"We've got bucketfuls of agents throwing players at us. We'll trawl through it." - The PL/CL/EL/world off-season transfer thread '17-'18

which reminds me, walters>burnley and whelan>villa - stoke seem to be selling all their most stoke players :'(

hopefully a £12m bid for jack rodwell or darron gibson is on the cards

stoke just shipping out the irish post-brexit

Kelechi talking to @LCFC. Looks like he will leave @ManCity, which is a shame given form in 2015-16 if inevitable given circumstances.

— Simon Stone (@sistoney67) July 6, 2017

Charlie Taylor to Burnley might seem like small beer in the scheme of things, but is has got all the Leeds fans bawling louder than when the Bremner statue was vandalised. He was already a hate figure for refusing to play the last game of the season!

Just bought him in FM, every good boy deserves to leave Leeds

new upgrade to FM'18 - Quotes from 30 odd page Charlie Taylor thread on WACCOE.

"Said on radio lancs he delighted to join a club with the stature of burnley.
thick fuk they r a micky mouse club with micky mouse support."

Logic's never stopped a Leeds fan

Zanka to Huddersfield... He was a big flop at PSV. Hope he finally learned how to defend at Kopenhagen.

well if he isn't good enough to force his way past Hefe or Schindler, he can at least chat about Scandinavian matters with Billing + Lossl on the bench!

It's ok I have done some due diligence youtube scouting on him and he gave an impressive interview, so obv a shit hot signing!

I don't mind a maverick, but he better not try any of this shit:

He likes to leave it late before passing back to his goalkeeper, a trick he uses to draw in a striker and then complain to the referee when the inevitable contact is made.

This didn’t work too well in 2014 when a misplaced back-pass to his goalkeeper let Son Heung-Min pounce and score for Bayer Leverkusen three minutes into a Champions League qualifier. Copenhagen lost that match 4-0.

It's stuff like that he's most remembered for here. But this is the PL we're talking about, I'm sure he'll be fine.

Reports this morning that Chelsea were so confident Lukaku was signing that they never actually got around to making an offer

This kinda puts the van Dijk fiasco in the shade

wouldn't be surprised if liverpool still signed vvd

Naby Keita the latest Liverpool transfer saga. Saw some YouTube highlights he looks all right. Anyone got any inside scoop on his prowess?

Keïta would be a saga if there was anything to report on it but Pool seem to be keeping a bit more schtung since Virgil's Blackpool escapade got publicised.

Reports this morning that Chelsea were so confident Lukaku was signing that they never actually got around to making an offer

lol

My teenage years all over again

But with United poised to sign the Everton striker Romelu Lukaku from under Chelsea’s noses for about £75m, it is unlikely they would sanction Matic’s move to Old Trafford. As a result United are considering a further push for Dier, who has always been Mourinho’s No1 target in the position, and a bid of about £50m may change Spurs’ thinking.

why tf would spurs sell dier to some shitheads who finished 6th?

Selling someone who isn't good enough to start ahead of Wanyama and Dembele in midfield and should probably, by rights, be behind Wimmer as a CB option for £50m would possibly make sense if you were looking to bring in dedicated DM and CBs. He spent about two thirds of his time in the back four, rather than midfield, last season and was constantly making mistakes.

He does offer the opportunity to change formations mid-game, which is obviously useful, but depending on who they brought in, I wouldn't mind if he did go.

#MUFC is delighted to announce a fee has been agreed with Everton for the transfer of Romelu Lukaku, subject to a medical & personal terms. pic.twitter.com/O7oQJWzYHo

— Manchester United (@ManUtd) July 8, 2017

✍️ We are delighted to confirm the arrival of Rúben Neves who joins from @FCPorto on a five-year-deal. #WelcomeRuben pic.twitter.com/zjcQbv0z4N

— Wolves (@Wolves) July 8, 2017

Congrats!

I don't think anyone else in the Champo will lick the Neves signing in this window, even if it is more money it will probably be some last minute panic-buy purchase of whoever has become the new Jordan Rhodes.

i guess here is vaguely the place for it but i find this bradley lowery stuff pretty weird. it is obv horrible that a child dies so young but the amount of publicity is strange, and the weird fusion of sport and fame and celebrity culture attached to society's obsession with misfortune befalling children.

xpost

On our football messageboard a lot of the sensitive UKIP thugs who start threads about deporting terrorists and how race is a social construct and racism doesn't really exist, they all agree that a child dying of a terminal illness is very sad.

If we sent child soldiers to Afghan, and one of them became terminally ill - that would be a Princess Diana level event in football grounds.

The fact that much is being made of a black footballer's goodness and humanity offsets a little of the people's princess* posturing for me

*jade goody obvs

social media and its influence on traditional media tends to increasingly reify the most uncomplicated human emotions i guess - innocent sanctity of the children, hatred of The Other, proving you're not a bigot by singling out "the good ones" for praise

Otm x 1000. Plus the fact that if one club tweets its condolences, every one else will have to follow. You can't even say you had no idea who the boy in question was. Dutch copy paste football news sites (who are extremely popular) are treating the death of the boy as a major event too. Which isn't wrong in itself, but the endless stream of 'rips' from people who most certainly had never even heard of the poor boy leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It's a way of bonding between supporters of rival clubs too, which seems to be something people yearn for. Wish we'd arrive at this point when it comes to racism.

It's happened. It's actually happened

📝 | We're delighted to bring @WayneRooney back to #EFC! He signs from @ManUtd, 2 year deal. #WelcomeHomeWayne

👉🏻 https://t.co/mHFaK7eQA9 pic.twitter.com/8N5nYvnezU

— Everton (@Everton) July 9, 2017

i-is that duncan ferguson

he's so soft now

“As I spoke to Ronald and saw it in his eyes that he wanted me to be part of his team, it was a no-brainer for me and the only place I was going to go.”

*_*

call the polis Dunc, this burglar is stealing all the wages!

I think I may be more concerned that our new shirt sponsor appears to be a bloody betting firm. It's a bad look.

I'm not too bothered about bookies, it isn't exactly classy but definitely preferable to payday loan sharks. Although I would accept that when people have serious gambling problems, sometimes they will go to the latter to feed the monkey. Nobody has even heard of 90% of the new betting companies with shit names these days. Our new kit sponsor is (abandon all) OPE!

Buried in one of the many articles on Lukaku on the beeb, this was news to me:

Chelsea tried to re-sign the Belgium international but were not willing to match the fees Lukaku's agent, Mino Raiola, would earn if the forward moved to Old Trafford.

that seems like spin from the Chelsea side tbh. Although Mino is essentially a salaried employee at Utd now

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DEXc-FBXUAAHCXg.jpg
lol! Ireland's Evening Herald have got Lukaku mixed up with Stormzy.

In fairness tho

his next album title and cover is sorted: Ready For Work.

At what stage do we start wondering whether lamela is just a crack addict or w/e

Bayern are getting James Rodriguez on loan, for two seasons, with an option to buy him after that.

That seems like a pretty good deal

Bit of an understatement actually

The @jamesdrodriguez Deal. Loan: 5 Million Euros per year. @FCBayern can buy him 2019 for 35,2 Million Euros @SPORTBILD @real

— Christian Falk (@cfbayern) July 11, 2017

Ffs

So if he's shit they'll send him back, if he's great he's only 35,5 million. Real Umadrid.

It's a weird one, seeing as the price being thrown around for a permanent deal was 70m-ish. Bayern always seem to get good deals but I can't imagine there was any other teams in for him based on this outcome

Douglas Costa also leaving on a similar deal to Juve apparently