The Unreliable Rumours Discussion Thread (Part 1)

Bring Gini back…!

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Madness to sell Thiago.
He is a terrific player, and will prove it here.

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I

I agree.

I have a gut feeling that Raphina from Leeds will be signed either in January or the Summer.
I have absolutely no evidence for this.

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This same “ITK” said we had signed Renato Sanches for €37m plus add ons or similar during the transfer window. He said it was a done deal and about to be announced, so we can take what he says with a grain of salt as well.

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Hes missed 52 games since his debut in 2018 thats a full premier league season injured.

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Would love that. Think he would really suit us

The point still stands, he is available and plays enough games to justify keeping, and not simply selling at a huge loss or subsidising his wages, as we’re unlikely to see a significant offer for him.

Define “missed”. Does that include games in which he was available but not selected? Because that would take away a large chunk of last season’s contributions since he was pretty much fit from February.

There are very few countries in Africa that can volunteer to take it on at such a short notice for the same reasons lack of infrastructure and Lack of money

Edwards needs to make some magic before he leaves then.

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Thats games missed through injury.

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In that period we have played 184 games as a club. He has missed 52 through injury has been a healthy non selection or unused sub 26 times and I’ve not taken into account his 10 minute cameos into account. Is that really value for money I’m not sure you could say it is.

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For what we paid, probably not - but that wasn’t the point really under discussion. We spent the money and he is here. The important thing now is the value of what happens next. He can either remain here as one of 8 players covering midfield, or move on elsewhere. However, for the latter to happen you not only need someone he is happy moving to to come in with a bid but also make an offer that the club thinks is acceptable.

Given the club has finite funds and we are already faced with losing Origi and Milner for nothing next summer, I believe it is better value to keep Keita here than moving him on if doing so required us to accept a deliberately low fee and/ or pay subsidised wages (which was a suggestion of another poster in how to persuade clubs to sign him, if they are not minded to otherwise).

Well if they have only 9m to spend then I think all this discussion is a bit pointless they would have to trade players and really hasn’t happened since the 90s

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What do we make of the Hwang rumours? Certainly seems to be better suited to the league than Minamino even with a limited body of evidence.

Imagine Wolves will be very keen to keep him so a permanent deal in January could be very possible. Reported Wolves have an option at about £13m which is peanuts in this day and age.

Its no point keeping him if he’s missing 1 out of every 3 games. It’s not like he will be on peanuts. My way of thinking would be if he was at another club would you think his availability record meant he was a good buy.

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That’s somewhat irrelevant though because we have already brought him here. He’s no longer the £54m midfielder we signed 3 years ago but the £11-15m he is probably valued at on our books because of his contract situation.

What’s important now is whether other clubs want him, whether he is prepared to go and what impact that has on our finite resources - because that latter factor will probably drive the club’s decision.

Why not? You can’t play everyone at the same time and he isn’t going to be first choice starter when everyone is fit. If he is available for 2 out of 3 games, then that is something the manager can work with particularly as we score more goals and concede fewer when he plays, so he must have a positive impact in those games.

Any decision to move him on, can’t be solely on him missing a third of the games because he has to be replaced and we’re already faced with losing two players next summer for no fee who will most likely need replacing. With both Ox and Keita out of contract in 2023 the situation is even more complicated.

Assuming he can be sold, can we bring someone else in of similar quality to be available for around two thirds of games for £10-15m? If not, that additional resource has to come from somewhere else. We have a similar decision with Ox.

Which is one of the factors probably complicating any potential sale. He’ll have one year on his deal left next summer, so the fee shouldn’t be too high, but he may not accept a lower wage and If clubs are also looking to have us pick up some of his wages then I don’t think we are likely to agree if it reduces our ability to bring in who we want.

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Haven’t seen the rumours, but I believe we were linked with him around the time we signed Minamino.

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Are they even allowed to register players yet?

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I think they have managed to register all the players they were wanting to from the summer haven’t they? Given the recent news on Aguero, it wouldn’t surprise me if he ends his contract with Barca, which would presumably free up some resource.

I would expect that Barca may see Newcastle as a solution to some of their problems. If it is true that few PL clubs want to deal with the latter, this may give Barca a chance to move players such as Coutinho on.

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