Summer Transfer Window (2024/25)

[Awol]

31 minutes ago, Jas10 said:

Yep, must be a few options out there. Players like Ugarte and Soler could be brought in on loan to buy deals… and spare some of our funds.

Players on the fringes of CL teams who might want a move away and more minutes.

Fermin Lopez is one we’ve already had some weak links to, and Dani Ceballos last summer. Both CMs on the fringes at Real. 

[Jas10]

Just now, abdulaziz1 said:

Exactly, as we’ve seen last season, we were regressing without Kamara, we can’t just continue with what we have and expect gradual improvement. We’ll have to act. 
Most of our players aren’t Emery players, only Torres, Moreno, Tielemans and Diaby are. 
So far we could see the immediate affect of Torres, then the dimension that was added by Moreno. Tielemans addition for the squad. People can argue about Diaby but his numbers were good, and got better towards the end of the season.

More and more… I’m starting to wonder whether will be more solid, physical and imposing in the centre of midfield to allow others to shine, to create and attack more… allow more freedom.

We can’t afford or allow teams to dominate or overpower us in midfield…

Again, we barely impressed in ECL and struggled against comparatively weak teams (especially compared to those we will face in CL)… we will have to do much better and the best way is to have a better team out there… the regularity of harder or more competitive games is going to increase too.

E.g. We may have to play a top CL team in the week and a top PL team at the weekend… several times. It’s going to be challenging and we need players that are going to regularly be up for the task.

[duke313]

17 minutes ago, CarryOnVilla said:

We can’t do anything about Boubs fitness, but buying more players on an already stacked midfield to replace him is pretty poor idea

replacing Doug, yes it’s ideal. He was poorer (not bad) without Kamara that’s just fact. 

but we have essentially replaced Doug and Tim for Barkley and Barrenechea 

Enzo is a more senior player than Tim and a better back up to Boubs, no doubt. And in theory hold the fort until Kamara is up to speed
 

Barkley had a great season, some say better than Doug. Even the stats suggests Barkley had a good season 

one of them stats is Doug’s and the other is Barkley’s, can you tell which one is which? I can’t even remember which one is which. 
 

Barkley isn’t a glamour signing, but it negates the need of buying more to cover Doug. 

Yes I love more options there, but it’s not a priority of need as our options are already stacked

Kamara is going to miss half the season, and may take even longer to get up to speed.  We still need someone to cover his absence, Enzo can't be expected to to that.  I think we'll see someone come in on loan in the DM position.  That we they can cover/rotate for Kamara, but they aren't signed permanently.

[BOF]

[Jas10]

Control is what Unai seems to crave and demand more than anything… he regularly brings it up as well as structure.

So we need (more) players like Dougie that are comfortable on the ball and can pass it well and with ease…

Maybe more rounded ones but we will continue to improve our passing play and patterns and try and rip teams apart

[CVByrne]

3 hours ago, PaulMcGrath_5 said:

I am intrigued to see if we go out and buy another CM to "replace" Dougie and if so, what type? A like for like or someone more defensive?

Tielemans replaces Dougie and Barkley replaces Tielemans. Barrenechea replaces Tim/Donk. 

I think we will want 1 more CM in the McGinn type who is versatile in positions

[abdulaziz1]

1 minute ago, useless said:

Musah is a box-to-box midfielder, he just happened to be a winger in his academy days, so he can play as a wide midfieler, or even as a winger, but he's more of CM and could play in our central midfieder and is pretty good on the ball, albeit i don't think he could help us control games to the same extent that Luiz did. I thought of him as he's a similar profile to some of our other signings recently - young and versatile, see also Dobbin, Iling, Kosta, and Rogers, and could probaby do a similar job to whatever it was we were intending for McKennie

I don’t think McKennie would’ve been perfect if was just a view how to benefit out of the deal. I don’t think we’d have tried to get him if it wasn’t for PSR and just trying to utilize. Having him would’ve meant not going for an RB. For me, I’d get Kayode and have 2 young quality RB’s rather then getting someone to play occasionally there. However getting an LCB the could do Konsa job would be great to be able to change the attacking tactics from right to left. It’s totally different than getting main midfielder for his wide qualities. 

[CVByrne]

30 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

I forgot Maresca was their Manager.

Good point.

Means they're serious about moving Gallagher on anyway

[allani]

More like they couldn't sell Di Lorenzo because no-one would buy him.   Kayode on the other hand would be an exceptional signing.

[abdulaziz1]

2 minutes ago, CVByrne said:

Tielemans replaces Dougie and Barkley replaces Tielemans. Barrenechea replaces Tim/Donk. 

I think we will want 1 more CM in the McGinn type who is versatile in positions

Barrenechea replaces Kamara. We need someone to replace Luiz. For our current team, Barrenechea has to start all tough games, however for those games where we’re expected to attack more we can use the Luiz replacement with Tielemans.

[abdulaziz1]

2 minutes ago, allani said:

More like they couldn't sell Di Lorenzo because no-one would buy him.   Kayode on the other hand would be an exceptional signing.

For me we need players on the up such as Kayode. We shall not go get players declining or fancy names. 
All of our signings should be looked at with longer term view, as well as short term. Yes we can get some short term additions for the squad such as Barkley (knowing there is no resale value, or certain loans such as Lenglet or Zaniolo). I’d try and not get any players from any called big teams unless they were on the up, we can’t gamble on overpriced players. We’ve seen what happened with Coutinho. 

[Aston_Villan4]

5 minutes ago, abdulaziz1 said:

For me we need players on the up such as Kayode. We shall not go get players declining or fancy names. 
All of our signings should be looked at with longer term view, as well as short term. Yes we can get some short term additions for the squad such as Barkley (knowing there is no resale value, or certain loans such as Lenglet or Zaniolo). I’d try and not get any players from any called big teams unless they were on the up, we can’t gamble on overpriced players. We’ve seen what happened with Coutinho. 

Coutinho was a Gerrard buy though. Emery isn’t going to sign an old pal of his for the sake of it. If he were to sign an older player it would be a very well thought out decision.

[duke313]

15 minutes ago, CVByrne said:

Tielemans replaces Dougie and Barkley replaces Tielemans. Barrenechea replaces Tim/Donk. 

I think we will want 1 more CM in the McGinn type who is versatile in positions

I'd be extremely surprised if Barrenechea comes in starts 20+ games.

[allani]

1 hour ago, Delphinho123 said:

We shouldn’t go into this season with McGinn being considered as a central midfielder. We should also plan for Kamara not being with us for at least 60% of the campaign. 

With that being the case, it leaves Tielemans, Barkley and Barrenchea as central midfielders. Personally, I’d like us to add at least one more quality option here. 

It’s worth remembering that Barkley was statistically better than Luiz at almost everything last season in a poorer side and Tielemans was better than Luiz for large parts of the campaign so I don’t think we’re that much weaker than last season if you were to pick a best XI as is.

One quality option in there - whether it be Onana, Gallagher, Fofana etc. would give us real options though and nobody would be able to rest on their laurels as you’d simply lose your place if you did.

I agree with your first point re: McGinn.  He's not a central midfielder - we've been forced to play him there before (lots of time) and most of the time we struggled with balance as a team.  Play him further forward (or potentially as a third CM) and he is a completely different player and we are a completely different team.  I think a few people remember the time it worked against Arsenal and immediately forgot all the times it didn't.  (And to repeat that's not me knocking McGinn - we just need to play him more often in the right position!).

I disagree on your second point.  For the first two thirds of the season Luiz was (in my opinion) well ahead of Barkley and Tielemans - and that's coming from someone who said at the start of last season that Tielemans might be our POTS.  It is a big ask for Barkley and Tielemans to match Luiz's form for most of the season.  That said I think they are probably both better at handling the absence of Kamara than Luiz was (although it has to be remembered that Luiz had also played a LOT of football by the time Kamara was injured).  Also Barkley and Tielemans is a better balanced CM partnership than Luiz and McGinn.  So we've got more (and more balanced) options now for sure.

Like you say one more quality player in there and our midfield as a unit probably does look stronger and better placed for a long season.  That assumes that Enzo does what Kamara did when he first arrived and hits the ground running (just without the getting injured bit).  Personally I think he's going to have a good season but then he'll step up again next season to a new level and we'll see a player that could well start pushing for a place in the Argentina set-up.

[burchy]

I think with the words said a while back by Unai, in that we’ll need to be a bit creative and then push for our dreams (or words to that effect) I think people might be surprised with how hard we go in this market. 

[paul514]

22 minutes ago, CVByrne said:

Tielemans replaces Dougie and Barkley replaces Tielemans. Barrenechea replaces Tim/Donk. 

I think we will want 1 more CM in the McGinn type who is versatile in positions

If you want to drop the quality of central midfield and risk not having enough numbers...

[rubberman]

4 minutes ago, duke313 said:

I'd be extremely surprised if Barrenechea comes in starts 20+ games.

Agreed. Seeing as he was a last minute makeweight in the deal after McKennie started pissing about, I don't think he was targeted to replace Kamara immediately. I still expect to see a loan of a more senior player there.

[duke313]

2 minutes ago, rubberman said:

Agreed. Seeing as he was a last minute makeweight in the deal after McKennie started pissing about, I don't think he was targeted to replace Kamara immediately. I still expect to see a loan of a more senior player there.

Would love Ugarte on loan, seems to be available but would be difficult with United after him.

[ender4]

7 minutes ago, duke313 said:

Would love Ugarte on loan, seems to be available but would be difficult with United after him.

Would he rather a Champions League team or a basket case of a team where the manager is going to be sacked midway through the season?

But yes they will offer much more money than us.

[ender4]

12 minutes ago, burchy said:

I think with the words said a while back by Unai, in that we’ll need to be a bit creative and then push for our dreams (or words to that effect) I think people might be surprised with how hard we go in this market. 

To me that sounds like we don't have the cash to go big, so we need to be creative instead and then we can hopefully dream that we've done enough to be able to dream.