Mikky

Added to this the reason he left Madrid was that his family wanted to come back to England 

29 minutes ago, r0cafella said:

he’s going nowhere

 

 

They have Mazraoui - Kimmich - Laimer - Pavlovic who can all play RB

11 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

The article I shared shows how it’s very difficult to have a second backup striker.  If you sign a striker with the purpose of being backup - then he’s just not good enough to play regularly. 
 

I think Isak, Wilson and Gordon as backup is as fine a 3 as you can get on a budget.  
 

With less injuries you have Barnes, Joelinton and even Willock that can move into the LW if Gordon has to play upfront. 
 

A true backup striker is like Chris Wood.   
 

 

and we need to have Isak a bit more reliable. 

Ideally you want a player in the mould of a Kudos/D Jota - quite a few have said Mbuemo which in the profile type OR if you want a pure back up, take a punt on someone like a Morgan Whittaker

15 minutes ago, huss9 said:

shouldn't have, but made me chuckle.

Damn auto-correct 

5 minutes ago, Holmesy said:

Reluctantly, i'd add Willock to that list as well. We just can't rely on him because he can't stay fit.

If we could sell him and sign a similarly dynamic player with better end product, i'd put sentiment aside and go for it.

 

Not a like for like as such but Yousuf Fofana  would be good - on a Bosnian too - similar age 

My dream scenario is Ederson AND Fofana

2 minutes ago, Pablo123 said:

He's worth £42m in today's market, give or take. 

Anything above 20 and I’d be ecstatic 

1 minute ago, Isaksbigrightfoot said:

Can’t see anyone paying £80m for Longstaff. Which is what he’s worth.

 

Anywhere close to £20m would be nice 

26 minutes ago, TRon said:

 

I agree that Howe would be against selling Longstaff, can't see it happening either because the lad would be reluctant to leave. But if we are talking about selling Bruno to free up funds then you would think if we got a half decent fee for Longstaff it would be taken out of Howe's hands.

This - great pro - sadly we have to option due to FFP - would need to be sacrificed I the summer 

18 minutes ago, Optimistic Nut said:

If it helped with FFP I wouldn't be too against it. Tino first choice LB, would still have Burn & Dummett as cover for CB and LB.

 

 

 

Best thing to help with FFP is to sell Longstaff - say we buy Ederson - he is surplus to requirements imo

8 minutes ago, Isaksbigrightfoot said:

I’m thinking more to free up the wages and Miggys fee would create the gap needed for the FFP problem

to disappear.

There’s a shed load of players that need binning in the summer 

Dummett

Hendrick

Ritchie 

Hayden

Fraser

Manquillo

Targett

(Longstaff and Wilson)

12 minutes ago, Isaksbigrightfoot said:

It’s looking more and more likely that this will happen. Can we scrape the barrel and get him over the line for 35m?

 

Do we sell someone like Lascelles Miggy Targett to fund it?

Atalanta quite often sell via a loan to buy option - very common with Italian clubs tbh

8 hours ago, Away Toon said:

The Gunners have also been handed a boost in their January pursuit of Brazil midfielder Bruno Guimaraes, 26, following reports that Newcastle are searching for his replacement. (Football London) 

Atletico Madrid and Barcelona are among at least six clubs interested in signing England midfielder Kalvin Phillips from Manchester City, with the 28-year-old's future set to be decided next week. (Telegraph - subscription required)

Newcastle United are scouring Europe for possible midfield reinforcements with a move for priority target Phillips entirely dependent on the player convincing Manchester City to lower their demands. (i news - subscription required)

The Magpies sent their head of scouting to watch Atalanta midfielder Ederson in a 5-0 win against Frosinone but the Italian club have no interest in selling the 24-year-old Brazilian in January. (TuttoMercatoWeb - in Italian)

Hilarious how Barcas name is always thrown in on any transfer

1 minute ago, Optimistic Nut said:

 

He's the player I associate with that strip.

I literally can’t remember any other occasion it was worn????

That blue kit is stunning - can only ever remember seeing it when Paul Daglish scored vs Tranmere

38 minutes ago, Sufi said:

I watch a bit of the championship when I’m bored and have nothing else to gamble on. Seen some decent young players so far this season who wouldn’t surprise me if they went on to be top level players in the next few seasons. One that comes to mind is Philogene. No clue what Villa were thinking selling him for 5m. 
 

Dewsbury hall is good. Hackney. Archie Gray. Walker peters. Many others come to mind.

 

Lots of them would be tough to pry away from their clubs for cheap (because they aren’t stupid and know they have a player with load of potential on their hands + English tax) but I think it’s a market we would be smart to at least have a look at. 

You can get Morgan Whittaker for circa £10m - no risk 3rd striker - can cover on the right - play as a 10

Better than having someone like Parkinson on the bench 

On 15/01/2024 at 14:09, Ikon said:

Not sure if he has signed a new contract yet or not. Seems to have everything but shooting quality (yet) and not expensive.  Would be perfect. 

 

 

 

Even if he did sign a new contract he won’t cost much

32 minutes ago, BeloEmre said:

Mourinho sacked.

Shocked it took this long - if you watch Roma they are truly shocking - barely string 2 passes together 

Could do with a couple of midfield loans on the basis that neither Willock or Anderson are going to be back anytime soon me thinks 

3 minutes ago, Ikon said:

Federico Redondo. 

As close to a Rodri clone there is (in terms of style - Rodri is world class)

Gambia are hopeless

4 minutes ago, Matt1892 said:

Agree about him offering us flexibility and he can play either in a midfield pairing or slip in to any of the midfield roles if we don’t change formation.

 

From the video below it looks like he would help create a lot of breakaway opportunities for the likes of Isak and Gordon with how he breaks up play and springs the counter attack.

 

 

Tonali had the best seasons of his career alongside Kessie - Fofana is sort of similar 

A flat 3 no longer works in the long term(we can still use it) - need to (or Howe needs to) evolve

What was that from Evans?

4 minutes ago, Ikon said:

Fofana is good and a physical beast. Not sure he is THAT good technically from what I’ve seen. 

I think he’d work really well in a double pivot with Tonali - the ideal profile is actually Phillips/Neves - his style is perfect for us - can be quite flexible with our players then in terms of the front 4 in a 4231 - would mean we could offload Longstaff to help with FFP

13 minutes ago, andycap said:

That doesn't sort out a tactical problem though early in the season we had joelinton bruno and Tonali and they were getting bypassed aswell. So players back won't fix it 

Said it before, we need to play with a double pivot 

2 minutes ago, andycap said:

It's a worry that not just the top teams cut us to ribbons forest done similar and bournemouth luton so teams can get at us knowing one goal will be enough to win. And with us struggling against low blocks they can see the games out. I hope he can find a solution. 

The solution is players coming back which means we are able to rotate during the game with fresh legs