The transfer window is finally picking up some speed. We have made an enquiry for a Italian defender, gave green light to Lokonga’s departure and made our no. 1 goal keeper a permanent and we are going to get some free money.
Most exciting of them all is our pursuit of Riccardo Calafiori. Mikel has approved the transfer, the club has present their long term proposal to the player and he is open to join. But there are couple of complications! Bologna wants a hefty 43m GBP (50m euros). Riccardo is on the younger side (22years of age) and that’s a lot of money for a defender who will sit behind Gabriel and Saliba. He has played only one season of top flight football at Bologna, before which he was at Basel for couple of season. You get a very mature, proven defender for that amount. The other complication is that the player had, in the past, shown interest to join West Ham or Chelsea in the future, and the later is interested in the player as well. I mean, Chelsea are interested in every player being sold in the whole world, but they get what they want even after the Russian left. Mudryk is the case in point.
The positives about the players is that he is on the younger side. He joins a pack who has matured in last 2 seasons and he will learn and adapt like Gabriel and Saliba did. He had a very good season at Bologna, helping them qualify for Champions League after 60 years and was one of the best players in the league. He has played really well in the ongoing Euros and played all the games in group stages. Playing in the Italian team at the Euros level is a confirmation in itself that player is good enough.
Verdict? I think it’s only about the money. I feel we would be paying more for a CB defender who have Gabriel and Saliba ahead of him in pecking order; but, then we had shelled 50 odd millions for a CB earlier who plays at the right back, so yeah.
Sambi never looked promising enough to break into the team. He did get a few games to prove himself and even played couple of good games but that isn’t enough for a team that is fighting and going to fight for the title. He had to leave, Sevilla was interested for which the player gave a green light and the clubs are negotiating on the fees. If Sevilla has a bag full of 15m, take that and run.
This one isn’t particularly exciting, not anymore. Everyone knew David Raya’s loan move would be made permanent, and we have done that finally. We have activated the buy option and Brentford are going to receive 27m GBP.
The club hasn’t announced it yet officially but it’s a done deal. Raya has proved his worth, he kept the most clean sheets in the league even when it was the Ramsdale who played the initial few games for the club. This is just going to make life difficult for the Englishman.
Remember we sold Omari Hutchinson coule years back to Chelsea? Well, they are selling him to Ipswich Town for 22m and we had a sell-on clause in that deal. We would get about 4m from there.
Frankly, I have no idea how Chelsea can sell a player who played half a game for them in 2022-23 season and was on loan for the previous one. On the other hand, we will get half that money for Tavares and Lokonga if we are lucky.
Right, so 27m outgoing for 4m incoming as things stand. If we win the race for Riccardo, we would have to go on a sell spree because we still need to address the midfield and the striker situation. A RB back up as well.
Short one today, let me know in the comments what you think about these.
Norg
How the hell Bliar never faced either a war crimes trial in the Hague or a trial over here for High Treason I’ll never know.
Marc
El B must have employed Alistair Campbell – Pedro swallowed the spin hook line and sinker.
Alistair Campbell (Burnley Supporter) was probably the best spin doctor around. He made Brown sound like a saint. It just shows how gullible the British electorate are – Campbell said Brown was prudent and they believed him. He sold the crown jewels (gold reserves) for peanuts because he got the timing wrong. It cost the British taxpayer 1500GBP each.
Brown sold the gold
Norg
We recently had the accusations against several Tory Ministers about bullying from the (un) Civil Service. The complaints against Raab were particularly stupid.
Its strange that there were never any complaints against Brown who was renowned for throwing phones against walls in a fit of rage.
As much as I’d pay to see Bliar etc all publicly hung I can admire how he, Campbell, Mandelson etc kept a seriously tight ship and the lala lefty MP’s undercontrol.
The idea that Starmer will manage that is laughable – he tried to sack Rayner a couple of years ago and ended up promoting her.
Everytime I watch Emi, who Messi refers to as the greatest Keeper in world football, I can’t help but think, thank God we got rid of that bum…Messi misses the first penalty, so what does Emi do, he saves the next 2…I would take him in a fucking walking boot over anyone we’ve brought in since…just saying
TRVL
Thanks, got to my villa and got hit by a phase power cut opened all the doors and went online, as only the A/C got hit in the villas.
Looks like a Greek, Arabic and Turkish restaurant serves this villa resort, so putting it to the test.
KP
Welcome back I thought you’d be happy for Rishi to be gone. Couldn’t stand him; it’s like he never grew up in the real world.
You know me I’m not political and never voted in my life. I would have voted for early Maggie, though. Being a nomad governments didn’t really affect my life.They all lie; manifestos are just spin for the election for me.
Let’s see what your man can do. I hope for British people the economy can bring good times again.
Marc
Thanks for your thoughts and agree with you with economists and their cycles.
My 10 pence for the football is Emi saved Messi’s blushes and showed why; although a 24 carat dick, he’s in the top 3 globally.
Timber should be played in his natural RB position. Kiwior did put in some good games last season, but not sure he’s starter material.
El B has never been a Saliba fan: facts are facts and reality is reality with El B.
Keep saying it we need an 8, have done for 5 years.
No idea what this TW is going to look like? Anyone got an idea?
Marc
After such a low turn out Starmer has a Government built on sand foundations. A quick glance at the majority of a high percentage of Labour controlled seats shows only a slight swing away from Labour will be a landslide defeat.
If he performs well it could all change – but the Labour parties manifesto is fairly vague as pointed out by most serious journalists.
Sunak will fall on his sword and resign as leader – it will not be long before he quits politics forever.
Havertz confirming why we need a specialised CF.
Norg
Agree – at face value it should be plain sailing for Starmer but they’ve won a huge majority with a small percentage of the votes so he can’t go full steam on things like tax increases for fear of upsetting voters whilst having the left wing of the party only seeing the Parliamentary majority so will be frustrated if he moves cautiously.
I reckon he’ll be replaced in a coup in 18 – 24 months – probably lead by Rayner / Miliband.
Germany trying their best to not win this…
I guess Toni Kross is gettng a free pass today, as he should have received, at bare minimum, 4 yellow cards…I don’t have any skin in this game, so it hardly matters to me, but if Spain losses it will undoubtedly be a major talking point
Ambarish—Havertz can be the man so long as he’s afforded 20 Grade A chances to score each and every goal…if he wasn’t so wrapped up with his own self-serving narrative he could have passed up that chip and slid a simple pass to a wide open teammate for an easy tally
Unai SImon is a bang average Keeper, so what does that say about our “like a new signing” Raya, who’s sitting behind him
that Yamal has a horrible attitude for a kid of 16 getting a shot to perform at the highest of levels…that seems to be par for the course nowadays though…he literally pushed Olmo out of the way after he scored then went on his own towards the crowd when the rest of the team gathered around the actual goal scorer
Oh Lord, now fucking Merino will somehow be our starting Striker next season
TRVL
Yep, Tony should have been sent off for 3 times minimum in the game.
Ambarish—especially in a match that had over a dozen yellows and a late-game red….Spain might be without a lot of players for the upcoming semis due to both yellow card accumulations and a few key injuries
Portugal v France – A good game to finish Friday night.
missing NOT without
Ambarish
You lightweight it’s a good game to start the night!
Can someone get Deschamps to drop Saliba – I don’t like it when he looks like the best defender in the world when playing for France.
Madrid are watching.
Haha, Marc we run 5 and half hours late 😀 I still agree with you, just started my weekend after a year.