As mentioned elsewhere, it’s suggested he and Oliver Skipp are to be fully integrated into the first team squad next season.
Sessegnon is a pozzo style signing, so is Daniel James. Two young, promising players that have gone to bigger clubs but not made an impact. But we know with the Pozzo's that they won't want to play English transfer fees. The players we have got form English clubs have all been bargains, so will look for the same sort of player from elsewhere in Europe. I wouldn't be surprised if they go back for Grimes though
Daniel James would be good for our left-wing, but if Utd are willing to loan or sell him there'd probably be plenty of other suitors from more established PL clubs.
Have to say I'm surprised at this one - 2 goals in 27 appearances (totalling just over a thousand minutes, in fairness) for Barcelona this season in the league, 3 goals in 17 appearances and 5 in 19 for Middlesbrough in the Championship the only time he did play in England, and literally never quite managed even a 1 in 3 league strike rate, the closest being two of his four seasons at Toulouse in Ligue Un, during which he managed 11 in 36 and 11 in 34 in 15/16 and 16/17 respectively. Outside of that he's never got above 1 in 4, and his oddly impressive Champions League output this year of 3 goals and 2 assists come entirely from two games: one a 4-0 win over Dynamo Kyiv and the other a 3-0 victory against Ferencvaros. As you say, he'll be thirty by the time he'd play for us, and he's contracted until 2024, so it sounds like there's no way whatsoever the money involved would be justifiable - he'd have to be a free, and even then strangely generous in negotiating his wages and signing-on fee.
The Mkhitaryan and Smalling situations are also going to be one worth watching. Mourinho didn't have a great relationship with either at United, so both could be looking for a route out of Roma
How about Jake Cooper? I have to say this is just from watching him in our game against Millwall. He's a towering CB at 6' 6" so good in the air, what a combination with Sierralta! I believe he's captain at Millwall so a leader. Started at Reading so he's from this part of the world. What really stuck in my mind though was that he looked quick, very quick for a big guy. Am I right? I don't really know but if he is could be a good buy?
As you say, the vast majority of his appearances have come as a sub, and he's not scored in any of his sub appearances. If you just look at his starts this season he has 6 goals in his 21 starts and only 8 of those starts were as a CF (most were on the left). I'm not sure I'd give too much weight to his time at Boro - it's typically been a place where decent forwards completely flop (similar to Chelsea). He had 6 goals in 1136 minutes in 19/20 in La Liga for Leganes before Barca signed him - which is pretty much 1 goal every 2 games. They still count. He wouldn't "have to be a free" - as I said at the beginning of my post it could be worth considering as a loan-deal. From reports it seems Barca might be open to accepting loan deals for a number of their fringe players, including Braithwaite, to get them off the wage bill. He probably wouldn't be my first choice for either a CF or LW, but still think he appears a viable option who could possibly reach about 1 goal in 3 across a season from those positions.
Its all gone very quiet aside from the Young story. Either nothing is happening, or something. Which means its either going to be exciting, disappointing, or something between the two.
Ermmm... Gerard Deulofeu says "hello"! Braithwaite would likely be one of their lowest earners anyway.
We had a few years of PL money behind us before we signed Deulofeu and hadn't just been through a pandemic.
Surely he should be eating his tapas much later than this if he's going to go out until tomorrow morning, as is tradition with el Español.
Newcastle and Norwich both in for Kristoffer Ajer from Celtic, shame as I think he would be a perfect partner for Big Fran.
Joe Rodon? Was inexplicably out of favour under Mourinho yet hasn’t really returned to the fold under Mason. A really talented young CB who looked great at Swansea.
Why is it a shame as we probably have just as good a chance of signing this guy as either of those two do.
As of yet we’ve shown no sign of being interested. I know behind the scenes it could be different but thus far we haven’t seemed to have any interest.
Jack Robinson is back from injury and has always looked an excellent defender. Perhaps the bigger clubs will be more interested in the shinier new thing (Andersen at Fulham) and be hesitant over Robinson due to his serious injury, giving us an opportunity to swoop.
Ah, of course he is. I saw Jack as a defender for Shef Utd and completely mixed up surnames. Time for some coffee ASAP.
I see his contract expires on 30th June, but are Everton definitely letting him go? If so, it would probably make sense for us to go for him. He's not that amazing, but would be an upgrade on what we currently have. However, I suspect if he is a freebie, Bournemouth would probably make a move to re-sign him if they go up.
Josh King is exactly the type of player I hope we don't go for. Passed his best, questionable attitude and getting on in years (no doubt he will want fairly big wages on at least a 3 year deal).
