"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

Janssen and sissoko season 2 boost tho

I'm guessing we're going to promote Walker-Peters and stick with Trippier as first choice. If we're going to spend that money it should really go on a CB or a striker though, but I don't think major surgery is needed.

I'd be sceptical about reports of a fee being agreed for Aurier given his legal situation

I'm surprised ManC didn't go for Aurier. I rate him higher than Danilo. Maybe said legal stuff scared them off?

not sure many teams have ever gotten away with not buying anyone at all.

Neymar to PSG signing seems to be in the bag

I dunno how I'd feel of a fan of another team itt took this position, but:

We're way ahead of schedule.

Frankly, unsustainably so.

The investment needed to 'definitely' (lol) maintain a challenge for second /third at this stage and given the activity of manchesters would be too risky.

Stadium move is a big unknown.

Difficult to source players to improve first team for a number of reasons beyond budget -settled team, dynamics, wage bill control- and Poch has practically made a speciality out of bolstering the squad with youth players- which seems like the way to go tbh?

Keeping everyone and keeping everyone happy is as valid a priority at this stage than bursting ourselves keeping up with transfer activity that sees Kyle walker valued at 50m

yeah that's fair enough. i think in the current climate finishing top four every year is no longer to be expected. and the prices are so crazy it'd be v easy to waste a pile of cash.

not to say i definitely think spurs will have a bad season or something, just that it seems like teams usually need a player or two even to stay at the level they were at the previous season.

Additional- firmly believe that there is plenty of further potential in the first team to improve, they haven't filled out yet.

Obv this can always go the other way

XP received wisdom, which isn't always to be discounted out of hand, says you need a few in every season even if (especially if?) you've achieved your goals the year before. It's down to nothing more than trust in the manager and the group that has me relaxed at this stage that they are motivated as things stand.

not sure many teams have ever gotten away with not buying anyone at all.

United in 95 is the only one I can think of, and there was a similar reliance on a talented crop of kids there. Not to say we're going to win the league next season but the philosophy seems to be similar.

In any case I'm sure we'll sign at least a couple of players, even if it's in the usual deadline day supermarket sweep way.

xps all depends if spurs decide to not bother with the champions league again this season

Spurs, arsenal, Liverpool, Everton in a proper tranche of quality teams this year

Add in one of the three big lads (most likely utd imo) who will be closer to that chasing pack than they will to a title challenge and you're looking at a very high standard to get third/fourth place

Are we predicting yet. Chelsea in a walk obv.

City second pep out

United third Mou feted lol

Liverpool fourth

Spurs. Poch in.

Everton

Do think, I know I'm repeating myself here, the very real trend of poch signings only kicking on in year two might be a factor here

Deems otm. It's funny how nowadays a club not bringing in huge signings is the 'experimental' one in some way. Think Spurs' path of carefully crafting a XI, bringing in young players and ultimately selling them for way more, in the long run is the only way to go. Ajax and Monaco are v good examples imho.

Shit I genuinely didn't mean to leave arsenal out there

Arsenal fifth spurs sixth

Poch out

Shit now I'm worried

lol

Spending big on Barkley or another player who would demand first-team football has the potential to unbalance an otherwise excellent attacking unit, as Van der Vaart did in 2010, so they need to be obviously better than what we have and that may be very difficult under our current financial constraints. We do need squad depth though and certainly a couple at Son's level who can provide more tactical flexibility.

1 Chelsea
2 Man C (pep indeed out)
3 Man Utd
4 Spurs
5 Liverpool
6 Arse
7 Everton

Man C
Spurs
Chelsea
Liverpool

Son is a great example of a player that came in, struggled, was improved hugely by the crucible of my personal disapproval on www.ilxor.com and is now perfectly situated as 'important first team squad member' which we need more than 'undroppable'

Lamela.....I mean if he comes back in the decent form he was in before his......hip injury..................then we only need janssen to take up ten games or so worth of slack a season. I'd back him to do that.

Right back, keep the joblot of centre backs and boom

Chelsea
Man U
Man C
Arsenal
???

dependent on United keeping key players fit, just have this horrible feeling

Think Spurs' path of carefully crafting a XI, bringing in young players and ultimately selling them for way more, in the long run is the only way to go. Ajax and Monaco are v good examples imho.

This is right, imo, but Spurs have been missing out on opportunities to bring talented young players they've been linked with in. Driussi went to Zenit, Foyth has gone to PSG, etc. The lack of activity in going after the next generation has been more disappointing than failing to sign an established superstar.

Seen a few pundits say that despite their signings, United are actually behind where they were last season due to departures and players like Carrick being a year older

I can't see mourinhos dark magic failing this season and I can't see it failing to see him sacked before December the season after

basing a lot on the idea that Pogba steps up in a role that suits him better tbh

but broadly their squad-building seems to be working to a (albeit Mourinhoesque) plan in a way that most of the other big dogs haven't this summer imo

plus where's the fun in just expecting everything to shake down like last season redux?

Signs of progress in my life I'm sure but I haven't a fucking clue where other squads are tbh

my observations are strictly casual tbf, much more focused on us becoming Watford Remix or crashing ignominiously

I wouldn't say we're behind last season but on a player by player basis it's hard to say we've significantly improved. Lukaku should match (and will probably exceed) Zlatan's tally but unless the rest of the squad significantly increase their goal production we'll be in bother

Rooney leaving alone improves ManU as a whole tbf

The problem now is I think the slightly incoherent set of players behind Lukaku. Successful Mourinho teams, no matter how defensive, have always had strong and lethally effective players in wide forward and attacking midfield positions. Mata has been good for United but doesn't appear to have his full trust and Mkhitaryan, Martial etc are a couple of levels below the likes of Hazard, Sneijder, Robben, Ozil, Di Maria etc let alone Ronaldo.

LBI nails it

Stick Lampard in there as well b/c I don't see any scenario in which Pogba chips in with 20 or so goals next year.

Yeah it's 100% dependant on Martial, Rashford and Mkhitaryan (and Lingard…I guess) stepping up. I expect Rashford to improve this season but he's still pretty callow. Mkhitaryan should do better as well but he seems worryingly unsuited to the PL at times (he was like a different player in the Europa last year). Martial is the big question mark. He’s got more ability than anyone in the squad bar Pogba but he doesn’t seem to have developed his game at all since he arrived and possibly has a bit of an attitude problem.

We completely lack an orthodox wide player which is why Mourinho was seemingly so keen on Perisic but that deal appears to be dead now. Couple that with the fact that our full-backs, Valencia aside, are on the conservative (read: shite) side and it’s makes us annoyingly narrow and predictable

i think if liverpool get vvd that could make a big difference. either way i'm looking forward to another season of us playing largely entertaining football.

If Neymar leaves though does that make it odds on that Coutinho will be off to Barca?

Think it goes:

Neymar psg coutinho Barca keita vvd lfc *breakdown of civil society* rooney

Rooney shuffling into Carrington asking gotta light, gotta light

i doubt liverpool will sell coutinho. they would be mad to do so. and they won't get keita, maybe not even vvd. money is of almost no worth to liverpool this summer, plainly.

If Neymar leaves though does that make it odds on that Coutinho will be off to Barca?

― groovypanda, Wednesday, August 2, 2017 11:36 AM (two hours ago)

then again I read somewhere that Coutinho would only go to Barca if Neymar was there which sounds like bollocks tbh argh i dunno what to believe anymore

If neymar is worth 200m I can only imagine what Levy's internal ticker for Alli goes to

Spurs currently being linked to Giovanni Simeone, who ticks a lot of boxes, but the move would potentially hinge on whether Milan are willing to pay €30m for Nikola Kalinic, which isn't a sentence anyone would have imagined typing five years ago. If they buy Kalinic, Fiorentina would go after Simeone.

assuming Diego Costa does axctually leave this month, Chelsea have only got about 15 usable players in their squad. nowhere near enough now they're back in the Champs League. barring some pretty big investment before the window shuts I don't see them retaining. an awful lot hinging on how good Morata actually is, it's always been kinda difficult to judge before now. i'm looking forward to seeing him as the undisputed first choice striker for a top team for the first time.

i'd also be worried if i was a Man City fan - when Kompany gets crocked they're gonna be stuck with Stones, Otamendi and Mangala as their only centre backs and apparently Pep isn't interested in signing any more. seems a bit daft really considering the amount of money they're spending everywhere else

share the sinking feeling expressed upthread about Man Utd. it doesn't feel like the Matic transfer been greeted with any particular enthusiasm by the United fans but that Matic-Pogba-Herrera midfield combo just screams smothering, bullying efficiency. gonna be a lot of 1-0 set-piece-goal wins for them this season

Look this neymar thing for this neymar price is actually happening

i think if liverpool get vvd that could make a big difference. either way i'm looking forward to another season of us playing largely entertaining football.

― Bein' Sean Bean (LocalGarda), Wednesday, August 2, 2017 6:30 AM (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^ cosign

“Morata talked about myself, in the media – he said: ‘Mauricio called me,’” Pochettino said. “That was from the beginning, two years ago or more. He said to me: ‘Why do you want me if you have Harry Kane?’ You know, if you go to try to sign a striker, they will say: ‘Eh, gaffer, you want me for what? To be on the bench?”

I like the idea of Morata using the word 'gaffer' two years before coming to England.

El Gafferino