January 2018 Transfer Thread

[Guest]

Two months until this thread goes crazy. Can't wait to find out who we are monitoring and illegally approaching.

[Thoth]

Two months until this thread goes crazy. Can't wait to find out who we are monitoring and illegally approaching.

Guaranteed to have a V and a J in it

[Josef Svejk]

Guaranteed to have a V and a J in it

 

?

 

[Jairzinho]

Guaranteed to have a V and a J in it

 

Lvis Juarez?

[Thoth]

ARSENAL VS LIVERPOOL FOR LEMAR?
It was the transfer saga of transfer deadline day, with Arsenal reportedly having a bid accepted for Thomas Lemar of Monaco, but the player himself not fancying the move.

Now the Daily Mirror reports that Arsenal will have some competition if they want to follow up that interest next summer, and that comes as no surprise. They report that Arsenal are still interested in Lemar, but that Barcelona and Liverpool will challenge Arsenal.

The Mirror also say that Lemar is confident of commanding £250,000 a week in wages when he moves. That’s a lot of sweets

[Thoth]

ARSENAL AND CHELSEA WANT FORMER LIVERPOOL GOALKEEPER
Arsenal are really odd with their goalkeepers. They sold Wojciech Szczesny for a relative pittance to Juventus, and now we hear that they are looking for a new goalkeeper next summer. Was it really not worth giving Szczesny a go this season if Petr Cech was so obviously coming to the end of his career?

Anyway, ESPN say that both Arsenal and Chelsea are keeping tabs on RB Leipzig goalkeeper Peter Gulasci, formerly of Liverpool. Since leaving Anfield, Gulasci has transformed into one of the best goalkeepers in the Bundesliga.

The kicker is that Gulasci qualifies as homegrown from his time with Liverpool, and so would be a damn useful addition to any squad. Plus he can save a football, which makes him more useful than David Ospina

[billypilgrimnz]

It would be perfectly Liverpool to have one of our discarded keepers come back and be brilliant for another team while we are stuck with Ren and Stimpy.

[VladimirIlyich]

I've seen Gulasci a few times for Leipzig and he hasn't looked anything particularly above ordinary. We need a keeper way above average in our team.

[Tyler Durden]

I've seen Gulasci a few times for Leipzig and he hasn't looked anything particularly above ordinary. We need a keeper way above average in our team.

We could have De Gea and Neuer in goal at the same time and still concede a load with the defence weve got.

[Carvalho Diablo]

Whoever mentioned Savic-Milinkovic for our midfield was bang on the money.

 

Spend big Yankee cheapskate ragamuffins.

[Gym Beglin]

Cos if you get Sterling it would get you £50m in the future.

 

Thing is, it's an unrealistic economic model.

 

Sterling only cost City £50m because he had played 129 times for the first team.

 

So there's no point in buying Solanke or some Mexican child to 'flip a profit' like we did with Sterling unless we're willing to give them huge exposure to the first team.  Which we're not going to do.

 

Where is Woodburn going to get his games?  We can't even figure out where to put Lallana and Oxlade Chamberlain, and now we're talking about buying Lemar, and Keita's coming in next summer.

 

As fans we have to be mindful of this when it comes to transfer windows.  We just want to buy anything that moves, but we've really got to leave some first team wriggle room for Woodburn and Brewster.

 

Unfortunately, with Solanke already meandering around the gaff, we're going to get to a point where Solanke and Brewster will be strikers 3 and 4, and that means strikes 1 and 2 need to be fucking good, just in case those two need a bit more time to develop.  Firmino and Sturridge don't cut it as strikers 1 and 2 if we have aspirations of winning trophies again. 

 

Look, I know how you hate it when reality intrudes, but our strikers are mid-table strikers.  You can dress it up however you want, but reality is there if you want to address it.

 

We say that Salah and Mane will all score a megaton of goals and they'll all share it equally and we'll be brilliant.  But that's not the case is it.  Salah has 5 goals from a wide position this season in the league, and that's great, very promising.  But Sane, Jesus and Sterling have 6 goals each, and that's in addition to Aguero having 7.  

 

Lukaku has 7 goals and Martial has 4 and Rashford has 3.

 

Kane has 8 goals and Eriksen and Alli have 3 each.

 

Lacazette has 5 goals and Ramsey and Welbeck have 3 each.

 

 

We haven't cornered the market on goal-scoring attacking midfielders.  It's not some crazy plan we've devised and will take the league by stealth.  It's fairly fucking standard. 

[Pureblood]

What's your point, that Klopp is always right?

 

My point is that Firmino doesn't need to play in a "Lallana-esqe" role because he's doing fine where he is in his Firmino-esque role. 

[SasaS]

Gulasci sounds like a tasty proposition.

[Gym Beglin]

assist league (all comps):

 

De Bruyne – 8

Silva – 6

Rashford - 5

Martial - 5

Sane - 5

Mkhitaryan - 5

Azpilicueta - 4

Mahrez – 4

Firmino – 4

Aguero - 3

Lukaku - 3

Morata - 3

Pedro - 3

Salah - 3

Coutinho - 3

Bakayoko - 3

Kolasinic – 3

Kane - 2

Sanchez - 2

Ozil - 2

Eriksen - 2

 

I'm glad Firmino assists 1 more goal than the likes of Aguero/Morata/Lukaku.  It's worth the 3 less goals a proper striker would score. 

[Gym Beglin]

My point is that Firmino doesn't need to play in a "Lallana-esqe" role because he's doing fine where he is in his Firmino-esque role. 

 

Yeah, but you're wrong.  Like, really, really wrong.

 

Strikers score goals.  Pretty sure about that. 

 

Maybe Mignolet shouldn't be judged on clean sheets, maybe he should be judged on his contribution to the pass completion rate for the back four as a whole.  

 

[El Dangerous]

Post more lists.

[Unrighteous]

Post more lists.

 

I was going to post a bunch of images of lists... but I can't be arsed, honestly.

[amli]

I was going to post a bunch of images of lists... but I can't be arsed, honestly.

[Thoth]

 

Fucking hell with Bread in goal we will get sliced open!

[SasaS]

It's hard to beat lists with assists.

[Bjornebye]

Fucking hell with Bread in goal we will get sliced open!

Spread it wide and pour up front

[INTORRESTING]

Firmino can be upgraded, there is no harm in saying that. I like him but don't want to settle for him being our striker.

 

There are 3 that probably can't be upgraded for now - mane , salah and coutinho and maybe lallana if he picks up where he left off. That is a lot of upgrading to do!

[Gym Beglin]

Post more lists.

 

Ha ha, because you don't know how to use data, or you don't like what it suggests?

 

You're all a bit simple if you ask me.

[El Dangerous]

Because looking at long boring lists that you've copied and pasted from Squawka generates really interesting discussion. Almost as interesting as top class sass.

[Numero Veinticinco]

You're all a bit simple if you ask me.

 

 

Fairly sure nobody did.