LockStockVilla

4 minutes ago, Djemba_Villan said:

Good call…but a I am finding out playing this game there’s always a gotcha

They played UEL qualifiers against Dundalk yesterday.

Lol. Good thing folks smarter than myself are in charge of this. 

If we manage to find an opponent I’d guess it may be a Dutch team. Their season starts next week and seems a few don’t have friendlies this weekend. Maybe Vitesse?

I didn't interpret Purslow's presser as we are done this window. He essentially said that Ings, Bailey, and Buendia all had attributes to help replace Jack's impact across the squad. The summer plan always involved improving the squad with 2/3 quality players with Jack staying. I'd guess we still have a bit more business to do. 

7 minutes ago, Villarocker said:

Not sure where I saw it but someone mentioned a Japanese player named Kamada earlier. I just read on Twitter that our new set piece coach is fluent in Japanese

Yeah, I mentioned this earlier today. MacPhee is indeed fluent in Japanese. When he was a coach at Hearts, there was actually a Japanese player from Citeh (Ryotaro Meshino) Hearts had on loan who did not speak a lick of English. MacPhee served as his translator/minder. 

edit: The video above suggest he spoke minimal English  . He was a crap player for us though (thanks Citeh). 

4 minutes ago, Okonokos said:

If we say it loud enough and enough times they may hear us.

KAMADA PLEASE!!!

Our new set piece coach does speak Japanese so could be very useful. When MacPhee was at hearts, we actually had a Japanese Winger on loan for Manchester City and McPhee served as his translator. 

Well that was quick. Happy we managed to get another striker in...I imagine Wesley will be going out on loan or be sold. 

1 minute ago, PaulMcGrath_5 said:

I am thinking he would cost a lot more than £35m though.

I think so as well. I’d think closer to 50m. Great young player and usually Sociedad players are very loyal to the club, so it’s tougher to convince them to leave. 

6 minutes ago, Big Salad said:

Probably cost 35 plus but would love Oyarzabal from Sociedad. Thank would be an exceptional signing and still only 24 years old. Very hard I'm sure but just a thought.

+1 on Oyarzabal. 

I think our current needs are:

forward/striker, Attacking midfielder or winger, CM, Backup CB, and Backup Keeper. Not really bothered who we go with for the two backup spots but for the others where we should be investing I’d like to see:

Striker: Jonathan David

AM/Winger: Marcus Thuram/Darmsgaard/Mikel Oyarzabal

CM:JWP

The AM/Winger bracket is probably dreamland stuff, but we do have the cash so who knows. If we really want to try and make a statement, break the bank for Dani Olmo.

A few have already touched on these points, but I’m at the point where I have accepted the move. From an emotional standpoint, it’s tough to lose a star player who you consider “one of us” as it makes it so much more special when they have success with the club. That said, we are being given the opportunity to really strengthen our overall team and progress if we invest in players wisely. We saw how the performances dropped when he was missing from matches over the past few seasons and if we are ever to progress, we can’t be so reliant on one player who isn’t certain to be available for the majority of the season. At the moment, a team like Citeh can afford that type of luxury. I appreciate his contributions to the club over the past few years, but I trust those behind the scenes to make the best of this situation. I’m also confident that all of the recruitment and investment we are putting into the youth side will bear fruit in the  next few years. Onto the next….

I've actually met Austin on a few occasions (I am a Hearts supporter and he would pop into some of the local watering holes post match on the odd occasion). Very intelligent and likeable fellow. While at Hearts he was also working the NI job with current Stoke Manager MIchael O'Neill. Hearts were pretty awful while he was there, but that was more down to the two managers (Craig Levein and Ian Cathro - who is now an assistant under Nuno). I can't say much about his set piece expertise from his time at Hearts because we were so awful and did not even have a player who could effectively hit a corner or free kick . It did seem we were often trying set piece routines that were practiced a bit on the training pitch, just did not have the players capable of executing. The set piece records at his other clubs seem to speak further to his abilities though.  He is also meant to be known for his ability in terms of scouting opposition and determining the best tactics to utilize to take advantage of others teams' weakneses, etc. I'm happy to see him here, I think he'll add a wise head to what is already a good coaching staff. 

Feel sorry for Keinan, he’s had horrible luck with injuries. Hopefully comes back and glean get a good loan in the Winter. The only silver lining, and I feel awful saying this, is that it hopefully forces us into buying another striker. It would have been/ still will be so naive to go into the season with only Ollie, Wesley, and Keinan. 

2 minutes ago, Phil Silvers said:

They're all the same pal, some just spin the crap better then others.

Hah, you’re not wrong. All taken with a pinch of salt, but I’m generally more inclined to believe some stuff by Ornstein and Percy vs say Greg Evans, Preece, Nursey and those other clowns. 

20 minutes ago, picicata said:

So have we actually made a bid for this guy? The only place that seem to be reporting it is The Athletic. And they're full of shit.

Usually I’d agree but Ornstein was the main one reporting and he is generally more reliable. 

3 minutes ago, est1874 said:

No chance Thuram comes here. 

What makes him much different to Bailey (who according to reports is on the radar)? 

2 minutes ago, sne said:

Happily take Zakaria or Florian Neuhaus as well.

Zakaria would indeed be superb. 

7 minutes ago, PaulMcGrath_5 said:

Another vote for Marcus Thuram here

Allegedly Gladbach need the cash and the asking price is ~25m…well worth taking a punt at that price. 

Should we lose Jack, I’d like us to look at bringing in both Bailey and Marcus Thuram. That would give us good options on both wings and then shift Buendia inside. Then the priority is a dominant CM to solidify our midfield. 

1 hour ago, MaVilla said:

With Barkley (100k), Heaton (47k), Elmo (43k), Taylor (39k) thats roughly 230k p/w wages saved to reinvest in 2-3 new players without even increasing our current wage bill!.

If we could also offload Hourihane (40k) and Kalinic (35k) thats another 75k p/w saved, however i cant see how we could offload those two with those wages.....

Does Hourihane's contract expire in 2022?, also does Kalinic's expire in 2023?? (we really need to offload Hourihane & Kalinic this summer if possible....)

wages estimated from what i could find on google.

 

Hourihane’s ends this summer. I imagine they may not have announced him with the other players leaving since he is still involved in the Champ playoffs. Otherwise, I’d be really surprised if he stuck around. I’d expect he signs with Swansea or another Championship team in order to play regularly. 

14 minutes ago, NeilS said:

I think the £250m has been misinterpreted, why would we as a club announce we have that to spend as that will just increase the fees of our targets. I think what the article is saying is that Deano has already spent circa £250m in the last couple of windows, so has been well backed by NSWE. I would hope to see a similar level of investment again this summer (£100m), but on less players as we aim for better quality rather than quantity.

Yup, that’s exactly what he was saying with the 260m comment. 

Pretty sure the 260m comment from Preece has been taken out of context. I believe he is referencing that Smith has been backed to the tune of about that much in the market since promotion two seasons ago...

If we truly want to cement a place in the top half of the table, I believe we need another legitimate option up top. If the French clubs are desperate for cash, I’d love to make a move for Ben Yedder. Proven goal scorer at the top level who I could see pushing us on. At 30 years old, not quite in our ideal age range and will have no sell on value, but could be worth the price to get us to the next level. 

Good year for Wes Edens, managing to keep another star player on his teams as it looks like Giannis Antetokounmpo is signing a new deal to stay with Milwaukee. 

Says deal to West Ham still on. 

1 minute ago, avfcDJ said:

Smith “all the way Tays, go on, go on, go on, good lad”

Love how you can hear Smith shouting from the touch line non stop. Giving a lot of love to JJ!