Mario Balottelli. He would be brilliant in the Championship, speaks the language, better than a goal every two games. Better than Wrlbeck, Gray or Deeney. Drinks Baileys better than a Success and has a discipline record that Holebas would be envious of. I can’t see any downsides.
That would be hilarious if he came here. Como in Serie C want him. By all accounts the owner is loaded.
Takehiro Tomiyasu. Young right back at Bologna. Great technically. Distributes from deep. More than a decent crosser of the ball but also anticipates well and has a nice technical reading of the game to make tackles on the correct side of an opponent. Has a real engine. Only going to get better. More expensive than Masina of course but if we sell a couple of players £10M would do it. Although having dipped a division that might be a disincentive. Also in central midfield gangling giant Morten Thorsby at Sampdoria. Also young but hungry. Decent enough on the ball and bags of energy. Covers the middle of the park. His passing needs work and positioning at times but he has the right raw materials for developing. Three to four million would do it. Replace Doucoure with him.
If Masina is seen as dispensable, offer him + money for Tomiyasu. Masina loves Bologna and has said he wants to return at some point.
Not a bad shout TR. Problem is there are several clubs looking at Tomiyasu. I would definitely take the plunge. He is young, improving and only going to improve. Problem is we are a division lower now. Even if the Chump is the fifth biggest league in Europe it would be a hard sell to attract him here. Which is why going down today is a real kick in the teeth in the development of the playing staff. Morsby would be far easier to attract.
You never know, offer enough in wages... I'll stop myself typing right there. He's a defender so we're not throwing money at him
. He is just the sort of player if we were planning to develop as a club that we should have been looking at. Doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Will fill a real hole in the side with much needed quality and would make a big profit when sold. The ownership seemed obsessed with buying young attackers only. You can understand this in the sense the sale of one of these is going to fetch a higher price when sold as defenders generally unless they are exceptional command as high a fee. But you need balanced recruitment as we have found to our cost.
If he doesn’t join a Prem team, I will beat this drum again. Go and get freakin Cooper from Millwall. You would think that Gino would have listened by now. I’ve been saying it for 2 seasons!!
Hard not to start when your only competition is Joe Ellington They wanted him shifted in January and will splurge with their Saudi money over the summer
He's been playing very well for them recently - 4 goals and 1 assist in his last 9 appearances. Even with the Saudi money given how he's been doing he'll probably be kept as a backup option. Joelinton could well be shifted before him. His recent form would attract other PL clubs as well even were he sold.
11pm on October 5th, so tune in to SSN at 10:30pm to watch all the action from London Colney. But it looks as though there is also a Domestic Transfer Window starting on October 5th until October 16th at 5pm. This is because FIFA allow 12 weeks for a summer transfer window so the EPL & the EFL have tagged on a couple of extra weeks.
Toney has to be an absolute must in my opinion now. Don’t know if he would be good enough for the Prem, but definitely think he can make the step up in the championship. I would also look a ****ie as a CB option from Oxford. He’s 24 and had a very good season for them. They would probably be the only two league 1 players I would consider Ronan Curtis had a very good season for Portsmouth, so maybe that’s a third option. Matt Clarke signed for Brighton from Portsmouth. Spent the season on loan at Derby and was their best player. Will he get a game at Brighton with their CB options? Would be well worth a bid, or loan with option to buy. Max Lowe from Derby is also a very good RB, with Derby facing a points deduction, he might want a move? Would be worth going in for him. Karlan Grant from Huddersfield would be another sensible purchase as a ST option. Jed Wallace as RM option from Millwall, as well as my number one target, Jake Cooper!! Antonee Robinson as a LB and Kipre as a CB option, both from Wigan would be great buys. Although it seems bigger clubs than us will sign them both. Eze from QPR would be another purchase that would be great for us. Ben Gibson, now we are no longer a threat to Burnley, would also be a smart buy. Obviously the likes of Watkins, Benrahma, Dasilva and Henry at Brentford would all be great, but I don’t see any of them joining us, even if they don’t make the Prem. Ryan Manning had a decent season at LB for QPR this season, as well as Joe Bryan for Fulham. Bryan was out of his depth in the Prem the first time round, if Fulham go up, I can’t see him being their starting LB again. Maybe he’s grown and learnt though. Matt Cash (RB) and Joe Lolley from Forest would again be two very good signings for us. Both will probably move to a Prem club though this window. Matt Cash is highly thought of. Off the top of my head, they are the sort of players I want us to be going for. Which means none of the above will happen. However one can hope the Pozzo’s have learnt. To get promoted from the championship, you need players who are proven at this level, have some grit about them, play with their heart on their sleeve and are willing to fight when it gets tough. We are seriously lacking in that department right now.
I agree that Toney is now a must if we can get him; hopefully Brentford appearing to stumble in the playoffs will help our chances. I'm not too convinced by ****ie though, he reminds me a bit too much of Dawson somehow - he seems leggy in a bad way, prone to being a bit slow, clumsy and lacking in agility. Eze will go to a mid-table Prem club. I'm not sure Lowe would even be better than Masina (or better enough to be worth the money). I'd prefer Robinson but I suspect he's now out of reach.Manning also seems highly rated but I suspect we'll also miss out to a PL club. Ben Gibson I've already suggested.
All well and good saying we should buy this or that player. Remove the **** first and tell the young guys who have been out on loan in Spain that you're contracted to us and your going to be involved. The owners need to be ruthless in their approach to next season and to be honest I can't see many of those player who were involved yesterday starting the opener come September. Which is a plus in my book. Would love Sarr to stay but can't see it. Hughes I would beg to stay and offer him captaincy as an incentive. Masina I would like to see in a back three. Welbeck as the experienced forward. The rest can do one.
I get what you mean. The main problem I see with him is if we retain Suarez and Welbeck as striking options - positionally Grant is very similar to Welbeck and to a slightly lesser extent Suarez, he's always hogging the left-side of the penalty box and most of his goals come from cutting inside from there. He wouldn't offer enough of a different option if we kept both, or even one of those two. If we didn't keep them then he'd be a very good alternative. If we did keep one of them then I'd much rather Toney to provide something a bit different. Tbh I'd probably slightly prefer Toney as a striking option in general regardless.
I think if we are bringing players in we need to have an age cap, this way they won't decline and will have sell-on potential. I would say this cap should 27 max.
Great list as long as none of them are expensive given the debt we need to cover, the loss of income and the cost base we need to reduce. My worry is that this is not a good time to sell our "stars" for big sums given clubs finances generally so we may not have money to spend.
Another CB idea. Denmark seems to have been producing some decent CBs in recent years. Victor Nelsson is a current Denmark U21 international, 21 years-old playing for FC Copenhagen. Copenhagen have had a decent EL run this season, but unusually finished 2nd in the Danish League thus failing to qualify for next year's CL. Nelsson has decent pace for a CB, plays with a lot of composure and is very good on the ball. At 21 he'll also have plenty of upside. Financially it shouldn't be impossible, based on how much Copenhagen usually sell their players for about £5mil should do it. The main question mark would be whether a bigger club might come in for him, though I've not seen any rumblings yet and we might still be a decent stepping-stone/progression club for him.