KaKa

7 minutes ago, Milanista said:

He'd be in a really tough position at Milan. Kalulu has emerged as a darling among Milan fans--the only way they could stomach Botman was Kalulu playing as a RB--and many were skeptical of Botman, but then Stam (who we like) talked him up, and if Maldini wants a defender, well, you put your doubts aside, right?

 

We just re-signed Florenzi, our second-choice RB, and with our new captain, local boy from our youth Calabria (new captain), Kalulu isn't going to be playing RB, but CB, so Botman would be fighting with our new wonderboy (first professional appearance in football, in his life, for Milan) plus the most popular Englishman in Italy, Tomori, and the return of an actual hero in Kjaer from his ACL surgery in November.

 

He would have had to hit the ground running, from day one, and I think that was a bad situation for him. Newcastle has ambition and your team isn't being built in a moronic way. You seem to have the best English manager, genuinely, because he seems to have way more tactical know-how than Southgate, and that guy runs England. Insane what a cup run with overwhelming talent can do for a caretaker, eh?

 

I think Chelsea are going to fall behind, they might even run into a little bit of an Arsenal/Man Utd phase, while Conte's tenure at Spurs is going to end poorly, even if he wins something, Conte burns players, executives, and fans out. I think Arteta is overrated, so I think there's a pathway to get to top four, if you up your squad quality, particularly in attack. I guess a big part of that is how will Saint Maximin handle increased expectations? Can he be more consistent? Will Calum be able to score like you need him to? I'm sure there are other areas, but I don't think the EPL is as strong as people believe, because, once you go past Liverpool and City, I think the quality drops dramatically.

 

Chelsea should be better, but Tuchel is getting a lot of leeway with his CL win. But he's done poorly with the tools at his disposal. I love how Lukaku's failure is being spun as Tuchel being handed a misfit. Yes, Lukaku is just... he's a weird guy. He really is. He's back at Inter, but he's still a massive loss for Chelsea, and Chelsea weren't bought to add to the vanity of a billionaire. They were bought to make money. Like Arsenal, like Man Utd. They don't seem to be making moves that show a massive shift in philosophy, they're looking to grab Sterling, after Tuchel has done nothing with Werner, Pulisic, Ziyech, Lukaku, and Havertz. He didn't buy most of them, but he's the one who decided against keeping Giroud. He's the one who let Tammy go. Chelsea let Tomori go, and correct me if I'm wrong: don't Chelsea need a CB?

 

I'm not predicting you'll get top 4, but I think you can challenge for it. It's probably more natural to get EL first, to let your squad handle the rigors of Europe, also help Howe, as well. But I think it's Liverpool, City, and everyone else, the gap is huge. Especially as Ten Hag has such a huge uphill battle with Man Utd. He's a good coach, but it's still the idiots who run Man Utd, their proteges, they're there still. They still don't get why they've messed up. They still are going to bank on Bruno Fernandes? It's just a mess, and if Ten Hag actually gets support, he can turn things around, but he'll need a year, because there is a lot of expensive defenders who aren't going to help him there.

 

You just need to be patient with Botman, because, unlike Bruno, Paqueta, or Trippier, he hasn't had to deal with expectations yet. He's a smart kid, but, VVD comparisons are not going to help a kid who still needs to learn his trade.

Honestly, I can't believe the mess Tuchel is making of that Chelsea squad. Think there is a potential massive disaster brewing over there. They still haven't managed to bring anyone in either.

16 minutes ago, 80 said:

Yes. On a bittersweet note, it's pretty clear he knows more about the PL than NUFC and that's his main driver, though I appreciate him being honest about that. Shows we have some work to do with re-establishing ourselves internationally and in the minds of younger players. I guess he probably wasn't potty trained when Bellamy put Feyenoord out of the Champion's League. That's a battle the owners will have to keep fighting for the next couple of years at least when it comes to winning sought after signings like this guy.

 

I mean it's to be expected man, don't think it's that big of a deal. The good thing is that with the way the club is now, he's going to love being a part of it, and that is far more important than what he knew about it previously. These are all really young guys.

With more recent success the club will become more recognisable, I mean just look at Man City. No one was joining them initially because they were enamoured by their history. 

2 minutes ago, Keegans Export said:

I'd take Sarr (18 G&A, 50 games) or Harrison (25 G&A, 71 games) on the basis that they have both been productive in poor teams in the Premier League, rather than a top team in a (in my opinion) poorer league.

 

Nobody is looking at our forwards and thinking "We need more assists"

 

Also, I'm sure you didn't mean it but that last sentence makes you sound pretty condescending.

I only asked you who, because there's not many wingers scoring double figure goals like that. Why is that condescending?

Anyway, I actually like Sarr and Harrison too, so would have no issue with either whatsoever. Not sure I'd take them over Otavio looking at their overall career numbers, as his are outstanding.

The poorer league thing too, I mean I get it, but great players come out of these leagues all the time, and so that argument sometimes is a bit over stated. We've just seen Luis Diaz come from there and look great, and we're probably going to have similar from Nunez next season. Bruno Fernandes too previously etc etc.

Great interview. The Premier League is a big pull for a lot of players man. People think not having Europe is an open and shut case, but the guy looks really chuffed to be here. Happy for him and looking forward to him doing well.

8 minutes ago, Keegans Export said:

Goals >>> assists

 

If you had two wingers, one had 12 goals & 3 assists, the other had 3 goals & 12 assists, which one is going to demand the big transfer fee?

Going all the way back to the 18/19 season, Otavio has never had less than 15 goals and assists combined in a season. That is nuts. I'd be delighted with him.

Pray tell, who is the winger doing the same, but with double digit goals that we have been linked with?

5 minutes ago, Keegans Export said:

If we need goals from RW the stats suggest he isn't the guy. Six seasons at Porto and he hasn't scored more than three in a season.

 

Sarr would be my pick, assuming the £35m is roughly accurate. He suffers because he's a known quantity, not some shiny new thing from abroad with an impressive selection of YouTube highlights videos.

Goal involvements are either goals or assists to goals. He had 15 of those last season. 17 in each of the two seasons prior. Yeah, he tends more towards creating, rather than scoring himself, but both are equally valuable in adding goals to the team.

Quote

 

Talks collapsed in January but Newcastle have now agreed to pay €31m (£26.4m) to sign Ekitike, with Reims president Jean-Pierre Caillot confirming to France Bleu that everything is now in the hands of the player.

 

"Yes [there is an offer], it is very concrete," Caillot admitted. "It's an offer which suits us very well and which, in my view, is sportingly interesting for the player and it is now up to him to make his choice, it is not for me to do so.

 

"From now on, it is his advisers who must move forward on this one. If it's not done, it's because his advisers have not yet wished to move forward with this club."

 

When asked to confirm whether he was speaking about Newcastle, Caillot chose to remain tight-lipped but admitted that the negotiations are hardly a secret at this point.

 

"We're remaining discreet but, hey, it's an English club. You know which club we're talking about."

 

Caillot continued: "[Ekitike's agents] have not yet started to move forward on the deal on which we are in agreement.

 

"It's part of their game, and there are lots of agent structures. There are big agent firms that have connections in all directions and it's often easier to work with these people than agents who only have one player. I spent enough time on the transfer of Axel Disasi, who was advised by his brother, and it was very complicated. So I hope that won't be the case with Hugo."

 

Just seen these quotes from about a month ago. The Reims president already told us what was going on. We must have all missed it back then.

1 minute ago, The Prophet said:

 

Sounds like an agent talking.

Don't think it's just agent talk, but we'll find out soon enough I guess.

5 minutes ago, SUPERTOON said:

I’d personally be shocked if we signed someone we have yet to be linked with, despite a lot of rubbish the media come out with, signings are rarely made these days without a journalist mentioning it first.

We were linked back in March. The source was A BOLA newspaper in Portugal. Article is no longer on their site though, but it's referenced in loads of articles mentioning it from March.

1 hour ago, cubaricho said:

 

3 year, 350k/wk seems pretty sensible.

Very sensible. Liverpool are in a good place nowadays. We're on our way though. 

2 minutes ago, SUPERTOON said:

He’s being very strongly linked with Villa 

He's been linked with a lot of clubs. Think they're just guessing. Prior to that it was Liverpool, until they denied it. I've put my money down on us 

47 minutes ago, Mikky said:

don’t think it’s Otavio tbh - they’ve just sold Luis Diaz, Vitanha and the guy to Arsenal 

 

Plus he’s 27 - we will be looking for a Bruno age type 

There's a lot of noise around him. Apparently his agent is in the country trying to push through a deal. My money's on him.

I think ideally they would go younger but there's not too many options at that position with a high output of goals/assists that aren't upwards of £40 million. And I think whoever we bring into the first team in that position will have a record of producing goals/assists.

51 minutes ago, Gawalls said:

Genuine question- wtf is pearl clutching?

1 hour ago, Manxst said:

35m? We won’t get Diaby for that, so i’ll say Brennan Johnson with cash left over. 

That £35 million we bid for Diaby seems very relevant after a bit of snooping around.

Apparently we have been credited with a bid of £30 million for Porto's Brazilian winger Pepe, but I think there's been a mixup, I think we have actually bid that for the Porto right winger Otavio that has continuously been linked with a move to the Premier League this year. In fact there was a very strong link with Newcastle in March of this year that said we'd move for him in the summer.

Interestingly, Fabrizio Romano confirmed a few days ago that Otavio has a release clause of £35 million pounds that lasts until July 15th and after that it goes up to £55 million. I think we're probably negotiating that release clause or trying to structure it in a beneficial way.

My money is on Otavio for that right wing spot, unless Leverkusen come in and agree to accept the same amount for Diaby.

2 hours ago, Stifler said:

Playing FM and this little cunt rejected me, would not even talk wages.

11 minutes ago, Keegans Export said:

I'm convinced either the RW, CF or CM will be a loan. Makes sense that we are waiting to see what business is done elsewhere and who may end up available that isn't currently. 

 

Agree with @The Prophet - Diaby will be playing CL football next season, at Leverkusen or elsewhere. 

Yeah, I agree. Think we'll wait for the market to develop a bit to see who becomes available and also if clubs come back willing to accept lesser fees for certain players etc.

So who are we signing on a free tomorrow then?

20 minutes ago, Tiresias said:

I thought Chelsea would win the league last season and they were rubbish so I feel I can't back them again, but yes anything short of competing for the league would be underperformance. They do need to sort out their defense.

I watched one transfer podcast, and they were saying the new owner has been very involved in player negotiations and has been trying to see if he could trade players like they do in America!

I think things could potentially go really pear shaped at Chelsea. They've lost a number of good players in the last couple of seasons and don't think they've brought anyone in this summer so far. Letting centre backs the quality of Tomori, Christensen and Rudiger go in the space of a year is crazy. All they have as far as experience back there now is Silva, and he is getting old. Upfront they have no one that will get 15 - 20 goals either, having swapped out Tammy for Lukaku, only to send Lukaku back a year later a hundred million pounds down.

2 minutes ago, toon25 said:

Bergwijn has been chronically mismanaged and underutilized at Spurs. A real shame he went there in the first place - and initially under a manager who had little time/patience for developing young players.

Yeah, I tend to agree with this. Think he has all the tools to be a really good Premier League player, but needed to go into a team that was more attack minded and where he could get a run of games. Under Pochettino he would have been really good I think.

1 hour ago, JP said:

 

Good character, works his bollocks off after Bielsa conditioning, technically gifted with either foot.

 

Ticks the boxes for Howe. Given we have the added quality of Trips at RB also, I think Harrison would be a savvy signing for us RW - anywhere in the region 10-15mill I'd be happy with that?

 

 

 

Comparable production to Raphinha in the Prem too. Very underrated player.

13 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

Any decent comps?

 

All i've seen is good penalty box finishes from crosses in a weak division. I like his size and box instincts though.

 

From the very little i've seen - i prefer Hugo. Hugo looks like he can play wide and likes a dribble.

After seeing what Jonathan David and even Emmanuel Dennis have managed coming straight out of that division after producing well there, I'm not as quick to disregard a player's achievements over there, especially when the numbers are really good. In any case the guy has decent pedigree having come through at Bayern. Just got fed up of waiting for scraps of playing time behind Lewandowski.

Anyway, my favourite thing about the guy is definitely his link up play, which translated to the 13 assists he managed last season. The comp below kind of showcases more of that. Tends to link up really well and then arrive in the box to find space and finish.

8 minutes ago, BonesJones said:

I don't think he's ever done it in the PL has he? With us or Fulham. Pretty sure his most recent season in the prem was abit shitty.

 

 

 

Scored 9 goals in his first season in the prem with us under McClaren who was rubbish. And then scored 11 with Fulham the first season they came back up with him.

Second time around with Parker at Fulham, he wasn't really played in the first team consistently with Fulham and so only managed 3.

Considering the quality of teams he's played with his record in the prem is respectable. I think next season will probably be his best though, as Marco Silva really rates him and has built the team around his strengths.

1 hour ago, McCormick said:

Not a massive fan of his. Looks slow and  lazy in the press; doesn’t really have the athletic gifts you’d expect of a young a Nigerian striker. Seems decent technically though.

I disagree. This was one of many decent performances last season. 

First goal at 0:07 presses well and runs away from the defenders to score.

Second goal at 3:15 shows really good athleticism at his size (6ft4 and 84kg) for the overhead kick.

Just now, BonesJones said:

 

When I hear Anderlecht and a striker doing well I immediately think of Mitro.

The striker that has scored for fun everywhere, including internationally, except for Mike Ashley's Newcastle?