Blue2

I think it wouldn't surprise anybody if this rumor is bs. Even right now Sarr is surplus to requirements here, so it would make zpz sense to block his departure from the clubs pov, with his rumored 120k a week contract until 2025 we should be more than happy if any club would take him even for free so we could save the almost 20m he would get here until the end of his contract. Why would we need a replacement for a squadplayer who nobody rates at all, while we technically have multiple players who could play the same position he does probably to the same standard or better? Koulibaly is our starter for the LCB position, we have a highly rated youngster in Colwill, Tuchel played Emerson in this position in some matches. plus Chalobah and Ampadu have played this position before on their loans. This would be five options already, even if it isn't the main position of Emerson, Chalobah and Ampadu here, but still they have some experience playing on the leftside of a backthree. The notion of us blocking a transfer because we need a replacement for an average overpaid squadplayer, who most fans would be happy to see gone, while having solid cover for his position in our squad, seems absolutely bizarre to me. If this occurence really happened, it would be kinda sad and it would surprise me if anybody here would be against him leaving.

@azpi28 After watching this highlight clip and looking up his data, I must say he definitely looks like a player with an interesting profile for us. - 25 year old, homegrown english on the verge of being an english international, even born in Chelsea. - last season breakthrough and starting player of a top ten premier league team, on an upward trajectory. - left footed, can play on both sides of a backthree, plus has played as leftback and even some matches as left wingback before. - based on the highlight clip and statistics, he seems to have a solid overall skillset as a defender, is good on the ball, with ball carrying and dribbling ability, solid long passing, 90% short passing accuracy in the league last season. For a moderate price I would take him and would prefer him to Kimpembe or Aké who we both missed out on, but with him having a longterm contract at Wolves they probably would want an obscene fee.

I see he has a longterm contract at Wolves and with him on the verge of being an english international like you said would probably be premium prized too. I don't know this player, do you think he would be good enough for us, if we could get him for a moderate fee?

He returned a few month ago from a broken leg and has a contract at Leicester until 2027, so there is no reason for them to sell. We probably would have to pay them Harry Maguire money and with his injury in mind I think the risk is too high, but I agree we should have an eye on him longterm.

Alternatively Tuchel could maybe set us up to play in a system which fits the abilities of our attackers better. Emulating City while lacking the player profiles that make them effective is probably not the best idea, if your objective is to beat them over the course of the season. I agree that the structure + player combinations is a big problem for us and eventhough I rate Tuchel as a manager and would like to see what he can achieve here longterm, imo he has to take responsibility that he hasn't really figured out our squad after 18 month in charge. I heard his post match comments of yesterdays match and it clearly sounded like he thinks many of our players are not suited to his demands or not mentally commited to the club, re the quality of our players his opinion is shared by many here, primary in regard to our offensive players. But how should we solve this? With the wages we pay our underperformers there seems to be no market for them, loans where we probably gotta pay parts of their salaries aside and with our strategy of throwing money at players being seemingly the only pull power we have on the market, we would probably end up with an even more financially overfunded squad than we have already in our quest to sign replacements.

If Koundè's side stalls the transfer because he prefers Barca and they are in his head, then we should be aware of that. I think the best chance we have is to put pressure on him to decide quickly, while Barca isn't financially ready. It is in Sevilla's interest too, because if we move away Barca gets an advantage in the negotiations with them, when they are the only interested party. If we are unsuccesful then just move onto the next target.

Isn't tapping up players like Barca does illegal? I mean if the reports are true, we offered Koundé financial terms he would accept and made Sevilla an offer which they accepted for a transfer and they want the transfer to be done quickly, but Xavi the manager of Barca personally seduced Koundé to wait for them to match our offer and somehow Sevilla is okay with that, that Barca a direct league rival of them blocked their record sale via tapping up the player, without even making an acceptable offer for him themselves, or even being capable of that right now? I don't know the relationship between the clubs Barca and Sevilla, but if I would be the sporting director of Sevilla the only way I would even entertain the idea of selling the player to Barca in this situation would be if they pay massively over the odds for him, otherwise report them to the UEFA, FIFA or whoever is responsible for transfer regulations. It is a real headscratcher to me how this behavior of Barcelona is accepted, when they clearly interfere with other clubs operations.

Is Colwill fit to play tonight after his reported groin injury? Will there be streams for this match?

If I gotta take one I would probably take Aké. - He counts as homegrown and knows the club and League. - He is more versatile and has a much better offensive output(G/A stats) and card stats than Kimpembe over his career. - He is on a lower wage right now, would likely be overall cheaper. - From what I've seen of both, I think he fits our system better. I admit that I don't watch PSG much, so don't know Kimpembe's ceiling, based on the infos given, the points speaking for him would be that he has better speed, is less injury prone, has more experience in the CL and playing with Thiago Silva, plus he has played under Tuchel. Overall I would prefer if we give the players we already have for this position a fair chance, primary Colwill and with Koulibaly signed I think it would be wasteful to sign another central defender for the leftside for 50m or how much they would cost.

I agree, eventhough I would like to see him here, because I think he is the best player qualitywise that we could realistically sign for the LCB position, but a 5 year deal on 10m€ net(this is almost 20m€/£17m gross right?) seems extremely high and risky for a player which is 31 and never played in the Premier League. However our need for an experienced CB with leadership qualities is clear, so I still see this transfer positive and am hopeful that we know what we're doing and that he has the longevity for the length of his contract.

Reports are out there that Bayern offered him a contract extension on 18m€ annually. Plus rumours are that he won't accept that, because he plans to run his contract down to join Real Madrid on a free next year. Even if Bayern tries to cash in on him to avoid that, I don't think that we would be a realistic destination for him.

If they owe just one player 17m, I really would like to know how much they owe their whole squad in delayed salaries. I think that I read somewhere that they still owe Messi a huge amount of money too and he left a year ago. It seems a realistic estimation that they still owe their players clear upwards of 100m€ from the covid seasons. With that in mind and the fact that they have problems with player registrations according to the LaLiga salarie cap, based on their financial situation, it seems absolutely bizarre that Barca tries to sign several players for premium prices, even when there is not even a direct necessity based on their squad situation. Why do they need Raphinha for 60m? If they are succesful in signing Dembele on a new contract, what it looks like, they have Ferran Torres whose main position was RA before Barca signed him for 50m just this January, eventhough he can play anywhere in offense. Aside of that they still have Trincao on the books whose main position is RA/RW, plus Collado, Dest and Abde can play this position too, even Aubameyang has experience playing this position. They have options without him. The same question could be asked about Lewandowski. For CF they have Aubameyang (who they just signed in January and he hasn't performed badly for them), Depay, Braithwhaite and Ferran Torres, these options aren't bad, but they want to sign Lewandowski for 50m(+ rumoured wages of 30m a season) who is 34 come August(no resale value) and has just one year left on his current contract. Are prestige transfers really that valuable from a marketing point of view, that a club with such a precarious financial situation would try such a transfer? With Kounde it's the same. Kounde is primary a RCB and at Barcelona with Lenglet gone, all of their CBs besides Umtiti, whose knees are reported to be shot, are primary rightsided if they play in their normal 4-3-3 system at Barcelona. They extended Araujo, signed Christensen on a free, still have Pique on their books, plus Garcia and Mingueza, but somehow they want another rightsided CB who would cost them 60m+, when they actually need a leftsided CB. With Azpi and Alonso included who they want from us, they probably negotiate transfers worth 200m just on fees alone right now and I agree that it seems absolutely crazy that this is possible without any regulatory entity investigating them, if there is not some kind of corruption and favoritism involved. Even if they could somehow realize these transfers, like it is said they would have to get many players off their books before they can even registrate them to play and with their situation in mind, why should players who are probably still owed millions have any interest in leaving without getting paid what they are legally entitled to? With the way they act, it would definitely be nice to see them getting hit with some kind of sanction.

Really, not in the slightest? For his age he is pretty experienced, he has played almost 5000 minutes of top league football in his last 2 years on loan, plus almost 2500 minutes for Wales in 35 appearances. He has really good versatility, seems like he can play nearly any defensive position and has a solid overall skillset. According to whoscored discipline and concentration are his weaknesses, which are both attributes that can be improved as he gains more experience. Eventhough I agree that he has not really shown to be a top player on his loans, this should not be used against him based on the fact that both loans were at clubs who were relegation candidates before he even went there. I think with his versatility we could use him as an utility player like Ruben last season, if Tuchel should decide to put him in the squad for the season.

It seems pretty clear that Leeds would prefer our offer, so if there is a chance for them that Raphinha could be convinced to join us, they really have no reason to accept any offer Barca makes if it doesn't meet their conditions. If you are the Leeds officials and you have the chance to get the whole fee in one payment, why would you accept a pay structure in installments over several years, in particular with a club like Barca who the whole world knows are in financial turmoil? If I would be the Leeds officials I would try to persuade the player to accept the offer which fits the clubs interests better.

This should be a player we go after, on the same reasoning that we go for Sterling, minus him having no PL experience. I mean skillwise Frenkie de Jong right now is probably better than all of our central midfielders individually and with the contract's of Kanté and Jorginho ending next summer, there is a clear need for us to go for a top quality midfielder. His main position is DLP and many fans seem to wish that we find an upgrade on Jorginho anyway, which probably most fans agree he would be. So with Boehly and Eghbali being in Barcelona to meet with Barca officials and Barca open to sell de Jong, am I right in assessing that most of you guys would be happy if this transfer could be realized?

I don't deny Sterling's qualities, the reasons I am critical of this transfer are mostly the reported conditions of it. I try to judge it more from an objective and holistic viewpoint and I tried to explain the reasons. Like everybody in this forum I want my favorite football club to improve and be successful. I think one of the biggest weaknesses in how the club is run is how we act financialwise on the transfer market and our wage structure, to me it seems like the club lacks some logical direction in that dimension. With the new ownership announced I hoped maybe the financially careless behaviour that we saw with the many premium priced flops in the last years would stop. Not that I think Sterling will be one too, but with Chelsea you never know and the fact that the first first team transfer of the new era will be one in which we overpay again is bad optics I would say. This it isn't your money so why do you care argument I don't understand. I mean finances are an important topic in football, which in my opinion should be even talked about more in public, so solutions to the errors in the system can be made. If we make Sterling our top earner on 300k+ a week, why shouldn't Mount or James try to match his wages when we try to negotiate new contracts with them. I mean if we look at last seasons performances both of them were top performers in our team and they are on an upward trajectory. But for example Lukaku "earned" more than double of both of them combined and Werner almost as much. So if they perform on an equal Level to Sterling or outperform him, which could happen, how are we going to negotiate wages with them if they demand equal pay to him? Should we then just pay up? I mean one can hardly say that we pay on a performance metric with the lack of balance in our wage structure anyway, it seems more like negotiated gambling wins for most players, but the point I think is clear that if we don't put some principles in order at this club our wage structure will probably completely explode, which isn't sustainable and ultimately leads to a negative development. I mean we even got extremely lucky that Roman waived the debt we had to him and this in my opinion should be realized.

We still have all three on our books and if Sterling comes in on his exorbitant wages, we would have wagecosts of 40+m on just one position in our system. I am not sure if Sterling complements one of the other three on the pitch either, so we probably would have to sell two of them and who will even want to pay them the wages they would earn here? CHO i could see having suitors, but I think he is the one with the best overall potential of the three, if he just could activate that, so I would prefer to keep him or maybe give him a loan, because I think there is still hope for him. I think CHO's main position in the academy was leftsided winger/attacker and chemistry with James aside, I think he prefers the left side too.

I tried to explain it on page 15 of this thread, why it would be financially stupid to sign Sterling on the reported numbers. I mean if we look at them: - 45m fee + 10m add ons - 15-18m wages annual on a 4 or 5 year contract - maybe a signing and agents fee too? So that would mean that this transfer package would cost at least 105m, maybe up to 145m (without agents or signing fee), if we sign him on a five year contract. We could commit up to estimated 150m on a transfer for a player, that has a contract until next year at his present club, where he is not even a main player, that has a high milage for his age, that is not really an elite level player and on low demand, so no other club would make this transfer at this volume. His main position is LW/LA where we have with Werner, Pulisic and CHO three players already on the books, who are overpaid and on low demand because of the wages they get from us. Pulisic and Werner are profilewise players with similar strenghts to Sterling even if on a lower level, but you have to consider that Sterling played the last 7 years at the club with the most dominant system, which could have inflated his stats, so there is quite the possibility that he fails to replicate that here. Then there is the fact that we would help ManCity, the team we want to catch in the league, financially. In addition to that there are more than enough players out there we could try to go for, who we could get on lower transfer packages. - Memphis Depay for example, Barca want him gone, he has a contract until 2023, Barca even has interest in Azpilicueta and Alonso from us, so we could try to negotiate a player swap and even if not, we could probably get him for 20m+lower wages. - Nkunku (not this season) but he is rumored to have release clause of 60m 2023. He had an extremely impressive season and if he can repeat that next season, we should try to sign him next summer anyway in my opinion. - Luis Sinisterra had a great scoring season at Feyenoord 23 goals and 14 assists in 49 matches, yes it was just the dutch league and UEL, but profilewise in my opinion he kinda looks like a younger version of Luis Diaz and is just 23. He would probably cost half of Sterlings fee and not even a fourth of his wages(oh I see that Leeds is about to sign him for 25m€). I could name other players who could be worth a gamble, but I don't think it is necessary to further the point. I accept that the Sterling transfer will happen, but I find it underwhelming. If he improves us that much that we can challenge for the league or contributes significantly to us winning titles, I would be happy about it and give him his credit, but honestly I am more excited to find out who of our youth is given the chance to be in the squad next season and if they can establish themselves. With the lack of pull we seem to have on the market presently, it is in my opinion really important to try to strenghten from within as much as we can, because this overspending on almost every transfer sometimes completely unnecessary most likely won't improve us at all.

Out of curiosity if even a Goat like Ronaldo would flop for us, the fact that that we could lose Kanté next year on a free anyway and because it is completely uncertain how many matches he can play this season with his injury problems, I don't think this would be a bad idea at all. If United would accept, if Kanté would accept, if Ronaldo would accept his age and moderate basic wages (lets say 10m annual) with performance related bonuses, if we would find a replacement for Kanté and if Tuchel would approve the swap, I would support it. I know there are many if's in this sentence and this is an unpopular opinion to express in this forum, but I think from an objective point of view the arguments for it would definitely be there. + I think Ronaldo would fit our system better than that of United and complement our players better profilewise + the players we have that play in his best position Pulisic, Werner and CHO are chronic underperformers and even 37 year old Ronaldo is better than them right now. + We have many young players who could learn from him and playing 1 or 2 years with one the Goats would probably benefit them. + The debate about Kanté and his inconsistency based on his fitness levels lasts back to the Sarri season and eventhough I agree Kanté in topform is still our best player, the questionmark about his durability and how often he can show it got bigger over the years. With the fact in mind that last season he was just available for something like 50% of the matches or how the statistic is, we definitely have to plan around it and find a replacement anyway and we would get a high earner of our books. + We lack leaders on the pitch and Ronaldo definitely is one. + The economic value of this transfer. + He is a secure penaltytaker, so Jorginho doesn't have to take them anymore and make everyone anxious if he is to take an important penalty. + We could do without a transfer for Sterling this summer, so could save the fee we would have to pay City and maybe could get him next summer for free if we want him. + It could make us appear a more attractive destination for other players. + So Boehly can build a relationship with Jorge Mendes, Portugal is one of the countries with the most interesting talentpools of players and the best often end up with him as agent, so it would make sense for future transfers if we are interested in one of his players to have some sort of relationship to him. In my opinion this are definitely good arguments for a transfer. Now let's look at the cons. - We would have to say goodbye to a popular player in Kanté and send him to the sh*tshow which is Manchester United which he would strenghten if he finds his form. - Ronaldo lacks some attributes for Tuchel's system, so we could get overall weaker, if Tuchel fails to coordinate the team with him in it right, because we would have to adapt to him in someway based on his profile. - With the attention Ronaldo generates our matches would maybe end up to be too much the CR7 show with the media. - Our high profile big name transfers preferably for offensive positions often end up as flops, so there is no certainty he would function for us. Of course this is just hypothetical, but if the financial risk is low for us, I would say the pros definitely outweigh the cons in this scenario, so I would do it.

I really hope based on the experience Boehly has with running a sports team that he quickly develops an understanding of the football business, so that the times of us getting mugged on the transfer market are over. It would be absolutely baffling to see if the new owners make the same mistakes that we did with Marina in charge of our transfers. I agree 35m with wages of 150k a week it could be worth a try eventhough I admit I don't want to see a player with such antics play for us at all. I mean his flopping is really embarassing and unsportsmanlike, he is probably one of the most shameless in that aspect too, so I would prefer to not see him denigrate the club with such behavior, but I could understand the transfer. But the rumored numbers are clearly to high for a player of his profile and he would have to massively overperform to be worth 350k a week for us.

If we really offer him a contract with an wage increase on his current 300k a week City deal, that would make us seem like complete idiots without any financial sense or market awareness once again and that without Roman who was our financial muscle gone. Is there even any other club out there that would match his current wages? Or does City offer him an extension on his current wages at all? To me it seems like he is a player City would be happy to let go, because like Pep said he just wants commited players and Sterling said in an interview that he thinks about a transfer if I remember right. Plus even with his good scoring stats, he is not a main man at City, nor is he based on his player profile a player with such an unique skillset, that City could not replace his output. I would even claim that it's probable that they replace him with a player who is a better stylistic fit for their system, if they even need to. If Sterling wants to leave City, does he have any better option than come to us, based on the sporting metric? No other european top club really has the need for him, so it's highly unlikely that somebody would swoop in and offer him a 300k+ a week contract. The way I see it we would have the complete advantage over him in wage negotiations if we want to sign him, so there is no reason why we should panic on this transfer and offer him exorbitant wages. If the rumored numbers are realistic, it would mean that we would make a transfer with an overall volume of 100m+(at least 40m fee possibly with add ons + 15m+ annual wages on a 4 or 5 year deal) for a low demand player. It would be like nobody in the club learned anything from the Lukaku debacle at all and we just repeat it without any damn sense.

I don't think that anyone really disagrees with the fact that our offensive players bar Mount(who goal/assist stats aside was inconsistent too) underperformed this season and I agree that Sterling, Neymar and Dembele are individually probably better than all of our offensive players right now, but like you said yourself, we are or were with Marina in control a financially badly run club based on our wage structure + transfer activity purchase wise and most fans seem to realize this too. All three players would probably commit exorbitant fees and wages and we have players on our books who are clearly overpaid based on the performances they offer, plus if new players come in who outearn probably the whole squad (minus maybe Kanté), it could be a toxic influence in the dressing room, so with how frequent players flop here it should be understandable why many fans are skeptical about highpriced transfers. I personally would prefer if we say no to every player who we have to overpay for and just do economically reasonable transfers.

I mean to remember, i don't know when it was or who it was, but I think maybe last year or two years ago, that there was an argument about the marginal offside calls with VAR in place and how it would take the emotions out of goal celebrations, where someone expressed the idea to simplify the offside rule into fullbody offside. So that it would just be offside if a player would be positioned with his complete body in front of the last defender of the opposition team. He meant something like, that based on the dynamic and the psychology of the game it would make absolutely no sense to to take goals away, because for example, in the buildup 30 meters from goal the attacker is positioned marginal and completely insignificant to the ingame situation in front of the defender, sometimes even with a part of his body with which scoring goals from that distance are practical anomalies. I agreed with this logic and thought this would actually be a great idea, which than would mean, in the majority of offside situations the eye of a trained linesmen would propably be accurate enough to catch it in real time and if its a tight situation there would be VAR and would just have to draw one line where the attacker ends to see if it goes through the defender to be sure. The reality instead is, that in the near future probably every top league club needs expensive equipment worth hundredthousands or even millions of euro/pound to catch margin offside positions in real time? To me that sounds economically absolutely absurd. So the thought process of this people really was that they need to produce technology worth millions when they just could do a simple rule change? Bizarre.

I agree that £40m is a high price for Ake, but thats what City paid for him 2 years ago and objectively there isn't really any reason why they should value him at a lower price than what they paid, even if he is just a squad player for them, other than maybe they think that he isn't good enough and want him gone. I don't think that it is really difficult to find a left sided central defender, the question is what kind of profile does Tuchel want. Of the players rumored Koulibaly would probably be the best value for money if we could get him for £30m, with his contract expiring 2023, even if he is already 31 and has no PL experience. If we plan longterm with Colwill who many have high expectations of, a 3 year contract with Koulibaly would make sense to me. If we look at other players for this position some are rumored with transfers this summer: Bastoni (23, Inter): Has said that he will stay at Inter. Question about his suitability. Pau Torres (25, Villarreal): Has a rumored release clause of £50-55m. Question about his suitability. Lisandro Martinez (24, Ajax): Ajax would probably sell for around 40m. Good versatility. Question about his suitability. Man United and Arsenal interested, Arsenal seems to negotiate a transfer for him. Clement Lenglet (27, Barca): On a downward form in the last few seasons, Barca want him gone. Will probably be loaned to Tottenham. Evan Ndicka (22, Eintracht Frankfurt): His contract expires 2023 therefore is probably gettable for 20-25m. Question about his quality, but other PL teams seem interested, so could be worth a gamble. Presnel Kimpembe (26, Paris): Is on high wages at Paris, they don't need to sell, value for money would probably be bad. Caglar Söyüncü, (26, Leicester): Contract expires 2023, could be worth a gamble for the right prize. Josko Gvardiol (20, Leipzig): Seems a big talent, but Leipzig would probably just sell for a crazy fee as he has a longterm contract. Marc Guehi (21, Palace): I know we just sold him last summer, but he played a good season and I don't know for which price Palace would sell, but objectively if he would like to come back and we could get him for £50m, I think it would be a good transfer. Other players in this position who could be worth keeping an eye on: Marcos Senesi (25, Feyenoord), David Carmo (22, Braga), Goncalo Ignacio (20,Sporting), Piero Hincapie (20, Leverkusen), Edmond Tapsoba (23, Leverkusen), Benoit Badiashile (21, Monaco), Mohamed Salisu (23, Southampton), Castello Lukeba (19, Lyon), Arthur Theate (22, Bologna), Attila Szalai (24, Fenerbahce), Facundo Medina (23, Lens), Isaak Toure (19, Marseille) Some of these players were linked to us in in the past and yes I just looked on Transfermarkt for players who play primary as left sided centerbacks, some in Backfour systems others in Backthree systems, but the point is this, that if a club does it's homework in the scouting department there are more than enough players out there for every position to choose from, so let's be honest if any club get's mugged by other clubs for obscene fees or by players and agents for obscene wages it is out of lazyness and a lack of preparation or negotiation skills. Plus this are mostly players with top league experience or some kind of international recognition, so they should all be known to the club.

I didn't say that most DoFs would sign Broja over Richarlison if they were the same price, i said " if we look at their profile a competent sporting director would most likely prefer Broja over Richarlison for the same prize because off the bigger potential upside in his development". I admit i haven't really seen much of Everton this season, so i could underestimate Richarlison, but isn't he kind of an inconsistent moany diver with bad offside awareness, comparable to Wilfried Zaha? In addition to that he is already 25 and his scoring statistics this season don't really seem good, he scored just 5 goals and had 5 assists from open play this season, eventhough he was Everton's top scorer, i don't think that he passes the "eye test" either like someone else said. I have never been impressed with him in the matches i've seen of him and based on his player profile there are many comparable players to him out there, so i don't know where his high market value comes from, plus on the website Transfermarkt he was downgraded two times this year. Broja(who i admit i could overestimate) on the other hand, i think at times looked really good for his age, like a player on the verge of a breakthrough and i would say is a more rare player type. A comparable player to him in my opinion is Victor Osimhem who Napoli payed 75M€ for just two years ago from Lille aged 21. So if somebody would pay lets say 30M for him and he plays a great season his market value could triple. Look at Nunez for example who Liverpool payed 75M€+add ons this Summer after one great scoring season in Portugal. With Broja being five years younger and his ceiling being harder to define than that of Richarlison, there are definitely arguments to prefer Broja on this thesis. The market values of players are estimated and volatile anyway, there are enough examples of that.