Gary Cahill joining Bournemouth. Great signing for them at their level. Which is below us. So I don’t care.
The Bournemouth money train rolls on. Surely last chance saloon for them now, go up or owner gets bored and they're ****ed.
If it's a choice between a Serbo-Brazilian Sierralta lookalike who I've never seen play before, or Gary Cahill you're damn right I'm choosing Lyanco!
West Ham have been trying to come to an arrangement for him all window; he would definitely see himself as bigger and better than us at this point in time, and cost far more than we'd be prepared to pay in loan fee and wages, even if he was prepared to be loaned out again.
Tweet from a well read account (quoting Di Marzio) suggesting we have an interest in Keita Balde, which was a previous rumour. Presumably only likely if someone pays over the odds for Sarr. Hasn’t been great of late either. https://twitter.com/soycalcio_/status/1429056942052364289?s=21
**** me, we need to get Larsen in from Udinese ASAP. And, sod it, give Hughes what he wants. Louza looked s*** and it appears as though the efficiency of our midfield is dependent on the consistent fitness of a 34 year old. A reliance which has cost us in GW2. We need Hughesy still.
**** Hughes, but liked for your realisation that we are still a mess, despite our good showing against Villa.
Malang Sarr looks like he’s going to Bologna on loan. And Zappacosta is available for £800k loan with £8m option. After yesterday, we should be all over such deals.
It’s incredible we seem to be entering a premier league season not trusting Ngakia and being comfortable with Cathcart at right back if Kiko is unavailable. I would say I’m surprised, but our squad management time and again has been utterly bizarre (see deciding to start last season without a left back).
I'll be amazed if Gino isn't doing a deal with himself for Larsen today. It's painfully clear that Xisco doesn't rate Ngakia and Kiko is made of wet paper. We've begun the season with a centre back, who hasn't been up to PL standard for a couple of years now, starting at right back for us! I wonder what Duxbury would be telling us right now...
Unless we do something quite surprising (like getting rid of Gosling in addition to both Hughes and Chalobah going), I'm not sure I see enough space in the squad for a RB considering the requirements elsewhere, and considering our apparent interest in other players. Ngakia would not take up a place in the squad, whereas Larsen definitely would, and since he's mainly a wingback, would he definitely be an upgrade on what we have?
Watching the Euros I think Larsen is an upgrade on Kiko. I think we have two squad places available still, that's with Navarro, Hughes, Chalobah, Quina, Gray and Success not included.
Agreed Zappacosta was excellent in Serie A. Just because he never succeeded in Chelsea means nothing. Added to that we've shown interest in him before and are very weak defensively on the right.
Seeing as Chelsea generally want teams to pick up the majority of players' wages while on loan, that would have been quite a commitment for us tbf
Why enjoy fine wine (in moderation of course!), fine weather and fine football when he could have been struggling in a relegation battle in a rainy suburb of London?
Would love us to shift Gray and get Odsonne Edouard in to lead the line. Centre back and a number 10 / progressive centre midfielder are still a priority but £15 million seems decent business.
We already have about ten forwards but only three fit central midfielders, one half decent centre back one one decent full back. Spending 15m on a striker would be a monumental waste of money.
Currently we have 29 players over-21. Hughes, Quina, Navarro, Success all likely to leave. Hopefully Gray as well and I think there’s also a strong chance Chalobah goes. So potentially room for 2 incomings: what do we need? I think a CB is 1st priority. If a quality CM is available then I’d want to get them in as Cleverley/Gosling aren’t good enough and Kucka is unlikely to stay fit for the majority of games. If the right player isn’t there though then maybe a RB given Xisco clearly has 0 faith in Ngakia.
Isaac Hayden has played at right back, centre back and centre midfield before. Gino you beautiful man, you've only gone and done it again haven't you.