Don't forget Busio who's at Venezia now and Tajon Buchanan heading to Club Brugge (who yes, is Canadian, but has spent his professional career to date in MLS). McKennie is a fuccking chump, but yeah, I'm very much in this camp as an extremely avid MLS watcher over the last 6 years - fascinating to see how they're finally starting to produce youth talent who play and seem to understand football in a similar way to their counterparts from the rest of the world, unlike the upright sprint-and-bargers of the Jordan Morris/Gyasi Zardes ilk.
Rodon definitely wants out of Spurs in January on loan or even permanently. We've usually had a fair relationship with Spurs over the years. Would lo e this Joe Worrall at Forest who I thought was excellent when up against Sarr last season. A deal with Zinc going the other way and cash might work.
Good player. 18 months left on his contract. Reckon he’d be somewhere in the £5-10m range. Strikes me as a better option for the summer but I guess Derby are all but relegated already.
What type of midfielder is he? It's pretty obvious now that Ranieri isn't very keen on Tufan so midfield is somewhere else we need to add.
I feel like the midfield still needs a defensive ball-player (eg Diawara) and a more creative option (is that Knight?). Plus Etebo’s return can’t come soon enough. Gosling and Tufan can jog on.
Well my Father in law is a massive Roma fan but so far he's heard nothing surrounding the Diawara inquiry. But he was very complimentary about him as a player. Breaks up play and normally plays it simple, can play it longer if necessary but States that they have much better passes of the ball in midfield. I thought he'd of been the ideal Jose midfielder Marshalling the defence but his face doesn't seem to fit. But we need to get it sorted fast because Mourinho is already on borrowed time in the Capital.
Is Louza that player? It seems the biggest problem with Louza now is that he is off to the AFCON soon, which obviously Diawara wouldn't solve (albeit he might be able to come back earlier than Louza). While another centre mid wouldn't go amiss, we need another CB and LB before anything really, with Louza, Sissoko, Cleverley, Kucka and Tufan, I think we've got just about enough to scrape by, whereas we certainly don't have that in the defence
Doesn't it tell you something when Ranieri puts Ngakia in midfield instead of Tufan? Wouldn't surprise me if they try and scrape the loan in January.
Hmmm, perhaps, although he wasn't exactly gushing about Louza, but now that he's been given a chance, he's doing well. I don't even know if we can scrap the loan, and unfortunately on our even more occasionally used midfielder, I highly doubt there's a club out there for whom Gosling would be a key squad member at least who could match his wages here
He’s been pretty good since he came in, but not so amazing that we should be happy for him to be the only player in the squad with that skillset. Louza +1 to be our #6s, Sissoko as the ball carrier, Cleverley + Etebo for the pressing, then a new #8/10 type. Six midfielders for 3 spots is what I’d want and I think the above would give us good balance with a few options to pick from depending on the opponent. But I do also agree that CB/LB are a more pressing concern. And if I were Pozzo/Giaretta I’d be doing whatever I could to get Henderson on loan from Utd for the rest of the season as well.
Unless we have bags of money to spend, surely CB and LB are priorities, I'd only go for a CM and a GK (preferably not of a cycling variety!) if we have any money left over
Seems like a quality player but a very different skillset playing as a full back for a team as dominant as PSG and a team like Watford.
Ah thought Derby had found a buyer but no they’re still absolutely screwed. Reckon Knight will be available for half that then. Here is an excerpt from the Athletic’s interview with Wigan’s former administrator: “I suspect things will go quiet for a month now. The next crunch will be mid-January. That’s when the money runs out, and they’ll have to start selling players. They’ll deny it, but they must have lined a few up already, because there’s no way they can complete a sale (of the club) by the end of January. They would have told us if they had a great bid, so we know they haven’t got one.”
Tom Lawrence has been mentioned today but also with a host of other clubs. Another I know very little about.
He’s been running hot this season. A player who generally hasn’t lived up to his potential and had a host of attitude issues but seems to be the main man at Derby this season and has put it a number of outstanding individual displays. Out of contract in June. Would rather have him as a backup attacking option than Sema.
This is a very valid point, but I also love the effort to find a reason we would not want a player from PSG. Good pre-emptive move for when there's four weeks of speculation, he goes to Southampton, and Leventhal reports "Watford were never interested".
He’s still crap though. Decent as a flair/big fish in a small lower Championship pond. Not PL quality.
I would be happy for this to happen. Another midfielder with potential to step up in time. If we can get him cheaply even better. But the focus has to be on the defence. Knight would be a real plus. @reids would no doubt be able to put into context who their star performers are. They have several youngsters who are doing well in difficult circumstances. Oddly they have one of the best defensive records in the division as well. Just cannot get enough wins. Max Bird, Lee Buchanan, Louie Sibley and Festy Ebosele are all worth looking at. I'm still going for Gaston Avila, David Zima, Aaron Hickey or Josh Doig and Jelle Bataille. Again @reids if you have a spare moment could you have a look at these as well. My apologies if it's an imposition. All kids but with potential going forwards.
These 2 likely lads combined well yesterday. Anyone know anything about this promising pair of forwards they look devastating. Make it happen Gino...? https://twitter.com/i/status/1467916590826115075