What fresh hell is this? It's not even March but here come the transfer rumours again!!!

ScotHammer

PrestonHammer said:

I reckon Johnson's best position is centre back.

…..so is Kehrer’s. Like Vlasic before him, he’s not going to work out if you play him out of position. ”Round pegs….”.
Some can adapt, but not all!

ASLEFshrugged

Except Kehrer has played LB and RB for Germany and he's played RB a couple of times since he joined Monaco

ScotHammer

By that logic, Antonio has played RB for us, but he wouldn’t say it’s his best position! Perhaps he was listened to?

ASLEFshrugged

The difference is Antonio never played as a fullback for Jamaica while Kehrer has played as a fullback for Germany

steve

See the Maguire rumours started up again ..Says Moyes could go back in for him .could just be rehashing old stuff again .But if there's any truth to it Then I guess Moyes is staying on .Really don't want Maguire best years behind him .Or should I say best year behind him

buffybegood

steve said:

See the Maguire rumours started up again ..Says Moyes could go back in for him .could just be rehashing old stuff again .But if there's any truth to it Then I guess Moyes is staying on .Really don't want Maguire best years behind him .Or should I say best year behind him

So far Moyes has made a right hash of signing CBs, and signing Maguire for anything other than a nominal (under £10m) fee would be another poor one. Apart from the fact that Maguire has as many mistakes in him as our current CBs, he's already 31 and will have zero value at the end of any contract we give him. At least if we sell Aguerd we should more or less get our money back on him, but with Maguire the transfer fee will have to be completely written off, meaning we have to find another £30m in 3 year's time just to replace him and we can't afford to do that, especially as we bought Zouma who, I'm sure, already had red flags about his knees at the time, and will be worth next to nothing in terms of resale value and certainly can't be offered another contract.

alderz

buffybegood said:

So far Moyes has made a right hash of signing CBs

Haven't we got a director of football, technical director, head of scouting? Zouma has been a really good signing for us over the course of his time here, Mavropanos was signed on Steitden's recommendation. I don't like how I see credit for the good signings go to Tim, but the fault for the 'bad' ones goes to Moyes. (Sorry buffy, not trying to dig you out!)

That said, I am also not a fan of signing Maguire this summer. Last summer I'd have been happy with it, but I don't see the point in signing a 31 year old. If we were to sign him for a very low fee I'd be fine with it, but I think that - given it's Man Utd - they'll want an absolute fortune for him, despite the fact his contract ends next summer.

buffybegood

Zouma has been decent as a player, but, due to his knees, is worth nothing to us now. We're not in a position to spend decent money on players that are then worth nothing after 3 years, it's just not a sustainable way for the club to operate. With a 24 man squad, 3 years per player means 8 new signings at, say, £30m each (that was about what Zouma cost, isn't it?), that's £240m spend every year.

Now I know they won't all be worth nothing, but this is why we need to be savvy in our signings, and avoid the injury prone and older players.

Ref Mavropanos, if Moyes hadn't been so keen to sign Maguire we might have managed a different CB rather than having to shop at the end of the window. I also fail to believe that Moyes didn't OK the signing of Mavropanos.

alderz

I know what you're saying, and yes, I think there isn't enough long term thinking in some of our transfers. But I think it's wrong to say Zouma is worth nothing to us now.

The guy is still our captain, still our best centre back. I'm looking at stats of his for the past few seasons - he's making more tackles and winning more tackles per 90 this season than any of his other seasons with us - more blocks too. Same amount of clearances. The only place he's really dropped off is in interceptions per 90.

buffybegood

Do you honestly think that his lack of mobility (which has definitely deteriorated this season) has no impact on either his or his team-mates' performances? Stats are one thing, but watching him this season, especially the last few months, you can see he's not the player he was even last season.

alderz

I think he had a little spell in January where he looked really ropey, but otherwise I think he’s had more good games than bad games, personally

buffybegood

Fair enough, it's all about dem onions.

claretandbluesky

Also worth remembering that our centre backs haven't got Rice sat in front of them this year which must make their job harder.

PrestonHammer

Mavropanos will come good, it might be he needs a bit more time to settle in.

Bazshuayi

I think if we're ging to lump a sum on Maguire and have to find someone else with more dosh after, we should be looking for a decent young player. There must be some in the Chmpionship or Europe. Thats what having a networks all about, right? I am not a fan of buying short term 'proven' players that are the wrong side of 30! We have enough age/experience in the squad already IMO

Bazshuayi

P.s. As an example, I wouldnt mind Chalabah if we're going to fork out some cash. Whenever I've seen him play he's always looked pretty decent and is pretty good offensively too

alderz

I really like Chalobah, but I can see Chelsea wanting an obscene amount of money for him.

alderz

A couple of things of not on the gossip column today.

One has Spurs linked with Ben Johnson, which would be super weird but also is from one of those random blogs. I have a feeling he’ll sign a new deal, FWIW. He’s recently become the go to guy off the bench, and at the same time Mubama has stopped getting any game time - presumably as he’ll be off.

Second thing is less direct, but there’s been reports recently that Man City are interested in Guimaraes from Newcastle. Today, reports the Newcastle are open to selling. It seems likely to me that they’d only want to sign one of Bruno or Paqueta, so hopefully that develops and Paqueta goes nowhere.

Bazshuayi

I've seen periodic quotes of what they want and I think it put Bayern off. However, when quoting stupid money for Maguire I know who I'd rather chase. If we're in the market to sell Aguerd surely that would cover a huge chunk of it

buffybegood

alderz said:

One has Spurs linked with Ben Johnson, which would be super weird but also is from one of those random blogs. I have a feeling he’ll sign a new deal, FWIW. He’s recently become the go to guy off the bench, and at the same time Mubama has stopped getting any game time - presumably as he’ll be off.

Obviously it's just hearsay, but there have been mentions on KUMB that he's been treated really poorly in "negotiations" by the club, and that the afinity he had for the club given he's been here since he was 7 has been ruined; it's possible he doesn't even want to stay now.

Tbh, if we weren't faced with replacing so many players this summer I wouldn't be overly bothered if he went. He's not really good enough going forward to be a modern FB, and although he's a useful utility player he's never likely to be a regular starter. However, given the work we need to do to the squad, and that we're likely to have a small squad again next season, I'd have liked him so have signed a new contract by now so it's one thing less to worry about.

Yeoldhammer

GK - Areola / Fabianski (try to keep Fab on for another year, no need to upgrade due to other priority positions)

LB - Emerson / Cresswell (upgrade on Cresswell needed, with competition for Emerson)

RB - Johnson / Coufal / Kehrer (upgrade on Johnson needed, not a top half full back with competition for Coufal needed, Kehrer not a good fit really for us also is on loan with an obligation?)

CB - Mavro / Aguerd / Zouma / Ogbonna (upgrade on Ogbonna needed, other 3 I would keep unless silly money comes in, simply because I don't think funds are going to stretch for 2 top quality CBs)

RM - Bowen / Kudus (nothing needed)

LM - Paqueta / Benrahma / Cornet (Benrahma was a loan with obligation right ? needs replacing in any case, Cornet just has not worked out and is not fancied by the manager at all and needs to go)

AM - JWP / Kudus / Paqueta (nothing needed but loan cover could be useful here or on the left depending where the trio of Paqueta / Bowen / Kudus end up playing primarily ?)

CM - Soucek / Alvarez / Downes / Phillips (Phillips not going to be worth signing for whatever City would want for him but also not a fit for West Ham *nailed on to resign for Leeds if they come up i think anyway*, Downes worth giving another shot ? might suit partnering Alvarez imo, think Moyes should give him another chance)

Striker - Antonio / Mubama / Bowen / Ings (Need to move on from Antonio and need an upgrade but would still keep him as a fallback 2nd/3rd choice striker option, Mubama needs a run in the championship, Bowen is a good option to have but prefer him on the right with Kudus central Paqueta left and a proper striker in place. Ings too high in wages to have him on the bench cameo for 10 minute spells every other game needs to move on)


TLDR version

+1 LB
+1 CB
+1 RB
+1 LM
+1 Striker
+1 Loan Flex midfield player (either central or left midfield)

Outs

Kehrer
Benrahma
Cornet
Ings
Ogbonna
Cresswell
Johnson
Phillips (loan end)
Mubama (loaned out, sold, let go)

buffybegood

I agree with a lot of what you've said, although I feel we need to do more than just replace Ogbonna at CB. Aguerd is completely out of favour, and he just doesn't seem suited to a Moyes style defense. He's not strong enough, particularly in the air, and although I think there's a good player in there, I don't think he'll be found playing under Moyes. If he's not going to get played, then he's too valuable to sit on the bench and I think if Moyes stays, he should go; his fee should go a long way to funding a replacement.

The same, unfortunately, cannot be said about Zouma, who I doubt would pass a medical anywhere atm. I really don't think he's got another season in him (I believe his contract ends summer 2025), but I doubt we can sell him although I'd take any offer we got. Realistically he sees out the last year of his contract. He's undoubtedly a good player at his best, but he's no longer up to the rigours of playing in the PL imo. So, for me, it should be Zouma third choice when fit, Mavropanos 4th choice (which will likely be 3rd choice a lot of the time) meaning we need to buy 2 new starting CBs, although one should more or less be funded by what we get for Aguerd.

buffybegood

It will be interesting to see what happens with Downes. He's apparently been having a very good season with Southampton; the end of their long unbeaten run (and start of losing 3 matches in 4) coincided with Downes being out injured.

We need DM cover, Moyes knows that (hence why he brought Phillips in). Phillips obviously hasn't worked out so far, and, even if he had a miraculous end of season I think it's extremely unlikely he signs permanently (surely he heads back to Leeds if they come back up as seems likely).

So then it's a case of do we bring Downes back (would Moyes see him as more of a Alvarez/Soucek type player, as, although that's how I see him, Moyes tended to try to shoe-horn him in further up the pitch) in a "cutting our cloth" type measure is we miss out on European football next season? However, if Moyes isn't gonna play him, then I would think a deal could be done with Southampton that would give us a profit on what we paid Swansea for him.

buffybegood

The one point you haven't mentioned is whether we'll be able to hang on to players we want to keep. Obviously there was interest in Paqueta last summer until the betting irregularities made any move extremely unlikely. If the investigation still isn't concluded come the summer, it's possible Paqueta stays put but if the matter is resolved he could be pushing for a move. Likewise I think there could well be a lot of interest in Kudus who has done very well in his first season in the PL.

Bazshuayi

I'm sure Kudus, Paquetta and Bowen have plenty of admirers. At this moment in time we should be able to quote stupid money for all of them. So they either stay or we get a huge amount... (and by that I mean mminum 80M)

claretandbluesky

I was in the camp that felt Rice handled his contract perfectly and I may be completely wrong but I have a feeling that Paquetta goes when he wants to go, I just think he may possibly be more Payet than Rice, and so his contract length may not mean a lot.

Lukerz

Remember Paqueta has a release clause active this summer.

IronHerb

£85m isn't it? I'm beginning to think I'd take it at the first opportunity.

claretandbluesky

Paquetta is a unique talent who can change a game in an instant, but can also be very frustrating at times. I would be happy with £85m to put into the team. If I had to sell him or Kudus it wouldn't take me long to make that decision. In an ideal summer window we could keep both.

Bazshuayi

I'd take the 85M for Paquetta. Thats purely because I do believe we can find a similar player who's younger, with just as much or more potential, for less than that.