NUFC Transfer Rumours

[Funtime Frankie]

1 minute ago, Mazzy said:

 

Need 6 midfielders as an absolute minimum. No way Miley goes anywhere, so like you say if Longstaff or Willock leave then we'll need another in. 

 

One of Chelsea's many loan players, Chukwuemeka would be a decent signing. Would suit out style and system well.

I think we will be in for Angel Gomes as a free if we get rid of either Longstaff or Willock.

 

Gomes can play both DM and CM and has the skill set to thrive in our team.

 

If he is unsuccessful we will find suitors to buy him such as Kelly.

[TRon]

13 hours ago, janpawel said:

Just can't see us spending £40m on a second striker, while we have Osula on the books too 

 

Happy to be wrong though. I guess if we did do this, then our PSR position is stronger than I thought 

 

Reckon Isak would love playing off someone like Delap on the rare chance we played with 2 strikers + got Delap 

 

If we spent that much on a second striker, I'd be worried we were gearing up for an Isak sale tbh.

[SUPERTOON]

6 minutes ago, Funtime Frankie said:

I think we will be in for Angel Gomes as a free if we get rid of either Longstaff or Willock.

 

Gomes can play both DM and CM and has the skill set to thrive in our team.

 

If he is unsuccessful we will find suitors to buy him such as Kelly.

Not sure he’s physical enough for a Howe midfield.

[Pablo123]

1 minute ago, TRon said:

 

If we spent that much on a second striker, I'd be worried we were gearing up for an Isak sale tbh.

Only thing we're gearing up for is CL football and an assault on the PL next season. COME ONNNNNN!

[Sibierski]

3 minutes ago, TRon said:

 

If we spent that much on a second striker, I'd be worried we were gearing up for an Isak sale tbh.

Delap can play on the wings too. As much chance it’s with Barnes moving on IMO. 
 

Can rotate with Isak up top, can play with Isak up top, can fill in LW for resting Gordon if required. Many upsides to getting value, whilst we’ve probably got ours out of Barnes and he’s only ever going to be 2nd fiddle at LW. Opportunity to cash in this summer.

[Kimbo]

3 hours ago, r0cafella said:

I don't see us having the excess budget to pay 40m for a rotational striker this window personally. Right centre back and RW have to be the priority. 

GK would come before striker as well. £40m on a striker just isn’t going to happen unless Isak goes. I agree with those saying it will be Calvert-Lewin.

[r0cafella]

4 minutes ago, Kimbo said:

GK would come before striker as well. £40m on a striker just isn’t going to happen unless Isak goes. I agree with those saying it will be Calvert-Lewin.

Somehow I forgot about our goal keeping issues :lol; I don't think we fill all of our holes this summer (I don't anticipate we lose any starters this summer) 

[mattypnufc]

Paid 40m for a rotational/cover LW'er  - just 'saying 

[ponsaelius]

For me Delap would basically be a luxury signing for the price given other positions we need to fill. I also personally doubt we could convince him to sign over other options he will have when Isak is in front of him - unless there is a guarantee we sell Isak after a year. 

 

I can't see how we sign him and also fill GK/RW/RCB with the requisite quality. 

 

That said I think he'd be a great buy in isolation if we did make that move.

[PRL]

I think the talk of CM underestimates Miley’s potential. If we were signing someone of his calibre we would be looking £40-50m+ judging by some of the fees bandied around for other midfielders with big potential. The idea of loaning him or signing a more established midfielder to push him down pecking order would be an error in my view. He really influenced during some of his limited game time this year and needs to develop in our system, with our squad and Howe managing. Really hope we allow that in Europe and cups next year. 

[The College Dropout]

44 minutes ago, Funtime Frankie said:

Remember we didn't see a lot of Hall when he first joined. Howe likes to ensure that these youngsters are both physically and tactically tip top before he unleashes regular minutes.

 

I think with a good preseason under him Osula may even start a few games next season if we don't buy a Wilson replacement 

Hall is a different level of prospect to Osula. Hall cost 2x at a position that is generally cheaper than strikers. Hall was given a couple of starting opportunities in big games (Dortmund away springs to mind) and when he didn't perform Hall shuffled him to the back of the pack to rebuild. Hall's pathway to LB was also a lot easier with Targett and Burn in front of him.

 

Osula came with less hype and expectation. Hasn't started a single game of note iirc. And has one of the best strikers in the world ahead of him, in the prime of his career. Backup strikers don't tend to play that much. i don't see Osula becoming a viable rotation striker the way Wilson was intended to be with Isak last season. I think next season Isak will just have to be a 60-80 minute player to save his legs.

[andyc35i]

Just now, PRL said:

I think the talk of CM underestimates Miley’s potential. If we were signing someone of his calibre we would be looking £40-50m+ judging by some of the fees bandied around for other midfielders with big potential. The idea of loaning him or signing a more established midfielder to push him down pecking order would be an error in my view. He really influenced during some of his limited game time this year and needs to develop in our system, with our squad and Howe managing. Really hope we allow that in Europe and cups next year. 

With champions league football next year we will play a minimum of 48 games so Miley will have plenty of game time. We really someone else to challenge the current midfield if we want to kick on as the drop off in quality is big 

[mondonewc]

If Wilson leaves, which he should, then we must buy a good proven backup Striker, it would be a priority over all other positions mentioned, we can't be upgrading on 1st team players as a priority to actually having nobody at all? Osula is completely unproven, and running Isak into the ground would be a disaster. Sure, I'd love us to improve on Pope/Murphy/Schar to take us to the next level, but none of that can be a priority to having literally zero proven backup to Isak. If we can get Delap for £40m and he wants to come here, which doesn't seem at all unlikely to me, I'd be all for it. 

[PRL]

4 minutes ago, andyc35i said:

With champions league football next year we will play a minimum of 48 games so Miley will have plenty of game time. We really someone else to challenge the current midfield if we want to kick on as the drop off in quality is big 

I’d argue drop off from Isak to Wilson/Osula is far greater than drop off from Joelinton to Miley or Willock. 

[The College Dropout]

47 minutes ago, Funtime Frankie said:

I think we will be in for Angel Gomes as a free if we get rid of either Longstaff or Willock.

 

Gomes can play both DM and CM and has the skill set to thrive in our team.

 

If he is unsuccessful we will find suitors to buy him such as Kelly.

Think he's too small for us/Howe. Might sign him for the flip I guess.

 

Don't see us selling Barnes now that European football is confirmed. He's an actual rotation option. Gordon is considered more physically robust than Isak too. Barnes on, Gordon up top will continue to be a viable move IMO.

 

That 4th choice CM role is too crucial. Unless Miley develops like crazy over the next few months I think he's too far off it. Milner played that role for years at Liverpool, Curtis Jones is doing it at Liverpool now. That's Merino's role for Arsenal and was Jorginho's role. It needs to be a really good player that will end up playing 30-40% of minutes in a season through injuries, suspensions, dips in form for others and rotation. The gap from Joelinton to Miley is massive.

[NSG]

We can’t go into next season with Europe and have Wilson as second choice. Whoever comes in will play loads of minutes.

 

Delap for £40m is a no brainer.

[The College Dropout]

1 minute ago, PRL said:

I’d argue drop off from Isak to Wilson/Osula is far greater than drop off from Joelinton to Miley or Willock. 

Apart from Liverpool, no other top club has a proper "backup striker" that can't play anywhere else. Even Liverpool all can play multiple positions with the possible exception of Nunez. It's not good value for money to have a singular backup striker unless the player is accepted to be substandard. They won't get enough guaranteed minutes.

 

Forest have a backup striker. He doesn't get minutes. City's backup striker gets most of his minutes off the wings.

 

The 4th choice CM gets a lot more minutes than the backup striker.

 

I do think Howe will have to change his tactics if we get into the CL. Isak pressing the way he does, he'll have to get subbed regularly at the hour.

[Tiresias]

We're definitely after a right winger, if we bring one in that is going to score a lot more goals from that side it makes the striker issue slightly less pressing, it kinda depends if Howe thinks Osula is the long term answer. I wouldn't be against us getting some veteran journeyman on a short term deal as cover

[SteV]

2 minutes ago, Tiresias said:

I wouldn't be against us getting some veteran journeyman on a short term deal as cover

Andy Carroll adds to the homegrown quota…

[Tiresias]

Just now, SteV said:

Andy Carroll adds to the homegrown quota…

 

[Unbelievable]

49 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

Think he's too small for us/Howe. Might sign him for the flip I guess.

 

Don't see us selling Barnes now that European football is confirmed. He's an actual rotation option. Gordon is considered more physically robust than Isak too. Barnes on, Gordon up top will continue to be a viable move IMO.

 

That 4th choice CM role is too crucial. Unless Miley develops like crazy over the next few months I think he's too far off it. Milner played that role for years at Liverpool, Curtis Jones is doing it at Liverpool now. That's Merino's role for Arsenal and was Jorginho's role. It needs to be a really good player that will end up playing 30-40% of minutes in a season through injuries, suspensions, dips in form for others and rotation. The gap from Joelinton to Miley is massive.

It’s not like. Miley has for the most part done pretty well whenever he’s had more than a few minutes to see a game out.  If we’re not going to trust Miley to get some minutes as a backup/rotation option next year we may as well sell him. 

[Menace]

I've yet to see anything from Osula that says he's good enough to be backup to Isak tbh. We've been quite fortunate with injuries this season, we need a backup striker.

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 10:57 by Menace

[janpawel]

Having Osula as an 'unknown' for me makes it hard to judge what else we need up front 

 

Like TCD or others said, it's rare to have 3 legit strikers, having 2 strikers and Gordon as the third option is fine with me imo 

 

However, Osula hasn't shown to be decent back up for Isak, he may become this in time, but right now he isn't and next season, who knows. 

 

I also don't see Isak ever being bulletproof, like a Salah etc. His stamina has got better this season, but I deffo think our second striker will get solid minutes as a sub, and also in games as I don't see Isak playing 50-60 games a season, whether due to injuries or needing a rest 

[Yorkie]

1 hour ago, ponsaelius said:

For me Delap would basically be a luxury signing for the price given other positions we need to fill. I also personally doubt we could convince him to sign over other options he will have when Isak is in front of him - unless there is a guarantee we sell Isak after a year. 

 

I can't see how we sign him and also fill GK/RW/RCB with the requisite quality. 

 

That said I think he'd be a great buy in isolation if we did make that move.

 

The way we've worked previously is to strike if we think there's a great deal to be had, even if that position isn't an immediate priority. There's a few examples of this; Livramento is probably the biggest of all imo cos we had Trippier, Krafth and Ashby as RB options; Guehi would've been another. For that reason I can see us definitely being in the race for Delap if he's available at a competitive price. 

[Sibierski]

1 hour ago, The College Dropout said:

Apart from Liverpool, no other top club has a proper "backup striker" that can't play anywhere else. Even Liverpool all can play multiple positions with the possible exception of Nunez. It's not good value for money to have a singular backup striker unless the player is accepted to be substandard. They won't get enough guaranteed minutes.

 

Forest have a backup striker. He doesn't get minutes. City's backup striker gets most of his minutes off the wings.

 

The 4th choice CM gets a lot more minutes than the backup striker.

 

I do think Howe will have to change his tactics if we get into the CL. Isak pressing the way he does, he'll have to get subbed regularly at the hour.

We’ve seen some evolution this season of almost being a 4-4-2, so a 2nd striker or someone that’s clearly more suited through the middle would get loads of minutes and be as valuable as other outfield positions.

 

Like Man Utd have Zirkzee to go up top, Villa have two in Rashford replacing Duran, Chelsea have two in Nkunku/Jackson, Liverpool as mentioned, Spurs have two in Solanke/ Richarlison, Man City signed Marmoush as they only had Haaland. Arsenal weirdly have Jesus/Havertz.

 

Big sides have two IMO, Gordon as that 2nd for us is never it. We all say it when he plays up top, and I’m sure it’s a viewpoint expressed by Howe too behind closed doors, and for one reason or another, Osula hasn’t been that this season for us.