The Entirely Reasonable Potential Transfers Thread

[Monkeys Fist 38683]

4 minutes ago, Meenzer said:

profile pic that's a bad photo of an ugly dog.

[Howmanheyman 26731]

1 minute ago, Monkeys Fist said:

 'You spin me right round' = RIP

[tinofbeans 86]

On 15/11/2021 at 17:31, Howmanheyman said:

I'd have Di Lorenzo from them and Spinazzola from Roma if he's fit yet? (Eeeee, look at me getting all transferey and thinking big).

 

@Antchange the lads name to tinofbeans, man. It's doing my head in. 

 

Elif elmas for the win, wonderful player.  

 

happy for a namechange to Tinofbeans... 

[Tom 13830]

It has been done. 

[Gemmill 34338]

Anyone know owt about these two? @Howmanheyman, you're the Italian correspondent these days, aren't you? 

[Monkeys Fist 38683]

7 minutes ago, Gemmill said:

 

Anyone know owt about these two? @Howmanheyman, you're the Italian correspondent these days, aren't you? 

@Tom, change the lads name to Ciaomanheyman, it’s doing my head in. 

[Andrew 4202]

1 hour ago, Gemmill said:

Anyone know owt about these two? @Howmanheyman, you're the Italian correspondent these days, aren't you? 

 

 

Both absolutely streets ahead of what we have in their positions now. 

 

Brozovic is a well rounded central midfielder who would immediately make an enormous difference to us considering our trouble in that spot.

 

De Vrij is brilliant and if he is leaving Inter there will be plenty of clubs after him. Central defender that reads the game and sweeps up rather than a belting into tackles type.

 

Both have been big players for Inter and were starters for Conte in their league win last year, reckon spurs would be looking at both off the back of that if they're available.

[Howmanheyman 26731]

2 hours ago, Gemmill said:

Anyone know owt about these two? @Howmanheyman, you're the Italian correspondent these days, aren't you? 

Ah shaddapayaface! 

2 hours ago, Monkeys Fist said:

@Tom, change the lads name to Ciaomanheyman, it’s doing my head in. 

 

40 minutes ago, Andrew said:

 

 

Both absolutely streets ahead of what we have in their positions now. 

 

Brozovic is a well rounded central midfielder who would immediately make an enormous difference to us considering our trouble in that spot.

 

De Vrij is brilliant and if he is leaving Inter there will be plenty of clubs after him. Central defender that reads the game and sweeps up rather than a belting into tackles type.

 

Both have been big players for Inter and were starters for Conte in their league win last year, reckon spurs would be looking at both off the back of that if they're available.

Andrew's covered it well, I thought? 

[ohhh_yeah 2765]

 

Brozovic is about to sign a new contract, I thought.

 

 

[Diego21 1997]

Brozovic is Top class player and he can play in differents positions. But this man is so crazy. Inter have tried to sell him in recent markets because he normally has problems with their managers (and this is because sometimes has arrived later to train and drunk). In fact, he doesn't have driver license because have been caught many times driving drunk. 

 

I like so much as a player, but sign him is a risk if he has problems with the manager. 

 

Strakosha is decent GK, but is not better than Dubravka. 

 

De Vrij is one of the best CB in the world in mi opinion. 

Edited November 17, 2021 by Diego21

[Diego21 1997]

The man has a bomb tattoed in his neck.

 

 

[Monkeys Fist 38683]

Diego spitting facts again 

[Tom 13830]

Poor Fish  

[Monkeys Fist 38683]

1 minute ago, Tom said:

Poor Fish  

Fuck did he do now? 

[wykikitoon 16562]

Put it as blood and not blud. You get mi fam? 

[Monkeys Fist 38683]

Wykiki’s slightly over-compensating for his cricket playing county compatriots. 

[ewerk 26232]

From Oliver Kay on The Athletic.

Quote

Don’t be surprised if Newcastle shun Coutinho, Bale & co – Howe is a builder who focuses on evolution, not revolution

It has quickly become impossible to keep track of the players that have been linked to Newcastle United in the breathless days and weeks since the takeover that made them — in theory at least — one of the richest clubs on the planet.

The Sky Sports website does a good job of collating transfer rumours published elsewhere. At present it cites 25 players linked to Newcastle, which include three from Barcelona (Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Clement Lenglet and Philippe Coutinho), two from Juventus (Adrien Rabiot and Aaron Ramsey), one from Real Madrid (Eden Hazard), one from Tottenham Hotspur (Dele Alli) and no fewer than five from Manchester United (Dean Henderson, Eric Bailly, Donny van de Beek, Jesse Lingard and Anthony Martial) as well as players from Burnley (James Tarkowski), Watford (Ismaila Sarr) and Wolverhampton Wanders (Conor Coady).

But even that barely scratches the surface because other names mentioned in dispatches over recent weeks have included Toni Kroos and Gareth Bale at Real Madrid, Ousmane Dembele at Barcelona, Kieran Trippier at Atletico Madrid, Boubacar Kamara at Marseille, Luis Diaz at Porto and Lorenzo Insigne at Napoli among many others.

As Laurie Whitwell wrote in this fascinating article last year about the 113 players linked with Manchester United over the course of a three-month spell which ended them with signing three (playmaker Bruno Fernandes from Sporting Lisbon, centre-forward Odion Ighalo on loan from Shanghai Shenua and young goalkeeper Nathan Bishop from Southend United), there is usually at least grain of truth to most of these links — even if in some cases it goes no further than a) a player being one of many under consideration for a specific role or b) wishful thinking from an agent who has heard of a whisper of potential interest in his client.

From the moment the Newcastle takeover was confirmed in October, members of the new regime have been peppered with calls from agents eager to tell them this is their lucky day. Sometimes the agents have had only the vaguest connection with the player (or manager or sporting director) in question, let alone a mandate to discuss a possible transfer.

This is what tends to happen when clubs are suddenly awash with money. Agents see an opportunity to cash in on new owners’ eagerness for an eye-catching transfer or two. Some agents in particular seem to be adept at ingratiating themselves with new or desperate ownership regimes.

The perception has grown that Newcastle will be the perfect destination this January for those players who, having fallen out of favour at a big club, may be willing to accept a drop in status if the money is right.

You may recall that footage this summer of Antoine Griezmann playing as Newcastle on Football Manager on a flight and Kylian Mbappe telling him “It’s not very warm there.” No doubt Newcastle’s new-found wealth will make them more attractive — offering a form of insulation, you might say — for a few players who would not have given them a second glance when Mike Ashley was in charge. (And just to be clear, we’re not talking about Mbappe.)

It is just that… none of this seems very Eddie Howe. Those who have worked alongside him in the past, whether at Bournemouth or at Burnley, talk of his fixation with certain types of footballer: highly technical, highly intelligent, highly committed. He loves technical, talented players, but only if they work hard. As former Newcastle midfielder Jermaine Jenas put it recently, “They have to find the right players, with the right motives, with the right character.”

Character is one of Howe’s watchwords. Another is improvement. At Bournemouth he would say you could always improve a player with the right character, but that players with the wrong character would be content to stand still — and in doing so, they might even drag their team-mates down. “It’s a frustration if I see someone waste their talent,” he told The Sunday Times in 2016. “Probably my biggest frustrations (in management) have been that: players that haven’t had that drive.”

But here is the conundrum that Newcastle face. Many of the players who are being proposed as possible January signings will be those who, at least at their current clubs, are perceived to be wasting their talent, living in a comfort zone.

It calls to mind something George Graham said of the great Arsenal team he built in the late 1980s and early 1990s with players signed almost exclusively from clubs lower down the food chain. “Never buy a player who’s taking a step down to join you,” Graham said. “He will act as if he’s doing you a favour.”

Jamie Reuben, one of Newcastle’s new directors, might recall learning that principle the hard way as part of the Tony Fernandes regime at Queens Park Rangers a decade ago. Everton have as many backward steps as forward steps to show for spending more than £500 million on new players under Farhad Moshiri’s ownership, but they have had far more success when buying young, ambitious players on the way up (Idrissa Gueye, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Jordan Pickford, Richarlison, Ben Godfrey) than those more eye-catching deals to sign players on the way down.

There will be players whose willingness to leave an elite club for one in the midst of a relegation battle may set alarm bells ringing.

There may be others whose sudden enthusiasm for a move to Newcastle reflects their appetite for a challenge. Their job is to find them. Lingard, now in the final year of his contract at Manchester United might have been written off as one of those “comfort zone” players in the past, but that perception was changed by the strong impression he made on loan at West Ham United last season. Henderson excelled on loan to Sheffield United two seasons ago.

Signing players from more successful clubs can be a risk — some will find that their motivation evaporates with the drop in status — but, again, that comes back to character and motivation. The manager can make a difference there.

Once he had led Bournemouth into the Premier League, Howe’s preference was to sign players who had the potential for long-term improvement: think Nathan Ake, David Brooks, Aaron Ramsdale, Lewis Cook, Jefferson Lerma, Lloyd Kelly, Arnaut Danjuma, Dominic Solanke and, yes, Jordon Ibe, whose mental health difficulties contributed to his struggle to live up expectation on the south coast.

In an ideal world, Howe might look to follow a similar recruitment model at Newcastle, buying players for the long term and giving them time to adapt to a different environment and — a significant one this — a different way of training. It would be easy to imagine him asking Bournemouth about Kelly, for example, but the reality of Newcastle’s predicament is that they need players for the here and now. No doubt a reunion with Ake would appeal to Howe, but would Manchester City and the player be open to such an idea?

Shortly after the takeover (and before the Howe appointment), The Athletic ran an article using analytics to identify weaknesses in the squad and potential solutions. We proposed Marseille’s Duje Caleta-Car, Swansea City’s Ben Cabango and Tarkowski in central defence, Lyon’s Maxence Caqueret, Wolfsburg’s Xaver Schlager and Lille’s Xeka in midfield and, among others, Clermont Foot’s Mohamed Bayo in attack.

In ideal world, these mostly young players are precisely the type you could imagine Howe going for, particularly if former Chelsea and Monaco technical director Michael Emenalo arrives. But these circumstances are far from ideal. Newcastle, at serious risk of relegation, need players who can make an immediate impact in the Premier League.

Tarkowski, who will be entering the final months of his contract at Burnley, would fit that category, as would Sarr. But would Burnley and Watford sell to a rival club at the height of a relegation battle? The Daily Mail reported recently that several Premier League clubs are so opposed to the recent takeover — in some cases due to ethical concerns, in other cases due to a profound sense of self-interest — that they would refuse to sell to Newcastle in January. No doubt there would be a point at which such any such resolve would be broken, but it is an added complication.

There would be no such stance among overseas clubs, but in many cases, signing a player from abroad in January comes with the risk of a longer adaptation period. Bruno Fernandes hit the ground running when he arrived at Manchester United in January 2020, but that was not the norm. As one technical director likes to say, “If you buy from abroad in January, you’re basically buying for the following season.”

Newcastle, in their position, should be looking to have players lined up to arrive the moment the transfer window opens on January 1. They face nine Premier League matches before that and another three by January 22. By the end of January they will have only 15 games remaining. Dragging things out until the transfer deadline will not be advisable, which is why the delay in appointing a sporting director (whether it is Emenalo or anyone else) is a concern.

Howe will not be fixated on transfers — not for the next six weeks, anyway. He has spent the past week getting to know those players who have not been on international duty and trying to work out what he has to work with.

As mediocre as the squad looks in places, he believes he can cajole improvement out of them. Some may not prove compatible with the style he wants to implement, but there are others he will feel he can get far more out of. A ball-playing central defender like Fabian Schar could fit into that category, as could the oft-maligned Brazilian forward Joelinton, who caught the eye under Julian Nagelsmann at Hoffenheim but not under Steve Bruce.

The starting XI against Brentford on Saturday will offer the first hints of how the new manager sees Newcastle evolving. He rarely strayed from a back four at Bournemouth, but Bruce favoured a three-man central defence at Newcastle, as did Rafa Benitez in his final season in charge. If Howe’s instinct is to switch to a back four (which did not exactly work a treat in Bruce’s final few games in charge), does he do that immediately, wait until January and then hope to attract the right personnel to do so or wait until the summer? Decisions, decisions.

What is certain is that Newcastle need more quality. Despite the odd flourish in the transfer market, such as Joelinton, Allan Saint-Maximin and Callum Wilson, it is a squad that bears the scars of years of underinvestment and complacent drift under Ashley’s ownership.

Relegation is a real threat and, while Howe would regard himself as a builder, focused on evolution rather than revolution, he made no attempt to play down the urgency of the situation last week. “It’s all about the short term and the position of the team,” he said. “Obviously we need to try and address that very quickly and move up the league and avoid relegation.”

Howe will maintain that the biggest improvement must come on the training ground rather than the transfer market, but the importance of getting things right in January is clear.

That means signing players who will see Newcastle not (just) as a payday but as an exciting challenge for the best years of their career. Such characters will not be easy to find from a position of weakness and possible desperation in January. The new owners might be captivated by the big names that will inevitably be pushed their way, but Howe’s instinct will be different. This is not going to be a job for the faint of heart.

 

 

[wykikitoon 16562]

Thank fuck, I wouldn't have Bale here at all.

[Diego21 1997]

I wouldn't want to make a team of old glories. Bale, Coutinho, Hazard, etc etc are players who are far from their level and who are very very expensive. They have a possibly prohibitive salary to square our Financial Fair Play. I really like the profile of some that Kay comments, like Caleta-Car. I think it is the ideal. Signing players from 'major' teams from 'minor' leagues or minor leagues, major teams. Lille, Marseille, Ajax, Porto, Villarreal, etc.

Anyway, I do think that, if possible, betting on just one of them could be good. Coutinho is personally a weakness, but in Barcelona he earns around 40 million euros a year .... He would have to want to be the centerpiece of Newcastle a lot to lower his salary and come here.

As for the issue of whether Howe likes these types of players or has used them in his career ... It's a bit difficult to assess. Howe has never handled or loved top players because he has coached at Burnley and Bournemouth. If I had had the chance to coach at PSG or Bayern ... I can't imagine having the chance to line up and sign Mbappe or Neymar and want to pick Ritchie and Fraser.

[Alex 30337]

23 hours ago, Monkeys Fist said:

@Tom, change the lads name to Ciaomanheyman, it’s doing my head in. 

 

[wykikitoon 16562]

Jesse Lingard: Man Utd midfielder's future in doubt as contract talks break down - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/59328494

 

Worth a loan punt? 

[MrLogic 16]

22 minutes ago, wykikitoon said:

Jesse Lingard: Man Utd midfielder's future in doubt as contract talks break down - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/59328494

 

Worth a loan punt? 

Why would you loan a player who has 6 months left on his current contract?

[Monkeys Fist 38683]

Give Shelvey some competition? 

[RobinRobin 9192]

5 hours ago, Monkeys Fist said:

Give Shelvey some competition? 

[wykikitoon 16562]

8 hours ago, Clarko said:

Why would you loan a player who has 6 months left on his current contract?

Just going off the article he would seek a loan deal. Did you even read it bro?