KaKa

1 minute ago, 1964 said:

I'm afraid we are currently highly political, you can't  keep it out of anything

It's so hard to stomach man. Makes me sick.

Can't wait to start piling on Gueye because he's not comfortable wearing the shirt due to his religious beliefs.

These same people will be out and about the next day calling people 'gay', 'fag', 'poof' or whatever else as an insult.

Fucking insufferable the lot of it.

20 hours ago, Mike said:

 

20 hours ago, Mike said:

 

Bet you they all applauded the kneeling before the game though! 

What a fucking shit show man. So sick of all the fake bullshit.

21 hours ago, joeyt said:

 

Grim

I'm pretty sure Idrissa Gueye is not going around decking gay people for thrills.

They should keep all of this political nonsense out of the game. It's all fake and no one really gives a shit about anyone.

We've been running countless bullshit anti racism campaigns for God knows how long now, and fans are still openly throwing racial slurs at players and folks in the stands. Fuck off with the lot of it.

24 minutes ago, arnonel said:

They seem to be producing mental talent.

 

They still have Rayan Cherki, Malo Gusto, Castello Lukeba, Maxence Caqueret and just signed Tete too

 

Great academy/scouting

My God ... they should be finishing second to PSG without any palava, and in actually should be the one team that pushes them at the minute.

Instead they are sat in 8th place!!!

How useless is the Lyon coach exactly.

They started last season with Bruno, Pacqueta, Aouar, Dembele all in the team ... why are they not managing a top 5 place in France even with Bruno having left?!

Apparently another striker that is on our list is one of my favourite current Super Eagles that finally had a break out season in Germany, getting Union Berlin into Europe. Ex Liverpool striker Taiwo Awoniyi, wo never made an appearance for them as he didn't meet work permit requirements when he was younger.

He has drawn comparisons to Super Eagle legend Rashidi Yekini, but also reminds me a bit of Premier League legend Aiyegbeni Yakubu. He's really powerful and is a modern striker with a really well rounded game. Fantastic character and incredible work ethic and dedication to his game.

https://www.bundesliga.com/en/bundesliga/news/who-is-taiwo-awoniyi-ex-liverpool-striker-union-berlin-nigeria-19470

4 hours ago, SAK said:

Don’t know if the journo is reliable or not.

Very interesting. Had a heck of a first season in the Bundesliga last season, before being injured for the beginning of this one but then coming back strong. Not just a big lump at all, surprisingly agile, mobile and technically gifted albeit still good in the air.

Going into the last year of his contract from this summer too, and Howe did say we would be looking for players in that situation, as well as decent release clauses and quality free agents. Funnily enough we were linked with this guy a fair bit last summer but the story was MA wasn't willing to put up any money, so I believe Nickson thinks highly of him.

1 minute ago, Geogaddi said:

Right so we need Leeds to beat Brentford and Burnley to beat us , then Everton to draw v palace and lose to arsenal then they down , not that unrealistic really .

Burnley to beat Villa on Thursday and lose to us next Sunday.

Everton to lose to both Palace on Thursday and Arsenal next Sunday.

Leeds to beat Brentford next Sunday.

Everton go down ...

If Leeds beat Brentford next weekend Everton ae down IMO.

That ball by TAA was ridiculous, but the move was started off by Alisson playing a similar long one out of his box with the outside of his foot too! Outrageous stuff.

1 hour ago, Whitley mag said:

Do you rate Scamacca and think he’d cut it in the PL ?

Haven't seen a lot of him, but I do like what I have seen, yeah. He's a big striker at 6 foot 5, but he's mobile and moves around the pitch and is more of a technical player with really nice touches and link up play. 

This is a decent write up on him:- https://www.scoutedftbl.com/best-young-football-players/gianluca-scamacca/

46 minutes ago, ponsaelius said:

That's how a lot of big deals in Italy are done these days - and is a well trodden path specifically with Sassuolo selling to big Italian clubs (Locatelli to Juve, Politano to Inter off the top of my head). So I certainly wouldn't think it means anything relating to us. If anything it points more to Scamacca going to one of the big 3 in Italy. If they do sell him abroad they're more likely to push for money upfront (since it is there to be had).

 

In terms of the player himself I honestly think he's likely to flop abroad. This season is his first real breakthrough season (despite being a regular scorer at youth level). He's got loads of good attributes and scores some absolutely spectacular goals but is still very raw and has games where he might as well not be on the pitch. Also has a bit of personal baggage with his family life that seems to follow him around. I suppose it might actually be good for him to leave Italy in that sense though.

 

He's definitely just breaking through now, from a goal scoring point of view in the top league, and is for sure an emerging talent, but he's been highly thought of from his youth. And to be fair to him, he has mostly been with lesser teams previously and so hasn't perhaps had as many chances created for him. Only just turned 23 this year. Think these are the types of players we will be looking at.

Interestingly the CEO at Sassuolo said the following regarding a transfer for him:

“Inter have already informed us about their interest, but keep an eye abroad,” said Carnevali as relayed by Football Italia.

“Gianluca has received many offers from the Premier League.”

1 hour ago, Abacus said:

 

In this case, if there is basically an obligation to buy then maybe it wouldn't make much difference to Reims. It would be a sale in all but name.

 

It might be unrelated, but I read an article recently that Newcastle would be trying lots of inventive ways to stretch FFP. 

 

And another brief reference in the Times saying that one club (unnamed) would be backloading deals. I.e., relatively low up front sales, but loaded with incentives so that the fee was likely to increase retrospectively in future years of the contract.

 

The idea being that, in future years with a higher profile and more successful team, other revenues would have increased to offset it and therefore mean that FFP wasn't an issue.

 

The article didn't say that it was us doing that, but in a way it doesn't matter. Because, completely speculating here, I could definitely see us doing that.

 

It might be a risk for some clubs to gamble on that kind of growth, but with PIF's backing you'd have to think that growing our name and commercial income is very much part of their medium and long term plans.

 

Long and short of it is that things like this kind of loan deal would fit with that kind of strategy. [Speculation ends.]

Good post. I read in The Athletic that we would indeed be looking to structure deals this way, as well as spreading payments out also. As a matter of fact they said the payment for Bruno is spread across his contract and actually works out to us making 5 payments of £8 million per year.

The structure of the deal for Ekitike is particularly interesting i.e. loan with an obligation to buy. Particularly because Scamacca who we have also been linked with as a more senior striker to bring in recently extended his contract with the following reason being mentioned by Fabrizio Romano: 

“Yes, yes, he will leave Sassuolo.

“He extended the contract a few days ago but he will leave Sassuolo.

“It was an extension to allow a potential loan with obligation to buy clause.”

Scamacca's fee has been stated to be £34 million this summer. 

Scamacca is looking like a very strong possibility based on that info. The fee is much more realistic compared to the prices being quoted for Nunez, and is right around what we paid for Bruno, and Sassuolo are willing to structure the deal with a loan and obligation to buy clause better suiting FFP requirements.

Would not be at all surprised if we end up signing him now.

Think there is a very strong chance the following two players will come in early on a free.

Jason Denayer and Florian Grillitsch. 

Seen the discussion earlier regarding Tarkowski on a free. Don't think he uses the ball well enough for a Eddie Howe team.

A defender on a free that is far better suited is the guy from Lyon that was at Sunderland when he was young, but who has developed really well since then Jason Denayer.

We were linked with him as well in January, and I wouldn't be surprised if we have that deal sewn up already.

A striker that doesn't get remembered as often when his generation is being discussed that was an absolute terror in his prime is Christian Vieri. Lethal striker in his day.

3 minutes ago, STM said:

Great shout. An absolute unbelievable player.

 

What a generation that was. Would be the best player in the world right now but back then there was Zidane etc.

Yeah, there were so many quality players back then I agree. Always thought he was class though, had such a unique style of play, and on his day was a real showman. Loved him back in the day.

Have to mention Rivaldo. I feel like he's often completely forgotten about. Tall, classy, elegant player with great skill and a powerful left foot. 

2 minutes ago, SUPERTOON said:

I’d rather go for him than DCL

Oh yeah, for sure. I find the DCL link a bit worrying tbh. He would cost at least £50 million, and I could just see it going wrong and him not doing that well for some reason. For that kind of money I think we could get a bigger talent on the continent.

11 minutes ago, SUPERTOON said:

Didn’t they want 70 plus million in January ?

That's his release clause, and they weren't really looking to lose him half way through the season, and so I think they were insisting on the clause being met at the time.

He ended up not having as good a season goal scoring wise, and apparently is looking to move on this summer. I think Sociedad played a diamond formation last season that didn't quite work out to well for him.

It's kind of led to a lot more hype around Nunez who is attracting a lot more interest now due to his scoring record this season. I just wonder if we might be able to sneak in and do a deal for Isak.

17 minutes ago, Kanji said:

He was red hot beginning of season and then got hurt, no? 

No, don't think he's been hurt. He's played 40 games this season.

Interest has seemingly cooled a bit on Aleksander Isak due to not scoring quite as many goals this season.

We were said to really like him towards the end of last year. I wonder if we might look to capitalise on other clubs maybe moving slower for him now.

Think he'd be an ideal signing as a second/deeper striker, similar to how Josh King was playing off Wilson, if Howe is looking to return to his Bournemouth 4-4-2.

Wonder if a bid in the £40 million range does the trick.

Just now, andyc35i said:

He speaks very well and is also saying the things that we want to hear about the type of signings we will aim for - but I guess he’s just like every other journalist speculating 

Yeah, I guess we'll see. I do think we will be largely aiming for talents similar to Bruno like he said. So players that the bigger clubs have looked at but are maybe not quite 100% certain on, and whose value is still relatively reasonable for their ability.