What circus?
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Donāt believe thereās a circus. Itās just that his package is on the higher side.
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And we need a CB. We cannot start a PL season having just 3 CBs. Out of which two are injury prone (ibou and (
Joe).
I understand Endo and Grav can step in to be CBs but thatās mostly when they are brought on to see off matches alongside two existing CBs. Not when they are to be starting those matches.
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Ibou is not injury prone
No circus, just shorthand for a bigger deal, presumably with competition, and also dealing with Real Madrid. It might not be straightforward.
Iām not altogether sure on the hunger of a player coming here from Real Madrid either. Thereās a part of me that would rather we caught a player on the up, and they made their name here.
Weāve had some success with players who have been rejected by CL clubs and then went on to do a good job for us.
Coutinho, Salah, Gravenberch all fit into that bracket.
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Could be getting ahead of myself, but if we do end up signing Rodrygo I see the obvious plus points - very good player, good age, does his best work off the left but can play right across the front as needed.
If he is hungry and wants to make his mark here, bring it on.
Also the potential bonus of he wants to leave Real to get more playing time and that he wonāt want to go back.
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possibly the greatest GIF in the history of the internetā¦used thousands of times for the exact same joke, and still, to this day, makes me smile everytime i see it
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Wonder what John Inman would have made of it!
Kenneth Williams was a comedy genius. Inman was a hack playing on a stereotype.
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I think we would need someone like Bastoni to eventually be the LCB.
Probably wonāt be Bastoni but someone like him. Watched a fair bit of Inter the past season and Bastoni has some similarities with Van Dijk. Wonāt probably be this season though. Weāll do well getting someone like Guehi in this season and then getting a replacement
Joyce on our CB chase:
The club has been scouting young centre halves in Europe, having been unable to land Levi Colwill, Leny Yoro and Dean Huijsen across three successive summers. They like Crystal Palaceās Marc GuĆ©hi, who has entered the final year of his contract and is not likely to sign an extension, but are unlikely to be drawn into a saga over the England international.
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Think we need 2 (perhaps even 3) CBs over the next 12 months - one could be Ibou if he signs a new deal - as we will have to replace Ibou as well as Quansah and realistically JoGo.
Considering this, Guehi - even for 40m - seems the obvious option and we can then look to bring in a top CB next summer if Konate leaves or a top prospect if he stays. If we donāt get Guehi who do people think could be appropriate alternatives? This is a summer where we canāt wait until the perfect CB comes along - going into the season with just JoGo as backup after completely retooling elsewhere would seem fool-hearty in the extreme.
We definitely need someone for CB this transfer window.
If the club feels Konate is going to be leaving. Iād like it to be Guehi as heās a good CB and helps us out on the squad building by being homegrown. Let him come in and fight to see if he can take a first team spot off Konate.
If on the other hand the club feels Konate might sign a new deal. Charlie Cresswell might be an option now, with Guehi for free next summer. Cresswell is homegrown as well which is helpful as a potential replacement for Gomez in the future and getting him out of Toulouse is likely easier then getting a good homegrown option out of a Prem team. Weād probably prefer he plays another season in Toulouse though to get more development and have more data on if heād be good enough for us or not.
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If we donāt sign Guehi I think Lukeba might be a good one to look at, but I would want to negotiate a lower fee than his inflated release clause. We have a good relationship with Leipzig.
Schlotterbeck might be someone we look at if Konate ends up leaving. We would want to see how he does after his injury, Iām sure.
I like the look of Leoni. If we could buy him for a low-ish fee and leave him where he is, playing week in week out for Parma, that might be a good way of bridging the gap to the future.
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I like the idea of Leoni as well but Iām not sure leaving him at Parma would be better than acclimatizing him to English football.
A backup role plus the domestic cup games would give us cover and probably enough games for him to keep on developing given the fragility of Konate and Gomez.
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Fair comment, and I see both sides of it.
If we sign two central defenders now, one would presumably be accomplished and able to go right in, someone like Guehi.
The other could be a prospect who is not quite ready for us yet, but our analysis and scouting shows they could have a huge upside. On that basis it could be Leoni, and for me his biggest need at this stage is first team games at the highest level possible. Another season at Parma would be just the ticket, then I would bring him into the fold next summer.
With question marks over one or two of our existing central defenders - not about quality, but availability - signing just one central defender who is a prospect doesnāt seem quite enough to me.
If we only sign one, it needs to be Guehi or equivalent.
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