January Transfer Window

Lukerz

A club will only pay £100m for him if they see him as an absolute priority player. I can see Chelsea bidding but it’s going to be much lower than what we want. I can see City also being interested & given they spent £100m on Grealish I can also see them spending what we want. It’s between the Manchester clubs for me. Declan probably prefers Chelsea but I only see the Manchester clubs being prepared to pay what we want, either through desperation or financial power.

IronHerb

I think Liverpool would be the perfect fit for Rice.

OutcastLondoner

#oneforthefuture

https://twitter.com/OfficialBlues/status/1478354759128166403

yoyo

Welcome Callum, good luck mate.

yoyo

Developments in West Ham's Barbosa chase
Sky Sports News' Dharmesh Sheth on The Transfer Show:

"There's been a bit of a development. Gabriel Barbosa has spoken to Flamengo officials, to tell them that if a suitable offer were to come in from England, he would like to speak to them.

"We spoke yesterday about West Ham's interest, that would be an 18-month loan with an option to buy for €30m. We say option, but it would be more of an obligation as it would be based on making a certain number of appearances.

"His contract is up in 2024, Flamengo don't want to loan or sell him. But Barbosa is determined to make that move. He compares himself a little bit to the situation Philippe Coutinho had.

"They both had spells at Inter Milan, and didn't get the opportunities they wanted. Then Coutinho moved to Liverpool and really shone. Barbosa sees that as almost a blueprint for himself. He sees it as the perfect way to cement himself as Brazil's No 9 for the World Cup in Qatar."

OldCastleSwift

From what I've read elsewhere, our bid wasn't deemed suitable so it's irrelevant whether he's interested.

Still, it wouldn't be a transfer window without a protracted striker search. And the fact he's South American makes it all very West Ham.

Dodger58

Nottingham Forest have signed experienced centre-back Steve Cook from Bournemouth on a two-and-a-half-year deal.

I wonder if that’s to replace Joe Worrall who we have been linked with recently.

PrestonHammer

Does he play LCB?

Lukerz

Newcastle agree £12m fee for Trippier with Atletico Madrid (BBC, Sky Sports).

Lukerz

So Newcastle get a load of games postponed & then get to play them with a load of fresh signings.

How did they pull that off?

Lukerz

Chelsea, West Ham & Newcastle are all interested in Everton LB Lucas Digne. Everton want £30m for the player (Sky Sports).

Fortuneseeker

Lukerz, I posted the other day that St Eddie was complaining that opposition teams would have that benefit when playing Newcastle later in the season.

MrsGrey

Lukerz said:

So Newcastle get a load of games postponed & then get to play them with a load of fresh signings.

How did they pull that off?

Covid.
They didn't pull anything off.
Their signings might help. Or might not. their postponed games might find them up against teams who are stronger now than they were before.

Honestly, no point commenting about that. It was all outside their control. No conspiracy. Just that stuff happens.

eskimoking

Lukerz said:

Chelsea, West Ham & Newcastle are all interested in Everton LB Lucas Digne. Everton want £30m for the player (Sky Sports).

Everton don’t have a single player worth £30m and they want that for a guy that can’t even get an appearance off the bench! Madness. Would love it if we could get him on loan for the season though.
Good for us with Cresswell out.
Good for him as he can see if Benitez goes by the time he gets back.
Good for Everton as can keep him if Benitez doesn’t work out.

MrsGrey

He's a top player. I don't think 30 is outrageous. He can't get a game off the bench because of an issue not related to his ability.


I imagine Chelsea will be front of the queue while Chilwell is injured.

But I'd be v happy with him.

ASLEFshrugged

eskimoking said:

Everton don’t have a single player worth £30m and they want that for a guy that can’t even get an appearance off the bench! Madness

Can’t even get an appearance off the bench???

Digne has started 14 times this season and was captain for four games while Coleman was unavailable.

He has been on the subs bench twice, in the League Cup against Huddersfield - came on for the last half hour - and was an unused substitute in the last match against Brighton.

Before Brighton he'd been dropped from the squad completely for three matches due to his bust up with Benitez.

Apart from the occasional injury and suspensions he's started almost every match since he moved from Barcelona to Everton in 2018. He is one of Everton's consistently reliable performers and has been their top assist provider two seasons in a row.

43 caps for France and a regular in the French squad

£30m is actually a pretty fair assessment of Digne's value although Benitez would mad to let him go and if he is available then I'd take him without any hesitation.

ASLEFshrugged

OldCastleSwift said:

I see that Odubeko has had his loan to Huddersfield terminated.

Not great for his chances here that he couldn't break into a Championship team.

Back to the U23s and a move to League One in the summer, I expect.

Ex reckons we're also about to recall Frederik Alves and Conor Coventry as like Odubeko they're not getting enough playing time.

More poorly researched journalism

On Conor Coventry

"It remains to be seen whether he will be getting any chances if he returns to the London Stadium, though, with Declan Rice, Tomas Soucek, Nikola Vlasic and the skipper all ahead of him in the pecking order right now."

Alani Adefunmiloye, westhamzone.com

Rolls eyes...

OldCastleSwift

Anang has been recalled from his Stevenage loan, too.

Must be a new policy at the club. Maybe a Rob Newman thing?

eskimoking

Quoting his game time since 2018 is missing the point Aslef. Benitez and him have had a bust up. He brought a RB off the bench ahead of digne to play lwb in the last game. He won’t be playing again under Benitez.

buffybegood

Regardless, there's no way we're spending £30m, or even close to it, on a FB imo.

OldCastleSwift

buffybegood said:

Regardless, there's no way we're spending £30m, or even close to it, on a FB imo.

Agreed. We won't spend on a right back given we have four options, and although our need at left back is, IMO, urgent, I think we'll wait for the summer window and look for a lower league bargain.

WHU_Champo_league_in_7_years

Digne would be a great purchase but he'd be coming in as the #1 LB and it would likely mean we would be slashing the majority if not all of our budget on this one player

Can't see it happening

Think he's an upgrade but also think he doesn't represent that good a deal, can't be splashing that kind of money on a LB in Jan

Summer perhaps but not in Jan

ASLEFshrugged

OldCastleSwift said:

Anang has been recalled from his Stevenage loan, too.

Must be a new policy at the club. Maybe a Rob Newman thing?

Anang had only played twice since Stevenage signed former Forest Green keeper Adam Smith on a free in mid October.

Lukerz

We won’t be spending £30m in January on Digne or any LB. Cresswell’s form is as good as any LB in the league (outside the top 3). We do need to address it over the next 18 months but it won’t be now. I appreciate Cresswell is injured but I am assuming we are expecting him back.

alderz

One thing about Digne is that he takes set pieces for Everton (or he does when he’s on the pitch, at least). If you’re thinking of a Cresswell successor, you need someone who offers a similar threat, which he does.

I get that we probably won’t even try to sign him this window, but Everton have just signed a new left back, and he doesn’t get on with the manager. His game time will be limited so he may be agitating for a move. Also, the way Everton are going there’s a good chance Rafa won’t be there next season, so the window of opportunity to sign him could be very slim.

buffybegood

We do need a LB in, we did in the summer and we more urgently need one now as Cresswell is out with no known return date as it's a bit of an unusual injury. However, I don't think we've ever spent much more than £6 or £7m on a FB, certainly under G&S, and so whilst I wouldn't be surprised so see someone come in, I suspect it will be raiding Europe (or possibly Scotland) to try and uncover another Coufal, or dipping into the Championship as we did for Cresswell.

Yeoldhammer

Surprised Yarmolenko is still here might be a last day of the window i think i guess or till summer.

OldCastleSwift

WHU_Champo_league_in_7_years said:

... he doesn't represent that good a deal, can't be splashing that kind of money on a LB in Jan

Summer perhaps but not in Jan

I'm not sure I agree with this. We need a left back and he seems to be available. Yes, he may be subject to January tax and we could potentially get him cheaper in the summer, but equally, someone else could guzump us altogether and we miss out.

If Moyes wants him, and he wants to come, then why wait? Even if it means adjusting our summer budget to accommodate the move in January?

Simplistic, I know, because it's not my money, but if it's Digne now for £30m, or a left back that Moyes is less keen on in the summer for £20m, I think I'd rather we got the player Moyes wanted.

Fortuneseeker

buffy, I suspect it will be raiding Europe (or possibly Scotland) to try and uncover another Coufal, or dipping into the Championship as we did for Cresswell.

Possibly go back for Josh Doig @ Hibs who we were linked with in the summer?

Lukerz

The club is not afraid to spend big money on a player a manager wants. Moyes spent £30m on Zouma, £25m on Vlasic, £20m on Bowen, £20m on Soucek. If he wants Digne & says to the board ‘get him’, then I’m sure the owners, backed by the new owner, will do it.

But my point is more we have one of the best LBs in the PL for the past 18 months. It’s like spending £30m on a new CM. Yes, he is 4 years older than Digne, but I don’t see Digne improving us on Cresswell over the next 6 months. Over the next 5 years, yes, but not the next few months.