Transfer Rumours transfer thread fact and fiction

As Croydon points out, that fee was supposed to be £50m last week.
We've probably got more pressing needs, either way.
We should be looking for more Alli/Dier/Trippier-style deals, which have worked well for us in the past, but some positions need immediate action.

 

So here's another wrinkle about delaying the season: what happens if a team has to play on July 1st, considering the likes of Vertonghen, Willian, Cavani, Matic, Fraser, Meunier etc etc are out of contract on June 30th?

I have to ask, as we might be lining up with a right back for a change by the end of the season...

 

Tottenham Hotspur's England striker Harry Kane, 26, is considering rejecting a move to Manchester United or Manchester City in favour of joining Juve. (Tuttosport, via Express)

 

If Kane has decided to leave I hope he goes abroad ... watching him tear it up for another premier league team would be crap. That was what made Bale and Modric leaving a lot less painful than Carrick, Keane and Berbatov.
If kane has decided to leave it'll be a real kick in the teeth to Jose and his chances of signing top players.

 

And, right on cue, today Murdoch's Hate Comic state that it's £30m that will secure him a move to Man Utd, Chelsea, Bayern or Dortmund

In contrast, we've been linked with Eberechi Eze for a few weeks and the quoted fee is consistent: £20m, which is the figure that was quoted last month and is being quoted today

And that's what we should always be doing: let other clubs squabble over one player so the process drags out and they end up having to pay a larger transfer fee, while we quietly sign a player who's under the radar not because they're not as good but because their agent is capable of completing a sentence without saying "Manchester United" - which is why we got Bergwijn done so quick and painlessly in January, or for that matter when we signed Son a few years back

 

If we sign him, I'll despair of what's happening at the club and probably not go to games until at least 2 out of him, Mourinho and Levy have left.

 

It’s difficult to tell if that’s a Jose signing or a Levy signing knowing the backgrounds of both men

so I’ll compromise and back you

let’s get rid of both

 

It's a bad signing and stinks of mediocrity.

I don't mind standing in the gutter...if we're genuinely going to look at the stars.

However, if we're going to stand there and look down the drain... I'm not paying the highest ticket prices in football to watch it.

 

Chris Smalling or Dejan Lovren

The funny thing is the Lunatic Fringe, who consistently lose their **** when we're linked to a Ligue 1/Bundesliga/Eredivisie centre back with a 74 rating on FIFA, are losing their **** because we're being linked with the exact sort of centre back they keep saying we should be signing

So we should sign a CB with Premier League experience who has won things, but not these CBs with Premier League experience who have won things?

 

I didn't mind so much when we bought Gallas. He was, at least. a class act throughout his career and a winner.

Having Aurier and Lovren in a defence with Hugo 2020 behind them...?

No thanks. I'd rather try to get Toby properly fit again. At least, once upon a time, he was a really good defender.

 

If I were to put Lovren in a priority list of CBs I’d sign, it’d go something like:

Koulibaly
Dias
Upamecano
Ake
Godfrey
Roughly 150 other CBs
DMs that can play CB
FBs that can play CB
Lovren

 

The HITC headlines trying to sell the story have been glorious

"Spurs to sign Champions League-winning defender"

Ooh, could it be Nacho? Or Marc Bartra? Or Raphael Varane? Or Jerome Boateng?

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There is more chance of us selling Kane to Arsenal than us signing Donkey Lovren...fakht

 

If the club were smart, they'd have been planting these stories so that the shoutiest part of our fanbase put a lot of time and effort into saying what they say we should sign isn't what we should actually sign

Alternatively, we could just post a Twitter poll and simply ask which Premier League centre back the fans think we should sign this summer
a.) Chris Smalling
b.) Dejan Lovren
c.) Issa Diop

The irony being the shouty ones were snarling about how we shouldn't sign Diop a couple of years ago as he's some young Ligue 1 CB with a 76 rating on FIFA (****ing hell, I actually looked up his rating on FIFA 18 to make the point...) - while, and I hate to toot my own horn here, but I was all in for signing him when he was available that summer because he was a big unit with skill and, crucially, he was already captaining Toulouse aged 20 and he could become a longtime club captain

Actually, on second thoughts...

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The Great Fullback Hunt of 2020 Latest
One day I'll work out how to make tags for individual posts...

Anyway, after starting our defensive rebuild in the summer of 2017 with the signings of Sanchez and Foyth and then completely forgetting to do anything since then, we surely need to sign some new fullbacks considering we sold Kieran Trippier last summer, Danny Rose is leaving this coming summer either on a transfer or feet first, and Serge Aurier doesn't legally qualify as a defender, so let's see what's in the air today other than a sense of despair from pub owners that they won't be receiving their St Patrick's Day bonus this year...

First of all, Thomas Meunier, who is out of contract at PSG this summer and has plenty of experience with several of our team, playing alongside Toby for Belgium and alongside Lo Celso and Lucas at PSG...and RMC Sport report that he's agreed terms to join Dortmund this summer

Okay then, let's focus on the left back spot and see what we can dig up

Ah, we're being linked with Barca left back Mark Cucurella, who has been earning plaudits this season on loan at Getafe...but Marca report that Getafe are set to make his loan permanent, meaning that either his fee will balloon like Mr Creosote after a wafer-thin mint as we fund Getafe's summer transfer business single-handed, or Barca will trigger their buy-back clause that they'll inevitably include in the deal in record time as soon as we make any overtures to Getafe

Oh ****...

 

**** That For A Lark Watch
According to Le10 Sport, Lille have placed a whopping £94m asking price on Victor Osimhen

Suddenly I feel a lot less guilty at the thought of Levying the **** out of them for Soumare...

 

Ligue 1 Wallet Rape Watch
Diario Sport report that we're interested in signing Rennes midfielder Eduardo Camavinga. You know, the same Eduardo Camavinga whose name has been doing the rounds in the vicinity of the usual suspects in Spain and Paris, and has two years on his contract so the Levying potential is minimal

A month ago I would have said no, as we'd likely get buried as soon as Barca, Los Ladrones, PSG et al whipped their wallets out - however, as values might be in flux due to COVID-19, there is a minute chance that we could possibly sneak in considering a surprisingly "affordable" fee of £45m is being bandied about...although does anyone else think this sounds uncannily like us sending a message to Lille about how there's options other than Soumare?

 

talkBALLS say we can rebuild, and all we have to do is sell Harry Kane

In other words, shut the **** up Yossarian

 

Cue the "Kane and/or Son are LEAVING!!!" Narrative in 3...2...