Reddish-Blue

Maybe because they already have Rodri, Phillips and others to fill that role in the side. They want Kovacic as a possible replacement for Gundo... Caicedo isn't needed at City, they already have a solid midfield Compare that to us and right now we're looking at Enzo - Gallagher and whatever youngsters are out on loan to fill the midfield next season (as both Kovacic/Kante are out the door).

Why did we even bother signing this guy? Just let him go on a free like Barkley...he's got zero chances of playing here again and I'm not sure why he is being loaned out, he's not a 'potential' first team player that we are hoping will develop.

@Pizy I feel like the bigger losses from that UCL winning run was actually Rudiger & Christensen on free transfers. Both were elite defenders on their day and it was a shame to see them both leave for nothing and we end up spending 55+ million on Sideshow Bob at LB and 300k a week on the ageing KK. The only player of the list you mentioned that should be kept is Mount (as he's the academy boy) and he'd be very useful for Poch's tactics as a squad player but as he rejected Chelsea's offers, there is not much we can do now other than hold out for a good fee from Man United.

Maybe not a McAllister price but they can't expect a club to pay 90+ million when the next highest bidder is unlikely to cross 70-75 million...(e.g. United) Brighton can hold out for a good fee but let's be honest if we're putting up anything north of 75 million, they're not really in a position to decline that sort of offer...they could go and get 2-3 quality players for their Europa League campaign next season.

So many stories with West Ham, guys like Bowen & Antonio from the lower leagues, Noble as their sporting director... Congrats to them for getting the win when it mattered!

Feel like they will have to compromise on the price as Lavia won't want to waste a season in the Championship. He'll probably go similar price to MacAllister, only 19 and just played a season of PL football, has the tools to be a very good midfielder.

If we don't have leaders, then we should go into the transfer market and get leaders from other clubs. City got Dias, Rodri, Stones, De Bruyne, Gundogan as leaders to fill the Kompany void and they continue to dominate I don't think we've signed a leader in our team since Cahill/Thiago Silva joined...which is concerning. No wonder why we're at least 20-25 points away from the likes of City...

Bissouma wasn't as dominant as Caicedo for Brighton. There's a reason why one of them was linked to a few clubs for 20-25 million yet the other one is being linked to a 70-80 million move this summer... Bissouma was like Cucurella, a system player that looked good in Brighton's system but as soon as you take the player out of the system, you see their limitations. Caicedo reminds me of a more refined version of Leicester Kante...

They also lost their best CB to injuries and their best youngster in Saka appeared to fall off a cliff at the end of the season (couldn't score at all). It's easy to say they lacked leaders & experience but if it wasn't for all those youngsters stepping up during the season (up until the last 5-6 matchdays), they wouldn't have been in 1st place. City are just a machine at this point, them getting the best striker available and also getting a pretty damn good 'backup' in Alvarez for peanuts is just amazing transfer business on their part.

Massive impact for Roma (who were interested in potentially selling him to raise transfer funds).

You can't blame them after the huge issues with KK & Cucurella Also, no UCL revenue next season and very likely the season after it as well (based on current quality in the squad).

It's a shame that only one of those names is a potential game changer.... We're still going to struggle for goals for next season unless Mudryk develops really quickly under Poch.

If it wasn't for Lampard in that transfer ban season, there's every chance Mount doesn't even become a first team regular.

I don't think we were on the same "boat". Haaland always mentioned that he had a soft spot for City due to his father playing there. He was never going to choose Chelsea over the top clubs that wanted him (City, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich all had significant interest in getting him). As for the Lukaku deal, we were the fools and Inter were the ones laughing their way to the bank.

It is really up to Ugarte now. If he wants to play in a competitive league, then he'll chose PL football.

He'd flourish under someone like Klopp or even in Bayern's system where they have the players capable of beating the opposition and creating chaos (e.g. Jota, Diaz, Sane, Gnabry, Musiala) and he would be that hybrid AMF.

I don't think we'll need an emergency RB with Gusto coming in from Lyon (arguably one of the better young RB's in europe) Selling Chalobah isn't a bad idea as we have Colwill who can take up that CB role next season and I doubt anyone is going to help us by taking KK and his 300k wage packet.

Would have to agree, I reckon Mount saw what was happening (particularly with the Nkunku signing), even the recent Felix loan and sort of realized that his place in the side was no longer automatic. There's no doubting that he's got some qualities about him but he's not going to carry a team to titles by himself (like KDB, Salah and co). Sometimes it's better to part ways with a player than have them upset on the bench moaning about lack of play time.

selling KDB and keeping Oscar was a screw up....

I don't see too many differences between him & Moyes. They both got a top 4 job which was out of their league and they proved that the gap between mid-table & a top 4 side is massive (especially when it comes to managers). Rodgers has quality, maybe not top 4 quality but I wouldn't be shocked to see him at Spurs or somewhere in the top half of the table in the near future.

If it's true, I'm honestly surprised about United. Would have thought Liverpool/Arsenal was the better fit...

Their other options are Fred and McTom in the midfield, I can see why they'd be interested in another midfielder, whether its Ugarte or Caicedo, adding steel to your midfield is never a bad thing (something we've lacked since Essien left us and then Kante started picking up all those injuries).

I would agree with that...anything north of 200 million for the players listed would be a good achievement. It would help reduce the wage bill as well. Not sure about the fees for RLC & Mendy though as Italian clubs love their cheap 1 season loan deals, I have doubts that they would pay 25 million for those players.

Why would Sporting develop our player for us? They get zero benefit out of that. They'd rather send their scouts back to South America and find the next gem for peanuts, give them 1-2 seasons to develop and cash in for 40, 50 million.

This just goes back to what Sir Alex said about his club all those years ago, no player is bigger than the club. From various reports Mount was given a long term deal (same as Reece) but the offer was declined....so there isn't much else the club can do. Its good that the club doesn't want to face another Christensen situation where the player walks away on a free transfer, rather get some transfer funds that we can reinvest into the midfield.