Reddish-Blue

If we're keen on a 2nd midfielder, we should be looking for someone with experience like what United did with Casemiro/Eriksen. I just don't see it, Onana looks a decent player but he won't be "lifting" any top 6 midfield to the next level at this stage of his career. Probably the reason why none of the top 6 are actually after him (that will probably change in 2-3 seasons time if he continues to develop and become a game changer for Everton). Compare that to Lavia where pretty much everyone is keen on him but everything has gone quiet since the Liverpool links started to appear.

If we're going to end up selling all these kids, then why bother buying them? Especially when the club have just appointed a manager who has a pretty good track record with youngsters... not saying that they all make it but Casadei/Santos already look a level above some of the other young midfielders that we've had on the books in recent years.

What's the transfer fee for Olise? Gallagher would only cover Kudus/Cherki as both are rated around 40-45 million mark... If we had to prioritise one of them, we should be all over Kudus

How do you leave it as an "open offer"? That makes no sense. Give them the 80 million including add-ons and if Brighton reject it, good luck to them as they'll have an unhappy player at the club. Brighton agreed to sell him in this transfer window when a good offer came in, if they want to break their word, that's up to them.

You mean the same Sterling who has been capped 80+ times by England? If Sterling was still in his prime (like when he was getting 15+ PL goals a season for City), he'd be a definite pick in the English squad. Don't see Grealish competing with that.

Sanchez won't be cheap, whenever we show up to Brighton, it's like the price goes up by 15-20 million. Raya would be an interesting pickup at the right price.

I can see why they signed him, he's got the tools to be a good player and maybe Arteta feels he can get more out of him. I'm just sort of shocked that Havertz was their first choice target...I thought he was Bayern bound or stuck with us.

It just seems like Vivell didn't fit in because the ownership group didn't take his advice on the managerial position (he was the one pushing hard for Nagelsmann to take over) as well as signings (he was the one very keen on keeping Felix). As for Bayern's model, not sure how that would actually work in the PL as they've benefitted from plenty of "low" transfer fee and even free transfers from other Bundesliga sides for quality players over the years. We all remember the shady Gnabry deal where Arsenal sold him for nothing to Bremen only to find out that Bayern had an agreement in place to sign him for like 8 million within 2 seasons or something along those lines.

Mbappe ain't coming here without UCL football. Best case scenario, we "help" Real Madrid with the purchase of Mbappe by offering them big money for one of their midfielders.

Brighton are just acting up because they know we don't have a back up option if the Caicedo deal doesn't happen We could have bid for Lavia by now and at least put the pressure on Caicedo to force Brighton's hand

I mean Trossard left in January and they were still solid without him, found some other South American kid to fill the void. Colwill will definitely be replaced by a solid CB (they should have plenty of money available with the Caicedo/MacAllister deals). I get what you're saying that they may not have the same quality in the side but I like what I've seen in De Zerbi (feel like he's got the tools to be a top 6 manager in the next few seasons) and he'll have Brighton playing well enough to be mid-table.

Think this should be in the Reece James thread, not the transfers thread 😃

They'll still be top 10. MacAllister & Caicedo are losses but I'm sure De Zerbi will go find another top tier player on the cheap.

Wonder if Lukaku would get the Luis Figo treatment the next time he plays Inter in their home stadium...

Funny thing is, this wouldn't surprise me at all. United would give anything to get him off the books and we are definitely a CB short heading into the season with Fofana's injury woes.

You answered your own question, Chalobah is at best a good HG squad option to have, nothing more. If Chalobah was starting quality, I doubt the club would have gone out and spent big money on the likes of Koulibaly, Badiashile, Fofana in recent windows. If you are an opposition striker and you see Chalobah as the starting CB in a back 4 system, you'd be licking your lips at the opportunity to score a few goals.

They wouldn't want to create a situation of keeping an unhappy player and going back on their word as that would hurt them in the future with other young players who see Brighton as a good stepping stone for their development. Brighton are just holding out because they just saw West Ham get around 100 million for Rice. We should do what United did and ask for a face to face meeting, put our final offer on the table and if they reject it, we gotta move on for alternatives.

Well you would think now is the time to sign players as we've gotten rid of most of the deadwood in the first team squad (other than Lukaku, Auba).

Probably because he played more of a right midfielder type of role for Santos....not sure if he's played that many games as a traditional striker, seems to be more of a winger with that dribbling ability on the flanks.

Sounds like another version of Pulisic....consistently picking up injuries for no reason.

I don't think Morata has ever been amazing, he generally gets to about 15 goals a season (league + european football). As for Vlahovic, feel like the step up to Juventus was too soon for him, same as Jovic struggling after going from Frankfurt to Real Madrid.

We tried to move for Ugarte but then PSG overpowered us for him and for whatever reason we still haven't put in a bid for Lavia (who will be a star for years to come in the PL) Now the rumors of Arsenal going back in for Caicedo (if they sell Partey to Saudi League)...once again, the club has shown zero planning when it comes to getting transfers done early! Arsenal wanted a midfielder, they got Rice, Newcastle got Tonali, United got Mount, Liverpool got MacAllister and likely to get Lavia/Thuram/someone else into their midfield Why is it only us struggling to sign any midfielders and giving them as much time as possible to settle into Poch's tactics?

Still can't believe we're dragging on the Caicedo negotiations. Surely we could have moved for an alternative midfielder by now.

Lukaku was the one who begged Inter Milan to save him from Chelsea...not sure why he needs to feel appreciated by them.

The only deadwood that will be hard to shift is Ziyech & Sarr. They have next to no value in the transfer market. CHO is still a HG winger so one of the PL clubs will take a chance on him, Ampadu will get a deal as he'd be useful squad player for a number of sides and Lukaku should be going back to Inter once they finalize the Onana deal. Are these really question marks? We're stuck with Cucurella for the foreseeable future (same issue that we had with Kepa and that horrible contract/transfer fee that was paid). You would think Chuks sticks around as we have no other options in midfield. Right now it's Enzo + Gallagher + *fingers crossed that no-one else decides to bid for Caicedo*