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The General Transfer Rumours and Speculation Thread

I don't know anything about his back story but I'm not sure that we can read too much into clubs that he was at when he was between 7 - 11 and 11 - 14.

I personally would read a lot into those years as he may have learnt if you don't get what YOU want leave, an attitude which could stay with him and not help in adapting to a team ethic and perhaps not suit Poch as I think players play where he wants not the other way round.
 
I personally would read a lot into those years as he may have learnt if you don't get what YOU want leave, an attitude which could stay with him and not help in adapting to a team ethic and perhaps not suit Poch as I think players play where he wants not the other way round.

He might have done but I couldn't draw that conclusion without knowing more
 
He might have done but I couldn't draw that conclusion without knowing more

I rate Sturridge from a football perspective but he doesn't seem likely to fit into Poch's 'paid to train' mantra. Also that he's still doing his appalling celebration shows a total lack of self awareness...
 
I rate Sturridge from a football perspective but he doesn't seem likely to fit into Poch's 'paid to train' mantra. Also that he's still doing his appalling celebration shows a total lack of self awareness...

I don't think that we should or would sign him
 
Henderson's great, but why would we take him? He's a physical, B2B DM that would cost a lot (wages and fees), and wouldn't fill a gap given that Dembele plays his role and plays it damn well to boot.

I mean, again, he's one of those signings that I was harping on about last summer as being the type that would improve our squad regardless of the need for him, so I wouldn't be disappointed at all...but we do have other areas to fill, so it would surprise me. Same thing with Tielemans.

Unless, of course, we're planning to sell Bentaleb *and* Carroll this summer: then it might make sense.
Still doesn't make sense to me. Henderson would be a very, very expensive way of clearing the splinters from our bench.

Don't mind spending that money on an upgrade, but there's no way he'd start for us (unless maybe we're in the Eurovision Football Contest again).
 
Still doesn't make sense to me. Henderson would be a very, very expensive way of clearing the splinters from our bench.

Don't mind spending that money on an upgrade, but there's no way he'd start for us (unless maybe we're in the Eurovision Football Contest again).

I think that he's as good as Dembele overall (better at some things, worse at others) and would push him for a starting place. I'd love a midfield squad of Dier/Wanyama/Dembele/Henderson, we'd have an excellent midfield in 100% of games in all comps. And it'd allow Mason and Carroll to be used as cover further up the pitch (for Alli and Eriksen respectively).

I don't think it'll happen, but I'd like to see something along those lines.
 
I think that he's as good as Dembele overall (better at some things, worse at others) and would push him for a starting place. I'd love a midfield squad of Dier/Wanyama/Dembele/Henderson, we'd have an excellent midfield in 100% of games in all comps. And it'd allow Mason and Carroll to be used as cover further up the pitch (for Alli and Eriksen respectively).

I don't think it'll happen, but I'd like to see something along those lines.

That doesn't really fit with our transfer strategy to date under Poch.
 
My understanding is that he switched clubs early because he was tinkleed off by being played wide and wanted to go somewhere where he would lead the line. His injury problem is meant to be that he does not want to play when he isn't 100% fit and most players are never 100% fit.
He'd fit in nicely with us. Poch doesn't seem to play players unless they're 100% fit. ;)
 
That doesn't really fit with our transfer strategy to date under Poch.

I think it's hard to guess what Poch will do when we get Champions League football. I didn't see anybody predict that we'd use Dier and Dembele as our midfield pair instead of Bentaleb and Mason. We spent £20m on Son, a player who doesn't start at the moment and is a squad player. I see no reason why we wouldn't do that on Wanyama, for example.

To be honest, we do a it of everything under Poch. We've had a big money signing (Son), we have worked with what we have (Dier, Dembele), we've promoted youngsters (Kane), we've turned players over quickly (Stambouli, Fazio), we've given others time (Lamela), we've demoted youngsters (Bentaleb), we've bought in players to instantly improve the first XI (Toby), we've bought promising youngsters and quickly promoted them (Alli) and we've bought squad filler (Trippier) to cover the first XI.

The only strategy Poch is into, imo, is to get better and improve. How we'll approach that takes some guess work from us, given all of the above.
 
I think it's hard to guess what Poch will do when we get Champions League football. I didn't see anybody predict that we'd use Dier and Dembele as our midfield pair instead of Bentaleb and Mason. We spent £20m on Son, a player who doesn't start at the moment and is a squad player. I see no reason why we wouldn't do that on Wanyama, for example.

To be honest, we do a it of everything under Poch. We've had a big money signing (Son), we have worked with what we have (Dier, Dembele), we've promoted youngsters (Kane), we've turned players over quickly (Stambouli, Fazio), we've given others time (Lamela), we've demoted youngsters (Bentaleb), we've bought in players to instantly improve the first XI (Toby), we've bought promising youngsters and quickly promoted them (Alli) and we've bought squad filler (Trippier) to cover the first XI.

The only strategy Poch is into, imo, is to get better and improve. How we'll approach that takes some guess work from us, given all of the above.

I don't think that Son is a big money signing in today's market.

The constant in our transfer business has been signing players who will have a resale value, which is why I do not think that we will sign players like Wanyama or Henderson who are near their peak value.
 
I don't think that Son is a big money signing in today's market.

The constant in our transfer business has been signing players who will have a resale value, which is why I do not think that we will sign players like Wanyama or Henderson who are near their peak value.

I disagree, £20m is big money for a player that is used as a squad player. I can't think of many teams with such expensive squad players bar the very biggest clubs.

Fair point about resale value, but we have still signed the likes of Fazio with no view to making money, just because he was deemed necessary at the time. Poch has done a bit of everything so far in the transfer market, so I don't see how anybody can say definitively what he will do in the future. It's like when gutterboy said we don't loan players now, then we loan Pritchard. Poch will do whatever he thinks is necessary for us to move forward, I don't think he will exclude anything that might help us.

Also, we have yet to qualify for the Champions League under Poch, which we should do this season. That might have an effect on the transfer strategy (it will imo).
 
I think that he's as good as Dembele overall (better at some things, worse at others) and would push him for a starting place. I'd love a midfield squad of Dier/Wanyama/Dembele/Henderson, we'd have an excellent midfield in 100% of games in all comps. And it'd allow Mason and Carroll to be used as cover further up the pitch (for Alli and Eriksen respectively).

I don't think it'll happen, but I'd like to see something along those lines.
Even if Henderson is a fraction as good as you think he is, I can't see two of those four happily twiddling their thumbs while they wait for Dembele and Dier to get injured.
 
Even if Henderson is a fraction as good as you think he is, I can't see two of those four happily twiddling their thumbs while they wait for Dembele and Dier to get injured.

We'll have plenty of rotation between Champions League, League, and domestic cup games. Besides, do you want 40 starts for SCBC or Liverpool, or 20 starts for the league champions? ;)
 
I don't think any particularly prominent player (and that includes Henderson and Wanyama) will be happy to sign and become a bench player for Dier/Dembele/Alli et al. That is, however, the assured conclusion if we sign two such players. One marquee addition could *probably* be convinced that he'd get enough games over the season to join: but it becomes very difficult to convince two players of the same thing, and it becomes harder still to avoid tinkling off one new addition when another player of similar profile and position walks through the door in quick succession. It won't be two, it will likely be one (if at all), plus possibly someone young and willing to rotate more like that Moore lad we've been linked to (who could perhaps be shifted into DM a la Dier if Carter-Vickers takes up that fourth CB slot next season). And that's *if* a) Bentaleb's out of favour, b) Carroll is sold, c) Winks is sent out on loan, and d) Dominic Ball doesn't make the cut as a DM option (apparently he's greatly impressed on loan at Rangers, and the people there can't speak highly enough about his attitude and willingness to learn and improve, if the papers are any indication).

Still doesn't make sense to me. Henderson would be a very, very expensive way of clearing the splinters from our bench.

Don't mind spending that money on an upgrade, but there's no way he'd start for us (unless maybe we're in the Eurovision Football Contest again).

I think he's better than you're making him out to be. I agree that he isn't as great as Liverpool fans would like to believe (and they themselves were largely going on his exploits last season and the season prior to that), but he'd definitely start for us at times if he did sign. If we were to go down that route of getting a marquee B2B player, though, I'd prefer Witsel. Or Tielemans, although he'd probably offer less by way of initial impact.
 
Where would you play him?

Kane's better and he doesn't want to play wide, so we don't have a position for him.

Id play a 4-2-2-2

---------------------Lloris--------------------
--Walker------Toby-----Wimmer-------Rose
---------------Dier--------Dembele---------------
---------------Eriksen--------Ali-------------------
--------------Sturridge------Kane----------------
 
Maybe a 343/3412

---------------------Lloris-----------------------
---------------Toby-----Wimmer---------------
----------------------Dier------------------------
Walker------Dembele------Alli------------Rose
--------------------Eriksen---------------------
--------------Sturridge----Kane---------------
 
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