Mhsc

Enzo, Santos, Casadei, Reece James, Hall… My gut tells me Enzo and Reece is a top 4 tier 2 in a 4-2-3-1 but it would be a huge risk given Reece injury record and hasn’t played there much. I feel like we probably do Caicedo now and Poch takes a deep look at the others to decide if he needs another later in the window. If we don’t get Caicedo we go for a reasonably priced option and get it done very quickly, hopefully (K Thuram perhaps or any number of players that would be done quickly if we just put up 2/3rds of the Caicedo money)

Oh wow. Maybe there really is something to the Dybala rumour. That would really be a great move honestly. At £10m he might become our signing of the year if we got it done.

I think there were reports he has an attitude problem. He reminds me of Ziyech I'm ngl. There's always a chance he could be our next Joe Cole but idk (who also needed some persuasion to help out better defensively). If the scouts want him I'll come around to giving him a shot.

Cherki could easily turn into another Ziyech situation. He is lazy defensively, especially at pressing, and he can be a bit selfish offensively and doesn't really score goals. He has many talents, but I would want him to go through a transformational year before we bought him. Huge gamble imo unless he is cheap, which I wouldn't expect.

Tbh the idea of swapping Lukaku for Vlahovic with a bit of money going to Juve (circa £25m) is still very attractive to me, if they'd go for it. Have some doubts about him based on his season but his output in his bad season is more or less identical with Lukaku's output, and he's only 23. It would be a good deal for all parties in some way.

Random idea: Cancello Cucu swap deal?

The only logic to get De Gea would be as backup for Kepa if we think Slonina is our main GK in 12-24 months. Personally I’m not interested tbh.

Ideal world every player being bought for the XI or bench is in place a week from today. Never gonna happen sadly. Ideal timeline would be Caicedo suddenly happens on Monday and then we are immediately moving deep into other conversations, although it’s not really clear who at this point as only Dybala or Cherki are linked to us as goal scoring options. Enzo + Caicedo + Santos + Reece (if he is maybe being converted) would be a risky bet but may be enough for a 2 or 3 man midfield, but lacking experience. After that I still feel like we should be looking at ST, RW and GK. Dybala maybe resolves the first two problems to some extent and Mamardashvili would solve the latter. All affordable as well. All done by Friday and we spend the rest of the window flogging Lukaku and Ziyech or plotting how they are best used in a toilet cleaning capacity for 2023/24. A man can dream.

No way we allow it. Very disappointing week, but good to have more outgoings. Thought we’d have some concrete stuff on Caicedo by now.

Is he officially cancelled yet? Absolute snake.

He’s decent but not worth dealing with Inter for w/ other decent options in the market. Barella is the only Inter player I’d consider dealing with them for.

Get informed before talking

I honestly think our leadership now is looking pretty excellent, Boehly was clearly amateur-hour as a DoF but he's hired good people and they will steer us to incredible success over time. Poch + Laurence Stewart + Paul Winstanley = excellent team. I honestly think in 2 years we will look INSANE.

Maybe there is a sort of Mexican stand off around Lavia in that loads of clubs want him but none want to start a bidding war where Soton bid us against each other to inflate the price. Perhaps Lavia needs to pick the club he wants (like Caicedo did) and simplify matters.

I would have nothing but pleasure in seeing us walk away from the Caicedo deal because Brighton are trying to rip us off

I’m not convinced he’s worth more than 60m TBH but this is the world we live in now. Feel like there are good, sensibly priced options out there we can go for without getting involved with Brighton. A big bid for him is a huge bet that he’s going to be amazing for the next 10 years which might be right but it’s not like anyone is going to buy him off of us for big big money if he turns out not to be excellent.

What a brutal squad clear out. Imagine if all the new lot flop and the ones we’ve sold bang. It’s not even crazy unlikely.

He would give us options, could play in a 10 behind Nkunku or Jackson, as a false 9, or possibly fill an Eriksen style role on the wing.

100%. Absolute no brainer if he really has a £10m clause and will take a sensible salary. Even at 33 you'd expect we could resell him for the same or more.

Wow, where ya seeing that? Saw some rumours only in this thread. I am in favour if the price is right. Feels a bit random yet logical at the same time, mostly just because he's not someone that we'd have been even vaguely thinking about ourselves.

I have always understood that Zubi's personal stance is he wants to stay (and for sure at least stay in Spain) - pretty much only open to leaving if Barca ever come in.

Agreed. What a dream it would be if we get all players signed in the next week and don’t even go into market in Jan.

Keep having flash backs to the video and wanting to vom in disgust. Who tf is advising this lad.

If Poch wants him we should get him if he is really 12m. That's the kind of signing we should just make if our manager asks, no questions asked. It is the big money ones I really want the DoF to be deciding on with Poch just giving a nod.

For sure. I think the club are doing this very deliberately now and will continue to do so for big money important transfers, having managed to save and get the Enzo deal done eventually by going to do it F2F and then later the same with Mount. Why not just start that way by insisting on f2f talks and trying to get it all resolved in person in a few meetings held over a few days. Feels a lot more sane than phone calls or emails spread out over weeks.