Football: Steve the Bruce King of Geordies

[Philokles]

4 hours ago, Raja said:

That is a big yikes from me.

Almost certainly Paddy Power trolling again. A bit like when they claimed to have cut their name a mile wide into the Amazon for the 2014 World Cup.

 

1 hour ago, AncalagonTheBlack said:

Maybe our resident Bundesliga experts could tell us more about Duda, Havertz, Lukebakio and Weghorst.Which one's would fit with our style of play?
 

 

Havertz is by far the best - pretty much the all round package as a second striker and number 10. But he will also be by far the most expensive and quite possibly has already agreed a move to Bayern next summer.

Lukebakio has plenty of promise, will be relatively cheap and is a big game player (half his league goals came vs Bayern and Dortmund). However his effectiveness at the moment is almost only on the break. I’d give him another season to develop at Watford or a smaller step up first.

Weghorst would provide a physical presence up front, but a disproportionate amount of his goals came against relegation battlers and/or when Wolfsburg were already well ahead. Unless he was very cheap, I’d leave him alone.

Until Haller signs the contact, I wouldn’t give up on him. He was supposedly pretty sceptical about the move to West Ham and it is only the money that is attracting him. At €45m it is very good value and I’m surprised nobody bigger has gone in for him.

Nevermind, Haller announced as I was writing this.

[Consigliere]

A boost for Spurs in their pursuit of Lo Celso. Reports saying that he's handed in a transfer request. 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

1 hour ago, AncalagonTheBlack said:

Maybe our resident Bundesliga experts could tell us more about Duda, Havertz, Lukebakio and Weghorst.Which one's would fit with our style of play?
 

 

I've been beaten this drum for the past couple of threads. I think Haller would've been the best fit for Liverpool to take some load of Firmino. Good forward with a great work rate.

Lukebakio is mainly a pace merchant, thus his strengths are on the counter. So if you really want a quick forward upfront, that would be him.

Weghorst is more of a box player/physical presence and a good poacher. But you signed an extension with Origi if you want a more physical striker upfront.

Havertz is by far the best footballer from the bunch. He is more of a playmaker than a forward though. He is quite happy to play at least another at Leverkusen. The emphasis is on playing. He is a young player and a mainstay at Leverkusen, and he looks smart enough to prefer being on the pitch than on bench at this point of his career. And he would come with a very hefty price tag.

Duda has come off a pretty good season. But he is more of a midfielder, and I don't think he would add anything new to Liverpool.

 

[BigFatCoward]

Thrashed by wolves, bodes well. 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Well, Bruce has just been announced, so he did not have any time to implement his footballing vision, or have much of an influence on the team. Give it some time.

[Consigliere]

Trippier heading to Atletico Madrid for £20m. 

[Consigliere]

Some good news for Arsenal fans.

 

[Jeor]

Good news, but as mentioned before he's only 18 and not joining us next season (back on loan) so one for the future rather than right now. Astronomical price for a teenager not named de Ligt though. I guess quality central defenders are hard to find these days.

Speaking of ones for the future, any Arsenal fans in the know more than me, who have an idea of what's happening with Kristian Bielik? He was meant to be one for the future and was hopefully converting to CB?

[Raja]

1 hour ago, Jeor said:

Good news, but as mentioned before he's only 18 and not joining us next season (back on loan) so one for the future rather than right now. Astronomical price for a teenager not named de Ligt though. I guess quality central defenders are hard to find these days.

Speaking of ones for the future, any Arsenal fans in the know more than me, who have an idea of what's happening with Kristian Bielik? He was meant to be one for the future and was hopefully converting to CB?

Tbh, Saliba is *exactly* the kind of signing we should be making. I haven't seen him play yet, but the consensus from people who have seen him play is that he's excellent. It is a shame we don't get him till next season, but probably better long term?

Re: Bielik - I was listening to the arseblog podcast and they had a guest that said that Emery doesn't rate him. Tbh, I'm with you. I wish we could at least see him play for us, he's not short of offers at all and has done really well out on loan & for Poland, ofc it's been as a midfielder but I'd like to at least see him get a run out in pre-season.

Also - praying he's fit for the start of the season

 

[Joey Crows]

Is Miguel Almiron a player that Steve Bruce will rate and utilize? Also, why do so many mid-tier EPL clubs re-tread the same ground with the same handful of English managers? I get having a proven entity come in to save you from relegation, but how much ambition do you have really if you never try something new...

[Jeor]

10 hours ago, Raja said:

Tbh, Saliba is *exactly* the kind of signing we should be making. I haven't seen him play yet, but the consensus from people who have seen him play is that he's excellent. It is a shame we don't get him till next season, but probably better long term?

Re: Bielik - I was listening to the arseblog podcast and they had a guest that said that Emery doesn't rate him. Tbh, I'm with you. I wish we could at least see him play for us, he's not short of offers at all and has done really well out on loan & for Poland, ofc it's been as a midfielder but I'd like to at least see him get a run out in pre-season.

Also - praying he's fit for the start of the season

 

Saliba does take Arsenal back to their roots in terms of buying up and developing young players (and from France, too). We've never really been a superstar-buying club, so it does make some institutional sense.

As to Bielik, much was made of him when we initially signed him so I'd like a chance to see him on the field at least.

I think with Koscielny on the outer this is Holding's big chance to step up and shine. I hope he starts ahead of Mustafi. A Holding-Sokratis CB pairing is probably our best shot at this stage if Koscielny isn't hanging around.

[Raja]

Holding, if fit, will 100 percent start ahead of Mustafi. Emery was doing as much before Holding got injured.

Also - I know nothing of Ceballos - time for youtube!

[Consigliere]

De Ligt to Juve done. €75m + €10.5m in add ons.

 

 

[Jeor]

1 hour ago, Consigliere said:

De Ligt to Juve done. €75m + €10.5m in add ons.

 

 

That's probably the first of maybe 3 big transfer fees for him considering he's a defender. Call me cynical but by going to Juve his agent has guaranteed some pretty big money (and agent fees) will keep coming because he'll want to move again.

[Consigliere]

27 minutes ago, Jeor said:

That's probably the first of maybe 3 big transfer fees for him considering he's a defender. Call me cynical but by going to Juve his agent has guaranteed some pretty big money (and agent fees) will keep coming because he'll want to move again.

Apparently they also negotiated a €150m release clause as well. I expect Barca or Real will trigger that in a few years time. 

Eta. Provided De Ligt lives up to the hype of course. 

[Iskaral Pust]

7 hours ago, Consigliere said:

Apparently they also negotiated a €150m release clause as well. I expect Barca or Real will trigger that in a few years time. 

Eta. Provided De Ligt lives up to the hype of course. 

I doubt that transfer fees for defenders will double again over the next few years.  The recent bout of transfer inflation had a lot to do with the Neymar deal and the new PL TV contract happening around the same time.  I doubt we’ll see a repeat of that rate of inflation.  Transfer fees will probably continue to go up, but slower than recent years.  I think we’re already seeing big clubs reduce their transfer activity to cool down the market.  Bayern and Real Madrid are the big exceptions but they both had relatively minor transfer spending in recent years so they both had some accumulated capital to spend on a generational rebuild.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

The Pogba transfer preceded Neymar. That was the first deal that finally left any last shreds of sense and sanity behind. The EPL has so much monopoly money lieing around, I can see one of the big boys making a push for him, if he develops as projected.

Barca or Real might be in the running, too. Yes, there will be a limited a market, but still market for him. Bayern (or Dortmund for that matter) won't cough up the fee. That really leaves the rich EPL clubs, PSG, and the two Spanish giants - they are not operating on a sound financial basis anyway.

[Consigliere]

It was the Neymar transfer that plunged the transfer market into madness. Pogba's fee was a minor increase over other record purchases (€94m paid for Ronaldo, €101m paid for Bale and €105m paid for Pogba). The Neymar fee more than doubled any of those. 

ETA. Then there was the fallout of the Neymar transfer with Barca paying stupid money for Dembele and Coutinho. And of course PSG then followed up the ridiculousness of the Neymar fee with €180m for Mbappe.   

[Iskaral Pust]

Yes, PSG injected over 400 million into the transfer market all at once, and the inflation ripple effect was enormous: Coutinho, Dembele, VVD, Alisson Becker, plus spending by Monaco and Dortmund.  Also the Neymar trade probably influenced the Ronaldo trade (the rush for CL), which in turn caused the Hazard trade.  And all of this has set new price benchmarks for other players like DeLigt, Oblak, Maguire, Mbappe, etc.  Only the Griezmann fee looks reasonable relative to the Pogba/Suarez/etc trades before Neymar.  

And this all happened around the same time that City were indulging Pep’s rebuild to the tune of 50 million per defender, and just as smaller PL clubs got wealthy enough to resist any transfer offers below the stratosphere.

But the PL and CL money probably won’t increase again by a similar magnitude, and PSG seem chastened by their galactico shopping.  Even United, who must be desperate for improvement, are wary of paying these new prices.  Arsenal have basically opted out, Chelsea accepted a transfer ban (a good time to sit out), Spurs signed no-one for two windows, and Liverpool are sitting out this window.  They’re all reluctant to chase up the prices any further. 

[Raja]

Sigh.