Summer 2019 Transfer Thread

[Deutsch Wolf]

This is pretty much where I am; West Ham and Everton have 'gone for it' slightly more obviously than we have (We'll see what Leicester do with the Maguire money this week), but 'going for it' doesn't always pay dividends

I'd argue Everton are weaker (Zouma was their best CH last season and he's not been replaced) and West Ham haven't solved their principal issue which is a central midfield that offers practically nothing. They do have about 10 attacking midfielders/wingers now though...

 

[Johnny75]

This is pretty much where I am; West Ham and Everton have 'gone for it' slightly more obviously than we have (We'll see what Leicester do with the Maguire money this week), but 'going for it' doesn't always pay dividends

Have they? West Ham have replaced the players they lost this summer with good players but are they better than ours? Everton have improved in one area which is their strike force but then have a weaker defence as they haven't replaced Zouma.

We have bought an equally good Italian International to back up and challenge our Gold Cup winning Mexican striker and added a Spanish U21 defender who oozes class in an already top class defence.

 

[Boozad]

That's why Spiers shouldn't be trusted and I have no idea why people do. The club haven't mentioned anything this summer and it's only (as you point out) when credible journalists get hold of a story that something happens.

It annoys me that people hold up Spiers as some sort of footballing guru (not so much here but social media). Judah and Spiers are simplistic morons who have the depth of a puddle when it comes to football knowledge.

I wish people wouldn't mention them at all.

My thoughts exactly. Minus the swear words.

 

[Langers]

I wish people wouldn't mention them at all.

You mention them enough as it is - you're like Paddy with Talksport. I don't know why you subject yourself to them if they annoy you so much! :icon_lol:

 

[Johnny75]

You mention them enough as it is - you're like Paddy with Talksport. I don't know why you subject yourself to them if they annoy you so much! :icon_lol:

That's the thing, I try not to then I get sucked into it when somebody links their nonsense on here or twitter and I can't help myself.

 

[BGreenWolf]

Fornals and Haller are top, top signings for West Ham, and I'm not at all certain that Cutrone and Vallejo (who, while clearly prodigiously talented, is also injury-prone) represent better business.

I think Everton have spent very prudently too, although they undoubtedly still have gaps.

 

[Del Woppio]

I do find it disappointing if we're baulking at fees that, in the scheme of things, are far from excessive for the quality, age and resales values involved. The way fees inflate you could be looking at assets almost doubling in value after as little as 1 half decent season. That's not to say of course that £100m is loose change etc, but if we've got ambitions of being in the top four, we're not going to find everybody we need in that 19-21 yeah old costing £15-20m bracket that we've had so much success with so far. To step up on the pitch, we've got to step up those moves too.

I know, we may never have been interested, but at that money for that profile, we should be.

 

[prawnking]

Have they? West Ham have replaced the players they lost this summer with good players but are they better than ours? Everton have improved in one area which is their strike force but then have a weaker defence as they haven't replaced Zouma.

We have bought an equally good Italian International to back up and challenge our Gold Cup winning Mexican striker and added a Spanish U21 defender who oozes class in an already top class defence.

It's all conjecture until the window shuts and we see these players in action for all sides, but the biggest difference between us and our peers for me is that we don't seem to have signed anyone that is obviously going straight into our first XI

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

We had a better team to start with than all the others though...

 

[BGreenWolf]

It's all conjecture until the window shuts and we see these players in action for all sides, but the biggest difference between us and our peers for me is that we don't seem to have signed anyone that is obviously going straight into our first XI

In fairness, that's largely because our first XI was better than theirs last season, and we're alone in that group in not having lost any members of the first XI from last season.

Besides, if he's fit and bedded in Vallejo goes in ahead of Bennett, who was arguably the weakest link last season anyway,

 

[Deano]

It's all conjecture until the window shuts and we see these players in action for all sides, but the biggest difference between us and our peers for me is that we don't seem to have signed anyone that is obviously going straight into our first XI

I agree with this. I actually think Cutrone is going to be a good signing but he will be a bench option to begin with as we arent going to break up the partnership of Raul and Jota. I also think Vallejo is in consideration to start but I don't think that's a certain and I wouldn't be surprised to see Bennett start at RCB.

I am not disappointed with the players we have bought in as I think they improve the options we have available to us, I am however (possibly Vallejo aside)a little disappointed we've not improved our first 11. This of course could change still before Thursday.

 

[prawnking]

We had a better team to start with than all the others though...

Can't stand still in the PL though, surely?

 

[Boozad]

Can't stand still in the PL though, surely?

At least we’re not regressing like Man Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea.

 

[BGreenWolf]

Chatter in the French media about us being in discussions for Boubakary Soumaré from Lille.

Can't stand still in the PL though, surely?

We haven't- we've addressed our greatest weakness (strength and options off the bench).

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

The thing is that although we finished 7th, our form post-Chelsea at home (when we changed formation, albeit there were I think three games in Dec/Jan where we still played 3-4-3) was way better than that.

P24 W12 D5 L7 Pts 41

1.71 points a game. Equates to basically 65 points over a season. It's way clear of those teams below us.

Improving on what we have is very difficult and will have to be done gradually (at high cost probably too, and FFP still is a consideration, ill-thought out as it is). It isn't like when Fosun came in and we had virtually no players that were worth keeping hold of, basically anyone was fair game to be replaced. This is the way of things for the time being, windows of 2-3 incomings will be far more common than those with 7-8 new players.

 

[Jinky]

Chatter in the French media about us being in discussions for Boubakary Soumaré from Lille.

“No signings imminent”

 

[Deano]

The thing is that although we finished 7th, our form post-Chelsea at home (when we changed formation, albeit there were I think three games in Dec/Jan where we still played 3-4-3) was way better than that.

P24 W12 D5 L7 Pts 41

1.71 points a game. Equates to basically 65 points over a season. It's way clear of those teams below us.

Improving on what we have is very difficult and will have to be done gradually (at high cost probably too, and FFP still is a consideration, ill-thought out as it is). It isn't like when Fosun came in and we had virtually no players that were worth keeping hold of, basically anyone was fair game to be replaced. This is the way of things for the time being, windows of 2-3 incomings will be far more common than those with 7-8 new players.

You can't really look at points just post Chelsea like that though. The season before the one where we got relegated from the Premier League under McCarthy, we were 11th in the form league from Christmas onwards and that led to people believing that all we needed to do was sign O'Hara permanently and add a defender, which we did and then went down.

Just to be clear I am not comparing the 2 situations as we have a way better manager, way better players and a proper identity/style of play, but I think it illustrates looking at relatively small sample sizes of games' form can be dangerous.

 

[BGreenWolf]

The thing is that although we finished 7th, our form post-Chelsea at home (when we changed formation, albeit there were I think three games in Dec/Jan where we still played 3-4-3) was way better than that.

P24 W12 D5 L7 Pts 41

1.71 points a game. Equates to basically 65 points over a season. It's way clear of those teams below us.

Improving on what we have is very difficult and will have to be done gradually (at high cost probably too, and FFP still is a consideration, ill-thought out as it is). It isn't like when Fosun came in and we had virtually no players that were worth keeping hold of, basically anyone was fair game to be replaced. This is the way of things for the time being, windows of 2-3 incomings will be far more common than those with 7-8 new players.

Yep.

I think the talk of us "improving" the First XI's a bit of a red herring to be honest. If our goal in the market was to get straight-up upgrades to Neves, or Jota, or Moutinho, or pretty much any player apart from Bennett and maybe Doherty, that was going to get radically more expensive than I think anyone would be willing to stomach. We needed alternative options, not upgrades, and by and large that seems like what we've gone for.

It's why I was hoping we'd bring an attacking midfielder in this week- not because such a player would be an upgrade on anyone we currently have, but because he'd offer us something different.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

I'd say you can here? Because that's when we made a big tactical change that obviously improved us, and that's how we play now all the time.

Take out Newcastle, Fulham and Palace (all 3-4-3) and it's 37 points from 21 games. 1.76 points a game.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Yep.

I think the talk of us "improving" the First XI's a bit of a red herring to be honest. If our goal in the market was to get straight-up upgrades to Neves, or Jota, or Moutinho, or pretty much any player apart from Bennett and maybe Doherty, that was going to get radically more expensive than I think anyone would be willing to stomach. We needed alternative options, not upgrades, and by and large that seems like what we've gone for.

It's why I was hoping we'd bring an attacking midfielder in this week- not because such a player would be an upgrade on anyone we currently have, but because he'd offer us something different.

Agreed.

We should now be faced far less often with the situation where we're drawing or losing but bringing anyone off the bench bar Vinagre will clearly weaken the team.

I'm still hopeful we'll get another player.