Zaha plays on the left flank, Sarr plays on the right flank - so nope. Palace have also signed Ebiowei from Derby this window for right-wing, who will be backup for Olise and Ayew. They def don't need another right-winger. If they did sell Zaha that would leave them with only Eze though for the left wing, so Dennis might not be impossible.
That's probably true, but I'd prefer to have him in our midfield even in the Premier League than most of our current options.
Rather him than 'can only play for 30 minutes' Juraj Kucka or 'legs have completely gone' Tom Cleverley in any league, yes
Supposedly Wolves have rejected a £25mil bid from Everton for Morgan Gibbs-White - it seems bonkers anyone would bid so much and also that Wolves would reject it.
I'm not convinced by Ngakia and Hungbo. If we want a backup RWB who'll offer more in attack then Isaac Mabaya on loan from Liverpool seems a good shout. He's a unit and rapid, he'll skim Championship full-backs for fun. Decent composure on the ball as well. Maybe still a bit shaky defensively. With them having TAA and now Ramsay he seems unlikely to get first-team minutes with them so could be open to it, even if he doesn't start as first choice.
Rob Edwards said today in the Wobby: “I’d like to get one or two young, homegrown players on board in that area of the pitch [the forward line],” he said. “That may take time though, as we need a domino effect to start at other clubs in order for player movement to start.” So who might fit the criteria? Obviously not all of these would be feasible necessarily: Cameron Archer (loan) Keinan Davis (loan/buy) Adam Armstrong (loan) Elijah Adebayo Ben Brereton George Hirst (loan) Matt Stevens Folarin Balogun (loan) Jude Soonsup-Bell (loan)
I think the domino effect comment suggests we’re waiting on players who will fall down the pecking order after their clubs bring in new strikers which would point to loanees and fringe players rather than us going and putting a lot of money on the table for Brereton or Adebayo which shouldn’t really require any additional dominos to fall. Archer, Davis and Armstrong seem to fit this description best. Liam Delap will also probably be headed for a championship loan.
Probably as you say but it doesn’t really rule out us putting money on the table for a more established name as it could just mean they are waiting to see if they get a better offer before agreeing to move to us.
Yes that's a fair point. It could also apply to Soonsup-Bell as he's currently training with Chelsea's first team, but seems unlikely to remain in the squad once they've got a Lukaku replacement. Supposedly Leicester also haven't decided yet what to do with Hirst (and he's believed to have 1 year left on his contract). I've mentioned Delap on here in the past and think he would be a good signing, but left him off my latest post as supposedly Southampton are keen on bringing him on loan. Plus if he went to the Champ he'd surely end up at Burnley.
Rob Edwards worked at City too remember. Burnley would be a good fit for him too but Tommy and Callum Doyle went to Sheff Utd and Coventry respectively. I’d be very underwhelmed by Hirst.
That would certainly be the case if we didn't also manage to bring in one of the other better players as well. But Edwards said in the quote that he wants "one or two" more - so hopefully the first one is a quality player like Armstrong, Archer or Delap. That might leave the second one as being a cheap punt to come in as 4th choice/impact sub, but who also has a chance of improving; there don't seem too many possibilities about who'd perform that role but Hirst might. His aerial ability would add something different at least.
I'm predicting another underwhelming signing up front, probably Gayle even though Edwards said he wanted a young player. Then another Mogi filler for the midfield and we're good to go. COYH!
They're too cheap to go for Gayle imo. The only thing we're good for is to go down atm. If we don't get a quality midfielder in we're going to get out battled week in week out. It just looks so weak and fragile.
Now Cadden has gone to Barnsley I wouldn't mind us looking at Callum Styles. Covers a variety of positions. Central midfield and out left, big improvement on what we have and would give proper competition to Kamara at left WB. Best of all we could get rid of Sema.
I've wondered if his technique is a bit iffy at times, but seeing that he tore our defence apart yesterday I'd add Dapo Afolayan to this list as a possibility. He forced Bachmann in to the error for the first goal with his closing down, then showed excellent pace with the ball and a good finish for the second. Edwards must surely have been thinking that he demonstrated what we'd been lacking so far in pre-season? He's a local lad as well - from Harrow.
Nathan Broadhead is another possibility; had a better goals per minute than Ross Stewart when on loan at Sunderland from Everton in the second half of last season. Is definitely someone who is keen to press. Likely to return to Sunderland if Everton get rid of him, but not a certainty. Only 1 year left on his deal.
Broadhead did well at Sunderland but he’s not that young any more and is yet to play above L1. Danny Loader (former Reading youth at Porto) and Ike Ugbo (Genk) would also be decent permanent options. Neither as proven as Armstrong, but Ugbo is probably more proven than Archer (though I think the latter is much younger and on track for a superior career).
It's brilliant coming in this thread and seeing all of these young, exciting, logical players being suggested, as we completely ignore such players and continue to sign Johnny Foreigners picked at random out of a hat.
I’d be looking to see whether Brentford would be open to loaning out Josh Dasilva for the season. Failing that, Josh Onomah would be a more attainable option. Folarin Balogun? Won’t be joining Arsenal on their pre-season tour in USA. Will stay in London instead to negotiate his next loan move.
Gino's hands are tied. He had all these wonderful young British talents lined up to sign but old fuddy duddy Rob 'Rule of 11' Edwards turned up insisting on only signing players from abroad he's seen random and limited video clips of. What's an owner to do eh?
Didn't Duxbury say there were a number of young talented home grown players waiting or willing to sign once we got promoted to the Premier League first time round? Other than Hughes & Chalobah, nobody came then either.
Can’t see why they’d loan Dasilva, unfortunately. Onomah and Balogun would fit the bill but be somewhat underwhelming.
DaSilva would be excellent but I doubt Brentford would let him go. Onomah I don't know muvh about, but if he couldn't be a regular at Fulham is he likely to be an upgrade on what we have? Balogun has been mentioned and is def available, but was crap at Boro. I'd only maybe take him for additional numbers and provided we'd also brought in someone like Archer or Armstrong as well.
Ike Ugbo is an odd one, we were linked to him a few seasons ago. Seems strange he's not had a move back to the Championship - maybe he doesn't want to play in the division again? He does seem promising, but as with Bayo is another who has only really scored in Belgium and France so far. I'm not sure Porto would let Loader go just yet. He's been training with their first team so far this summer. He'll probably be hoping to progress to a point where he'd get a bigger move somewhere else, given he joined Porto from Championship Reading.
Suspect he will have PL suitors and/or clubs from overseas who seem keen on developing young British talent - but Romano is reporting that Chelsea are going to sell Levi Colwill permanently. That’s another deal we should be all over.
