Erm … this isn’t the ‘No discussion’ thread. It is, in fact, the Unreliable Rumours Discussion Thread.
Edit: Oh, I see. Caution! Thread merging!
If we have to rely on these kinds of players (especially Morton who IMO is not exactly Premier League quality) for our DM, we have already lost the next season.
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Or more specifically, when the season goes to shite from the FACup quarter final, blame the nincompoop who came to Australia and then left again, breaking the do-not-change-hemispheres-twice-in-a-season rule. I blame you Craig for depriving Jurgen of his quadruple sendoff.
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Fuck no. Guy’s a cunt.
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Really can’t see Madrid letting Tchouameni go, but still welcome here if they do. However 
Bajcetic stays fit and steps up to fill the DM role, really liked the look of him last season, but long shot for him to do that next season.
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Definitely agree with this, and have said before about the blend of the midfield lacking a proper defensive midfielder, which would likely mean a departure or two. Endo has been fine as a stop-gap, but whether he departs to make way for an upgrade, or someone comes in alongside him, while Bajcetic gets up to speed with his fitness and development, we’ll see.
I still harbour hopes of us getting Ugarte from PSG, who seems to have fallen out of favour a bit. An absolute monster of a DM, although I understand some criticism has been around his ability to progress the ball.
As a baseline, those four positions you outlined for incomings is spot on IMO. I think it could bump up to five, depending on the seriousness of the interest, bids received, and desire to leave, for Salah, Nunez, and Diaz. I reckon one of them is going anyway, two at a push, not all three, unless we go full on psychopathic like we did last summer with the midfield. We also have to sign a cheap GK if Kelleher wishes to leave for first team football.
One of Ugarte and Tchouameni would be brilliant.
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Anthony Gordon looks like an old haggard woman/man from about 1932 who lost their job in the great crash which was paying pittance anyhow and now has to eat rats down the dock.
Or maybe it’s just me
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I was just reading about Arsenal and Newcastle being linked to Kubo from Sociedad and Nico Williams from Bilbao. Kubo has a release clause of £51million and Williams £43million.
Both are far from the finished product, and maybe the numbers don’t stand out, but both have huge potential to improve, and have the attributes we’d be looking for in wide players.
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I actually wouldn’t
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I’m shocked Williams’ release clause is that low. Yes he’s the unfinished product and needs to add goals to kick on at a bigger club, but you’d imagine players with a lot less potential will go for a higher price this summer
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If they can’t progress the ball then they would useless with the way we play and would play under Slot
That cynical old bastard is desperately trying to hide his jealousy 
Saw the Khephren Thuram link in yhe twitter thread.
Obviously I dont expect this to happen but I actually do think he seems to have developed a fair amount and improved his game. He’s clearly not a 6, which I believe he was sold as last season, but is an 8 with similar ball carrying abilities as Naby Keita offered when healthy. Constantly running with it from the middle of the pitch where it causes a real pain the arse for the defence.
He is actually an elite shot creator
His team, unfortunately for him, have the same allergic reaction to finishing chances that we do so his assist output is lower than his play deserves.
As I said I don’t expect it to happen but if we did want another midfielder in that rotation for the 8/10 - making it Mac Allister (an option at both 8 and 6), Szoboszlai, Jones, Gravenberch, Elliott and someone taking Thiago’s place in the squad then for £13m I think Thuram could actually offer us something pretty interesting.
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If he really is available for £13m then it’s a no-brainer, tbh
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Surely he’d come at the expense of either Jones or Gravenberch.
Doesn’t look like a major priority area compared to other parts of the pitch, but I’m a follower of the Church of Sweeting‘s Performance Stats, so, who knows?
You know your way around stats, so please find me five defensive midfielders of proper quality/potential that I can scout on YouTube - as I don’t believe that the club will invest in more central midfielders given our current setup. I’ll settle for three! OK, two.
I’d be surprised if we moved for Thuram again, even at that price. I’m sure INEOS will gift him to Ten Shags at a discount price. I still expect us to sign a proper DM, as it’s the glaring deficiency in the midfield. We’re heavily stacked with No.8’s, and not enough quality in the No.6 role. We have a stop gap solution in Endo, and a youngster in Bajcetic, who has been out for over a year (and out for 6 months in the season before that).
MacAllister, Szoboszlai, Jones, Elliott, Gravenberch, Endo, Bajcetic.
We arguably have 5 No.8’s for two positions, plus two back-ups, and we’ve still got one extra, while the No.6 role is unbalanced between experience, quality, durability etc.
I look at it, and wouldn’t be surprised if Gravenberch is sacrificed for a proper DM, who’d rotate with Endo, while Bajcetic acts as cover for the entire midfield.
I’m not a fully paid up member of his fan club or anything but I do think a big part of our problems at the end of the season has been that Jones and Szoboszlai have been poor since returning from injury, Mac Allister looks knackered and Elliott hasn’t really nailed down exactly what he is yet - not quite an 8, not really a wide player, excellent passer, terrible positional awareness etc. Gravenberch has been better than most give him credit for but clearly hasn’t made a good enough case to be a reliable starter. Thuram follows a similar pattern to Jones/Gravenberch and Szoboszlai in his ball carrying ability, as all of them are excellent at it too (though Thuram is much better at take-ons than these three, but in total they are all progressive ball carriers).
So I do think there is scope to add one more with Thiago’s departure. Not a priority for the summer but something to keep an eye on if it can be done easily/cheaply.
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DMs are really tough to analyse with stats, for similar reasons to CBs in that a lot of their actions don’t show up well in basic stats but it’s possible to narrow it down so I’ll try.
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