A man of my time. By the way, it took me a long time to get used to a football club being ‘they’ in the English language, rather than ‘it’. Like, the club ‘are’ rather than the club ‘is’.
Yeah..we need more rumours don’t we..
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I´d be a bit concerned 3 of our wingers would be young and unproven but you have to say it´s a big improvement from how we started the window yep, even just numerically.
As they´re young you´d expect rotating them would be the norm and they´d be okay with that. I assume they all expect to make the position their own though.
Yeah at this point I think I’d take young and unproven over nonexistent
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Quickly turning into one of those where either it’s suitably progressing behind the scenes and we get a club announcement in the next few days or the club need to move on.
18th June we signed Munoz. 25th June we had a bid for Diomande turned down. Since then a bit of monitoring, opening discussions and preparing bids but zero movement.
The entire month of July and we saw no movement on anything, not even departures.
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Whilst it is frustrating, the World Cup (11 June - 19 July) did get in the way and little happened in terms of transfers during that (for most clubs). Post world cup, we have seen a real uptick in transfer movements from other clubs and it does feel like we are slow to get moving.
Ofcourse, the club have no requirement to update us regularly, and there is always an assumption that the guys doing the transfers are just sitting about which is clearly not true. I’ve said before, I prefer little noise around transfers and there just to be announcements.
I can understand that, having concerns about things. But, with youth you also get fearlessness. I suppose it would be nice with more experience, but personally I’d just be excited about it. New manager, new and young players, a new start. I think it would be good fun.
I also think if we have enough wingers, Barcola could be used as backup to Isak at times. I don’t think Gakpo or Chiesa are up to it, and as long as Jayden Danns stays injured we’ll never know if he is either.
Also could be said that there simply arent many or any outstanding candidates who have more than 1 season of delivering big performances.
The options just aren´t there.
Could be. At the very least we would be having a big threat from Barcola on the left.
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Diomande transfer completed for £120 million to Madrid
Given we backed out at around £100 million and our starting bid for Barcola was reportedly around the £80 (100 euro) million mark I’d guess we’ll go as high as £100 million (approx 116/7 in euros) as that seems to be what we’ve earmarked for a marquee winger. Maybe the added experience Barcola has will see us willing to go higher. Dont see us doing the £145 million (170 euro) that its claimed PSG want.
Still leaves a rather large gap between what it seems we’re willing to stump up and what they’re after.
Also, yes i know all of these sums involved are obscene.
So, the biggest fish in the pond has finally made its move. That should accelerate proceedings for our move, whether it’s for Barcola or someone else.
I get that. But also others have found a way. Hell, we found a way with Munoz.
I understand with Barcola he may be a target that emerged a bit later but you’d have hoped they’d have learned from the Isak and Guehi situations last summer that there’s a lot of risk that comes with letting things run into the latter stages of August.
Would love it to just come out the blue as done but is that how a big deal like this ever goes? Everyone and their dog knows we’re after him and have done for weeks now.
And then suddenly we’re after his teammate too? That feels very odd to me. Almost as if we’ll say we’re keen on having both so Mbaye isn’t seen as a consolation prize if we only get him over the line.
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I know we have a new manager but I always wonder, aren´t clubs working on this all season?
Surely clubs should have a good picture of where they need to strengthen, who the options are and who will be leaving well before summer arrives. Of course a new manager can slow the process and mean adjustments. But we surely knew Salah was off for a while, if not years.
Yep. We paid top dollar for Isak on the basis that he was PL proven and ready to hit the ground running. We can’t afford to repeat the same mistake with signings this summer and we absolutely have to ensure we have money for a CB.
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Sure, but it’s a dynamic process and you can only progress what other parties allow you to.
Isak wasn’t match fit when he came to us. He worked to get there, and by the time he started to get into the team we were in a collective funk in a dog turd of a season. He showed a couple of glimpses, linking up with Wirtz (granted, not much) and then broke his leg/ankle.
The season was pretty much a write-off for Isak.
I’m backing him to hit the ground running this time. He looks sharper, and if he gets the service I think he is going to score a lot of goals. Here’s hoping, anyway. Let’s see.
Edit:
I think I read that PSG had dropped their ridiculous 170M euro price for Barcola down to 150M euro. Still too much, but my suspicion has been that a deal will be done around the Isak number.
120M pounds = 140M euros, give or take.
I’m guessing 100M pounds, plus 20M add-ons, will see a deal done.
Hopefully the delay is because we are signing two wingers from PSG, and also negotiating a loan deal for Zabarnyi.
That´s the art of it though isn´t it.
Having your targets well identified, going for realistic targets, negotiating well and moving on in good time when it´s not happening or slowing down your overall plan.
We know he can really scores goals if he stays fit. And we know Wirtz behind him should be capable of picking him out.
Beyond the fitness I have two concerns on our system and Isak.
- Our midfield doesn´t give Wirtz the ball quickly and consistently enough for him to play his game and create
- We don´t have much out wide that would create opportunities or space for Isak
Barcola may help a lot with 2 and Nyoni may help a little with 1 though. Hopefully that would be enough for Isak to shine more.
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I agree with your concerns, as things stand.
If we add Barcola and Mbaye, to Ngumoha and Munoz, we will have a lot more on the wings.
I’m hoping Wirtz will have a much better season this time too. He is a quality player, but for myriad reasons they all looked a shadow of what we might have expected last season.
Iraola’s coaching appears to be all about getting it forward, quickly. That will help a lot. Nyoni’s emergence will also help. And who knows, maybe we will sign another midfield to help us with this, depending on outgoings.
Still, as things stand I agree with your concerns, but I think we will be coached to attack quicker, and I think players will come in to help us with that too.
Hopefully Iraola’s system will help improve things from last season as well.
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but if the club still believe the deal for their top target will happen, and there are no suitable alternatives of similar ability then why would the walk away just for the sake of doing so?
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with the price diomande went for, i dont see how psg settles for less when barcola is at present the better player