I feel that would be a bit much. I like competitiveness in the side but adding 3 new forwards in the mix could send the wrong message to the players we already have in the team.
The Cunha one I really don’t like. Now that Tite is fired, Cunha is back in the mix for the NT. I don’t want any potential conflicts there where they not only both fight for a position at Arsenal but they both fight for the same spot in the national team.
It’s squad depth. Something we don’t have. You’ve seen how much everyone is panicking now that Jesus is out. Imagine if Saka or Martinelli get crocked as well (touchwood they don’t) I’d rather the peace of mind.
Not sure how I feel about the part of the Ornstein piece that said nothing was happening with Danilo.
There will be a decision on another bail extension for Partey sometime in January, maybe the club are waiting to see what happens there.
Some really good 6/8 type players in a bracket above Danilo - Rice, Enzo Fernandez - are likely to be available next summer. I’m not sure we can really compete for those players. Although if we win the league or finish a strong second you never know.
Can’t see why we’d no longer be in for him. From a timing perspective it works best for everyone, they’re keen and we were keen in the summer.
Add to that Partey question marks in January and the panic when he did get injured, with the proof Lokonga isn’t the man to fill his place, only shows we need him more.
Has to either be lack of funds now Jesus got injured or they’ve identified someone they prefer.
Would worry if we go through another window without adding a backup.
Unless everything goes bang, we should have a strong second half of the season as well I feel.
Doesn’t necessarily mean we win the league but we should be finishing with 80+ points which would be a great improvement on last season. I hope that also comes with a deep run in EL as well, hopefully a win too as we should be considered the favourites in that competition alongside Barca/Man Utd.
Looking at our squad, we’ve pretty much reached a state where we don’t need a whole rebuild every year.
Our core is there, majority of our players are still young and will continue developing, and so is our manager. It would be a very attracting proposition to join us for any player out there.
We should be in position where the we can make one or two key moves every year, alongside the small investments here and there on young talent.
Rice is entering the last year of his contract. It’s now or never for him. I don’t think running his contract down is an option as staying at West Ham is already hampering his progress imo.
Yup, completely agree that we’re in a very good spot going forward in terms of squad building and that we doing well on the field makes us a more attractive proposition.
For a player like Rice I just don’t know whether we’ll compete on wages. We look likely to have a salary structure where the top earners are in the 200-250k per week bracket, with Jesus, Partey, and hopefully Saka/Martinelli/Saliba all in that range. If Chelsea or United offer Rice 300-350k per week I don’t think we’ll match that and I wouldn’t expect him to take a substantially lower offer from us just because we have a more exciting project.
I’ve come to terms with the fact that HE is never going to join us, so let’s rethink the wishlist.
January
In: Mudryk (50m), Felix (loan). 60m
Summer
In: Ndicka (free), Norton Cuffy (loan returnee), Ricardo Rodriguez (hear me out! Cheap, technical and experienced), Danilo (25m),MacAllister(55m),Felix (65m). 160m
Out: Holding (15m), Soares (2m), Tavares (15m),Tierney (reluctantly 35m),Lokonga (20m), Patino (loan), AMN (10m),Nelson (free), Pepe (15m),Balogun (Prem loan). 110m
I wonder if Chelsea will be open to selling Levi Colwill next summer after signing Badiashile.
Good player but with Fofana, new French kid and Chabolah, they seem pretty set for the future. It would be crazy for them to sell him but this is Chelsea who make a lot of poor transfer decisions.
I mean they lost Tomori, Rudiger and Christensen for next to nothing.
On an unrelated note, I hope we raid Barca in the summer. They’re going to need to sell and DeJong and Araujo deserve to be part of a progressive young, ambitious team instead of being with bankrupt, Barca bastards.
Add Mudryk now, Balogun and Patino back in the summer and our squad really starts to take shape.
Assuming we get Mudryk, I’d really like to see us address either DM or backup LCB this window as well if the right player is available. Covering at least one of those spots would make me feel a lot better about the congested spring schedule.
The ideal would be bringing in a DM/CM who could provide better cover for Partey at the 6 while also being capable of playing in the Xhaka role, essentially what Gundogan does for City. A dream scenario would be getting Bennacer from Milan and either loaning or selling them Sambi to cover his position. They are still trying to tie Bennacer down to a new deal and have had interest in Sambi in the past, it would have a certain logic for all parties. But swap deals just have too many moving parts to really be a thing.
I’m happy that we landed Zinchenko but Martinez really would have been a smart signing as he can play lcb, lb and in the six.
Would be an unreal swap deal and one that would certainly favour us! Maybe Sambi would suit Serie A too, but I would be down on that.
I wonder why our interest has seemingly cooled on Danilo from Palmeiras too? I think the overall positive note for this is that we have been ‘linked’ with moves for that specific role (Bennacer/Fofana/Danilo) that from an outsider’s POV, at least is an inkling that we have an eye on it.
Same goes for the L8/Xhaka role. Tielemens heavily linked, with SMS a possibility too.
Either way, getting some midfielders in would certainly be the next priority IMO.
Mitoma
We should just buy Brighton. Dunk, Caicedo, Mac Allister, Trossard and Mitoma could all do a very good job here.
250mil
He’s a relatively late bloomer, currently 25 years olkd and before Brighton signed him in 2021 he had spent his whole career in Japan and only made his NT debut in 2021 too.
Really like him every time I’ve seen him.
Don’t forget Zaha
Remember those Yeremy Pino rumors? Wonder if there was any truth to them and/or if we’d go back in.
Wow almost as old as giroud when he broke through 