Summer transfer window to make us competitive..

Tom Cato said:
Am I the only one who dont wany any bit of Kane here? Not at the price Tottenham are going to ask for him. Kane will be 30 when the next season starts. That means he will be in his prime another 2-3 years before slowing down.
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This
 
croadyman said:
I still think Toney will get punished but when that's gonna be is anyone's guess right now. Yeah you have definitely overestimated with those valuations. Certainly wouldn't be against Sesko provided we still got a proven starter one too.
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Yeah this was of course assuming he gets off free. What do you mean overestimated? I thought I was pretty realistic with how much each player would probably cost
 
At this point we have a solid top 4 squad, so the only players we should sign are players that should improve on the first 11 and maybe a couple freebies or young potentials.

Sell:
McTominay - 30M (might keep him, if he is ok to stay as a backup)
Henderson - 30M
VDB - 20M
Elanga - 25M
Tuanzebe - 0
Jones - 0
Williams - 10M
Bailly - 5M
Telles - 5M
Total: 95-125M

Loan out:
Hannibal, Pelistri, McNeil, Mainoo

Bring back from loan:
Laird, Amad

Loan in:
Weghorst

Buy:
one of De Jong (90M) or Bellingham (150M) - going to be hard for any of these, so we need to overspend probably
Vlahovic or Gonçalo Ramos or Toney or Sesko 70-90M
Raya 10M
Someone on a free if McT goes, maybe Tielemans
Total: 170-250M

GK: Raya, DDG, Heaton - Raya and DDG to battle it out + Heaton as a backup
RB: Dalot, AWB, Laird - Malacia backup
LB: Shaw, Malacia - Dalot backup
RCB: Varane, Maguire, Lindelof
LCB: Martinez, Lindelof, Shaw
DM: Casemiro, Fred, McT if we keep him, one of FDJ or Bellingham
CM: Fred, McT if we keep him, one of FDJ or Bellingham
CAM: Bruno, Eriksen, Amad, Sancho
RW: Antony, Sancho, Amad, Bruno
LW: Rashford, Garnacho, Sancho
ST: Martial, Weghorst, one of Vlahovic, Ramos, Toney or Sesko + Rashford as a backup

This is a squad that can compete for the title for a reasonable net spend of somewhere between 45M and 155M, depending on the choices
 
I do feel that making a statement signing in January would have give us some extra momentum to carry into next season. I know we overspent in the summer and it’s difficult to get the right business done in January but it would have been nice to finish the season with another piece of the jigsaw in place and displaying title form. It would be a shame if we spend the first few weeks of next season trying to bed in 3 or more new faces and don’t properly hit the ground running.
 
IN

Goncalo Ramos
Diogo Costa
Jeremie Frimpong
Youri Tielemans (On a Free)
Evan N'Dicka (On a Free)
Houssem Aouar(On a Free)


OUT

DDG
Maguire
AWB
McTominay
 
A reliable center forward who gets goals is the most important transfer this window.

I hope we stay away from Kane though. Investing in him now will be huge mistake and will be a sign we aren't learning from past mistakes..
 
Harry Kane would be my first priority simply because of how well his skillset would translate to what ETH wants in a striker perfectly. He'd not only score buckets of goals, but he would make the wide forwards so much better with his passing and simply the attention he would require from defenses. He's 30, but he takes tremendous care of his body and while we're still in a rebuild process we need to have some short term ambitions in mind as well. A suitable backup for Casemiro will take some shrewdness and creativity in the transfer market because the player needs to be good enough and willing to take a backup role. I'm not crazy about the idea of the heir apparent serving that role because it needs to be someone with experience too. I think we should also look to upgrade on the Eriksen/Fred position in midfield with a more well-rounded midfielder, and IMO Alexis Mac Alister was made to play midfield for Ten Hag. Outside of that maybe a center back to replace Maguire, but there's only so much turnover you can go through in one transfer window. I think we'll look to Antony to continue to develop and solidify that RW spot as his own, with Amad getting a chance to back him up, and maybe Hannibal to provide more desperately needed cover in midfield.
 
Kind of a pointless thread at this point. We don't know if the club gets sold or not, or to who. No idea what the summer budget will be.
 
De Jong/Bellingham, the striker from Napoli. A world class GK.
 
This is the window that can finally fill the holes in our squad. Get it right and we’re in business for the next five years. Get it wrong and it’s another decade of catch up.
 
Valencia Shin Crosses said:
Yeah this was of course assuming he gets off free. What do you mean overestimated? I thought I was pretty realistic with how much each player would probably cost
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Think we would do very well to get £25m each for Donny and AWB but hopefully I am proven completely wrong
 
BelfastRed2021 said:
I think De Jong and Kane and we would be serious title challengers obviously sell Maguire and Wan Bisakka and buy a new RB aswell possibly bring in Raya from Brentford aswell wont his contract be up? i dont think we really need Henderson so could sell him aswell.
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I really don't understand this (consideration of Kane issue). It will be his last big contract so he will want more than £200k a week and Spurs will want £100 millionish in transfer fee - that just isn't going to happen at anywhere other than say PSG or Newcastle. Furthermore, he is past his best - he is already visibly slower and dropping deeper and deeper for his current club, I think it could end up like another Falcao or Cavani or Ronaldo situation if Man United made him a target and recruited him.
 
The White Pele said:
I do feel that making a statement signing in January would have give us some extra momentum to carry into next season. I know we overspent in the summer and it’s difficult to get the right business done in January but it would have been nice to finish the season with another piece of the jigsaw in place and displaying title form. It would be a shame if we spend the first few weeks of next season trying to bed in 3 or more new faces and don’t properly hit the ground running.
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Yeah ideally we could have made one but the extra money spent on Antony has hurt us in this window. Could possibly have got Lisandro for a little bit less if we had better negotiators
 
Assuming we have new owners and they are willing to spend

Ins;
De Jong
Kane
Timber
Costa

Just these 4 will make us competitive in terms of title challenging

Outs;
1 of Maguire or Lindelof (but not both)
AWB

And after that, every sale going out has to have a replacement coming in (i.e. McTominay > new DM, Fred > new CM, VDB > New CAM, Maguire/Lindelof after the other has already been sold > new CB) to ensure we have enough depth for cover for 4 tournaments
 
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Momochiru said:
At this point we have a solid top 4 squad, so the only players we should sign are players that should improve on the first 11 and maybe a couple freebies or young potentials.

Sell:
McTominay - 30M (might keep him, if he is ok to stay as a backup)
Henderson - 30M
VDB - 20M
Elanga - 25M
Tuanzebe - 0
Jones - 0
Williams - 10M
Bailly - 5M
Telles - 5M
Total: 95-125M

Loan out:
Hannibal, Pelistri, McNeil, Mainoo

Bring back from loan:
Laird, Amad

Loan in:
Weghorst

Buy:
one of De Jong (90M) or Bellingham (150M) - going to be hard for any of these, so we need to overspend probably
Vlahovic or Gonçalo Ramos or Toney or Sesko 70-90M
Raya 10M
Someone on a free if McT goes, maybe Tielemans
Total: 170-250M

GK: Raya, DDG, Heaton - Raya and DDG to battle it out + Heaton as a backup
RB: Dalot, AWB, Laird - Malacia backup
LB: Shaw, Malacia - Dalot backup
RCB: Varane, Maguire, Lindelof
LCB: Martinez, Lindelof, Shaw
DM: Casemiro, Fred, McT if we keep him, one of FDJ or Bellingham
CM: Fred, McT if we keep him, one of FDJ or Bellingham
CAM: Bruno, Eriksen, Amad, Sancho
RW: Antony, Sancho, Amad, Bruno
LW: Rashford, Garnacho, Sancho
ST: Martial, Weghorst, one of Vlahovic, Ramos, Toney or Sesko + Rashford as a backup

This is a squad that can compete for the title for a reasonable net spend of somewhere between 45M and 155M, depending on the choices
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Your valuations for McTominay, Elanga, and VDB are optimistic to say the least.

I could see McTominay hacking it for a mid-table team. 20 million max.

Elanga is Championship quality. 10 million is pushing it.

VDB is always hurt and has barely featured, and when he has he has been very underwhelming. 10 million if we're lucky.
 
Shakesey said:
It's a case of the fewest number of transfers that'll make the biggest impact. Realistically, we can only afford one 80m+ player. After that we'd have to target free agents and youngsters with potential.

We've never sold effectively, so those who think we'll buy two or more pricey players are dreaming. I hope they're right.
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Yeah, if the budget is say 100M after sales, I could see us doing something like this, for example. I didn't include selling Sancho for 40M because it feels too early and also teams might fear a Dele Alli situation unless he ends the season quite well, but if Ten Hag is told his budget is 100M + sales and say De Jong wants to come here, then selling Sancho to get that money and keeping Pellistri and Amad really does make a lot of sense.

Sold with no real replacement:
1) Van De Beek (12M, Bundesliga)
2) Telles (3M, who knows)
3) Bailly (4M, France, he seems to have just almost killed a man on the pitch)
4) Jones - (Free, a Champo side)
5) Henderson (10M, a Prem team that needs a keeper, let's say Leicester (Ward bad) or Palace (Guaita is 36) or a promoted side, or even Forest even if they go down)
6) Pellistri (15M, we could keep him too and just send Amad on loan for another year. Maybe they compete over the pre-season and one stays and one goes, and if Amad wins the battle, Pellistri is sold for funds and if Pellistri wins the battle, then Amad goes on loan to a Prem team with a massive hole at RW, which should exist since this season for example, Southampton, Leicester, Everton and Bournemouth are all quite poor in that area. Left-footers are hard to find).

Swaps:
1) Maguire and McTominay are replaced with one big RCB who can play at DM (whoever Ten Hag thinks is the next Edson Alvarez I guess). Ten Hag isn't obsessed with height, but we need some, and there has to be a 6'2 type guy who can adequately backup Varane and Casemiro somewhere out there. If we sign a more defensive #8 like Brozovic, Caicedo or Rice than just a plain old RCB prospect, someone to learn from and take over from Varane in time who's doing well in say France or Germany.

2) De Gea allowed to leave and we sign a cheap, passing keeper like Raya for 15M who's on far less wages. I'm calling this one equal money-wise since wages will be a big signing. If he doesn't perform, he's upgraded in 2024

3) Wan-Bissaka sold for about the same money as his replacement, let's say Frimpong since he's Dutch, we're rumoured to want him, he's probably available and Antony's play seems a bit of a worry and we could use some pace overlapping him if he's picked for his ball retention and his eventual (possibly next year) backup in Amad likes to come inside centrally a lot anyways.

Option 1 - Money on Striker
4) Ramos - 80M, overpay but we need a quality #9 and he seems good back to goal (some of the passes in this clip are really impressive ), played behind Darwin last year and did really well in areas we often want our striker in and he has 16 goals in 1700 minutes this year (league, cups and Portugal) which is about all you can ask for unless you're getting Messi, Cristiano or Haaland. Also we have no strikers close to the first team, whereas Mainoo and Iqbal might be able to crack the lineup. Also Martial gets hurt all the time and Fred never does, if we're talking backups.

5) 20M or free #8 - Not sure who. Maybe we sacrifice age here for quality as Ten Hag might fancy his ability to develop Mainoo, Iqbal, another youth signing or pick up someone like Gravenberch if he doesn't work out at Bayern for example. At the minute, I'd guess Brozovic as he's struggling with injures and apparently could be sold, and we could rotate him with Eriksen and he can cover the CB. I probably should have included an Eredivisie player in there somewhere, so let's say Kokcu is an option as well, even though I couldn't pick him from a lineup.

Option 2 - Money on CM
4) 1 of Enzo/Caicedo/Rice/De Jong is signed. The midfield is the main part of the team and we wait until 2024 to sign a top striker.

5) Free or 20M Striker - Obvious guess is Marcus Thuram, but my guess is he chooses Barcelona and we keep Weghorst, which isn't good enough but also doesn't break the bank. Brobbey would be another option if Ten Hag liking him are true. If we do keep Weghorst, maybe we sign a teenage striker for a moderate fee and loan him back to his club (or somewhere else for a year).

So, that's 5 players, but 3 are not huge signings, one is a free and only one is a huge budget. Really, we do need the budget for a quality #9 and #8. The other positions can be signed for the fees the outgoing players in their spot bring in, as long as there's a Malacia (cheap) and an Eriksen (free) available.
 
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The White Pele said:
I do feel that making a statement signing in January would have give us some extra momentum to carry into next season. I know we overspent in the summer and it’s difficult to get the right business done in January but it would have been nice to finish the season with another piece of the jigsaw in place and displaying title form. It would be a shame if we spend the first few weeks of next season trying to bed in 3 or more new faces and don’t properly hit the ground running.
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Exactly. I understand we're in the process of being sold but we simply cannot sit back while other clubs around us strengthen. Caiceido and Trossard are examples of affordable squad additions that win you leagues.
 
NoPace said:
Yeah, if the budget is say 100M after sales, I could see us doing something like this, for example. I didn't include selling Sancho for 40M because it feels too early and also teams might fear a Dele Alli situation unless he ends the season quite well, but if Ten Hag is told his budget is 100M + sales and say De Jong wants to come here, then selling Sancho to get that money and keeping Pellistri and Amad really does make a lot of sense.

Sold with no real replacement:
1) Van De Beek (12M, Bundesliga)
2) Telles (3M, who knows)
3) Bailly (4M, France, he seems to have just almost killed a man on the pitch)
4) Jones - (Free, a Champo side)
5) Henderson (10M, a Prem team that needs a keeper, let's say Leicester (Ward bad) or Palace (Guaita is 36) or a promoted side, or even Forest even if they go down)
6) Pellistri (15M, we could keep him too and just send Amad on loan for another year. Maybe they compete over the pre-season and one stays and one goes, and if Amad wins the battle, Pellistri is sold for funds and if Pellistri wins the battle, then Amad goes on loan to a Prem team with a massive hole at RW, which should exist since this season for example, Southampton, Leicester, Everton and Bournemouth are all quite poor in that area. Left-footers are hard to find).

Swaps:
1) Maguire and McTominay are replaced with one big RCB who can play at DM (whoever Ten Hag thinks is the next Edson Alvarez I guess). Ten Hag isn't obsessed with height, but we need some, and there has to be a 6'2 type guy who can adequately backup Varane and Casemiro somewhere out there. If we sign a more defensive #8 like Brozovic, Caicedo or Rice than just a plain old RCB prospect, someone to learn from and take over from Varane in time who's doing well in say France or Germany.

2) De Gea allowed to leave and we sign a cheap, passing keeper like Raya for 15M who's on far less wages. I'm calling this one equal money-wise since wages will be a big signing. If he doesn't perform, he's upgraded in 2024

3) Wan-Bissaka sold for about the same money as his replacement, let's say Frimpong since he's Dutch, we're rumoured to want him, he's probably available and Antony's play seems a bit of a worry and we could use some pace overlapping him if he's picked for his ball retention and his eventual (possibly next year) backup in Amad likes to come inside centrally a lot anyways.

Option 1 - Money on Striker
4) Ramos - 80M, overpay but we need a quality #9 and he seems good back to goal (some of the passes in this clip are really impressive ), played behind Darwin last year and did really well in areas we often want our striker in and he has 16 goals in 1700 minutes this year (league, cups and Portugal) which is about all you can ask for unless you're getting Messi, Cristiano or Haaland. Also we have no strikers close to the first team, whereas Mainoo and Iqbal might be able to crack the lineup. Also Martial gets hurt all the time and Fred never does, if we're talking backups.

5) 20M or free #8 - Not sure who. Maybe we sacrifice age here for quality as Ten Hag might fancy his ability to develop Mainoo, Iqbal, another youth signing or pick up someone like Gravenberch if he doesn't work out at Bayern for example. At the minute, I'd guess Brozovic as he's struggling with injures and apparently could be sold, and we could rotate him with Eriksen and he can cover the CB. I probably should have included an Eredivisie player in there somewhere, so let's say Kokcu is an option as well, even though I couldn't pick him from a lineup.

Option 2 - Money on CB
4) 1 of Enzo/Caicedo/Rice/De Jong is signed. The midfield is the main part of the team and we wait until 2024 to sign a top striker.

5) Free or 20M Striker - Obvious guess is Marcus Thuram, but my guess is he chooses Barcelona and we keep Weghorst, which isn't good enough but also doesn't break the bank. Brobbey would be another option if Ten Hag liking him are true. If we do keep Weghorst, maybe we sign a teenage striker for a moderate fee and loan him back to his club (or somewhere else for a year).

So, that's 5 players, but 3 are not huge signings, one is a free and only one is a huge budget. Really, we do need the budget for a quality #9 and #8. The other positions can be signed for the fees the outgoing players in their spot bring in, as long as there's a Malacia (cheap) and an Eriksen (free) available.
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Good post. (I think you meant "Money on CM")
 
I keep seeing Raya mentioned, but has anyone watched him? DeGea is twice the keeper, the only thing Raya is better at is ball playing. I’ll trust ETH on this one
 
Shakesey said:
Good post. (I think you meant "Money on CM")
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Thanks. Edited the error.

Writing it, as well as Kane apparently being willing to re-sign with Spurs (seems crazy, but he has 3 young children so could see staying, though the contract should demand Levy buy some quality fullbacks/wingbacks, a CB and a #10) really made me think we'll sign Goncalo Ramos. He fits better than Osimhen as a back to goal link up option and Sesko is just so unproven.

I could see us finding a solution at #8 easier than a quality striker one, be that someone older and so commanding a lesser fee like Brozovic, a young player who can be bought for 20M or so, a free transfer like Tielemans, Rabiot, Kamada or Dahoud or say Ruben Neves with one year to go. Not sure how we'd sign a quality striker for 20M. I think in that case we'd just keep Weghorst.
 
Striker. Number 8 midfielder. Full back. And a GK.
 
golden_blunder said:
I keep seeing Raya mentioned, but has anyone watched him? DeGea is twice the keeper, the only thing Raya is better at is ball playing. I’ll trust ETH on this one
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Ye we don’t wanna down grade. We need a keeper who’s better at ball playing and is just as good or better at shot stopping.
 
golden_blunder said:
I keep seeing Raya mentioned, but has anyone watched him? DeGea is twice the keeper, the only thing Raya is better at is ball playing. I’ll trust ETH on this one
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I mean is it? Raya stops about five times more crosses per match (1.34) than De Gea (0.27), and in percentage terms he stops four times the proportion of crosses (8%) than De Gea (2.1%). He also completes more actions outside of his penalty area per game (1.22) than De Gea (0.82), granted that the average distance of his defensive actions from his goal are lower (14.4m) than De Gea (15.8m).

A lot of people constantly parrot the whole "stats aren't everything" line but I'd counter that there aren't many goalkeepers who come away from the fabled "eye test" better than De Gea because his reflex saves are so eye-catching.

You only need to look at the difference that a dependable goalkeeper who is comfortable with the ball at his feet has made to Arsenal this season to see why Raya is considered an attractive prospect by some. We're no longer at the point where we need an outstanding shot stopper to be bailing us out all the time; we're rather looking at a competent defensive unit which nonetheless struggles on the ball when put under sustained pressure in no small part because the goalkeeper is not comfortable with the ball at his feet.
 
I think we’re gonna go for FDJ or Bellingham for our main midfield target but Declan rice should be thought of aswell. He was insane against Newcastle last night. Covers so much ground. I think FDJ or Bellingham is what we need at the minute while we have Casemiro but Rice should be Casemiros replacement but I think by that time someone would have already snapped him up.
 
DJ_21 said:
I think we’re gonna go for FDJ or Bellingham for our main midfield target but Declan rice should be thought of aswell. He was insane against Newcastle last night. Covers so much ground. I think FDJ or Bellingham is what we need at the minute while we have Casemiro but Rice should be Casemiros replacement but I think by that time someone would have already snapped him up.
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Yeah definitely need more of that type player
 
Buy:

De Jong
Osimhen
Gvardiol
Timber

Need a new GK too but don’t think it’s a priority.

Sell:

Jones
VdB
Mctominay
Maguire
Lindelof
Bailly
Telles
Williams
Martial
 
Kane for striker and FDJ for CM. That will makes us title contenders.

golden_blunder said:
I keep seeing Raya mentioned, but has anyone watched him? DeGea is twice the keeper, the only thing Raya is better at is ball playing. I’ll trust ETH on this one
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This. Raya is actually a downgrade on DDG. It’s better to keep De Gea and sign Costa on 2024.
 
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Ins :-
Kane
Kolo Muani (we need 2 strikers)
Frenkie de Jong
Kyle Walker peters
GK

Outs:-
Jones
Maguire
AWB
Mctominay
Elanga
Martial
 
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