January Transfer Window 2024

[Shaun Teales Moustache]

24 minutes ago, Vancvillan said:

Have been thinking about this a lot. It's actually a pretty deep question.

Unpopular opinion - if he has his beliefs and doesn't try to push them on others I'm fine with it. I guarantee that for every supporter, a decent number of prem players, staff and management hold certain beliefs that the supporter would find objectionable.

I guess that I've got to the point where I accept that I regularly work with people who might have differering opinions towards race, religion, immigration, sexuality, etc but we can get a job done. Would we be happy with a nationalistic British player? A socialist? A Marxist? A neoconservative? A hardline Catholic or Muslim? An Israeli who supports their governments actions? A Palestinian who does the same?

It's all so tiresome.

It is a weird thing. 

I would be horrified if we ever tried to sign Mason Greenwood, but I still love 60s, 70s, 80s music even though a disgusting percentage of those artists were as bad or worse than Greenwood.

Morals are flexible, but beliefs are even easier to bypass because I reckon 99% of pro footballers reckon Marxism is a comedy act and haven't a notion where Palestine is. But Emery places huge emphasis on the collective part of the team, which I reckon is a big reason he was so big on McGinn from the start, so I don't think he'd sign someone that would upset the collective as it currently is, if that was a factor. But I just don't think it's a big problem among most footballers. Being born in a country doesn't automatically mean that you're the stereotype of that country also. 

[zab6359]

On 13/12/2023 at 23:30, MotoMkali said:

Dendoncker doesn't really fit with what we want to do as a team. We are probably selling him in Jan. But he's not good enough for where we want to be regardless (he is overall but his quality on ball is lacking). We need someone that we can use to rotate Luiz and Kamara in Cup Games and who can come on for the last 30 minutes when one of them is flagging. 

I only think we are selling Donk in January if he asks to leave he’s been doing fine when called upon, no he’s not a perfect fit for the way we want to play but as third fiddle to Kamara and Luiz I think he’s more than capable of being that rotation in domestic and European cup games, even the league for the rest of this season. The summer window is the most change will happen.
 

I really don’t see us buying squad players in a January window unless we sell squad players, if we buy I think it will be a marquee player that goes straight into the team, what position is anyone’s guess though. 

[Don_Simon]

1 hour ago, sne said:

I hated every second of being in the Championship up until the final whistle in the play off final. That part was great.

If you hated watching Alan Hutton waltz through Small Heath, en route to Moseley, you're dead inside.

[Kiwivillan]

7 minutes ago, Don_Simon said:

If you hated watching Alan Hutton waltz through Small Heath, en route to Moseley, you're dead inside.

Absolutely loved it then loved him getting injured around start of 10 game win run to make playoffs because his defending was diabolical

Edited December 15, 2023 by Kiwivillan

[rubberman]

10 hours ago, lexicon said:

Two of Ajax's prospects look very promising - Kenneth Taylor

Oooh the gifs....

[david-avfc]

15 minutes ago, zab6359 said:

I only think we are selling Donk in January if he asks to leave he’s been doing fine when called upon, no he’s not a perfect fit for the way we want to play but as third fiddle to Kamara and Luiz I think he’s more than capable of being that rotation in domestic and European cup games, even the league for the rest of this season. The summer window is the most change will happen.
 

I really don’t see us buying squad players in a January window unless we sell squad players, if we buy I think it will be a marquee player that goes straight into the team, what position is anyone’s guess though. 

His lack of minutes speaks for itself, Emery doesn’t want to play him so I expect the club will be actively trying to move him out.

Emery is smart enough to know he needs to keep squad players on side (unlike some of the previous clowns we’ve had in charge) hence Dendoncker has played a bit here and there but it’s clear Emery doesn’t trust him to play the way he wants his midfielders to play

[Don_Simon]

1 minute ago, Kiwivillan said:

Absolutely loved it then loved him getting injured around start of 10 game win run to make playoffs because his defending was diabolical

There's a lot to unpack here. I think I'll leave you be.

 

[lexicon]

3 hours ago, Vancvillan said:

Have been thinking about this a lot. It's actually a pretty deep question.

Unpopular opinion - if he has his beliefs and doesn't try to push them on others I'm fine with it. I guarantee that for every supporter, a decent number of prem players, staff and management hold certain beliefs that the supporter would find objectionable.

I guess that I've got to the point where I accept that I regularly work with people who might have differering opinions towards race, religion, immigration, sexuality, etc but we can get a job done. Would we be happy with a nationalistic British player? A socialist? A Marxist? A neoconservative? A hardline Catholic or Muslim? An Israeli who supports their governments actions? A Palestinian who does the same?

It's all so tiresome.

The Russian government are literally committing genocide in Ukraine. It's not the same as almost all of your examples. It's abhorrent that anyone would support that and they have no place turning out for us if they do.

[Shaun Teales Moustache]

2 hours ago, sne said:

I hated every second of being in the Championship up until the final whistle in the play off final. That part was great.

I'm the same. 

It's great looking back at those times now that we're out of that mess, but the club was close to a winding up order, our squad had an average age of about 37 and we had a wage bill higher than half of the PL, but we were still bottom half of the Championship under Bruce.

Until Smith came in (and the new owners), we were heading down a path of total destruction. We had a £100m player in the Championship along with a cherry picked squad of highly paid, experienced and mostly accomplished players, but never threatened automatically promotion. Those were very dark days for the most part.

[sne]

22 minutes ago, Shaun Teales Moustache said:

I'm the same. 

It's great looking back at those times now that we're out of that mess, but the club was close to a winding up order, our squad had an average age of about 37 and we had a wage bill higher than half of the PL, but we were still bottom half of the Championship under Bruce.

Until Smith came in (and the new owners), we were heading down a path of total destruction. We had a £100m player in the Championship along with a cherry picked squad of highly paid, experienced and mostly accomplished players, but never threatened automatically promotion. Those were very dark days for the most part.

Yup, fully agree.

[paul514]

4 hours ago, Vancvillan said:

Have been thinking about this a lot. It's actually a pretty deep question.

Unpopular opinion - if he has his beliefs and doesn't try to push them on others I'm fine with it. I guarantee that for every supporter, a decent number of prem players, staff and management hold certain beliefs that the supporter would find objectionable.

I guess that I've got to the point where I accept that I regularly work with people who might have differering opinions towards race, religion, immigration, sexuality, etc but we can get a job done. Would we be happy with a nationalistic British player? A socialist? A Marxist? A neoconservative? A hardline Catholic or Muslim? An Israeli who supports their governments actions? A Palestinian who does the same?

It's all so tiresome.

I couldn’t care less

[lexicon]

3 minutes ago, paul514 said:

I couldn’t care less

Good for you, you don't have family and friends who might be killed by an errant missile or drone attack. Glad you find it so **** funny. 

[osmark86]

33 minutes ago, lexicon said:

Good for you, you don't have family and friends who might be killed by an errant missile or drone attack. Glad you find it so **** funny. 

Yeah being able to not give a shit is a position of priviledge. Better to be thankful for it than nonchalant with it.

[lexicon]

40 minutes ago, osmark86 said:

Yeah being able to not give a shit is a position of priviledge. Better to be thankful for it than nonchalant with it.

There's being nonchalant, then there's finding murder, rape, abduction of children and ethnic cleansing funny. It's an absolutely disgusting attitude. 

[thabucks]

12 minutes ago, lexicon said:

There's being nonchalant, then there's finding murder, rape, abduction of children and ethnic cleansing funny. It's an absolutely disgusting attitude. 

Who has and when ? The British empire was founded on those principles … As was Australia, America etc … Don't know how this relates to if we can finally sign Januzaj on loan or any player links 

Edited December 15, 2023 by thabucks

[lexicon]

12 minutes ago, thabucks said:

Who has and when ? The British empire was founded on those principles … As was Australia, America etc … Don't know how this relates to if we can finally sign Januzaj on loan or any player links 

The c*** with the laughing emoji on my post. Empires are universally evil and whataboutism doesn't change that these things have been happening in Ukraine since the russians invaded.

[MaVilla]

Amazing that our net spend since 21/22 is below Chelsea, manure, Arsenal, Newcastle, Spurs, Forest, Liverpool, West Ham, Bournemouth, Palace, Man City & Brentford.....

So 13th in the PL for net spend over the last 3 years.

 

[DJBOB]

4 hours ago, zab6359 said:

I only think we are selling Donk in January if he asks to leave he’s been doing fine when called upon, no he’s not a perfect fit for the way we want to play but as third fiddle to Kamara and Luiz I think he’s more than capable of being that rotation in domestic and European cup games, even the league for the rest of this season. The summer window is the most change will happen.
 

I really don’t see us buying squad players in a January window unless we sell squad players, if we buy I think it will be a marquee player that goes straight into the team, what position is anyone’s guess though. 

I agree for January. I think we'll get a cover RB but I don't even think we'll go for a marquee signing. JJ and Moreno have barely featured. Diaby and Zaniolo are still getting up to speed. Tielemans is now just finding his feet. It's a lot of players to try and rotate without trying to shoehorn a big January signing.

RB, similar to LB last year is our only clear depth problem in terms of not actually having a second RB (I still don't count our best CB playing RB as depth) - so I imagine that's what they will address.

[Adman]

Lenglet might be off to Bayern permanently, so think we're short of a CB.  Another loan maybe?

[DJBOB]

In terms of cover transfers for January. Looking at players under 20M or on loan - mostly looking at La Liga players.

• Azpilicueta (Atletico) - everyone knows who he is and what he can bring to finish out the season. Not sure Atletico will part with him but he's not a nailed on starter for them.
• Jon Moncayola (Osasuna) - definition of a squad player. Can play CDM and RB
• Aissa Mandi (Villareal) - was a rotation player for Villareal - can play CB/RB
• Oscar de Marcos (Bilbao) - another old head, similar to Azpi