11 minutes ago, timetowaste said:

 

 

I see Gallagher as someone who could take over from Kante’s position but with a better attacking presence. I’d ideally like to play with 3 in the middle anyway, having 2 CMs is ways going to leave us exposed. I still maintain that Gilmour isnt good enough to make it I just think he’s too small.

But if Gallagher plays that means he has to play next to Jorginho, who is our only DM/holding midfielder. 

Are we really going to go into next season with Jorginho as the only option again? This would mean Jorginho + Kante/Kovacic/Galalgher. 

Bellingham and Phillips certainly failed their audition for anyone's midfield tonight ... 

I’d take Bellingham definitely, it’s obvious he’s an immense talent.

Anyway Dembele, what’s taking so long? He’s supposed to be a free transfer, and it still took longer than Liverpool signing one of Europe’s biggest talents.

36 minutes ago, dansubrosa said:

Anyway Dembele, what’s taking so long? He’s supposed to be a free transfer, and it still took longer than Liverpool signing one of Europe’s biggest talents.

His contract expires june 30, 2022, so we have to wait until start of July to sign him.

The first priority is defence. 
the second priority is scoring more goals than last season. Havertz doesn’t look like a 20 goals a season in the league type of striker and even though I personally think Werner has a lot more to offer chelsea he is not a 20 goal a year striker either. 
Dembele will create but not score. 
Cho if fit will create but so far doesn’t look like a scorer

mount is a link player with maybe 5-10 league goals a season in him. 
If Gallagher wants to start he will have to displace Mount which will be hard

havertz has no natural place, it’s weird. He isn’t a winger, seems like a n0 10 but rarely plays as one 

in any event we have to sort out the attacking system. 
so much as I think we need to improve the midfield it will have to wait. 

On 10/06/2022 at 12:49, Kantesmini said:

I agree probably barca being barca hence the billion quid debt they had but FFP is a sham and oh look barca still getting all the players!

Point is if he flops all we spent was wages which after the lukaku scam sounds like a good time to me haha

Wages, big signing bonus, and big agents fees. Free transfers of sought-after players are anything but free.

Edited June 15, 20224 yr by OhForAGreavsie

On 10/06/2022 at 12:29, ducavis said:

Hold on.. what is the definition of “very good”? He had 6 league goals & 12 assists. To put that into context Sancho had 12 league goals and 14 assists at the same age for Dortmund. Reason why I am asking is there is this narrative he was a “wonder kid” which he really wasn’t. Some fans also seem to think Tuchel knows him well,  he only managed him for 1 season.

Reality is it was one of the ridiculous deals made by Barca during the period. Dortmund paid €12m for him, and a year after Barca turned up with €105m.

 

It was a crazy transfer fee to be sure, driven I think by Barcelona's vision of a  golden future for their club. I remember reading an article around that time which projected they would soon become the first club to achieve an annual turnover in the billions. The mess made by the group running Barcelona then reveals how inexperienced they must have been but they were not the only ones to rate Dembele very highly. According to his agent Chelsea tried to sign him the year he joined BVB and the year before that too.

In the end I don't think it comes down to what the definition of good is. I think it comes down to who is doing the defining and the fee paid obviously made sense to Barcelona's decision-makers. Although it raised eyebrows throughout the football world I don't remember anybody claiming that Dembele was not a Barca level footballer. The question for TT is whether Dembele is good enough now to make us more competitive with the top clubs. While I would prefer Gnarby, I do think that Dembele can improve us.

Edited June 15, 20224 yr by OhForAGreavsie

2 hours ago, OhForAGreavsie said:

It was a crazy transfer fee to be sure, driven I think by Barcelona's vision of a  golden future for their club. I remember reading an article around that time which projected they would soon become the first club to achieve an annual turnover in the billions. The mess made by the group running Barcelona then reveals how inexperienced they must have been but they were not the only ones to rate Dembele very highly. According to his agent Chelsea tried to sign him the year he joined BVB and the year before that too.

In the end I don't think it comes down to what the definition of good is. I think it comes down to who is doing the defining and the fee paid obviously made sense to Barcelona's decision-makers. Although it raised eyebrows throughout the football world I don't remember anybody claiming that Dembele was not a Barca level footballer. The question for TT is whether Dembele is good enough now to make us more competitive with the top clubs. While I would prefer Gnarby, I do think that Dembele can improve us.

The account of Barca’s acquisition of Dembele given in Simon Kuper’s book The Barcelona Complex is incredible. Barca had the massive cash influx from the Neymar sale and needed to spend it, they were offered Mbappe and Haaland, but instead focused on Dembele, and despite having a firm maximum amount they would spend, they caved and gave BVB a fortune:

Barça went looking for a star. The Spanish agent Junior Minguella offered the board the eighteen-year-old French forward Kylian Mbappé, already a sensation at Monaco. Mbappé’s family had decided that Barcelona was the right team for him. Monaco preferred to sell him to Barça rather than French rivals PSG. Barcelona would have had to pay a transfer fee of about €100 million plus bonuses. But Minguella waited in vain for a reply from Barça until finally a WhatsApp message arrived from a board member, Javier Bordas: “Thanks for passing him on to me. But as you see, neither the coaches nor Presi [the president] wanted him.” According to Minguella, one Barça directiu had asked, “What has Mbappé done yet to warrant that price?” Bordas would say years later that Barça had also turned down the young Erling Braut Haaland, because the technical staff thought the Norwegian wasn’t “a player in the Barça model.”

Instead Barça decided to replace Neymar with a different young Frenchman, Borussia Dortmund’s promising twenty-year-old winger Ousmane Dembélé. Bordas would recall, “The explanation at the time was that Mbappé plays for himself and Dembélé plays for the team.”

Three weeks after selling Neymar, Bartomeu and another Barcelona official flew to negotiate Dembélé’s transfer with their Dortmund counterparts in Monte Carlo, a favorite hub of the football business. The Barça duo arrived with a firm plan, reported the New York Times: They had resolved to pay a transfer fee of at most €80 million. Any more than that and they would walk away. Before knocking on the door of the assigned hotel room, the two men hugged each other. But when they walked into the room, recounted the newspaper, they got a surprise: “The Germans told their guests that they had a plane to catch. They had no time to exchange small talk, and they were not here to negotiate.” If Barça wanted the promising youngster, it would have to pay about $193 million, or double the budgeted sum.

Bartomeu succumbed. After all, he was president of the world’s richest club, and still something of a football virgin. He committed to pay $127 million up front for Dembélé, “with a further $50 million in easily-achieved performance bonuses,” wrote the New York Times. That was more than what Mbappé would have cost.

14 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

But if Gallagher plays that means he has to play next to Jorginho, who is our only DM/holding midfielder. 

Are we really going to go into next season with Jorginho as the only option again? This would mean Jorginho + Kante/Kovacic/Galalgher. 

I definitely think we need another DM option but I just mean if I HAD to choose between strengthening positions I think defence and attack are more urgent than the midfield at the moment. 

7 hours ago, OhForAGreavsie said:

Wages, big signing bonus, and big agents fees. Free transfers of sought-after players are anything but free.

yeah the 35m signing on fee is stinky

4 hours ago, timetowaste said:

I definitely think we need another DM option but I just mean if I HAD to choose between strengthening positions I think defence and attack are more urgent than the midfield at the moment. 

Fair enough. 

I personally feel there are enough CBs out there we can realistically get and only a small handful (probably less than that) of DMs we could get. Not convinced Gilmour or Ampadu can take over that role. Chalobah is a shout but The Premier League is a different animal with regards to needing to be press resistant and leading a transition from that deep. 

4 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Fair enough. 

I personally feel there are enough CBs out there we can realistically get and only a small handful (probably less than that) of DMs we could get. Not convinced Gilmour or Ampadu can take over that role. Chalobah is a shout but The Premier League is a different animal with regards to needing to be press resistant and leading a transition from that deep. 

Trev is untested in the PL there. He was at CB too and showed his metal there, so he could well be really good as a PL DM too.

Trev might be able to do job as DM. I could see how that could work. 

Dembele still on course to sign ⏳ just a matter of time, no idea when announcement is likely to be made, but if Barca won't up their offer Dembele should make a "decision" soon and inform Barca of his decision to leave.

With what happened with Kounde I wouldn't at all be surprised if another club is reportedly interested and within a matter of days its finalised whilst we are yet again holding our cocks in our hands. 

I believe Barca and Dembele will find an agreement in the end, is why PSG dropped out of the race. He wants to stay at Barca imo.

12 hours ago, axman2526 said:

I believe Barca and Dembele will find an agreement in the end, is why PSG dropped out of the race. He wants to stay at Barca imo.

I also believe that he wants to stay with Barca and has wanted that all along. 

On 13/06/2022 at 07:30, Scott Harris said:

I said a few weeks back that Real Madrid's midfield was a massive eye opener for me, it was everything I wish our midfield was today. Real Madrid's midfield is pretty much perfect, ours just looks disjointed.

Probably the closest combination that we have to rm midfield is

Kova - Mount 

Kante

On 14/06/2022 at 18:38, Sexyfootball said:

I think our current midfield doesn't offer quite enough cover to the defence from a defensive viewpoint, nor does it provide sufficient forward momentum or quality, and speed of momentum, to help the forwards succeed. After replacing Rudiger I would definitely look at midfield next. Be interesting to see what happens with Gallagher, but for me he's not the complete answer to fixing the midfield.

We badly need a creator in our midfield. A midfielder who makes quality first time passes to the attackers quickly. Jorginho is not the option for this. Eriksen is a free agent and a quality piece for this job. Coutinho would have been another good option for us unfortunately we missed the bus on that one.

I wouldn’t want Coutinho, he’s too hot & cold.

I’d take Eriksen definitely but I doubt he’d come here.

Dembele is top class when fit and has worked with Tuchelbefore and there is no transfer fee. 

38 minutes ago, dansubrosa said:

I wouldn’t want Coutinho, he’s too hot & cold.

I’d take Eriksen definitely but I doubt he’d come here.

He would though but unless the manager switches away from his back 5, I am afraid there is no place for him.

 

He did just get married last year, him and his wife probably settled there, maybe he’s just playing a high risk game over contract negotiations.