KaKa

26 minutes ago, Ben said:

I thought Sterling was done 

14 minutes ago, SUPERTOON said:

Sterling is done isn’t it ?

Has that been announced then?

Was listening to the 90 mins transfers podcast, and they mentioned Chelsea were looking at Gnabry and Antony.

Chelsea considering both Gnabry and Antony as alternatives to Sterling and Raphinha ... wew.

Just now, SUPERTOON said:

I also feel that taking him out of the centre would leave us with another massive hole in there and we already have that currently when Shelvey plays 

Well if we sign Isak, I don't see him coming off the bench or playing out wide.

So either Joelinton will play alongside Bruno in a central midfield pairing, or he will play out wide.

Just now, Super Duper Branko Strupar said:

I've never seen Isak play outside the Euros. Could he fit in to Howe's 4411 behind Wilson, with all the chat about him dropping back and linking up?

Yes, that is his strongest position IMO. It allows him the freedom to drop off a the main striker and get on the ball and run at defenders through the middle or when he drifts into the channels. 

Just now, SUPERTOON said:

Joelinton shouldn’t be moved from the middle, he either plays there or not at all for us imo.

I know that's how you feel, but the manager disagrees. I'm just pointing out how this may play out due to Howe's own views on Joelinton.

From Howe's point of view, since he's come in Joelinton has performed at a high level, once he's been given clear instructions in a given role.

12 minutes ago, Ikon said:

Yes, but he doesn’t strengthen our 1st 11 as much as a top class RW would. If we sign Isak then I’m certain that we have more money available for other players too. Worst case quality loans. If we even go for Isak that is. 

 

Isak is good off the ball too running the channels. I like thought of that with Bruno.

 

 

 

 

The key guy in all these different scenarios is Joelinton, due to his versatility. 

If Diaby comes in then Joe will stay through the middle. If Isak comes in he will either move out wide or will drop deeper alongside Bruno in a pairing. I think this is why we are looking at either a top wide man that gets goals or a top striker that gets goals.

Bear in mind this is what Howe said about Joelinton after his double at Norwich.

Quote

With Joelinton now having played as a central midfielder, attacking midfielder, wide forward and striker under Howe, the 44-year-old revealed he is “open-minded” to the Brazilian’s position.

 

“(I’m) very opened minded,” Howe said, when asked about Joelinton’s position after the Norwich win. “I think Joe can play anywhere in those front positions and obviously as an attacking midfielder as well. I’d never say that’s his position and that’s where he’s going to stay.

 

“Today, he showed his versatility and importance of his role in the team. “He can play as a centre-forward or a second striker. He can play wide or in an eight. It’s great to have players like that. I wish I had a few more!”

 

1 minute ago, Manxst said:

Anyone remember the Arsenal fans going crazy in January because they saw a personalised number plate on a car and all thought they were signing Isak as a result? And now they’ve re-signed Nketiah, leaving Isak for us. They’re going to be very bitter if we get him….lol!

To be fair they signed Jesus, and he bagged a hat trick first time out for them, so they're pretty pleased at the minute!

3 minutes ago, Mazzy said:

 

Id agree in most circumstances. Although there would be some caveats. For example if the choice was to loan a player like Broja and get Harrison say in permanently or just to go big and get one of Diaby/Paqueta/Isaak then I think I would choose the single big ticket player in that case. 

Yeah, I think the club would too, after seeing the impact Bruno had, besides most of the other signings have been good solid team players, and so makes sense we are now looking at the higher profile targets. We got one already in midfield in Bruno, one in defence in Botman, and now we need one either up front or out wide at the top end of the pitch.

1 minute ago, gdm said:

Isak has played on the right 3 times his whole career. Why we suddenly trying to shoe horn him in there 

Yeah, I was surprised to see how little he has played out wide. Think it's far more likely he plays in behind Wilson as a second striker, which is where he's most dangerous.

2 minutes ago, gbandit said:

If I could only go for one of Diaby or Isak right now I’d definitely go for Isak 

Yeah, it would have to be Isak I think. He's such a high profile singing and has true super star potential.

As I've said before there's a chance Howe returns to his setup at Bournemouth where he has a second striker playing off a main striker like he had with King playing off Wilson. He had Joelinton pushed up and playing just off the front man when we had the ball last season a lot of the time.

If so, then Isak could potentially play off Wilson, which is his ideal position. We could then potentially see Joe play in one of the wide positions like he did at Norwich, with ASM on the other flank and another more sturdy midfielder coming in on loan to partner Bruno, or Joe could potentially drop deeper in midfield alongside Bruno, with another wideman coming in on loan.

Guess it all depends on what Howe is looking at doing with Joelinton this season coming off a great year last year, and also what our best options are on loan both out wide and in central midfield.

1 minute ago, TRon said:

£40m doesn't sound that much on 22 yr olds when you see Chelsea spending that much on a 31 yr old defender. Buy them both if they are available.

Leverkusen are apparently asking around £60 million for Diaby and it sounds like we could be looking at a similar fee for Isak, if not even more. We're never getting either for £40 million.
 

17 minutes ago, HaydnNUFC said:

Would take him, but he had just 10 goals in 41 appearances last season.

It's the only reason we'd even have a chance with him, which is why we're probably trying to jump on this now.

12 minutes ago, TRon said:

PSG must have let them know they were interested. We were their back up option if the PSG thing didn't happen. There's nothing wrong with that, just a shame because most people thought PSG interest was lukewarm. When you go for the best young talent around the world you can't expect there will be no competition.

Yeah, I just don't think there were any backhanders or anything like that.

42 minutes ago, Ankles Bennett said:

Seems to me PSG have given his agent a backhander to ensure we walked away by making completely unreasonable agent fee demands, which then clears the way for PSG to snap him up cheaply with yet another brown envelope changing hands once the transfer is complete.

They wouldn't need to do all that man. The agent and Ekitike just needed to refuse to join us or answer our calls or whatever. They did this back in January as well. They always seemingly wanted to go elsewhere.

21 minutes ago, Sean said:

I'm just a bit pissed at how much of our time him and his agent seem to have wasted. Hopefully in a year or so we can look back and think we ended up getting someone with at least as much potential.

Yeah, think their behaviour was really poor. It's okay not to want to join us, but why not just say so? Or say you wanted to see if other clubs came in first, but would then consider our offer after? Just simple courtesy.

Showing interest in him is a compliment to him and his abilities, so no idea why they would treat us so poorly. Just so unnecessary.

2 minutes ago, Hanshithispantz said:

This is what people cannot seem to grasp, not just with covid but a wide range of opinions come along with a completely unearned tinge of authority. The risks of both covid and the vaccine are obviously not fully understood and the whole thing is well beyond the scope of your average bloke in anycase.

 

You just have two large sets of people being whipped up into a frenzy by social media. 

 

If Kante is out there knocking on people's doors telling them the vaccine is a bioweapon then fair enough like, I don't think that's the case though? 

Exactly. It's so unfortunate man. Don't understand why folks get so worked up over all of this stuff. We're all going to end up dead soon enough anyway. Live your life and let others live theirs in peace.

3 minutes ago, Kimbo said:

I’d be very surprised if PSG did business with us.

It will be Dan Ashworth communicating with Luis Campos.

I doubt the owners will be in touch to tell them not to deal with us because of our owners man. They'll be taking money off us after all. Purely business.

Here's the full article on the Kalimuendo interest. It also mentions that PSG are looking at bringing in Lewandowski ... but of course they are 

https://mediafootmarseille.fr/info-newcastle-avance-sur-kalimuendo-la-pepite-du-psg/.html

7 minutes ago, leffe186 said:

I don’t think he’s obsessed

It had absolutely nothing to do with what we were talking about man. It was a weird interjection and seems kind of obsessive to me 

People need to reduce their ego over all this stuff. No one has all the answers in this lifetime we are all living. Let people make their personal choices and leave them to it. The man has done nothing illegal so let him be.

2 hours ago, junkhead said:

Kaka has a point on Cornet. It might seem like a lazy relegation clause signing at first glance but he can provide good quality depth in multiple areas for a fair price. 

 

I kept an eye on Ligue 1 in previous years so I remember Cornet since breaking through as a typical attacking winger under Bruno Genesio. He played regularly at a young age but I think most Lyon fans expected more mercurial quality from the attacking positions so he was held to a high standard that he couldn't quite lived up to. He continued to feature often on the wings of a front three under Rudy Garcia but with relatively low end product. In his last season at Lyon, Garcia switched him to LB in a 4-man defence and surprisingly Cornet made the position his own, although they didn't have any other reputable LBs at the time. I was very surprised when Dyche started playing him as a support striker right away, that was a good move for a PFM..

 

I don't think that Cornet has much potential to improve, he is one of those players who have suffered from being played all over the pitch. But he has shown that he's very adaptable and has featured heavily under some very tactically demanding managers and has always performed to a good level. This suggests strong character and professionalism. He also doesn't seem to have any fitness issues, has very good English and would see us a step up, so should be motivated to impress.

The funny thing is when you look at his career numbers, he's actually pretty much 1 in 2 for goal contributions (goal or assist) on either wing. Not too shabby at all.

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/maxwel-cornet/leistungsdatendetails/spieler/234781/plus/0?saison=&verein=&liga=&wettbewerb=&pos=&trainer_id=

2 hours ago, Hanshithispantz said:

 why does it matter?

The obsession over this stuff is so disturbing man  

1 hour ago, Coffee_Johnny said:

Errrr, I obviously did. Glad to hear you rate him, if he’s a genuine possibility. 

Hey, fair enough. Think he looks really good and would be a nice alternative since Hugo doesn't fancy it. Has already played 2 full seasons in Ligue 1 as a teenager too, with a decent goalscoring and assists record (21 goals and 6 assists) considering his age. Agree to disagree on this one.

1 hour ago, Sean said:

Well one thing seems pretty clear, PSG and our scouting teams both seem to think Ekitike has more potential than him. 

Yeah, and that's fair enough. Ekitike was clearly our number one choice, but he's not interested in joining unfortunately.

His contract is also up next summer, and so that plays into things as well. Guessing they'd rather transition to someone younger than give him a new deal. Think it's a poor decision to be honest. Guy doesn't look like he's lost any of his athleticism. Think his poorer performance was down to the whole team and Tuchel not being great last year.