Summer 2024 Transfer Thread

[Pidge]

19 goals, 12 assists. He's pretty damn good, not sure any of those other forwards would have broken 10 assists in many seasons. Vardy maybe. But also he excels on the break from what I've seen. Villa enjoy some pretty open games. Not sure he'd be the right player for us. Would prefer Toney still.

[Carvalho Diablo]

1 hour ago, Scott_M said:

IMO, we head into this summer like Arsenal last season. Good but not quite good enough, a soft underbelly. They made a statement signing in Rice and given them that steel they needed. 
 

We need tweaks, not sweeping changes. 

 

Totally agree except it all depends on the new manager and how he wants to play.

[Binomial]

Certainly having his career defining season, but it's come after how many seasons in the Prem? How many different managers? After Villa have spent how much? At what age? I don't think he's missed any games to injury either so he's been able to keep that continuity going and never found himself in the unfortunate position of having to pick himself back up and re-find any rhythm.

 

If he goes on to replicate this season now for the next 2-3 years then he'll go down as an incredible Prem striker........otherwise he'll just be remember as another English striker who banged in a few goals that 1 time, a bit like Darren Bent.

 

[Scott_M]

I’m knocked mocking Watkins, he’s a good player and is having a really good season.

 

When I say he’s not elite level, can anybody argue he’s as good as Henry, Haaland, Aguero, Drogba, Kane etc.

[Bjornebye]

Guimares would be a superb addition to this side and would probably have won us the title just having him. Superb player and far too good for them jimmy nail shagging raoul moat wanks 

[Code]

1 hour ago, Binomial said:

 

 

Also, do you really rate Odegaard that highly?

After Salah, Ødegaard is the best player in the league. 

[Binomial]

8 minutes ago, Code said:

After Salah, Ødegaard is the best player in the league. 

Couple of funny shouts there.

 

Neither are in the top 10.

 

Ok maybe that's a bit OTT of me to say, they probably do.....so allow me to rephrase, neither make the top 8.

[El Rojo]

1 hour ago, Scott_M said:

IMO, we head into this summer like Arsenal last season. Good but not quite good enough, a soft underbelly. They made a statement signing in Rice and given them that steel they needed. 
 

We need tweaks, not sweeping changes. 

 

Also, we've very little deadwood, which shows the quality of the squad that Slot will inherit. 

 

Thiago and Matip and Adrian will depart, but beyond that you could make some kind of a case for keeping just about everyone else. If we do choose to cash in on Diaz or Nunez, and we surely will move one on, they'll still command high transfer fees. 

[El Rojo]

14 minutes ago, Code said:

After Salah, Ødegaard is the best player in the league. 

 

He's very good, but I'd be taking Rodri ahead of him. 

 

Imagine us with someone like Rodri anchoring our midfield. 

 

De Bruyne would get the nod but he's getting on in years. 

[El Rojo]

39 minutes ago, Scott_M said:

I’m knocked mocking Watkins, he’s a good player and is having a really good season.

 

When I say he’s not elite level, can anybody argue he’s as good as Henry, Haaland, Aguero, Drogba, Kane etc.

 

It's all about the role and the mentality though. We'd surely have been more likely to win the league this season with him or Solanke as our 9. Of course, the pressure of playing for us might mitigate against that statement. 

[El Dangerous]

31 minutes ago, Scott_M said:

I’m knocked mocking Watkins, he’s a good player and is having a really good season.

 

When I say he’s not elite level, can anybody argue he’s as good as Henry, Haaland, Aguero, Drogba, Kane etc.

Nobody is trying to argue that he’s an elite player and seeing his age I do think he’s too old for a big move but he’s very good and sometimes very good is a lot easier and a lot less of a gamble than the prospect of elite. Who would you rather have had up front for us this season, very good Ollie Watkins (who is a lot more than just goals btw) or prospective world beating elite player oh ooh spaghettio Darwin Nunez?

[dave u]

Nunez.

[TheHowieLama]

20 minutes ago, Binomial said:

so allow me to rephrase, neither make the top 8.

 

Those two and Thiago - who are the other 5?

[dave u]

29 minutes ago, Code said:

After Salah, Ødegaard is the best player in the league. 

 

Unless De Bruyne changes nationality to Norwegian in which case you'll then tell us that he's miles better than Odegaard (which of course he is).

[Binomial]

2 minutes ago, TheHowieLama said:

 

Those two and Thiago - who are the other 5?

 

Need you ask?

 

Matip, Neto (or is it Beto?) The good 1 who's always injury free , Caicedo, Mudryk and Hojlund

[Fowlers God]

3 hours ago, Scott_M said:

IMO, we head into this summer like Arsenal last season. Good but not quite good enough, a soft underbelly. They made a statement signing in Rice and given them that steel they needed. 
 

We need tweaks, not sweeping changes. 

 

Do not disagree with this at all 

 

Really need a few decent additions to the squad. Quality not quantity this summer. 

 

1 hour ago, Scott_M said:

I view him in a similar way Kevin Phillips or Jamie Vardy winning the golden boot. 
 

Good players, score goals, not elite level. 

 

Arsenal were in for Vardy after their league win and the issue with both of the above is that they never had the additional chance of playing with elite players....

55 minutes ago, Scott_M said:

I’m knocked mocking Watkins, he’s a good player and is having a really good season.

 

When I say he’s not elite level, can anybody argue he’s as good as Henry, Haaland, Aguero, Drogba, Kane etc.

 

No I cant; but who is there in that mould currently and available?

[TheHowieLama]

Watkins is a gooner.

[dave u]

3 hours ago, Scott_M said:

IMO, we head into this summer like Arsenal last season. Good but not quite good enough, a soft underbelly. They made a statement signing in Rice and given them that steel they needed. 
 

We need tweaks, not sweeping changes. 

 

Kind of agree, but who would the statement signing be though? With Arsenal it was blatantly obvious what position they needed to strengthen and that Rice was the ideal player for them to go for.

 

It's not that clear cut for us in terms of position or player. I don't think we'll be making any 'splash' signing. I don't think we'll do much at all in fact, but what we do will be seen as 'shrewd' rather than 'statement'.

[TheHowieLama]

7 minutes ago, dave u said:

 

Kind of agree, but who would the statement signing be though? With Arsenal it was blatantly obvious what position they needed to strengthen and that Rice was the ideal player for them to go for.

 

It's not that clear cut for us in terms of position or player. I don't think we'll be making any 'splash' signing. I don't think we'll do much at all in fact, but what we do will be seen as 'shrewd' rather than 'statement'.

 

Certainly we need a similar presence in the same part of the field. 

[Tenfolder]

I get the Watkins talk in terms of ability/return but surely he isn't a realistic target this window anyway, Villa are likely getting the 4th CL spot plus surely he'd be looking at us and saying new manager, first season, lets wait and see how that turns out before deciding to jump.

[Scott_M]

33 minutes ago, dave u said:

 

Kind of agree, but who would the statement signing be though? With Arsenal it was blatantly obvious what position they needed to strengthen and that Rice was the ideal player for them to go for.

 

It's not that clear cut for us in terms of position or player. I don't think we'll be making any 'splash' signing. I don't think we'll do much at all in fact, but what we do will be seen as 'shrewd' rather than 'statement'.

Yeah, I didn’t mean it in a sense we should make a statement signing like Rice, more the good but not good enough comment & how we need a player or two to improve the first 11, not squad players. 
 

I think we need to be brave. I know there isn’t any real weaknesses per se, there are options to improve upon. 
 

Endo has done well this season, we went form a £110 bid for one of the players of previous season to a £16m unheard of player in about 72 hours! Again, not a criticism of Endo, he’s done a good job, if I was to look at our side, that is the position I would look at first.
 

Who that player would be, I dunno. I’ve said a few times I really like Guimarães, I doubt we’d pay the fee for somebody approaching 27. 
 

Like how Fabinho was somewhat from left field, somebody of his stature / quality would be hugely beneficial for us next season. I trust our analysts to come to the right pool of players to chose from. 
 

As others have said, I’d like another attacking player as well, especially if 1 of the current crop is to leave. Given who we’ve previously been linked with, Openda at Leipzig seems to tick the most boxes. 

[joe_fishfish]

I did some Moneyball style number-crunching this morning while I was supposed to be working (ie. I clicked around on fbref for half an hour) and found this lad - Enzo Barrenechea. 22 year old Argentinian defensive midfielder on loan at Frosinone from Juventus. Incredible on the website. Top numbers for ball recoveries, aerial duels won, and miscontrols (in that he hardly ever miscontrols it). I found exactly one youtube video on him from last year which made him basically look shit, so it looks like the youtube scouts haven't heard of him either, we can steal a march on everyone here.

 

I'm calling it now, if we sign this lad he'll drag us to number 20 on his own.

[Code]

1 hour ago, dave u said:

 

Unless De Bruyne changes nationality to Norwegian in which case you'll then tell us that he's miles better than Odegaard (which of course he is).

 I’d take the 2024 version of Ødegaard over the 2024 version of De Bruyne. 
 

Nothing to do with nationality, I think most Norwegian players are shite. 

 

Imagine such a player in our midfield, even your boy might score a few. 
 

 

[TheHowieLama]

Fill out the top 10 just for giggles man

 

1. Salah

2. Odegaard

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

[TD_LFC]

9 minutes ago, Code said:

Imagine such a player in our midfield, even your boy might score a few. 

 

Doesn't he have the same number of assists as Nunez, Elanga and a de Bruyne who's missed a huge chunk of the season?