I guess we don’t want to just buy a player for the sake of filling a gap. Done that far too often in recent seasons . Gone for quantity over quality .
I doubt Sheff Utd will be accepting any bids for their best players. They're practically promoted already so can start counting on the PL money now.
PH in his press conference today confirmed interest in both N’Diaye and Berge. Said Prem teams like Everton and Liverpool are showing interest, no bids yet. He said he doesn’t want them sold but he hasn’t had any assurances from the board that they won’t be.
Lose N’Diaye and Berge, that will severely weaken them. Without those it’s not impossible to see them lose a heck of a lot more games than what they have done. Their run in in February and March is horrendous. Take those two players out of their team and they could easily lose 8 of their next 12 games. 10 of those games are against all the top half teams. That run will define their season. I don’t think we will catch them but without those 2 players, that gives us a minimal chance, which I will take.
Can't decide if that's a bit of a sideways move or not (although I thought the same when the team in Denmark I used to work for sold a RB to them, but 18 months later he was playing for Benfica!), but at least he'll likely be playing CL/EL football which I guess will be good for him.
https://twitter.com/watfordfc/status/1619013741001019412?s=46&t=AIQ2kYRwmyv9MhI0BbN0cg Number 22! Can only assume that means we’re signing Jude Bellingham or Antonio Rudiger. Either way, Gino has done it again.
Or they decided to do a bit more digging into him, watched some videos of him actually playing, and realised he's appalling?
Probably got a video and thought it was slow motion. Then put it in actual slow motion and realised it was rewind.
So we’re expecting Hoedt and Antony. Maybe Assombalonga. Just leaves the CM, which is probably the most important one of the lot.
Andrew French saying that the CM’s under current consideration are neither homegrown, nor U-21 - and he believes that Bilic wants an experienced leader in there. Trying to think of previously linked names - or ones from Portugal. Only one that springs to mind is Arijan Ademi at Dinamo Zagreb.
I wonder if we would have been keen if we weren't already taking two loan spots up with players from Udinese.
Whether people think Chalobah is good anymore or not, he fits the bill of ‘experienced leader’ and also ticks the homegrown box that Bilic is supposedly twitchy about. Fairly certain that Lewis O’Brien had captained Huddersfield too, although at a young age. Will Hughes is unlikely I’d say - but he was pegged as captain material. Dan Barlasar - brilliant stats this season and going to Boro for peanuts. Andrew French’s comments this morning leave me worried that once again, the club is ignoring the obvious smart deals in front of their face because they want to be seen to be doing something different.
Bilic probably wanted more experience players but the club maybe are looking longer term and see him as just a short term manager as we do with all of them !
