Another striker suggestion. I know we're all sad at not being able to bring back our former Czech striker, but how about a different one to try and fill that void? 26 year-old Lukas Julis of Sparta Prague. Third top scorer in the Czech league with 11 goals in 18 starts (the 2 top scorers both play for runaway league leaders Slavia). He also scored 5 goals in 5 starts in the Europa League, with those 5 goals all coming in 2 matches vs Celtic (one hat-trick, one brace, highlights below). He seems a fairly solid all-round CF, decent pace, though not blistering, but a composed finisher with clean striking technique. One issue is he's currently out injured for a few weeks, but should be back before the end of the season. While talking of Sparta Prague, I'd still like us to sign Ladislav Krejci (Jr), their 22 year-old DM. I posted about him in January, and since then also watched him for the Czech U21s in the U21 Euros. He slotted in at a slightly more unfamiliar CB role, but still looked a class act. He reminds me a bit of Declan Rice somehow. Again one issue is that he's also currently injured (though not with an injury that requires surgery) and seems unlikely to be back before the end of the season. http://wfcforums.com/index.php?threads/transfer-suggestions.54511/page-78#post-2945523 The striker who I also mentioned in the same post as Krejci in January, Ercan Kara of Rapid Wien, is also someone who I still think would be worth looking at if we were to bring in two or three CFs. He continues to have a good season, being currently the joint-second top scorer in the Austrian League with 14 goals and 9 assists in 25 games (as well as an assist in the Europa League vs Arsenal). There are some highlights in the post above, but I've also added highlights below of his latest match where he gets 2 assists and 1 goal (no. 29). He is very quick for a big man. I genuinely think this guy could be a gem for the kind of price he'd be available for.
Jeremy Doku left wing. I’ve only seen a little of his highlights but I think he’s breaking into the Belgium first team and he’s at Rennes in France. By some comments on here French footy is struggling money wise. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
He's class, but they only just paid €26mil for him. Whenever he gets sold again it will be for at least that and to a more established club than us.
I did mention him before, it was advice from my daughters Greek boyfriend. Excellent player but he's said Serie A clubs and even Dortmund are on the case.
Another one Baba Rahman Chelsea attacking left back. Was or is on loan at POAK in Greece Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
So I went through my list of 93 players that I’ve been watching for a while now. Some this season, others going on 3 seasons. Some of those players have already moved on to bigger and better clubs than us, such as RB Leipzig. Side note, the whole RB teams, really do have an eye for talent. Anyway we won’t sign any of the players I’m about to mention in my narrowed down list of 28 players. Honestly there’s probably 4-6 players in this list that are unrealistic as well, but I couldn’t be bothered to take them out, once I pulled them from the 93. This would be my shopping list I hand to Gino: LB’s Galan - Huesca Pezzella - Parma Young - Inter Mykolenko - Kyiv LCB’s Lucumi - Genk Torunarigha - Hertha Uduokhai - Augsburg CDM’s & CM’s Shaparenko - Kyiv Doucoure - Lens Lokonga - Anderlecht Hernani - Parma Camara - Olympiakos Camara - St. Etienne Sissoko - Strasbourg LW’s Marcos Paulo - Fluminense Campaz - Deportes Tolima De la Vega - Lanus Tzolis - PAOK Gouiri - Nice ST Pedro - Flamengo Dike - Orlando Jorge - Santos Nmecha - Man City Barbosa - Flamengo Wind - Kobenhavn Onuachu - Genk Moffi - Lorient Macias - Chivas Alberto - Internacional On Gouiri, I put him as a LW even though he’s played 18 times as a striker this season and only 14 on the left side. However in my opinion he is much better as a LW and has had more impact coming in from the left, rather than playing as a striker throughout his career so far. It’s irrelevant anyway, because we won’t sign him, he will go to a bigger club than us. Onuachu will also join a much bigger club than us. The other players on my list, could do a job for us as well, well most could, some I was looking at if we stayed in the championship. However these would be my personal top picks. On a different note, not sure if you get FuboTV in the UK, but if you do, get it. It’s just football from all around the world, showing every live game possible. It’s incredible. Has made watching players so much easier.
Ryan Sessegnon. I had totally forgot about him. Seems to have played fairly regularly in Germany this season. Is he going to be part of Spurs plans for next season? If not might be worth a punt. On a side note, I like to read all peoples views of players I have never heard of but do some of you do anything apart from watch football. @Markoa$ you surely haven't watched all of those players on a regular basis? As an example, Wind - Kobenhavn, I've not heard of him or the player, in fact I'm not sure which is which! How often have you seen him play? I'm not having a pop, I'm genuinely interested
Interesting list, with some names I've also been keeping an eye on already. I've gone through them and added my thoughts. LB’s Galan - Huesca - seems very good, but appears set for a top club in Spain Pezzella - Parma - good shout this, looks a good player who should be suited to the PL and likely available with Parma's impending relegation. Young - Inter - has been discussed already Mykolenko - Kyiv - very highly rated, looks destined for a bigger club than us. LCB’s Lucumi - Genk - I've commented on him before. I wonder if he's still a bit too raw? But he could be an option. Torunarigha - Hertha - seems a very good prospect, but his injury record is a major concern. He's not managed more than 16 starts in a season yet. If he can stay fit and perform as well as he did last season for a whole season then he'd be a good signing. Big if though. Uduokhai - Augsburg - seems ace, but Dortmund appear to be after him. Another general point - is there a reason why you've limited your search to LCBs? Sierralta has actually been playing as the left-sided of the pair for us this season and been excellent, and so it may not be necessary to shift him. It's T-E who needs replacing and he's been the right-sided of the two. LCB seemed more of a necessity with the way we were playing under Ivic. CDM’s & CM’s Shaparenko - Kyiv - Seems a decent prospect, though not sure he'd offer enough of what we need currently for what he'd cost. Doucoure - Lens - Seems good. Good pace, good tackling, calm on the ball. Might be tricky to get, but perhaps not impossible. Only slight negative is AFCON. Lokonga - Anderlecht - being tracked by Milan and Saints amongst others. Think he still looks a bit too raw. Hernani - Parma - as with Pezzella, looks a good shout. Camara - Olympiakos - Difficult to tell, but decent experience in Europe and could be worth a punt. AFCON. Camara - St. Etienne - Seems alright, though don't think he offers anything different to or more than Chalobah. Sissoko - Strasbourg - Seems a solid but unspectacular DM. Decent at breaking up play but not very creative. Been linked with Newcastle on a few occasions but they've not bothered to buy him. Probably obtainable. LW’s Marcos Paulo - Fluminense - he's joining Atletico Madrid already Campaz - Deportes Tolima - I posted about him in January, I think he's a very good prospect but he's more an ACM or right-winger than left-winger. Also, he's left-footed, and we need a right-footed player on the left-wing. Could be a good bench option for ACM if cheap. De la Vega - Lanus - Seems an excellent prospect. However, he's a right-winger. Like Sarr he appears to be a rare case of a winger who prefers playing on the same flank as their preferred foot and does not adapt as well to the opposite side. Tzolis - PAOK - been mentioned on here before, seems destined for a bigger club Gouiri - Nice - as you acknowledged he seems destined for a bigger club. Though I thought he was cack for France in the U21 Euros. ST Pedro - Flamengo - They only just signed him in December. Also, there must be a reason why it hasn't worked out for him in Europe so recently. Dike - Orlando - I'll keep my eye on him in the play-offs before passing judgement. Promising so far though. Jorge - Santos - No chance, lots of top clubs after him. Nmecha - Man City - I've been wanting him to be good as he has a decent profile and would be available, but annoyingly I just don't think he's all that. I was keeping an eye on him in the U21 Euros and he didn't impress. No particular aspect of his game is particularly weak, but none are particularly good either. I think he'd do well in the Champ, but not sure he has enough for the PL. He's like a younger Andre Gray but with much less pace than Gray used to have. Barbosa - Flamengo - Flamengo paid €18.5mil for him and he'd be a big risk for how much he'd cost. Not the worst shout though if we could somehow attract him, with lots of potential upside. Wind - Kobenhavn - I'd been intending to make a post about him in this thread once we got promoted then forgot about it. I think he'd be a good signing. There'll probably be competition from other PL clubs, but I don't think it'd be impossible. Onuachu - Genk - I watched quite a lot of clips of him a few days ago, he seems good but as you suggest will probably go elsewhere. I'm not too fussed about it though as strikers arriving in England after scoring in the Belgian League have generally not done well recently anyway (not that there might not be the occasional exception eventually). Moffi - Lorient - seems alright, though I'm not entirely convinced somehow and wouldn't be my among my top picks. File alongside Josh Maja. We'd also have to pray he didn't get a call-up for Nigeria. Macias - Chivas - looks a decent prospect, though I reckon would take some time to adjust to English football. Could be worth a punt as a squad option/development project if he didn't cost too much. Not sure how true it is but there's a rumour that Krasnodar have offered $12mil though. Alberto - Internacional - seems a very good prospect, even more so than say Macias. Again would probably be too much of a risk as our only striker signing, but would be good if possible as say a second-choice striker/development project. N.B. I noticed you have a couple of Kiev players in there, one I think could be the most interesting, obtainable, and suitable for what we need is Gerson Rodrigues - scored for Luxembourg vs both Ireland and Portugal recently, and also for Kiev in CL qualifying vs AZ. Plays as both an inverted left-winger and CF. 25 years-old, loads of pace and power.
Football is my hobby and I’m blessed to be married to a wife that lets me watch it everyday. I spend about 4-6 hours a day watching football, reading player data, translating articles about players I’m interested in. My lunch break at work is an hour of football, once my kids go to bed at 8-9pm, it’s 3-4 hours of football. Then on the weekends it’s more, I watch football with my 2 sons for the first 3 hours on Saturday. Football is the one and only hobby I have, sad, very sad actually, but true. I’m obsessed with the game. I honestly couldn’t tell you how much I’ve watched those players, I should track it though.
With De la Vega, he’s played on the left multiple times and done very well. You’re right in saying he’s a RW, however he is more than capable of playing LW as his career has proven. 33 games as a RW and 21 as a LW. More assists as a RW but more goals as a LW. I’ve seen him play both, so that’s why I put him under LW. Already scored once this season from LW. Yeah not a bad shout, 6 goals and 3 assists in the equivalent of 17.5 games (across all comps). Don’t know if he’s the upgrade on the left we need. Certainly not opposed to him, but think there’s better options out there in my personal opinion.
This is such an excellent thread. Lots of great suggestions from well-informed posters. Keep it coming!
All very interesting and fun, but as with every window, we are unlikely to sign a single one of the players that are researched and thrown up on this thread.
Come on mate, if you post 100 names you've copied and pasted from an FM Wonderkid list and we get one of them, you're fully entitled to say 'I told you so'.
Have you contacted the club with a view to being a scout? Or to compile ongoing reports on players that they have scouted?
Who cares if you enjoy it? It's not sad. I think your posts are informed, properly researched and not tinged with undeserved arrogance. Keep it up.
Yeah, as Marko posted it's still fun. Plus one will surely happen eventually! (with them no doubt ending up a major flop, ha)
No I haven’t, I wouldn’t even know who to contact etc. It would be fun though. I’ve actually been getting my badges over the last year. Coaching and talent identification. Was my wife’s idea, she literally said, you love football so much, why don’t you do something with it. So I did, slowly but surely working my way towards my pro licence with both. Got a great connection with a team here whose current coach is from Italy and has his UEFA B licence. I’m good friends with the actual owner of the club now. He’s going to let me be a part of the coaching set up on a “when I can basis” which is nice.
I mentioned that Gerson Rodrigues a guy a few weeks ago after I saw him scoring against Ireland, he looked good to me, but others did not seem to agree with me, I still reckon he could be an affordable shout though.
Agreed but I think Zinckernagel was mentioned in one of these threads before we were interested in him so you never know.
I missed that. Yeah I agree with you - it might be too much to expect him to be a first-choice, but he definitely has something about him to suggest he could make an impact at a higher level and is just coming in to his prime. He'd be a bit of wildcard who'd probably be either a big flop or a sensational bargain.
Hernani dare I say it looked very Etienne Capoue like. I believe he even scored against Roma and played pretty well. Got a decent long pass in his locker. Pezzella looked the part when I've seen him LB and LM. Good size, strength and fair pace. The problem is Udinese saw Marvellous Marvin as a better option which is worrying. But as you said Parma are doomed and they will be ripe for taking. Camara - Olympiakos was mentioned by my daughters boyfriend. He said he's far to good for the Greek league but in all honesty looked pretty average when I've seen him on television. Tzolis - PAOK was the one he craves about. Looks very good and is excellent with both feet. Ball carrying skills at pace are insane. But as you said the big boys are on the case.
In what I've watched of de la Vega he just doesn't seem as comfortable on the left as on the right, or as more natural right-footed/inverted left-wingers appear. He seems to want to drift infield off the flank way too early and too often, and seems a bit less sure of what to do in the final third on that side than he does on the right. Yeah Rodrigues would just be a bit of wildcard, potentially cheap punt signing, but I think there's a chance he could be a surprise with a big upside. Of course the likes of Lookman and Danjuma would be more sure things and preferable if they could be afforded.
