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The General Transfer Rumours and Speculation Thread

K.D.D.D.D.Soc said:
I think this is going to be probably the hardest for years, we need to upgrade in all areas if we are going to carry on improving and be competative in the CL. The major problem is that both Manchester teams along with Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and possibly Everton will also be looking for 3/4 top class players. Add to that the Euros being played in the summer it's going to me tough signing players and having them in place before the season begins. Football agents must be rubbing their hands in anticipation of getting their hands on all that TV money.

I think we need to improve in these areas:

Goal-keeper cover Vorm not good enough
Utility defender CCV needs to go on loan and that would leave us stretched
Holding midfielder Must have cover for Dier
Playmaker Erikson our only creative player, don't think Carroll or Mason can do it
Goalscorer Bloody obvious
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My thoughts are that signing another holding midfielder would probably negate the need for us to bring in a fourth choice centre half (as Dier can fill that role if we also have an alternative to play in his position. We should therefore concentrate our funds on getting the right defensive midfielder (Witsel perhaps?)

For the playmaker role there seems to have been quite a lot of speculation about Yunus Malli from Mainz. He would seem to fit the bill in terms of being the right sort of age profile (24) and coming from a league that Pochettino seems to like signing players from. The player I would love to see us sign for this position would be Isco from Madrid, but I fear that he will be too expensive in terms of both transfer fee and wages.
For our backup goalscorer - recent stories in the press seem to suggest that there has been a thawing in our relations with Peace at West Brom and Berahino will be arriving this Summer.

So - Berahino, Witsel and Malli.... We'd probably be looking at around £45 million for the three of them. I'm not sure whether we will have that sort of money to spend however (I guess it depends on outgoings).... I guess we've already banked £12 million for Townsend and can expect Fazio's departure will be made permanent for what? £5 million or so? So we'd probably need to sell one first team squad player... Bentaleb would perhaps be favorite right now considering how he seems to have slipped back in Pochettino's plans quite drastically, but theoretically Chadli, Son or N'Jie could be sold if the manager is trying to raise money to improve our options. I choose those three players as they are all non first choice players in the wide forward role and none of them can adequately cover Kane in the number 9 role. It wouldn't surprise me to see Pochettino trade one of those players for Berahino who IMO is best as a number 9, but can also play as a 10, 7 or 11.
 
I can't see there being ANY truth in the rumours of us being in for Witsel; he'd be far too expensive both in terms of transfer fees and wages.
It would be great if we could get a more defensive-minded player though
 
K.D.D.D.D.Soc said:
I would agree, a goalscorer and midfielder should be priority, but better cover is required.
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I think that it is a tricky balance to strike between bringing in better cover and hampering the development of the players that we have and blocking the progress of youth players to the first team squad.
 
Right now we are getting close to having a really stong first XI that can challenge anyone in the league. Kane, Alli and Eriksen are all pretty much settled in that lineup as is the back four. So far as strengthening further goes we have to think whether Dier is going to be our first choice DM for the forseeable future and whether he is first choice or backup to someone else and at CB. After that it's about having a decent backup/competition for Dembele, a backup for Kane and either a new RWF or at least someone to kick Lamela up the arse. I love Lamela as much as the rest of you and our defensive game visibly drops with him off the field, but he's only scored 3 goals this season in the league and we need more of a goal threat if we are thinking about staying close to the top pack next season.

We also have to consider whether or not Poch has his eye on any of our U21's and U18's and whether he judges it worth signing new players who may in turn block the progression of some of our youth players in a year or two. A year ago, a few on here thought Dier could do a job at DM, but none of us really expected to see him do it this well.

Anyways, I expect to see us sign perhaps 3-4 players whilst selling 4-5.
 
I think we'll also be buying players to up our attacking pace: something a Batshuayi/Berahino/Dembele will add (alongside N'Jie of course).

If we can get a DM to compete/rotate with Dier that also has some speed as well then that would also be great
 
Its going to be interesting to see what Poch does this summer, personally I think we need to strengthen our CM as I believe that Mason, Bentaleb and sorry to say Carroll are not good enough ( for various reasons). having been at both games against BM it was obvious to me that IF we are to achieve the top in Europe and here then we are going to have to improve in that area.

We also need to find/buy another striker.
 
parklane1 said:
Its going to be interesting to see what Poch does this summer, personally I think we need to strengthen our CM as I believe that Mason, Bentaleb and sorry to say Carroll are not good enough ( for various reasons). having been at both games against BM it was obvious to me that IF we are to achieve the top in Europe and here then we are going to have to improve in that area.

We also need to find/buy another striker.
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Couldn't agree more. A quality striker and a younger one we can blood with a Top quality CM so that we have Dier, Dembele and A.N other always available would be fantastic. Other than that, someone becoming available who is very quick and direct and with attributes that would work in our league for a wide forward would be good.

I think the Dortmund game just showed that we don't quite have enough depth with the same level of quality or at least a level where you don't notice if a regular is missing in certain areas. If we can rectify that in the summer on those areas mentioned then I truly believe we will challenge for the title next season.
 
Berahino Dembele(Fulham) Tielemans and maybe wijnaldum.

Pritchard to come into the first team squad and that is us done for the summer. Get it done early as well for a change I hope.
 
Sturridge looks good in spells, but I think there's something wrong there, he's left too many clubs for such a young player. I know someone will say so did Robbie Keane but clubs wanted him where with Sturridge I believe he wanted to leave from an early age.
 
K.D.D.D.D.Soc said:
Sturridge looks good in spells, but I think there's something wrong there, he's left too many clubs for such a young player. I know someone will say so did Robbie Keane but clubs wanted him where with Sturridge I believe he wanted to leave from an early age.
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My understanding is that he switched clubs early because he was tinkled 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.
 
milo said:
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.
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Maybe, but it's not often you see a player change clubs 3 times while still a youth.
 
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