Transfer rumours and speculation to take us through to summer.

MrsGrey

yoyo said:

Mykola Shaparenko and Monaco defender Djibril Sidibe, according to French outlet L'Equipe.

That brings us up to 89. :wahoo:

I feel quietly confident of getting to 100.....

MrsGrey

WHU_Champo_league_in_7_years said:

Obviously circumstances affect fee e.g. age, home grown status & the need for the selling club

not forgetting the deep pockets of the buying club!

Those examples given in the previous few posts.... the buying clubs were Man City, Man U and Liverpool.

alderz

Lukaku, Stones, van Dijk and Mahrez all continues to be available for and perform for their clubs. I think that’s the difference between them and Payer & Arnie.

Maybe we need to not buy divas

MrsGrey

And on the other side - how are Southampton fans feeling now?

'Yay, we sell our best players for big money' :hmm:

baracks_a_hammer

MrsGrey said:

And on the other side - how are Southampton fans feeling now?

'Yay, we sell our best players for big money' :hmm:

Yes but that is their business model. Newcastle’s is to not sign players around 30 as they cannot be sold on, and be happy to yo yo between Prem and champ.

It still remains to be seen what ours truly is. Is it really Champs league football as was mooted early in our owners reign?

Because in the Payet season that was (remarkably) within reach. And we got Eminike in the Jan transfer window. And the window after we got Calleri et al.

Maybe things are different since Pelle has arrived. But things need to move on at a pace on the pitch. If we don’t at least achieve a Europa place at the end of this season, Rice, Haller and Anderson will likely be gone. Poss Diop too. At which point we will need to pause and restart.

OutcastLondoner

baracks_a_hammer said:

OutcastLondoner said:

It's a bad price but sometimes I also wonder why anyone would buy someone who has played so little.

So we should also be asking ourselves that question re: Wilshere? A well documented injury record. We may not have paid a fee, but we were happy to give a three yet contract on huge wages?

Tbh, the fans do ask ourselves that every time we sign that kind of player and we have a reputation for it. But it’s also rare that we actually buy those players - they tend to be free or on loan. So can’t expect to sell them for much ourselves.

I think part of our problem is we well players who don’t work out for bad prices. Then we end up not getting good prices for the players who should get them because we try to hang on to them so we can build something.

We’re probably underperforming in selling the solid players - not spectacular but who have done a job/who come out of their spell a bit better than when they came. But some of these sales going on (Mings) I really don’t get.

OldCastleSwift

C&H are running another article stating that the manager is happy with the squad and will only bring someone in if Hernandez goes.

If this is true, we have lost two central midfielders (Fernandes and Obiang) and three strikers (Carroll, Perez and Arnautovic) and have replaced them with Fornals and Haller.

Anyone else concerned by this? I know there's an argument that we have Wilshere and Yarmolenko that will be like new signings, but with their injury records does anyone expect them to be available for more than 50% of games this season?

On paper, our strongest eleven (Fab/Fredericks/Masuaku/Diop/Balbuena/Rice/Wilshere/Fornals/Anderson/Yarmolenko/Haller) is good enough to compete for the top 7 IMO, but there's no way that we'll have the luck of Leicester in 2015/16 and Wolves last season and keep the majority of our squad fit all season. History suggests that we, more than any other team, need strength in depth if we're to compete in the top third of the league, and I don't think with Ogbonna, Sanchez and Hernandez are good enough for that.

MrsGrey

We never really had Fernandes. I don't see how you can count him as a 'loss'.

Yeoldhammer

If Obiang leaves i expect a replacement otherwise Noble Rice Sanchez Wilshire isnt going to cut it...

OldCastleSwift

MrsGrey said:

We never really had Fernandes. I don't see how you can count him as a 'loss'.

Well, he was a first team squad player and no longer is, so we've lost the option of playing him. Yes, you could argue that his place could be taken by Cullen, or Coventry, or Powell, but we know nothing of these players' abilities in the PL. I think Fernandes proved he could do a job and offered some dynamism in the midfield, which is something we're sorely lacking.

Obviously he and Obiang didn't feature in Pellegrini's plans, which is fine, but I would've thought that Pellegrini would want to replace them with players that did.

grey_til_I_dye

But Fernandes was mainly played forwards of CM, and we have plenty of cover in those positions. The Record seem strong on the story we are after Paulinha, who would then be a direct replacement, and possible upgrade, on Obiang.

baracks_a_hammer

If we genuinely are not signing any more players, then our season will be hugely reliant on two proven sick notes not actually being sick notes this season (Reid plus Wilshere)

OldCastleSwift

baracks_a_hammer said:

If we genuinely are not signing any more players, then our season will be hugely reliant on two proven sick notes not actually being sick notes this season (Reid plus Wilshere)

It's more than that though. We'll be reliant on Rice and Haller staying fit as neither has adequate cover in the squad. Sanchez is Rice's cover, but he is nowhere near PL quality IMO, and Haller's deputies are Hernadez and Antonio, who either don't possess the physicality (Hernandez) or technical ability (Antonio) of the kind of striker that Pellegrini wants to play.

baracks_a_hammer

OCS

:ok:

If Sánchez manages to even find his way into our match day squad, we already have a problem IMO

MarkNobleLocalHero

Does Yarmolenko really have a bad injury record or is that statement made just because he was unlucky with ONE injury with us?

I find this thread has a very pessimistic note about it now almost unreadable for me.

OldCastleSwift

It's a transfer speculation thread. The latest speculation is that we're not going to be making any more signings. I make no apology for feeling pessimistic about that. If we're to improve on last season I think we need to strengthen our squad more than two reserve keepers and two outfield players.

Re Yarmolenko, I'm sure I've read he's done his Achilles twice now. Pellegrini himself described it as the worst injury a player can have, so if he has a weakness there then there's always a risk it'll go again.

baracks_a_hammer

We have signed two back up keepers and it’s questionable as to whether either match up to Adrian (remains to be seen)

We appear to have signed a v promising a/m, but arguably in one of our less critical positions

And we have signed what looks like a top forward

But that is it.

We’ve lost Adrian, Arnie, AC and others plus about to lose Obiang now - all of whom were settled in the PL

So if indeed that is us done and dusted, then yes I am worried - others may deem that to be pessimistic?

And the return of Reid, Yarmo and Wilshere does not bridge that gap

And the return of Sanchez makes it even worse

grey_til_I_dye

With the exception of Arnie, we have lost fringe players. The loss of Arnie, imo, is more than made up for by the signing of Haller.

I can only imagine the horror on here if we had given AC a new contract, so let's not anyone pretend they see him as an actual loss. Same goes for Hugill. He wasn't even an option for most of last year.

If you don't think a fit Reid, Wilshere and Yarmo > Obaing, Fernandes, Byram, that's up to you.

Yeoldhammer

the problem is that though, "fit" i would wager a high bet like Andy Carroll 2 out of 3 of those will not play 20 games this season.

Granted Reid is probably a back up player now and Yarmelenko will have Antonio on his heels all day long doesn't worry me as much.

Wilshire though.... if Obiang is not replaced our default is Sanchez or Cullen if we keep him and neither look Premiership standard.

Cuz1

I like AC but put him in the dyer/ lunberg bracket to be honest

baracks_a_hammer

What I still don’t get is that from what we here, the pot doesn’t have much money left it in it for any more players

So how on Earth were we proposing to get Gomez even before Arnie threw a strop? Because it is pretty clear we were after him before Arnie did what he did. Were we going to go for a cheeky Eur15m bid?

It doesn’t stack up to me? Or was it that the club had already been planning to offload Arnie (as per his brother)

OldCastleSwift

grey_til_I_dye said:

With the exception of Arnie, we have lost fringe players. The loss of Arnie, imo, is more than made up for by the signing of Haller.

I can only imagine the horror on here if we had given AC a new contract, so let's not anyone pretend they see him as an actual loss. Same goes for Hugill. He wasn't even an option for most of last year.

If you don't think a fit Reid, Wilshere and Yarmo > Obaing, Fernandes, Byram, that's up to you.

At best then we're standing still. I agree that losing Carroll and Hugill is no loss, but we haven't replaced them with anyone better (or at all). I'm sure originally we were targeting a top class striker to compliment Arnie rather than to replace him, but now it seems that Haller is it.

grey_til_I_dye said:

If you don't think a fit Reid, Wilshere and Yarmo > Obaing, Fernandes, Byram, that's up to you.

Comparing those six players doesn't really work as they play in different positions, but I take your point. However, as baracks says, if we're relying on Reid and Wilshere to stay fit for the majority of the season then I think we're being very naive.

MrsGrey

baracks_a_hammer said:

What I still don’t get is that from what we here, the pot doesn’t have much money left it in it for any more players

So how on Earth were we proposing to get Gomez even before Arnie threw a strop? Because it is pretty clear we were after him before Arnie did what he did. Were we going to go for a cheeky Eur15m bid?

It doesn’t stack up to me? Or was it that the club had already been planning to offload Arnie (as per his brother)

Or that what you hear about the kitty was/is wrong.

Or that a different transfer would have involved a different fee structure.

Or, yes, we were going for an upgrade on Arnie and would have sold him.

baracks_a_hammer

I do hope you are right re the kitty Mrs G

However I fail to see how any alternative structure could have worked without the £20m Arnie monies

Jorderz_Moyes_will_be_Moyes

Personally I am as excited about this season as I have been in a long time.

Players we've lost are dead wood and players we've bought instantly improve first 11 (aside from back-up keepers, obviously).

Another pre-season with Pelle will get the players even more attuned to how he wants to play, and it would be almost impossible to have as bad an injury record as last season.

OldCastleSwift

Jorderz_Moyes_will_be_Moyes said:

and it would almost impossible to have as bad an injury record as last season.

Why would you do this...

Jorderz_Moyes_will_be_Moyes

:scarf:

jay_in_cpt

IMO we have needed a decent DM for a few seasons now, but Pelle and crew seem oblivious to that, unless they consider that Sanchez fits that bill, if so.. its a big :doh: from me to Pelle and his team.

baracks_a_hammer

Jay

:ok:

More so given that Pelle isn’t a particularly strong defensive coach (IMO)

Lukerz

I think if Pellegrini went all Tony Pulis on us for a season, we would have a solid defence sorted.

The thing is he is more focused on setting us up to score goals which will result in a lot of goals being conceded.