What do we think will be happening in the Jan 17 transfer window? Sinclair out Doucoure out Paredes out Ark out? Any one else out? Areas to strengthen? Etc. Am interested to read your thoughts..........
Doucoure, Paredes, Arlauskis and maybe Dja Djedje out Maybe 1 new foreign player to fill the void. Could be any position bar goalkeeper (unless Heurelho's injury is bad).
Would prefer to see both sent out on loan than sold given that they have not had a real chance. Seems a total waste to buy a player and never play them but perhaps that is just the way of the PL.
We need a quality player in pretty much every position. But we won't get much in January. One quality player with genuine pace and skill would be fine.
I think Gino prefers to do his business in the summer so it probably depends on where we are in the league by then & how the current crop are performing. Also the injury situation. Sinclair, Doucoure, Paredes & Arkasaurus will probably go if deals can be arranged, loans or perm.
I think we signed five players in last seasons January window (Suarez; Amrabat; Pantillimon; Doucoure and Penaranda) - all overseas players. On the basis that Parades and Arkansas will be released, not sure i can see many of the current squad we want to keep attracting fees to free up any spaces for this year. On that basis probably Fabregas and Payet will turn up
I think we should look to bring in another attack-minded winger. It'll be good to have him around if we switch to 4-3-3 from 4-4-2 as we won't have to play anyone out-of-position that way.
God, it actually gets so depressing thinking about another transfer window where we'll be linked with everyone under the sun, get a couple of people we've never heard of from some random European team who will never play for us, be loaned out for 6 months and then sold in the next transfer window, and still be wondering why we've turned down yet another £30m+ offer for Ighalo. Sinclair looked like a good prospect. Dacoure looked like a good prospect. Berguis was looking good before they ship... I... I can't even be bothered to continue...
A couple of seasons ago he looked like one of the best strikers in the country, since then though he's looked nothing like. It's hard to know if he's gone backwards or just downed-tools pushing for a move. Neither makes him a particularly attractive proposition. Worth the risk if he comes cheap maybe but I wouldn't want to see us to pay top dollar for him.
I think he would be a Charlie Austen situation, where you could get him relatively cheaply before he becomes a free agent. Either way, we need to look at some "home grown" purchases.
Agree but where's it going to come from? We signed Pereyra for a club record fee and although he clearly has quality, he hasn't settled that well in English football. Doucoure came highly-rated but is lower in the pecking order than Watson and Guedioura. Our policy since being in the Premier League has predominantly been to go for out of favour players at better teams or highly-rated prospects from lesser leagues. Neither has been particularly effective, in my view the only real "hits" since we've been promoted are Prodl, Amrabat, Britos and Capoue and even then the latter two have had tailed off recently. Janmaat and Success look like they will be hits too but a significant proportion of our signings have only played a handful of games before being binned or shoved out on loan.
Holebas & Behrami have also been good acquisitions & Zuniga looks like a useful squad member / utility player. I don't think our Prem recruitment has been too bad overall. Part of the problem as been with the head coaches just not fancying some of the players rather than them not being any good.
If Mazzarri doesn't like Doucoure, we should be picking up a quality CM that he does fancy. Perhaps a Yohan Cabaye or similar.
Fabregas is rumoured to be available on loan in the January window, now that has to be a no brainer if we can get him to sign!
Sack all non Italian players and recruit only Italians so that mazzarri doesn't have to bother learning English .
