January 2018 Transfer Thread

[Thoth]

Well there was clearly no point in signing Ox or Robertson so can't see us bothering to be honest

[John101]

Well there was clearly no point in signing Ox or Robertson so can't see us bothering to be honest

 

I dont care enough to keep up with these things, however, is the committee still a thing?

 

Those signings do scream committee.

[thompsonsnose]

Benitez getting a tune out of Shelvey.

I'm shocked....

[J-V]

He did alright at Swansea and let's be fair our central midfield would make Stephen Hawkings look like Xabi Alonso in midfield.

[ngogswilly]

He did alright at Swansea and let's be fair our central midfield would make Stephen Hawkings look like Xabi Alonso in midfield.

 

Replacing one of Henderson or Gini would make an immeasurable improvement to our midfield. Neither do enough with or without the ball. 

[thompsonsnose]

I didn't want Shelvey sold.

[Numero Veinticinco]

I didn't want Shelvey sold.

Big of you to confess like that. Ah well, at least he was and we don't have to put up with him.

[thompsonsnose]

Big of you to confess like that. Ah well, at least he was and we don't have to put up with him.

Fuck off.

[Numero Veinticinco]

Fuck off.

No.

[3 Stacks]

I didn't want Shelvey sold.

 

Not exactly surprising. Very consistent with your usual opinions. 

[G Richards]

Shelvey isn't good enough for us. At best he would be just about as good as the worst of the mediocre bunch we have now. Not bad in the grand scheme of things, but not quite good enough for us.

 

Two things though:

 

1. I still haven't forgot that time he gave Alex Ferguson an expletive-laden piece of his mind. Showed real leadership and bottle, as it happened, and he was just a baby.

 

2. He has always been good on the ball, especially if allowed time and space, like we gave him today to pick out the pass to split our central defenders.

 

The way the midfield game is going at the highest level needs more pace, and more speed of thought. Little passes, quick turns, ability to beat a man. From the little I've seen of Keita, he gives us this. Coutinho does too. Whether they play together remains to be seen, but that's 2/3 of our future midfield right there.

 

Shelvey at his best could give Henderson and Can and Wijnaldum a run for their money, but even though we've not got there yet, we aspire to better.

[The Woolster]

What i mean is let a player establish himself over multiple seasons (and iron out the inconsistencies) before signing them. 

 

If you look at the signings of Mane, Salah and Firmino they follow that model. Firmino was quality for 2 seasons in the Bundesliga before we signed him. Salah likewise at Roma. Mane similarly with Southampton. 

 

I don't really understand your examples. One is the exact opposite of what i'm saying - a kid that never produced an excellent performance, let alone a season's worth of them.... yet he was hyped to the moon (Januzajj).

 

The other example of Sterling is a perfect example of a player having multiple good seasons before buying him. He was excellent for us for two years and he's improved with City and now he's averaging nearly a goal a game this season. So it was smart business by City. 

 

Players usually don't hit their prime until their mid twenties. We're at a stage now where we should be focusing on players like Oblak, Ghoulam, Van Dijk, Icardi, Werner (if he continues his scoring exploits this season) not players like Lafont, Ryan Sessegnon, Upamecano, Embolo etc.

 

Don't get me wrong, there are genuinely class players that are young like Pulisic and Lemar. But unless they are extraordinary in their age group we should focus on more established players, in their prime. That's if we ever want to win anything. 

 

But we'd also miss out on the Coutinhos, the Cans, the Hendersons and the Clynes

 

And you mention Mane but I bet if you read his thread from before he kicked a ball for us, I bet there will be plenty saying he will be dud, some saying he's overpriced, and a few talking about him being inconsistent the 20 games or whatever it was with out scoring, so can't help but feel there is a bit of hindsight bias going on there.

[Jairzinho]

But we'd also miss out on the Coutinhos, the Cans, the Hendersons and the Clynes

 

And you mention Mane but I bet if you read his thread from before he kicked a ball for us, I bet there will be plenty saying he will be dud, some saying he's overpriced, and a few talking about him being inconsistent the 20 games or whatever it was with out scoring, so can't help but feel there is a bit of hindsight bias going on there.

 

[The Woolster]

Boss was talking about cutting out the massive flops, people may not like him, but Henderson's just played his 250th game for us, so can hardly call him a flop. What price is Henderson in a market where Drinkwater gets signed for £35?

 

Often hear about how we should be signing players that Juve sign, a club of comparable size revenue wise, but getting far in the Champions league, and there they are looking like they might be getting Can in next season.

 

And Clyne has done well for us overall in my opinion, could be better going forwards, and is a bit weak defending crosses at the back post, but looking at the prices of some full backs, the £12m or so we paid for him looks very good business.

[KevieG]

By basically refusing to do serious business in the last 4 or 5 windows we are stuck now with a situation where almost 75% of the squad needs binning and that just cannot be done in one window. VVD and Keita aren't going to solve this. 

 

We need 3 defenders, 3 midfielders, a striker and a keeper. 

The best part is we probably won't even do business in the next window.

[Red74]

Stop signing English players

[G Richards]

Since we can't sign anyone now, what do people think about playing Matip and Gomez in central defence?

 

Gomez looks a good player to me. He's strong and fast and looks to be back up to speed after his injury problems. He could become very good indeed. The usual convention is you don't put a youngster in such a position, as any mistakes are usually costly. However, I'm not ready to say that Gomez will produce more mistakes than Lovren!

 

Is there any merit in considering this?

[Jairzinho]

Boss was talking about cutting out the massive flops, people may not like him, but Henderson's just played his 250th game for us, so can hardly call him a flop. What price is Henderson in a market where Drinkwater gets signed for £35?

 

Often hear about how we should be signing players that Juve sign, a club of comparable size revenue wise, but getting far in the Champions league, and there they are looking like they might be getting Can in next season.

 

And Clyne has done well for us overall in my opinion, could be better going forwards, and is a bit weak defending crosses at the back post, but looking at the prices of some full backs, the £12m or so we paid for him looks very good business.

 

Mignolet and Lovren have also played a lot, they're also not good enough. I guess it's entirely subjective what someone considers a "flop". We've had some players recently that in my opinion aren't even close to being good enough play a lot of games for us. 

 

I don't think Can is particularly representative of a recent Juventus signing, and I'd be surprised if he was there long. I think they're just taking a player on a free, to be a squad player for 18/24 months, and then they'll make a decent profit on him.

 

Still not sure what to make of Clyne. Pretty solid, but abysmal going forward. Dunno. I'd rather either him or Milner was playing right back than Gomez.

[RobbieOR]

Benitez getting a tune out of Shelvey.

I'm shocked....

 

Have you watched him?

 

Because a person who has watched him would not that say.

[TheHowieLama]

Have you watched him?

 

 

 

Yep - and I have seen him on the bench more often than not. Jonjo has been rank this year.

 

Rafa knew he would be well up for putting in a shift against his old club though. Will be back on the bench next game I suspect.

[jimmycase]

Benitez settled for a point yesterday. At least Klopp tried to win the game.

[jimmycase]

Stop signing English players

 

Yeah because our defence and team is currently full of English players, isnt it?

[ben48]

Yep - and I have seen him on the bench more often than not. Jonjo has been rank this year.

 

Rafa knew he would be well up for putting in a shift against his old club though. Will be back on the bench next game I suspect.

Shelvey does well given time and space,so why was he not put under any pressure by our gallant leader.The Newcastle goal would and should have been easily picked of by our central midfielder,where was he,who is our central midfielder,because every time I look down from the stands when we lose the ball,there's nobody there,just a glaring great hole.

[Pureblood]

I love how every goal is Henderson's fault. 

[jimmycase]

I love how every goal is Henderson's fault. 

 

Or the fact that people think opposing players maybe arent capable of a bit of skill here and there and may actually beat one of our players at some point during a game.