Bellingham and Kone.
Caicedo and Kone.
Khephren Thuram and Kone.
A descending price scale of midfield duos. Kone is in all three as I think he is very modestly priced and would give us the athleticism in midfield, among other things, that we sorely lack.
Backup goalkeeper isn’t the sexiest position to discuss of course but if Kelleher does indeed want to move on then it’s notable that Marcus Bettinelli is going to be a free agent this summer. He’s currently at Chelsea, has played 200+ games at Championship and League One level. He’s also only 31 at the start of next season. Also English so counts as homegrown.
Could do worse on a free,
Adrian replacement sorted.
Posted this i the Pre match thread but more appropriate here.
Watching today i think we need more than just Bellingham especially at the price Dortmund will want, we need 3 midfielders maybe even 4 as well as a ball playing centre half.
The surgery needed is massive not just with the quality and physicality but also the mentality.
Maybe if Mo goes and we get the right price then Bellingham maybe an option.
Kone
Bellingham
(K. Thuram if we can’t afford Jude)
Gvardiol
(N’Dicka or other cheaper option if we can’t afford Gvardiol)
Kudus/Diaby
(If Salah leaves)
Not a bad shout, assume you’d go with one of our youngsters as third as opposed to the other way around.
Odd move to Chelsea mind and Fulham to Chelsea would suggest it’s London related in some way. Though did have a season at Boro.
Inigo Martinez would be a good signing, simple as. Cheap, dependable, experienced and, most importantly, left-footed; it’s about adding a new dynamic.
Coming in as a free-agent, we really can’t go wrong.
A bit short for our CB criteria?
Really don’t have the feeling Gvardiol will leave Leipzig this year and if he really has a thing for us we have good chances to sign him next year.
I’m expecting us to cash in on Nat and Rhys and bring in a new CB for £25-35m.
Gomez isn’t exactly the tallest is he and neither is Gvardiol tbh but if they have other valuable assets which would come in handy like actually being alert to danger then I’m sure we’d be willing to look past that.
Gomez is 188cm (and aerial duels deep in our area is one of his weaknesses), Gvardiol 185cm (athletically outstanding). Martinez is 182cm. I’m not writing players like that off, but listening a few times what we like in our CB’s (who would be seriously used), we want height/aerial quality to be part of that.
Roberto Ayala was only 5’10” and Fabio Cannavaro even shorter, at 5’9”. Both are amongst the finest headers of a ball I have ever seen.
Gomez’s aerial ability is one area I’d like to improve.
He win about 60% of headers. So do Martinez and Gvardiol.
Van Dijk wins 78% by comparison. Konate 66%.
Our lack of aerial power is a real problem, I think we need better than what Gomez, Martinez ans Gvardiol offer (even if they do have other great skills).
Are you talking about Lisandro Martínez because he is 1.75 m
Lucas was only 1.79m, but didn’t he dominate the league aerially for a while?
He could have done I am not sure. I think there is more to winning headers than just being tall. Strength, timing, coordination, posoitioning, aggression… there’s plenty of factors.
Would love to see us sign an Argie or Uruguayan for the midfield. A proper bastard.
Is he really left footed, or does he just pretend to be to toy with his adversaries before switching to his natural right side when he’s ready to beat them?
I think for Gomez, there are also other areas for him to improve on…Anticipation, composure, decision making, positioning and tackling.
Basically, all his deficiencies in the past that was covered by pace are all bursting out at the seams now.
So…defending