Pizy

I just think that Dortmund’s supporters would riot if they sold both in the same window. There’s no chance they’d be able to make up for the production of their two best players. They’d basically be giving up on next season before it even begins.

Sounds like there’s finally some concrete movement with United and Sancho. That’ll probably get done soon. So that’s probably it for any small hope we had for Haaland.

I think it has wayyyy less to do with us and more to do with the fact that we are no longer the richest kids on the block. There are now LOTS of big clubs that can afford to pay astronomical fees and wages to attract top players. Whereas before we could simply outbid anyone, now (all things being equal without the pandemic) we can’t. Says nothing about our draw or appeal for me.

Feels like both our main targets need to be closed quickly or we’ll have no chance. Hakimi has concrete interest from PSG and they’ll eventually up their offer. Haaland I feel will need to happen before they sell Sancho or there’s no way it’ll be possible.

Imagine being a left sided attacker or defender and having to deal with both Hakimi and Reece James at the same time. It would be seriously taking the piss. 😂😂😂

Of course Roman will expect a title. But if we have a great season, take a big step up, but fall a few points short to a brilliant City/Liverpool/United side who all also invested heavily I don’t think it should be considered an abject failure or disaster. Failure would be buying Haaland and others and having a PL season like we’ve just had i.e flailing around for 4th until the last day. Next seasons goal for me personally is to completely bridge the gap between us and City. To maybe be in a title race similar to the one they had with Liverpool a couple of years ago where it looked like either could win it.

Was believable before us including AC was mentioned. He alone would probably go for tens of millions. Ball playing CB who can play in multiple formations and systems and is still young. I can’t see our board sanctioning any sale for him. As for Hakimi, he’s a top, top player. But it would be strange to permanently switch RJ to CB. Takes away his most dangerous weapon which is his crossing.

Maybe in years past this all would be true. But everyone expects our rivals to go big in the market too. City and United will both easily spend £150m. We may be considered favorites by many if we sign Haaland but as long as this City team is here there’s no way anyone can call it “title or bust” for us. Likewise if Liverpool have their CB’s fit. These are sides that are capable of getting 90+ points as they’ve shown.

I’d be sad to see Ziyech go before we get to see the best of him. Sell him in January if he continues to struggle. Let’s at least see what he can do with a nice, full preseason and full fitness.

So you’d rather him go to one of our rivals? You want world class players, you pay the premium. This isn’t Kepa here who was a massive gamble that blew up in our faces. This is a proven, top class player. Worth the crazy money.

Perhaps we can use the fact that Norway aren’t at the Euro’s to our advantage. Buy him before United even actually come in for Sancho.

Yes, but when he’s got a release clause that’s affordable to many, many more clubs next summer each one will be upping their wage offer to sway him in their direction. It’s true that we’ll have to blow up our wage structure if we want him now but it’ll probably “only” be something like £350-400k per week. I can never see us doing stratospheric wages like what Real Madrid do. Wasn’t Bale on £650k a week? We’d surely never do that.

Saying he’s interested is a bit useless. He’s probably interested in like 8 clubs. And unless we do some kind of strange deal where we buy him now but let him stay in Dortmund for a year, waiting does us no good. By this time next year we could be outside of the CL places and coming off a poor season. Then we won’t be nearly as appealing to him. Bayern will have been tapping him up all season. And Real Madrid/PSG/City/United will be in his agents ear offering him £600k per week to sign with them. It’s now or never.

I agree that Haaland doesn’t seem like the sort of striker that Pep would normally fancy. He’s not really a guy who plays in intricate spaces and is heavily involved in the buildup. And he definitely isn’t a striker who likes standing around the box while City’s midfielders ping it around a hundred times. For me the two clubs he would fit like a glove in the PL are ourselves and Liverpool. Teams that like to aggressively press, win the ball high, and blitz opponents with pace and athleticism. He’s a monster in open space and with the runners we’d have around him that space will be available to him constantly. Saying all that, Haaland would of course score a boat load in the City team. But so would any top striker.

Player swaps never happen. Or if they do it’s ultra rare. And if Dortmund were interested in any of our players I think CHO is the only one. Tammy is nowhere near Haaland’s level so them replacing one with the other makes no sense. Any deal here will be straight cash I would think.

We’d probably shuffle around the team depending on the opponent game to game. Which Tuchel showed he’s capable of doing. I wouldn’t be worried about players being unhappy. Like we saw with Pep’s City team there may be 1 or 2 who are unhappy but that’s life at a top club. That’s the sort of depth you need to dominate.

He’s a transformational, truly generational player on the same level as Neymar & Mbappe. And in my personal opinion when you take into account his physique and overpowering skill set I’d much rather have Haaland than Neymar. If you as a club have any slim chance to potentially sign this sort of player with minimal competition you must at least try. And I hope that’s how our club are viewing this. It’s an absurd, gargantuan amount of money but if he is finally the 25+ league goals per season guy we’ve been craving for a decade then it’s worth it. He’s only 22 for goodness sake. Even if he and Raiola start trying to engineer a move in 4 years time it’s worth it. Because we’d make our money back and then some and can sign the next Haaland.

Fjortoft is normally pretty clueless and only regurgitates what he hears from other journalists, but with his Norwegian connection I wonder if he’s slightly more clued in here with Haaland…

We pull off the one in a million miracle and sign Haaland we’re winning the league. Simple as that.

I think Sergio Ramos would be David Luiz-esque in the PL. Capable of looking great with a good setup around him but also capable of many clownish mistakes and sendings off. Defniitely wouldn’t want him here.

Would people be happy with Saul Niguez who I see we’ve been linked with recently? He seems to be linked with a big move away from Atleti every window. Hasn’t he been pretty mediocre for a while now?

Still worth it. If Mbappe and Neymar went for around that much then Haaland is worth it as well. He’s going to score more goals than either and will be a perennial Balon D’or contender if he continues to develop. Waiting until next summer when every top team in Europe will be rolling out the red carpet and begging him to join them is dumb. If this were like most summers where we’ve needed 5 new top players I’d understand not being able to spend mega money on a striker. But this summer we need just minimal investment. With the money we’ll get from selling a few like Tammy, Giroud, Emerson, etc plus prize money from winning the CL and finishing top 4 we can easily afford £150m for Haaland. It’s similar to Havertz or Werner last summer. United will spunk their load on Sancho and a CB, City want Kane and Grealish, the Spanish giants are broke and making a bunch of free transfers, Bayern have Lewandowski and would never spend £100m on a player, and Juve have players in his position. We can take unique advantage here before his release clause next summer takes effect and suddenly a dozen different clubs can make a move for him. Really is now or never for us in my opinion. We can’t allow him to sign for a PL rival where he’d kill us and own the league for the next 5-10 years.

I just hope whatever business we do doesn’t happen right at the last minute. Would be great to have our business done early so we don’t panic buy some striker on a punt who isn’t good enough. I would hope the club and Tuchel especially have identified “the one” long ago and are now going hard behind the scenes to secure him. TT has made it crystal clear to the club hierarchy with his team selections for months that he doesn’t fancy Tammy or Giroud. No excuses not have started the hunt for a new #9 long ago.

English media is absolutely obsessed with Foden. They think he’s Eden Hazard or something when he isn’t near that level yet. Mount is the better overall player currently and was much more important to us this season than Foden was to City. You could take Foden out of City’s team and they wouldn’t skip a beat. Mount was the heartbeat of our side.

Imagine if United sign Sancho this summer and then go back and sign Haaland next summer when Cavani leaves. 😕 Something we should be doing.