[SIGNED perm] Ismaila Sarr - club record fee

Hughes always starts as wide as any winger might be expected to be, even if his natural instinct is to run infield as soon as he gets the ball.

Pereyra plays pretty wide.

Javi is also happy to play Sema every now and again in his 4-4-2, and he is definitely as much of a winger positionally as Sarr when he's used in that position (though Sema is poor, of course).

 

We really are pathetic. Three days from the end of the window and we've signed a Championship centre back for a couple of quid.

 

I think we're all fatigued by this.

Where we used to get excited about signings...well some of them (I beat you to it on Sema, so there) but this has been such a protracted affair that there'll be no 'YES!' when it's announced.

I frankly don't care anymore.

 

Bell end of the year award goes to.........

 

Gino "moth wallet" Pozzo?

 

Yep. I hope I'm wrong and he signs, scores 14 goals and sets up 8, proving he's the potential to play for a mahussive club, but I fancy we're looking at a marginal improvement in our goal creation, whilst retaining our fundamental weaknesses of being crap at putting away changes and weak at defending against pace, power or good deliveries.

 

We will always be outbid by richer clubs. There is almost no point in trying to sign a €30m player as there will always be a richer club interested. We've relied on the fact that no-one else would bid which will always be a failed strategy. The good news is we will get to see him at the Vic next year, as he streaks away from a panting 35 yr old Holebas and rifles into the top corner.

 

Alan Nixon said yesterday that Palace are interested. He also mentioned Rennes want £36m to £37m.

 

to add to which, we won't get Sarr anyway, which is not really much worse than just signing him and not properly solving our glaring issues.

 

Don't worry, we have Marriappa, he's one of our own didn't you know? Legend.

 

None of us can truly know what goes on in the negotiation, but some of us have the strong suspicion that Gino lowballs and then lowballs again to try and get value, which obviously increases the risk of being gazumped when other teams' situations develop and they need to act quickly.

For example, if Rennes were asking for £25m and we were offering £15, back when this all started, then we went to £16 plus some addons, then 16.5 payable over 6 years etc. we've left the door right open to allow Palace to sell Zaha and, £60m richer, come in with a big fat £35m cheque and blow us out the water.

I'm not saying this is what happened, but we all know it is.

 

I suspect Napoli may be one of the teams after Sarr as they wanted Pepe and have been in for Zaha .... either way our efforts to sign him appear to have been pretty half hearted and a waste of time. But only Gino, Giraldi and Duxbury know

 

Very possible but you can forget the Zaha money. Most of our peers don't need to sell to buy. If they want this guy, believe he will really improve their team, Rennes want £30m, they will just give them £30m. Zaha is relevant to the extent that CP just wouldn't need him until they sell Zaha. Ironic that we laughed our heads off that CP might lose Zaha, how they will be relegated, then they probably sign our #1 target for the summer, and maybe we will end up relegated having put all our eggs in one basket. Will be bloody annoying if Trezequet, Sarr and Saint-Maximin all turn out to be brilliant having signed for 3 of our peers .....

 

I just hope we have a backup option.

Saturday showed that if Deulofeu and Pereyra are not fit we really lack creativity... and it's not like those two have the best injury record is it.

 

To be honest how influential is Perreyra in those games he plays...maybe 15-20% of games? He lacks bottle and consistency.

 

I think Saturday showed we are nowhere near ready for the big kick off. I'm delighted we won the game so it sounds a bit odd to say this, but Real Sociedad destroyed our midfield. They picked holes through us at will and could, probably should have scored 6 goals. 6-0 from that game would have been a fair reflection. Had we got destroyed like we should have, it may have woken a few up at the club. That result has done us no favours in the long run....IMO.

Even the two goals Gray scored, my gran could have saved, and she's been dead 40 years.

How we won that was one of those mysteries you get in sport from time to time. It should not have happened, but it did. However, we cannot count on extraordinary luck like that during a 38 match season.

 

Yeah, but Sema lacks talent, pace, skill, flair, goal threat and just about everything else required at this level.

 

Not by any stretch of the imagination would I want Sema to start ahead of Perreyra...god no!

I actually think Success could become a really good winger/wide midfielder if he didn't spend most of his time on his backside and complaining. Full backs would be frightened of his pace.

However, if I was a right back against Perreyra, I'd be bombing forward at every opportunity as I know helping Holebas is not where he wants to be. Hit him hard the old 'let him know you're there' and he disappears for the rest of the game.

He's just not cut out for the PL.

 

Should add they are signing Cahill as well who would be welcomed with open arms here.

 

The squad that comfortably kept us up last year is still with us. We have had a lot of development signings during the window also so things are still looking good in my eyes. Feel free to use this post against me when we get relegated in April, cheers.

 

Not all our transfers work like that. Take Okaka whose club must have said something like ‘100k’ to which we promptly offered £7m.

 

I’d have asked for my 100k back under the trades description act.

 

Prefer even further past it and slower, so happy with what we have thanks.

 

Is he fast? I'm not sure he is, has put on a lot of timber since his Granada days.

 

He left the Arsenal defender in his wake before hitting the post at the Emirates so I suppose he's still got it, but I take your point on the timber.

 

Although this is admittedly based on a few YT clips, it seems that Sarr does track back and gets stuck in. Genuinely think he'd do well in this league.

 

If you believe twitter, Leicester have apparently bid €40mil for him.

 

A 33 year old CB on 75k a week? No thanks.

 

No transfer fee and a far better pedigree than what we have for 2 years? Yes please.

 

As poor as I think our defensive options are, I doubt he's any better than what we have any more.

You seem to be in a minority on this shout.

 

I don’t really care if I’m in the minority. He’s a multiple capped defender who has captained both club and country who has shown little that his ‘legs have gone’. It’s just my opinion so don’t wish to get in an endless debate about it, I just think he’s far better than what we have and is also a leader which we strongly lack.

 

I know where I’d go...

 

I expect he's better than all of our CDs today but has no resale value and at 33 will deteriorate in fitness and speed.