Non-Chelsea Transfer Pub

[TheIceMan 596]

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Lallana-Can-Henderson-Milner

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Welcome to Brendan world...

They'll get relegated if playing like that!

[Clockwork 1,794]

vietto and martinez are 2 options for a striker. we have 2 very good strikers in costa and remy and looking to add falcao to it.

dont forget that raul garcia, christian rodriguez, arda turan, cerci (whom they had not replaced last season) are on their way out. ATM would be looking to fight for la liga against RM and barca, torres and raul jimenez (who is also moving away) are not going to cut it for them.

Where is he going?

I think you are mistaken.

[nono 791]

We are only being linked with mediocre players so far, which is kind of worrying. United after Ramos and City are going after Pogba. Arsenal already improved their goalkeeper situation while we signed a couple of nobodies.

[jernej93 565]

We can only look stronger if quality players are available for purchasing. So far I don't see anything worth the quoted prices out there. you have to look at the impact it would cause on the team balance at the moment. If you overpay for Pogba @22 years old, what do you think Hazard will say or some of the other notables on the team. We have no one on the team that was purchased for over 40 million.We have a lot of youth in the system. players out on loan all over the place. Academy players due to be promoted, First team players still looking for a chance to be a regular and some of you guys are clamoring for a 100 million expenditure. On whom exactly?

You have to know that apart from some world class players (Messi, Ronaldo, Robben, Ribery, Lahm) everyone have their price !

[didierforever 7,349]

We can only look stronger if quality players are available for purchasing. So far I don't see anything worth the quoted prices out there. you have to look at the impact it would cause on the team balance at the moment. If you overpay for Pogba @22 years old, what do you think Hazard will say or some of the other notables on the team. We have no one on the team that was purchased for over 40 million.We have a lot of youth in the system. players out on loan all over the place. Academy players due to be promoted, First team players still looking for a chance to be a regular and some of you guys are clamoring for a 100 million expenditure. On whom exactly?

not at all.

you look stronger by improving on your weaknesses.

our weaknesses - RW : no improvement so far. player(s) available - reus, sterling (not really for 50mil pounds), turan (but with barca on the lookout, we don have much of a chance).

CM : we cant go into the season with matic and cesc as our main CMs. rambo and mikel can do a job but thats about it. dont think we can compete in CL semis with them against the big 3. available - VIDAL.

squad depth - defence - with luis leaving we are down to 5 first team defenders. ake and kalas seem to be on their way to middlesborough.

[didierforever 7,349]

hopefully this is our transfer window now

ins:

falcao - 4mil

begovic - 8mil

new LB - 13mil

vidal - 25mil

turan - 20mil

total ins = 70mil

outs:

kakuta - 4mil

cech - 10mil

moses - 5mil

salah - 10mil

mikel - 5mil

marin - 3mil

josh - 1mil

luis - 14mil

cuadrado - 20mil

total = 70mil

squad:

GKs - cech, begovic (HG), beeney(HG)

DEFs - JT(HG), GC(HG), zouma, iva, azpi, new LB, christensen (HG), dasilva(HG)

CMs - matic, cesc(HG), vidal, rambo, RLC(HG)

AMs - hazard, willian, turan, oscar, remy,traore (HG)

STs - costa, falcao, solanke(HG).

nothing spent. and a squad which is definitely good enough to compete for everything.

[nadavTKL 1,787]

squad:

GKs - cech, begovic (HG), beeney(HG)

DEFs - JT(HG), GC(HG), zouma, iva, azpi, new LB, christensen (HG), dasilva(HG)

CMs - matic, cesc(HG), vidal, rambo, RLC(HG)

AMs - hazard, willian, turan, oscar, remy,traore (HG)

STs - costa, falcao, solanke(HG).

nothing spent. and a squad which is definitely good enough to compete for everything.

Sounds ideal, but:

1. Still dont understand why everyone seem to think Vidal is leaving Juventus. No trustworthy reports, agent+player+club saying the opposite.

2. Vidal+Turan and this all midfield is an overkill. For each game Mou will have to choose 4 of Cesc, Vidal, Willian, Turan, Oscar and Hazard. And you have Remy and Traore.

If Mou will (somehow, cant see it and not sure he wants to) bring a regular starter type of CM, like Vidal, Oscar has no place in the team. Turan, Cesc and Willian can fill the RW and CAM spots.

3. Cant see a reason to have both Remy and Solanke. And Traore.

Looking at this transfer window, realistically speaking i hope for this squad:

GKs - TIbo, Begovic

DEFs - Terry, Cahill, Ivanovic, Azpi, Zouma, Luis/Baba

CMs - Matic, Cesc, Ramires, RLC, Song/Allan

AMs - Hazard, Willian, Oscar, Turan, Traore

STs - Costa, Remy, Falcao

With couple of players from the academy for the HG thing.

[Blue Colored Sky 1,807]

Sounds ideal, but:

1. Still dont understand why everyone seem to think Vidal is leaving Juventus. No trustworthy reports, agent+player+club saying the opposite.

2. Vidal+Turan and this all midfield is an overkill. For each game Mou will have to choose 4 of Cesc, Vidal, Willian, Turan, Oscar and Hazard. And you have Remy and Traore.

If Mou will (somehow, cant see it and not sure he wants to) bring a regular starter type of CM, like Vidal, Oscar has no place in the team. Turan, Cesc and Willian can fill the RW and CAM spots.

3. Cant see a reason to have both Remy and Solanke. And Traore.

Looking at this transfer window, realistically speaking i hope for this squad:

GKs - TIbo, Begovic

DEFs - Terry, Cahill, Ivanovic, Azpi, Zouma, Luis/Baba

CMs - Matic, Cesc, Ramires, RLC, Song/Allan

AMs - Hazard, Willian, Oscar, Turan, Traore

STs - Costa, Remy, Falcao

With couple of players from the academy for the HG thing.

Allan is off unfortunately. I read that Chelsea tried but were unable to sign him for whatever reason. He's going to Napoli now.

Song ... I think he will go to West Ham eventually. He was only mentioned as a homegrown option but with Begovic added we won't need any HG player.

Anyway I like this squad, but still think that Vidal is the difference here. We have to wait, but I'm convinced that Vidal is available. We should wait till Monday to hear noise here.

Also read that Benatia is available now. What a signing that would be. My favourite CB at my favourite club. As far as I remember Chelsea met several times with Roma officials last August but not sure if it was about Benatia or Destro. But yeah, experience, still with years ahead of him at decent price.

[didierforever 7,349]

Sounds ideal, but:

1. Still dont understand why everyone seem to think Vidal is leaving Juventus. No trustworthy reports, agent+player+club saying the opposite.

2. Vidal+Turan and this all midfield is an overkill. For each game Mou will have to choose 4 of Cesc, Vidal, Willian, Turan, Oscar and Hazard. And you have Remy and Traore.

If Mou will (somehow, cant see it and not sure he wants to) bring a regular starter type of CM, like Vidal, Oscar has no place in the team. Turan, Cesc and Willian can fill the RW and CAM spots.

3. Cant see a reason to have both Remy and Solanke. And Traore.

Looking at this transfer window, realistically speaking i hope for this squad:

GKs - TIbo, Begovic

DEFs - Terry, Cahill, Ivanovic, Azpi, Zouma, Luis/Baba

CMs - Matic, Cesc, Ramires, RLC, Song/Allan

AMs - Hazard, Willian, Oscar, Turan, Traore

STs - Costa, Remy, Falcao

With couple of players from the academy for the HG thing.

how is this improving our squad strength. we are just replacing the players that have left/being sold by the club.

if we our to replace mikel with song, why even sell mikel. he is happy to be at the club, he can do a much better defensive job than song, and he is brilliant when we need to shut out the game.

i hardly think we are even improving from last season if we do this.

if we buy vidal and turan, we will have vidal/cesc/willian/turan/oscar to choose from for 3 positions considering matic and hazard as nailed on starters. look at bayern. they had ribery, muller, robben, gotze, kroos, bastian, thiago, shaqiri, lahm, martinez to choose from in 13-14. thats the kind of options that a big team needs to have. with vidal and turan, we would have 7 players for 5 positions, 8 players if you count rambo.

in 09-10 we had essien, lamps, ballack, deco, mikel, cole, malouda, zhirkov, kalou to choose from for 5 positions. thats what champions are made of. i honestly dont think thats overkill. traore is 19 and never played PL, i dont see him getting much time except for some cup matches here of there.

fair enough about vidal's ability. even if he is not available, get him. he is a world class player and a pivot of matic-vidal or 4-3-3 with matic,vidal and cesc would be a CL winning mid.

[Unionjack 7,531]

Tell ya what we should do. Sit back and do fuck all. Bring all the kids in and make a complete bollox of the year we had this season (even if we had one of the luckiest years I've known).

But that wouldn't matter because we would have kept in line with the FFP.

We are a wealthy club and alot of clubs would kill to be in our position. We should be looking to upgrade and progress as much as we can and if we might have to overspend to get world class players so be it. So forgive me if us being linked with alot of wannabes and hasbeens doesn't fill me with alot of confidence ---- so far.

OK I admit it I'm an impatient sod!

[nadavTKL 1,787]

how is this improving our squad strength. we are just replacing the players that have left/being sold by the club.

if we our to replace mikel with song, why even sell mikel. he is happy to be at the club, he can do a much better defensive job than song, and he is brilliant when we need to shut out the game.

i hardly think we are even improving from last season if we do this.

if we buy vidal and turan, we will have vidal/cesc/willian/turan/oscar to choose from for 3 positions considering matic and hazard as nailed on starters. look at bayern. they had ribery, muller, robben, gotze, kroos, bastian, thiago, shaqiri, lahm, martinez to choose from in 13-14. thats the kind of options that a big team needs to have. with vidal and turan, we would have 7 players for 5 positions, 8 players if you count rambo.

in 09-10 we had essien, lamps, ballack, deco, mikel, cole, malouda, zhirkov, kalou to choose from for 5 positions. thats what champions are made of. i honestly dont think thats overkill. traore is 19 and never played PL, i dont see him getting much time except for some cup matches here of there.

fair enough about vidal's ability. even if he is not available, get him. he is a world class player and a pivot of matic-vidal or 4-3-3 with matic,vidal and cesc would be a CL winning mid.

"Realistically speaking". If i look at it realistically, the squad i wrote is the one i think we could have. Maybe there will be some surprises along the way, that will change it..

I can see a big improvement in having Turan over Cuadrado, and Allan/Song over Mikel. We won the title, our main problem was the big games, Turan+a good technical box-to-box CM can help us in those games a lot.

About the midfield options, the main issue is why you even need Oscar when you have Vidal, Cesc, Willian and Turan for 3 positions? one of those players will be upset for not getting enough game time, and ask to leave by the next summer or January.

This Bayern squad was a freak one, its a radical example. And players were injured a lot, couple of 30+ players in there, and Shaqiri and Kroos left. Our 09-10 squad contains lots of "old" guys - Deco, Ballack, Cole, Essien was injured for the all season, you cant compare it with Oscar, Willian, Turan, Vidal, Cesc and Hazard. Thats 6 young-in their prime regular starters in the best teams in Europe, and you want two of them to sit on the bench. I cant see it happening, and its not needed.

"even if he is not available, get him" - your suggestion is kidnapping? if Juventus want him to stay, and he wants to stay, he wont leave.

[didierforever 7,349]

"Realistically speaking". If i look at it realistically, the squad i wrote is the one i think we could have. Maybe there will be some surprises along the way, that will change it..

I can see a big improvement in having Turan over Cuadrado, and Allan/Song over Mikel. We won the title, our main problem was the big games, Turan+a good technical box-to-box CM can help us in those games a lot.

About the midfield options, the main issue is why you even need Oscar when you have Vidal, Cesc, Willian and Turan for 3 positions? one of those players will be upset for not getting enough game time, and ask to leave by the next summer or January.

This Bayern squad was a freak one, its a radical example. And players were injured a lot, couple of 30+ players in there, and Shaqiri and Kroos left. Our 09-10 squad contains lots of "old" guys - Deco, Ballack, Cole, Essien was injured for the all season, you cant compare it with Oscar, Willian, Turan, Vidal, Cesc and Hazard. Thats 6 young-in their prime regular starters in the best teams in Europe, and you want two of them to sit on the bench. I cant see it happening, and its not needed.

"even if he is not available, get him" - your suggestion is kidnapping? if Juventus want him to stay, and he wants to stay, he wont leave.

the only difference between your "realistic squad" and my squad was song/allan vs vidal. if our problems was the big games, how exactly does having song change anything? how does song change anything at all? average player. would rather have mvg or use more of RLC.

cos we were very very very lucky with injuries. we were lucky that we went out of FA cup and CL so early. we had to play united/arsenal and pool at the same time as there were CL semis, you think we would have put the same players? how would u rotate the team then? start mikel and rambo in the pivot or a half dead matic who looked totally worn out by the end of it. if we want to compete for PL and CL along with domestic cups, we cant have such a small squad. and to win trophies you need quality not just quantity like pool.

so arsenal have an old squad? united have an old defence which gets injured? injuries can happen anyway. how is it not needed? look at bayern's options, barca's options, RM's options.

so you are saying that every transfer is about the club willingly selling their players? we are the best team in england, the pull is there. if we make a good offer, juve will readily sell and vidal would readily come. thats what big clubs do, they make things happen.

[nadavTKL 1,787]

the only difference between your "realistic squad" and my squad was song/allan vs vidal. if our problems was the big games, how exactly does having song change anything? how does song change anything at all? average player. would rather have mvg or use more of RLC.

cos we were very very very lucky with injuries. we were lucky that we went out of FA cup and CL so early. we had to play united/arsenal and pool at the same time as there were CL semis, you think we would have put the same players? how would u rotate the team then? start mikel and rambo in the pivot or a half dead matic who looked totally worn out by the end of it. if we want to compete for PL and CL along with domestic cups, we cant have such a small squad. and to win trophies you need quality not just quantity like pool.

so arsenal have an old squad? united have an old defence which gets injured? injuries can happen anyway. how is it not needed? look at bayern's options, barca's options, RM's options.

so you are saying that every transfer is about the club willingly selling their players? we are the best team in england, the pull is there. if we make a good offer, juve will readily sell and vidal would readily come. thats what big clubs do, they make things happen.

Vidal is a big difference between our squads. And you're talking like Vidal isnt playing for one of the best teams in Europe. If he was playing for Lazio i would understand, but he plays for Juventus. Their ambitions are very similar to ours.

If you dont like Song thats one thing, he's only an example, but i also talked about Allan or any other CM that fits.

Talking about injuries, i think my squad have enough cover. Off course your squad is ideal but i dont think its realistic to have so many Top midfielders.

Mikel almost didnt play last season, if you replace him with a CM who can also replace Matic than its an impvorment from last season. Cuadrado didnt play last season and was awful, Turan is a big impvorment on him. Thats 2 players to add to our current (playing) squad.

Matic, Cesc, Ramires, New CM; Oscar, Willian, Hazard, Turan, Traore, Remy. 10 options for 5 spots. I cant see the need in having more options. But i cant see a place for another midfielder who needs to play almost every game (like Vidal).

R.Madrid back-ups for midfield last season - Isco, Illarramendi, Khedira, Jese, Silva.

Barca back-ups for midfield last season - Rapinha, Xavi, Pedro, Roberto, Munir.

Bayern back-ups for midfield last season - Martinez, Rode, Gotze, Muller/Alonso/Thiago (depends who starts).

Both teams have small squads.

Arsenal have a big squad, especially in midfield, filled with not-great players or players who're constantly injured for half a season.

[Yeboii 1,844]

Has Kenedy been officially announced?

[didierforever 7,349]

Vidal is a big difference between our squads. And you're talking like Vidal isnt playing for one of the best teams in Europe. If he was playing for Lazio i would understand, but he plays for Juventus. Their ambitions are very similar to ours.

If you dont like Song thats one thing, he's only an example, but i also talked about Allan or any other CM that fits.

Talking about injuries, i think my squad have enough cover. Off course your squad is ideal but i dont think its realistic to have so many Top midfielders.

Mikel almost didnt play last season, if you replace him with a CM who can also replace Matic than its an impvorment from last season. Cuadrado didnt play last season and was awful, Turan is a big impvorment on him. Thats 2 players to add to our current (playing) squad.

Matic, Cesc, Ramires, New CM; Oscar, Willian, Hazard, Turan, Traore, Remy. 10 options for 5 spots. I cant see the need in having more options. But i cant see a place for another midfielder who needs to play almost every game (like Vidal).

R.Madrid back-ups for midfield last season - Isco, Illarramendi, Khedira, Jese, Silva.

Barca back-ups for midfield last season - Rapinha, Xavi, Pedro, Roberto, Munir.

Both teams have small squads.

Arsenal have a big squad, especially in midfield, filled with not-great players or players who're constantly injured for half a season.

a big team needs big players. the difference between a CL winning team and a round of 16 CL team will be quality players like vidal. ATM's ambitions were similar to ours. we got costa, luis out of them. we have the money, juve dont.

how does your squad have any cover? did we have any cover last season when a couple of injuries meant a bench of solanke and brown on the bench? your squad has the same exact numbers. at one point we were in a situation where matic and cesc could both get suspended for arsneal and united matches. who would you play then? song? who is this extra CM? allan is off to napoli. song is no better than mikel. also, mikel dint play that many minutes and that was the problem. we need a player who needs to take the workload off cesc and matic. 1 and a half year and matic has not been injured. one injury and we are screwed.

also, i need to get an answer to this. end of the season. PL on the line. CL semis. we are playing united-barca-arsenal-bayern. so we have a total of hazard-willian-turan-oscar-cesc-matic to rotate in. cos there are levels of difference between them and our others.

RM backups - isco (would walk into our team), khedira (quality backup), jese (quality backup), illa (decent)

barca - pedro (quality backup), xavi(quality), mascherano (if there was a problem in mid, he would come in, quality), raphina (supposedly better than thiago)

chelsea - [considering we start with hazard, willian, turan, cesc, matic] oscar(quality backup), ramires (decent), mikel (seriously), remy (a striker), rlc?, traore?

each of those teams have quality backups. thats what we should be aiming for.

[Oscar 441]

a big team needs big players. the difference between a CL winning team and a round of 16 CL team will be quality players like vidal. ATM's ambitions were similar to ours. we got costa, luis out of them. we have the money, juve dont.

how does your squad have any cover? did we have any cover last season when a couple of injuries meant a bench of solanke and brown on the bench? your squad has the same exact numbers. at one point we were in a situation where matic and cesc could both get suspended for arsneal and united matches. who would you play then? song? who is this extra CM? allan is off to napoli. song is no better than mikel. also, mikel dint play that many minutes and that was the problem. we need a player who needs to take the workload off cesc and matic. 1 and a half year and matic has not been injured. one injury and we are screwed.

also, i need to get an answer to this. end of the season. PL on the line. CL semis. we are playing united-barca-arsenal-bayern. so we have a total of hazard-willian-turan-oscar-cesc-matic to rotate in. cos there are levels of difference between them and our others.

RM backups - isco (would walk into our team), khedira (quality backup), jese (quality backup), illa (decent)

barca - pedro (quality backup), xavi(quality), mascherano (if there was a problem in mid, he would come in, quality), raphina (supposedly better than thiago)

chelsea - [considering we start with hazard, willian, turan, cesc, matic] oscar(quality backup), ramires (decent), mikel (seriously), remy (a striker), rlc?, traore?

each of those teams have quality backups. thats what we should be aiming for.

Vidal is not a realistic buy, unless Juventus is getting Oscar the other way.

[nadavTKL 1,787]

a big team needs big players. the difference between a CL winning team and a round of 16 CL team will be quality players like vidal. ATM's ambitions were similar to ours. we got costa, luis out of them. we have the money, juve dont.

how does your squad have any cover? did we have any cover last season when a couple of injuries meant a bench of solanke and brown on the bench? your squad has the same exact numbers. at one point we were in a situation where matic and cesc could both get suspended for arsneal and united matches. who would you play then? song? who is this extra CM? allan is off to napoli. song is no better than mikel. also, mikel dint play that many minutes and that was the problem. we need a player who needs to take the workload off cesc and matic. 1 and a half year and matic has not been injured. one injury and we are screwed.

also, i need to get an answer to this. end of the season. PL on the line. CL semis. we are playing united-barca-arsenal-bayern. so we have a total of hazard-willian-turan-oscar-cesc-matic to rotate in. cos there are levels of difference between them and our others.

RM backups - isco (would walk into our team), khedira (quality backup), jese (quality backup), illa (decent)

barca - pedro (quality backup), xavi(quality), mascherano (if there was a problem in mid, he would come in, quality), raphina (supposedly better than thiago)

chelsea - [considering we start with hazard, willian, turan, cesc, matic] oscar(quality backup), ramires (decent), mikel (seriously), remy (a striker), rlc?, traore?

each of those teams have quality backups. thats what we should be aiming for.

You're ignoring i also want a new CM who will play, not another Mikel. I dont know if it will be Allan or Song or whatever, but i do agree we need that CM. I said Allan or Song because it looks like all the other CMs are off to other clubs (Schniderlin, Kondogbia, Imbula etc). Allan also looks like he's off to Napoli. We need someone, i just dont think it could be Vidal when Juve want to stay competitive and are losing Pirlo and Tevez this summer.

And i dont think we need to keep Oscar if we get Vidal+Turan, and i dont think we can give enough game time for everyone in that midfield. Thats our only difference.

"how does your squad have any cover" - We literally have the same number of players for Midfield. If you're talking about defense, we also have the same number, you just wrote Christensen and another one, players who wont play.

I just wrote: "With couple of players from the academy for the HG thing"

Our Problem wasnt numbers in the squad, it was the squad players who were not good enough (Mikel, Cuadrado/Salah/Schurlle). If it was my choice, still being a bit realistic (meaning - no Vidal) our back up options for midfield were:

Oscar, Gustavo/Kondogbia/Allan, Ramires. 3 decent-great options. Plus RLC, Remy and Traore.

* "raphina (supposedly better than thiago)".... You shouldnt have wrote that. Although he seems very good.

[Unionjack 7,531]

A big problem that we have is the size of our squad. Or should I say the lack of size of our squad. At the start of last season we had what? 22 lads. Already this is small. Mou said in a few interviews early season that he enjoyed having selection problems. Yet we know that we could ourselves name the starting 11 most weeks.

There was only 1 position last season that I really had no problem of which of the 2 started and Im sure we can all guess who they were. IMHO we have serious problems concerning depth and all it takes is a couple of untimely injuries (like we knw sods law will happen) and we will be up shit creek. So its not only the 1st team that needs upgrading in places we have to look at. I dont see why we shouldnt TRY to get as good an alternative for each position as we can. If it means 1 is going to have a hissy fit not liking being 2nd best then hes got to try bloody harder to be a starter or piss off.