one of the positions teams are always struggling to find production in, so I imagine he'll get a huge move at some point.

Ramsey is interesting. Emery has been and I think will keep using him as a wide man in an unbalanced 4-4-2 type thing where he's got more defensive responsibility than the other wide man, and that's very different to how Ten Hag plays.
 
Sarni said:
Bamford isn’t close to being good enough and Bowen would not be an improvement over any of our current wingers.
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the only way I could see Bowen making sense if you think he's a striker like Mertens was who just got thrown on the wing because he's small. He's not very good at most winger (or football) things, but he has a real hunger for goals. If you put him in Weghorst's spot against Leicester he probably gets a brace. 3 years left on his deal, though, so doesn't make sense. I do think West Ham's next manager might realize he and Scamacca could be a decent pairing up top with Paqueta as a narrow wide #10 type. They should have hired Emery before Villa maybe, as their squad suits him well if they can get a partner for Rice in, though there's not a manager on the planet who won't need that signing if they take over West Ham.
 
If we didn't have Malaccia, I would have said Antonee Robinson at Fulham. Really high quality left back with a good engine and good ball carrying skills.
 
Jezpeza said:
If Leeds go down i’d be straight in for Meslier and Gnonto. At 22 Meslier is a long term signing who I think is a great keeper and already has several seasons prem experience as a starter.
Gnonto looks like he could be bloody trouble for any side and will only get better
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Meslier is a weird one. I don't see him play well enough to want him as our keeper, but at times he seems to have everything you'd want in a modern keeper, which I think is really only true of Allison at the moment, though Sanchez, Ramsdale and Martinez all seem to like 3/4s of the time.
 
The Corinthian said:
Ollie Watkins seems a EtH type of striker. Always pressing, fights for everything and can run the channels. His hold up play he can improve on, as well as his dribbling but he’s a good finisher and has an all round good skill set.
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2 years to go, so if we persist with Martial as our backup #9 for one more year, it might make sense to move for him as a reliable backup in 2024.

I don't think he's good enough on the ball, but as a backup he might do okay here, particularly if the guy we sign this summer to start is on the slower/better in build up side of things like Kane or Ramos.
 
With Sancho left, right and covering as a 10, Rashford left right and as a 9, Bruno as a 10 and out right, Garnacho predominantly from the left and Antony predominantly on the right…and Amad possibly to come back in…we really just need a number 9. In that regard, no one good enough in the PL outside of Kane and not sure i want him either - just wouldn’t seem right in a Utd shirt and wouldn’t fit the development of the team. We have already seen what happens to Rashford when he is not the main man - he really went off the boil as soon as Ronaldo arrived and then clicked back into gear when he left.

So we are really just looking at a CDM…and fitting Mebrij into the midfield instead of McT. I would just buy Caicedo all day —get it done first day the window opens for a change and give him a proper pre season.
 
Abraxas said:
Iheanacho isn't looking such a hot idea. Weak as piss up front for Leicester today. Souttar is too slow. Harry Maguire mark 2.
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Eh, he was central to everything they did in the first half. Laid a chance on a plate for Barnes.

In the second half, he couldn't do anything because Leicester couldn't get a hold of the ball
 
Skills said:
Eh, he was central to everything they did in the first half. Laid a chance on a plate for Barnes.

In the second half, he couldn't do anything because Leicester couldn't get a hold of the ball
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That's partly because every time they punted it into him he seemed to lose it or be slow to the ball. Part of his job as a striker leading the line so if we're advocating for him to come here and do that sort of thing it wasn't too impressive. Don't think he's good enough at all.
 
ZH1 said:
I think it's a lost art in the premiership where we don't look at other premier league player or even championship players.

As a kid I always wanted us to sign Louis Saha, especially after the goals he scored against us on Ruud's debut, we had a world class striker that day in Ruud but Fulham did to in Louis Saha.

Brentford
  • Ivan Toney
Crystal Palace
  • Michael Olise
Leicester
  • James Maddison
Notts Forest
  • Morgan Gibbs White
Wolves
  • Matheus Nunes
West Ham
  • Nayef Aguerd
  • Declan Rice
Southampton
  • Kyle Walker Peters
  • James Ward Prowse
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Aguerd has been very impressive the few times I've seen him recently. He has incredible recovery speed!
 
Sarni said:
Bamford isn’t close to being good enough and Bowen would not be an improvement over any of our current wingers.
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In addition to not being nearly good enough, Bamford is also quite injury prone. And surely Bowen would be an improvement on Antony? Not to mention a massive upgrade on Elanga.
 
Sea-Cow said:
In addition to not being nearly good enough, Bamford is also quite injury prone. And surely Bowen would be an improvement on Antony? Not to mention a massive upgrade on Elanga.
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I don’t think Bowen is better than Antony and Elanga barely plays. You wouldn’t spend £60m or whatever Bowen would cost to replace Elanga’s minutes which are barely any.
 
Basa1987 said:
If we didn't have Malaccia, I would have said Antonee Robinson at Fulham. Really high quality left back with a good engine and good ball carrying skills.
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These Pro Evo name alterations/regens are getting ridiculous these days.
 
Sea-Cow said:
Aguerd has been very impressive the few times I've seen him recently. He has incredible recovery speed!
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I never knew much about him until the World Cup where he was class in a low block counter attacking Moroccan team, which is good considering the stage but there's many a defender who can look quality in a low block team.

Post World Cup he's played well in a poor West Ham team, and when they've tried to play high line he's been the best defender and like you said he has that recovery pace which you need when you play a high line.

With his build he reminds me of a young Varane, and I'm not saying they're in the same class, Young Varane was able to lock down a prime Messi, but with his build and attributes he plays the role of a centre back very similarly.

It could be an interesting couple of years for him, if he continues his rise I could definitely see him playing for a top 6 club in the prem or with one of the big boys in Italy or Spain.
 
I'd like Alexis McCallister, that lads looked like a baller every time I've seen him play.
 
poleglass red said:
In the game against us I thought he was excellent, to be honest I haven't seen much of him outside of that game.
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Every time I've seen him he's been good. He's very good at pressing and disrupting the opposition, plays hard as feck too. Not saying he's bad with the ball or anything, but I feel that he might not bring enough to to the team we're trying to build. Does similar things to Fred and in the Fulham side doesn't seem to play those horror balls where the opposition counters as much as Fred does. Still feel he wouldn't give us enough in those 70% of matches when we're expected to dominate the ball.
 
Interesting thread, and good work in putting it together.

Declan Rice, James Ward-Prowse, Kaoro Mitoma, Tielemans, Neves, Onana, Gibbs-White

Happily take any of these. Any.
 
3 of 4 players we bought was from the eridivise, 1 loaned player was dutch too. We could have more PL signings than expected if ten hag prefers/views players in his current league.
 
I'm not sure how many of those that would take Ward-Prowse have actually seen him in person. Some players exceed expectations when seen up close compared with on TV, others the opposite and he is the opposite. I've seen him multiple times, home and away, in games we've won and in games they've won. I've also seen him play for England a number of times. I'll start by saying he's a good player with a lot of energy and obviously he's got a heck of a free kick on him. But the reality is he is a very basic midfielder who doesn't see anything on the pitch that you don't see in the crowd, his overall vision just isn't there for a top club midfielder which is why Southampton have only ever really had to field offers from the likes of Aston Villa. That's just his level I'm afraid.
 
Trying to look at what we need this summer, I believe needs to be ST as well as a CDM. I think most here have covered the options but for me if we're to take a punt I'd look at:

ST: Mitrovic/Edouard
CDM: Palhina/Paqueta

All of these are unfortunately on long contracts, so not really realistic options. Looking at the relegation ones:

ST: Scamacca (I think there might be a decent footballer there given better players around him)
CDM: Lavia (although if the buyback from city exits then probably not)
 
pocco said:
Faes looked like he could be good, based on his performance against us.
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You can watch that game when he was constantly getting caught out of position and making terrible decisions, and Utd easily put 3 goals passed them, and think he "looked like he could be good" for Utd?!

I mean, you should add that comment to your description or something, as it would help people to save time paying much attention to your football opinions in future.
 
footballbite said:
You can watch that game when he was constantly getting caught out of position and making terrible decisions, and Utd easily put 3 goals passed them, and think he "looked like he could be good" for Utd?!

I mean, you should add that comment to your description or something, as it would help people to save time paying much attention to your football opinions in future.
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'Could be good'. Not 'was good'. I thought he was younger than 24, to be honest, and thought he showed some good things too. He was having to run and chase a lot as Leicester looked kamikaze in the second half and we started to exploit space they were leaving. But the first half in particular, our attack barely had a sniff and he dominated Weghorst. Even in the second half he did play some good passes between the lines and made some important recoveries.
 
pocco said:
I thought he was younger than 24, to be honest
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Well he's not.
pocco said:
He was having to run and chase a lot as Leicester looked kamikaze in the second half
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The point is he was one of the most kamikaze Leicester players throughout the match.

pocco said:
he dominated Weghorst
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Firstly, Weghorst was playing as the 10, not even as the CF directly up against him. Secondly, Weghorst isn't a very good PL player and most opponents have been able to easily handle him, so even if he did that means very little.

pocco said:
Even in the second half he did play some good passes between the lines
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He sometimes seemed decent with the ball - but it was his terrible pass which gave the ball away to Utd for the first goal, and then he compounded the mistake but running forwards to try and win the ball back, leaving his other defenders exposed.

He was the last defender back playing Rashford onside for the second goal.
He was the defender who rushed out and got bypassed with the one-two by Sancho for the third.
It was mistake after mistake.

Get some glasses.
 
I’m not a big fan of overpaying for players from the Premier League, but if we had to, Palhinha and Maddison could be great rotation options for Casemiro and Fernandes respectively. So more or less what others have said.
 
footballbite said:
Well he's not.

The point is he was one of the most kamikaze Leicester players throughout the match.



Firstly, Weghorst was playing as the 10, not even as the CF directly up against him. Secondly, Weghorst isn't a very good PL player and most opponents have been able to easily handle him, so even if he did that means very little.



He sometimes seemed decent with the ball - but it was his terrible pass which gave the ball away to Utd for the first goal, and then he compounded the mistake but running forwards to try and win the ball back, leaving his other defenders exposed.

He was the last defender back playing Rashford onside for the second goal.
He was the defender who rushed out and got bypassed with the one-two by Sancho for the third.
It was mistake after mistake.

Get some glasses.
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To be honest, I don't really care enough about what you think to give you a proper response to this, and I could go into more detail as to what I did like at certain moments from him (I was at the game and watched him closely) and how I believe his issues are easily coached out etc. But I'm not debating football with some numpty teenager. Well done for wasting another post with more pearls of wisdom.

And by the way, Weghorst was an outball for us during first half when they pressed. Faes was pushed up against him to win those headers and second balls, which he did well. So perhaps you need to take your own advice and have a trip to Specsavers, cock.
 
JB08 said:
I’m not a big fan of overpaying for players from the Premier League, but if we had to, Palhinha and Maddison could be great rotation options for Casemiro and Fernandes respectively. So more or less what others have said.
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We really don't need Maddison. If Bruno was to be rotated the likes of Sancho, Amad etc will be available to play there.
 
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