Fantail Breeze

Any Chelsea players available if they get Dembele?

Just now, Magpie said:

I mean ?

You’re officially the most ITK on the forum  

1 minute ago, duo said:

Is dembele not in the mix?

Chelsea in for him.

  Hope he does his bit for the last half of the season.

1 minute ago, xLiaaamx said:

Too late to for Mavididi. It's literally Nketiah or Origi. Can't see anyone playing ball with us now. 

Origi would be ideal imo.

Definitely won’t be Nketiah.

I think this will cause us to try and go big on someone completely out of the previous thinking.

I hope so, anyway.

1 minute ago, Shearergol said:

So now Lingard isn’t happening i’m rating the window 6/10. Huge reliance on Wilson coming back quickly and finding form as well as strap-man ASM somehow staying fit.

 

I’m as nervous about relegation as I was before January, which shouldn’t be the case.

Maybe the surprise was we weren’t going to sign anyone.

Fuck. That’s a big issue.

I hope we have an alternative planned.

59 minutes ago, Yorkie said:

 

Been done to death but I just think that's so over the top. He's a dependable forward with a good goalscoring record in this division. We didn't have a striker to put on the pitch at the time we signed him. 

 

If we got him for fifteen mill no one would be saying a word against it imo. Conditioned to think we absolutely must spend the exact correct amount. 

We could have signed any tall bulky striker and got the same (or possibly better) outcome as Wood, imo.

He’s scored three goals all season, clearly on the decline and his peak wasn’t even particularly high.

I wouldn’t want him for £15m either.

7 minutes ago, HaydnNUFC said:

Assuming he's on 100k a week, that's £2.5m in wages, £3m loan fee and a £4m if we stay up. Altogether £9.5m for a player that they'd not play and will lose for free in the summer.

125k a week apparently.

Alli confirming his decision to hate football by signing for Everton. I like how the clause is after 20 games, if they get relegated they’ll never pay it.

8 minutes ago, Rich said:

 

There are just some, like you and gdm, who take any opportunity to jump on the negative news and provide an utterly banal analysis of it like "oh that's worrying", "we should have done X', "I said we'd regret this", etc. If you're just a pair of miserable fuckers, that's fair enough, but I don't think I'm incorrect here in saying you're not "unnecessarily negative".

Absolute dogshit that viewpoint like  I’m positive where there is right to be but also offer my opinion where I think we could do better. That’s generally how opinions work.

I also think people have a right to point out they might have been right after weeks of snide comments. That’s not “I told you so”, that’s “fuck off and be open to other’s opinions”. 

4 minutes ago, Rich said:

Alright, so I came into the window hoping we'd get a RB, CB(R), CB(L), LB, CM, and ST, based on the media reports and where I felt our main weaknesses were.

 

I still thought we might be able to achieve that today, but it is looking unlikely with six-and-a-half hours left to go.

 

We do look like we've done RB, CB(L), LB, CM, and ST, but we've gone from the potential high of Trippier, Botman, Digne, Guimarães, and someone like Nuñez/Zapata to Trippier, Burn, Targett, Guimarães, and Wood. (Carlos obviously didn't happen.)

 

To get our apparent first choices at RB and CM is fucking class, but it's a shame we managed to only do third/fourth/fifth choices at CB(L) and LB. I've no idea where Wood was on the list, but I'd imagine similar.

 

IF we get Lingard then that does augment our goalscoring options a fair bit, so it doesn't make the Wood deal look too bad in the context, but if he doesn't come we have fallen a little bit short of the absolute best we could have probably managed to do.

 

Still, for my own personal expectations, we really haven't done too badly at all and we have been incredibly ambitious in our approach. We haven't really been taken for mugs by anyone, we've negotiated hard and known when to walk away, but we've still strengthened the first team significantly, all without a DoF/CEO in place.

 

We're currently looking at:

Manquillo > Trippier
Schär/Lascelles > Burn
Dummett > Targett
Willock/Shelvey > Guimarães
Gayle > Wood

 

We might be able to add Fraser > Lingard to that list. All-in-all that's a pretty significant upgrade in over half the positions in the team. We'll end the window as top spenders and with the most incomings in the division, unless I'm mistaken, and once the DoF/CEO pieces are added and the infrastructure is built out further on the recruitment side the potential is mind-blowing.

 

I just don't see how anyone can be down in the dumps after this window. A little bit underwhelmed like me, sure, but ~£100M spent and five/six first-teamers brought in by a club that was 19th at the opening of the window? Three or four of them full internationals, at that.

 

We've come a long way in a matter of months and Howe does now have enough to avoid the drop, surely, especially with that win at Leeds banked. It's a fantastic time to support NUFC, so it'd be grand if people could make a bit of effort to look on the bright side more often.

I don’t see Burn as an increase on Schar/Lascelles and same re: Targett over Dummett/Manquillo/Lewis.

I think we’ve added two average players to a squad of average players. Although the benefit that they are coming in on good form rather than the loser mindset the rest of our players have.

Wood is an abysmal signing. Lingard is essential now if we are relying on Wood for the next two months.

I think the quality of Bruno and Trippier may be enough to see us over the line but I still worry about Howe and hope we start to see improvements in the team.

Overall I think we could have been better prepared and made our moves earlier and more decisively. We should have moved on from Botman and Carlos when it was clear a deal couldn’t be made.

I wonder if Ekitike may have made a different decision if he had a decision to make three weeks earlier, rather being rushed with a couple of hours to make such a life-changing decision. 

I’m not convinced by our CB/DM and striker options but hopefully it’ll be enough.

If we stay up, I’m pleased the consortium have had a January transfer window ahead of the Summer to get used to it and learn lessons, might be a good thing in the long run.

I’m pleased the owners seem to be happy to splash the cash and it’s clear the intent is there. Hopefully more lessons will be learnt and it’ll see us good in the future.

6/10 moving up to a 7 with Lingard, an 8 if we get anyone else decent in.

1 minute ago, Rich said:

You, and others, get grief for posting constant negativity from a place of very little knowledge, not just for worrying about Wood not being enough.

 

If Lingard or another forward doesn’t come, it can’t be claimed we’ve done good business up top by anyone sensible.

But those posting blinding positivity get their knowledge from an unknown fountain?

I don’t even think anyone is unnecessarily negative. People are balanced. I’m overjoyed with the Trippier and Bruno signing but disappointed with the other deals. That’s balance and taking each one on it’s merits.

We have journalists following the club providing a similar mindset, yet they’re obviously all wrong too.

That said our squad is more than good enough to stay up, if it doesn’t that’ll be a failing of Howe imo.

This deal even more important now Ekitike is off. Wouldn’t be great if this falls through too.

Disappointed by this but hoping we go in for someone else late. Origi maybe?

Worry if we’re relying on Wood to score goals.

1 minute ago, Shearergol said:

So our work today was securing Burn and loaning Targett? Slightly underwhelming seeing how the thread started this morning

 

Ahh well, at least summer will be interesting if we fluke our way to safety.

Nah, we’ve still got a surprise on the way.

23 minutes ago, Mazzy said:

Yannick Carrasco deal seems to have legs still. Has a release clause for around €60m. Us and Spurs still interested. 

If that’s the case, get that fucker paid  

No idea why Man Utd would let him go to West Ham. You’d also think they’d be happy for him to come to us and we play all of their top four rivals before end of the season.

Hope says Lingard fancies us.

Feel like we’re in the school playground.

1 minute ago, Kid Icarus said:

Tbf, if I was him at his age I'd stay where I am. Wouldn't fancy coming here to be thrown into a situation where I have to score goals or the richest club in the world gets relegated.

I think I’d move anywhere if someone is trebling (or potentially more) my salary tbh.

2 minutes ago, HaydnNUFC said:

 

Reims is near Paris isn't it? Be around a hour and a half flight?

We’ve apparently already got people in France who were trying to get the deal done, he can do the medical and formalities there.

Downie talking shit to get people TUNED IN LIVE to Sky.

1 minute ago, Haz said:

Downie saying it might be logistically impossible for him to get here by the time he decides.

Has France moved to South America?

…. It’s a huge move for a 19 year old. Not surprised he needs to think about it.

1 minute ago, SUPERTOON said:

 

All of that deciding for the three games he’ll be fit for.

1 minute ago, Yorkie said:

 

Says who? Post sources, man! 

Put it in the Botman thread, Romano.