Pizy

Are Dortmund a club who have accepted payment installments in the past? Or are they a hardline, “give us all our money up front” club? Wonder if they’d accept something like €100m this summer and another €50m next.

He does, but if we can’t get a top of the line, marquee striker than I’d rather us get a cheap stopgap than spending 50m or something on a mid level guy who might be a bust and we’re stuck with them when Haaland is available next summer. If we can get someone in the £25-30m range this summer who may not be spectacular but is effective and can score the easy chances we create that’ll have to do. Then that striker can become our backup striker next season. Or perhaps the plan is to just stick with Tammy and Kai. Which…..wouldn’t be good.

Nah, I’m already resigned to it not happening. Think we’ll get a cheap stopgap like Ings or something and hope for the best.

If we’re looking at midfielders from the French league I’m personally more impressed with Renato Sanches than I am Camavinga. Especially after that showing at the Euro’s. Think he’s absolutely worth a punt if the asking price for Rice is too high (which it assuredly will be).

Well at least he didn’t say “we will 100% keep Erling no matter what and he’s not available for any price.” So….that’s encouraging? 😅

I don’t think he is at all. On the contrary, I think he’s easily better than Zouma all around.

I wouldn’t say no to that. Süle is extremely comfortable on the ball yet still just as physically imposing as Zouma. I saw a tweet this morning again linking us with Jules Koundé. He’s super talented and great on the ball but is under 6’ tall.

We don’t really know how Thiago Silva will be able to navigate another long season at his age and he got injured several times last season. Selling Zouma seems foolish unless another CB is brought in. Despite his flaws, Zouma is still a useful player to have against specific teams.

After the idea of Haaland has been planted in my mind, going back to Lukaku would be pretty underwhelming. Yes, Rom would get us goals and is miles better than the options up front we’ve got, but Haaland is already significantly better and is still so young that he’ll only get more special. Plus, signing Lukaku might mean Haaland goes to one of the Manchester clubs or even Liverpool (god forbid) next season and the two will be compared directly for the next 5 years which I don’t think would be favorable to Lukaku. Really beside the point anyways since Lukaku has said he’s happy in Milan and Inter has already sold the big money player they had to.

If we’re fine letting Oli go then surely something is happening, right? Think we can dash any thinking that we’ll just stick with what we have if we let the only other striker Tuchel sort of trusted.

I could absolutely see us panic buying Danny Ings on deadline day after fucking about and failing everywhere else. Actually wouldn’t be a bad buy, tbh. He’s the sort of striker who wouldn’t stand in our way of pursuing Haaland or someone else next summer and would remain a great squad option for several years. Could see Ings bagging 15 PL goals in our team for sure.

Don’t think he was nearly as good today as he has been for the rest of the tournament. There were quite a few times today where his precise weakness (athletic runners on the quick turnover) was exploited. He still has absolutely zero recovery ability. Long as Chelsea and Italy have legs around him he’s great to have. Kante, Kova, Veratti, and Barella is some talent he gets to play with.

As Vesper mentioned earlier, Griezmann is on some insane wage. And he really loves living in Spain. Complete no-go there. If Barca are desperate for cash we should make an offer for De Jong. He could become world class under a top coach like TT.

I don’t know what’s more surprising, that we haven’t done a thing in the market yet or that Man City haven’t. I expected their owners to be uber pissed off at losing to us in the final and going on a mega spending spree early in the summer. Guess they’re waiting for Kane? But with Levy in the equation surely they can’t bank all their hopes on that deal happening.

I know people like to comfort themselves by saying “these huge transfer deals take a long time,” but surely in the case of someone like Haaland it actually makes it more unlikely we could do a deal the later in the window it gets? It would be difficult enough for Dortmund to find an adequate replacement right now when there’s still months left to go. It will be impossible if they were to sell him near the deadline. It seems increasingly likely that Dortmund will do what we did with Eden. Squeeze one more super productive season out of him, secure CL qualification, then let him leave next summer.

Either our club have become masterful at keeping things secret from even the most reliable journalists since all of them are silent regarding us or we really aren’t doing anything yet. If Haaland is our main target and if we actually planned on trying to get him surely we would’ve started the process by now? He’s not at the Euro’s, the window has been open for a while, and preseason training is starting for clubs across Europe soon. It’s not like we’ve had to wait for some sort of deadline before we could make our move. The fact that we’ve known for months that a striker is needed and didn’t immediately spring on one once the window started probably means that Haaland is impossible this summer.

I’ve been thinking lately that it may be best to target a top class playmaking midfielder if we miss out on every striker target which looks more and more likely. We have Jorginho who is the deep lying recycler, we have Kante who is the all rounder who hunts down the ball and springs attacks, and we have Kova who is brilliant at receiving the ball in small spaces and carrying it forward (and then having no clue what to do with it in the final third). What we don’t have is a central midfielder who can consistently pick out world class passes and through balls. A Pogba/De Bruyne/Bruno Penandes/Fabregas sort of player. Maybe with that sort of player we can get away with Havertz and Werner as our main strikers for a season.

United are basically going to sign 3 players that would slot right into our team nicely. Three players who if Chelsea signed we’d be delighted with. But no. It’s crickets here.

I have a sneaking suspicion that we will be linked with and sign a striker out of the blue that nobody was really thinking or speculating about. Who that is I have no clue.

Yes, and because of that they probably know that Haaland ain’t happening now. Otherwise we’d probably hear about discussions with his agent or some sort of indication that things are moving. Reports a few days ago said that we weren’t even in contact with him. If I had to bet the club is probably working on backup plans right now for a stopgap until next summer. Whether that’s a striker or a midfielder of some sort.

Finding it less and less likely now. Dortmund would probably kill their chance at a CL spot if they sold he and Sancho both.

Barella is indeed a beast. Small guy but fights like a lion. Still salty that we didn’t manage to snag him when Sarri was here and we were heavily linked. Probably an untouchable for Inter now. I really hope the club/Tuchel’s thinking isn’t giving RLC or Barkley that roster spot. They’ve had chance after chance to prove they’re good enough and they just aren’t. They’re midtable players. If that’s what’s going to happen I’d have just kept Billy who’s better than both.

Tammy is in that weird position where he’s probably a bit too good for a small club near the bottom of the PL but not good enough for a top club. And then there are those ambitious middle of the table clubs like Villa who probably think they can do better than Tammy at this point. Think it will be a real struggle to offload him this summer on a permanent transfer for the big price we’ll demand. May have to go on loan and audition for a season before any club will pay decent money for him. As for other PL business, I’m really impressed by what Leicester are doing. If they can keep their key players fit for the whole season they can be legit title contenders.

Depending on how Mbappe’s contract situation goes, it’s entirely possible that one club could end up signing both he AND Haaland for peanuts next summer. Probably what both Spanish giants are hoping for.

Struggling to think of anyone for either question. Unless we tried to convince United to part with Pogba I don’t know of any other top class midfielder who could walk in to our team in place of J5 or Kova and add 10-15 goals in the league. The striker conundrum is even more difficult.