Transfer Rumours transfer thread fact and fiction

Makes you realise how much of squad management is handling timings, and how important it is to have someone like a DoF to have oversight of that in the squad and when it comes to the wider universe of transfer targets. Hopefully the club is learning from past mistakes when we had too many average players on long contracts and couldn’t shift them.

 

For the first time in a while too I have complete faith in manager and DoF to target the right players in the summer.

I think Paratici has done brilliant so far, he has 3 massive hits (the three Juve alumni), two huge prospects that I have high hopes for (Gil and Sarr) and only two misses and it has to be said the two misses aren’t terrible either, certainly not on the Ndombele/ Lo Celso levels of **** anyway.

As for Conte, whilst I’m not at Poch 2017 levels of excitement (and understandably so), I’m very happy with the direction we’re going in for the first time in about 4 years and just hope the club does provide him and Paratici with the right backing.

 

To think we were inches away from signing Adama Traore instead of Dejan Kulusevski.

Let that sink in.

 

I’m gonna just cling on to the idea that it could’ve been both as Traore was targeted to be a RWB and not a RW I think.

It sends shivers to think otherwise!

 

I’m not quite as bullish on Paratici. While Bentancur and Kulu look to be proper signings, and of course Romero is a serious player, I’m a bit concerned that the sum total of our January activity was to go back to Juve, though admittedly for two good players who have been central to transforming our season. Yes we’ve ended up with a good result there and I know we were linked earlier in the season, but just like on the pitch it’s about the process as much as the result.

Basically I still think we lack a bit of joined-up thinking but if we can head into the summer with CL secured and thus reasonably assured of Conte and Kane’s futures, then I have more confidence that we’ll be able to plan properly and be proactive over reactive.

No doubts about Conte though. He’s mustard. We should be doing everything in our power to give him what he wants over the summer. What he has done with this group is what an elite coach really looks like. Not just the training and improvement of players but picking them up from the mental stupor they must have been in too, all while scrapping for points.

 

My main concern about Paratici thus far is how he spent last summer trying to cozy up to Jorge Mendes, with Nuno's hiring and last summer's pursuit of Traore both being reported as moves to try and get a discount on future business

While there's no denying that Wolves have done very well from effectively turning themselves into a shop window for Mendes clients, much as Porto and Valencia had done previously, it's always dangerous when any club identifies one agent as the means to their fortunes transforming, as also demonstrated a few years back when Man Utd made themselves Raiola's lapdog for a summer

 

Yeah that’s a concern too. It may be that the whole Nuno thing was making the best of a bad situation - we knew we were kinda out of options so why not try and at least get some leverage further down the line with an influential individual. I hope it’s not a symptom of a desire for wider alignment, as you say. I don’t think it’s a method that works for long-term success.

 

The summer business was all over the place...in keeping with everything at the club at that time. Now, Paratici's buying players for a coach who has seen what the current squad can and can't do, knows what he wants and needs...and what he doesn't. I have faith that he'll continue on from January's good work.

Finally, we have the right people and structures in place. It just comes down to the finance being there...

 

The interesting thing with Laimer is he plays as CM, DM and RWB for both Monster Energy Dusseldorf and Austria

And not just as a starting position: if you want 'Nam flashbacks watch when we were hitting it long and defending against them a couple of seasons ago, he was switching between CM and RWB depending on who had possession

 

Yeah hopefully we’re getting our ducks in a row now and it’ll be night and day compared to last summer. That’s why it’s so important to deliver on the pitch the remainder of the season so we’re in a position to give Conte and Paratici the platform to shape the squad. CL football will help bolster the finances too but the main impact will be leverage with Kane and attracting players.

 

I think there’s two ways of looking at January and I’m probably on the flip side to the way you view it.

Whilst on one hand it does look basic and lazy returning to his former club late in the window to get a couple players.

The other way I view it is that he went to a place he knows well, got two players he knows well and two players who presumably Conte wanted too for his brand of football. The fact we also went to a bigger club and better side than us and took two of their players is also a plus point for me. Whilst Kulusevski was definitely a fringe player, Bentancur had been a fairly regular starter for them over the last four or so years and I don’t think Juve initially planned on selling him, as it looked like Arthur was surplus but the Arsenal deal fell through and we then offered cash for Bentancur which they accepted due to their financial need.

The biggest negative of Paratici for me was the managerial hunt in the summer. Nuno was an awful appointment and just about everyone knew it. I also maintain - and whether this was Paratici or Levy’s fault - that Conte would’ve joined in the summer had we offered him the right money and assurances, despite the fact he said he didn’t feel right to make the move so soon after leaving Inter.

Keeping Conte and Kane is pivotal to any plans we have, I do personally fear Kane will want out again and it’ll then be down to our resolve (again) to resist any offers. He doesn’t strike me as a money grabber but if the club were to try and entice him to stay with a monster deal that’d make him one of the best paid players in Europe I’d fully support it, he’s worth it and some.

 

Conte tried to sign Kulusevski at Inter, so it wasn't as random as some people assumed the deal was

In terms of Nuno, honestly I feel sorry for the guy because he was doomed from the start and it was always going to be a matter of time before things fell apart, although that process sped up due to a combination of dumping a functional if unexciting system to one with gaping holes in it when he introduced Ndombele to it (which I'm sure was due to pressure from above), although he didn't help matter with the way he binned off Joe Hart which does appear to have been the start of him losing both the dressing room and Paratici

 

Kane is going to be a very interesting one. I think he’ll stay if Conte does and especially if we get CL. He knows that he could have one last hurrah at Spurs then we pretty much would have to let him go if he didn’t sign a new contract. Plus being in a comfortable environment with a top coach will be good prep for the World Cup.

His window for the big move has rapidly diminished since last summer though. Haaland and Mbappe will be on the market this summer barring any major changes. I just don’t know where Kane goes if City don’t get him. He’s not getting any younger after all. Barring a move abroad:

• Chelsea and Arsenal are out of the picture for any number of reasons
• Man U and Newcastle could probably afford him but are both as far away from winning anything as we are at this moment in time
• He’d be a scary player at Liverpool with the players around him, but I’m not sure Klopp would want a player who can’t press like 5 years ago, and he doesn’t fit their recruitment profile anyway
• City would be the obvious and pretty much only choice but they might get Haaland or even be tempted to rescue Messi from his PSG misery instead. And they might not fancy tangling with Levy again unless Kane will be more aggressive in trying to leave

All in all I’m just not sure what he does. Yes he wants silverware and that’s a fair desire for a player of his quality. No matter the individual accolades he wins, the records he breaks, or any success with England, I’m sure he’d regret finishing with no club silverware. But Kane is also the type to want to win something significant, you feel. If he goes to City or Newcastle in his early 30s after, say, another season at Spurs next year, and wins some trophies, his real legacy will always be his exploits at Spurs and with England. The trophy will be the cherry on top of course and I don’t doubt he’s desperate to win one but the far more significant achievement would be a trophy with Spurs. I think Harry knows that and wants that, but the real and valid question is when that’s going to happen, and if it happens during his career.

Again, that’s why Conte, with his record, is so important.

 

I think with Kane it is simply trophies. He has everything else on his CV really; individual accolades coming out of his ears, established superstar, captain of his country, arguably best player in the Prem amongst other things but with no trophies on a player of his calibre’s CV it’s pretty unheard of in the game and I think he wants that to change and realistically I can’t blame him.

Even with potential CL and Conte staying I still think he might fancy a move if the right club to offer him those trophy needs arise. Whether it be City if they don’t get Haaland or an elite team abroad - Bayern to play alongside/ replace Lewandowski? PSG to replace Mbappe? Barca or Juve despite seemingly being skint will always find a way to get funds too.

I do agree though that his window for leaving seems to have closed a little thanks to situations with other players but I can’t help fearing something could still arise for him somewhere.

 

I haven’t even considered abroad. He just seems a bit of a homebody. And he might look at Bale’s experience and be a bit turned off the idea of Madrid or Barca, which can be a bit of a circus. Same with PSG though. He doesn’t seem the type to buy into all that Galacticos nonsense and hype, though you never know.

Ultimately you’re right, he wants trophies and while ideally I think Kane wants that trophy to be significant (like winning something for the first time in ages at Spurs), what we saw last summer were the actions of a player who knows time is running out for him to play a big part in any team, let alone Spurs, winning a trophy.

I do wonder if he decides to stick it out for one more year with Conte, get through the WC, then make a more painless move for an easier fee the next summer though. Could be wistful thinking on my part though.

 

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Rumours from South American journos today that Villarreal want to make GLC’s loan permanent. I don’t think they have a clause in the loan deal so it would need to be a separate negotiation. Be great to get that sorted though, if possible.

 

Would happily take £15m and just be shot of him. Likewise Fatboy over in Lyon.

 

Gio only has 2 years left on his contract too so honestly I’d take the money and run. I doubt we’ll get close to Tanguy’s reported €65m option that’s part of his loan deal to Lyon but assuming he’s also probably got 2/3 years left I’d honestly just take what we can get, if the manager doesn’t want him. Or look to find another season loan with a lower, more realistic option.

Either way I expect Gio to go, I’d be terrified of loaning him out again for a shop window and him just breaking after the WC.