Transfer Talk & Suggestions

Yes Kone has made some encouraging substitute performances and only booed off twice (or was that the whole team), which will be reflected in his price

 

Frankly minutes on the pitch for any of our squad this season will only act to reduce their value. The fact that he has only been a bit part player works strongly in his favour.

 

Have to agree. ACL injuries are worrying, Chalobah was never the same after his knee injury.
I believe there is so much better available. Tengstedt who is now at Benfica had an insane spell in Norway along with Chelsea's Fofana either of those on loan would be great business.
Yes it's only Norway but especially Fofana his first touch, turning ability, speed and skill is nothing short of a joy to watch.
Have a feeling that Jens Petter Hauge will turn up even though he's gone off the boil he still has immense talent.
But the more I see of Duk at Aberdeen the more I like, direct, strong and has an incredible ability to stay on his feet when fouled.
But as you've said before we should be all over Chelsea's squad players they have some real quality players that could be picked up.

 

It looks that way but he never did himself any favours.

 

I don't know much about Tengstedt, but Fofana is too good to be loaned to the Championship - there'd be plenty of lower PL clubs willing to take him a la Broja.

 

Tell JPH he’ll be training next to Odegaard and Haaland is only 3 hours away too.

 

You're probably correct on Fofana who has everything to be a top player.
Tengstedt I've not seen to much. But my son who's still in Norway rated him and he's usually spot on. It's the Benfica connection I was taking into account.

 

Tengstedt would be good but I doubt Benfica are ready to loan us another striker prospect after Araujo’s experience here.

 

Lovely assist from Ebosele at the weekend. Great shift inside to commit the defender and open up the space for the run + pass. Didn't play much this season (423 mins) so take the numbers below with a pinch of salt but there's some encouraging signs there.

 

Would have made sense last season, but we are massively overstocked at right back. Even if we can ship out Ngakia and Gaspar, Id have thought a pair of Ferreira and Andrews is good enough enough and money / loan spots could better be used elsewhere.

 

I thought the same when I saw West Brom were prepared to let him go, but he’s still got 2 years on his contract and they signed him for £15m. Clearly they wouldn’t get that type of fee for him, but they’d still want a chunk of money I would suspect. That would rule us out I would imagine.

 

He's definitely had a poor season with injuries and such but the season before he scored goals and always looked a threat. Been worse choices made than Grant. He scored a very nice goal early on in the season when Albion should of put us to bed in the first 15 minutes.

 

Some more that I've come across that could be of interest - any chance of getting your thoughts @reids?

Vitor Carvalho - Defensive Midfielder - Gil Vicente

Francisco Geraldes - Attacking Midfielder - Estoril Praia (set to leave this Summer, has the same agent as Manga, Costa, and Ferreira, was signed by Eintracht Frankfurt several years ago but didn't work out there - lots of links so could see us going for him on a free)

Ragnar Ache - Striker - Eintracht Frankfurt (contracted to Frankfurt but on loan at Greuther Furth)

Akor Jerome Adams - Striker - Lillestrom

 

Understand the logic with Geraldes and Ache but not totally convinced by either.

Akor Adams looks like he’d be a great fit for the Dike role and Victor Carvalho looks pretty tidy. 1 year left too. Cracking suggestions.

Joao Klauss, who played for Ismael at Linz is doing really well in the MLS this season. Would be interested to see his radar. Huge striker who is good in the air, can finish well but has some technical quality too.

 

Some interesting names for sure!

Vitor Carvalho: Looks a decent enough all rounder. Has had some interesting variations in his data before this season - last season he had better defensive output but less on the creative stats (progressions, xGA, xGB etc)



Francisco Geraldes: Interesting profile - lots of dribbles, large amount of high risk balls (most of which don't come off) but basically no defensive output which will always be a major downside for a league like the Championship.



Ragnar Ache: Very interesting profile indeed, could be a good fit for the Championship.



Akor Jerome Adams: Another interesting profile, has started the 2023 season (blue - only a few games played so far this season though!) like how he played in 2022 (red). Definitely an interesting profile but without doing any checks I think we might struggle for a work permit

 

Having a player join us called Ache would be one the best moments ever!

We’d just need to pair him with another striker called Hart or something.

And it could well nicely describe the potential season ahead.

 

I'm surprised WBA are willing to let him go (maybe they have to with their financial position), I've always thought he's looked a handful when I've seen him play.

I'd be pleased if we signed him but I can't see us committing that much to one signing this summer unfortunately.

 

Didn't he also miss 3 very good chances.
I can't say I've seen much of him but he strikes me as an Andre Gray quality player. Just less lethal in the championship...

 

They have Daryl Dike, who's been much better this season for them.

If WBA need to cash in on some players no doubt they're hoping someone comes in for Grant so they can keep Dike, but Dike is more likely to be the one other clubs are willing to spend decent money on.

Ismael might be keen on being reunited with Dike as well.

 

Isn’t Dike out for 6 months? If so he won’t be available until late October?

 

Oh I'd missed that - thanks for pointing it out. So that's two severe injuries he's had this season.

"Full rupture" of his right achilles - that's a really bad injury; out for six to nine months.

 

I don’t think they’re expecting much of a fee in for Grant. They almost sent him to Swansea on loan in Jan.

Dike is a great player but regardless of current injury status would swerve; he’s had a lot of big injuries and I wonder if it’s linked to his body type and or play style.

 

Thanks for this @reids - good to see more data. I didn't know so much about Geraldes but saw the links to Manga so thought it was worth looking into.

Ache looks good - only issue is his injury history, but if available for cheap could be an interesting addition.

I like the look of Carvalho. Will be good to have solid all-rounder midfielders in Ismael's system I'm imagining.

 

Realised I should have asked in this thread to make sure your scouting thread doesn’t get derailed.

A sweeper keeper will be essential for Ismael. There’s were a few sweeper type keepers I like. One thing I’m not sure about is how much it is a function of team style as opposed to player type, and how much it can be trained to be aggressive in sweeping. Here are a few names that come up well:
Tyler Miller (DC United) (not sure if MLS keepers can make the step up at 30 and limited shot stopper).
Brad Collins (Barnsley) (incredible at sweeping but maybe limited in other respects)
Manuel Rieman (Bochum) (outstanding sweeper but old. Don’t know if he’d come)
Andrew Ventura (Gil Vicente) (young good all rounder but not as extreme a sweeper as the others).
Matija Sarkic (Wolves) (would be a smart and low risk pickup. Don’t know how much Wolves would ask for a perm deal. Probably my pick)

Seems like Trafford was very very good last season. Didn’t realise he was so sweepy.

 

He used to be an outfield player before becoming a keeper! So he’s had some practice.

 

Considering Ismael likes his forwards to press high up the pitch to win the ball, and how light we are in attacking areas, I started looking at attacking players with good ball-winning stats who might be available, and one player from the Championship seemed very intriguing - Morgan Rogers, 20 year-old who was on loan at Blackpool from Man City in the second half of the season.

Plays mainly as a CF but can also play as well on the wings. Seen Blackpool fans compare him to a young Ollie Watkins. Works his socks off. Have a look at those defensive stats below, also quite creative and good at progressing the ball.

Not so much in the way of goal-scoring, albeit Blackpool don't score many and he managed to score a very tidy goal in the last game of the season which demonstrates he can do it and has perhaps turned a corner.

One other thing - only one year left on his deal at Man City so won't cost much.





Here's his goal vs Norwich last game of the season, right at the start of the vid:



He also gets an assist from hassling the keeper at 1:25 here:

 

Believe I saw him in the playoffs matches for Lincoln a while back. Was young and raw but definitely had something about him. Noticed he was also at Bournemouth but can't recall him playing there.

 

He mostly made appearances off the bench for Bournemouth last season, he'd only just turned 19 though and obviously Bournemouth were a tough team to break in to.

6 goals in 26 games as an 18 year-old for Lincoln in League One. Not as good as Leaburn, but also not too shabby. Seems to be as much a second striker, or attacking winger, eg Joao Pedro, as a target man. Whereas Leaburn is an out and out no. 9. Leaburn doesn't really do anything in the way of pressing and ball-winning though, which seems quite important for Ismael.

 

It can be coached into him though. I just like the look of Leaburn and reckon he will be a top player.
But Rogers would be an interesting option especially when he's down to his final year.

 

I entirely agree on Leaburn's potential, I did suggest him on this board earlier, but Ismael does specify he wants "a hard-working mentality on the pitch" and I'm not sure there were any more hard-working attacking players in the Champ last season than Rogers, which is very impressive given his age.

I'd happily sign the pair of them mind. Rogers can also play in both wide forward positions.

 

Good to hear that according to Ismael we're trying to move as quickly as possible in the market before other clubs have their 5hit together.