Summer transfer window 2023 - rumours, links and discussion.

[Hedontplayforyou]

If Weghorst leaves will we bring in another striker?

[ksrclaret]

Given how little he has played for Ajax l, not sure how they can form and opinion.

That is in itself a concern. We're about to pay around 13 mill for him looking at reports!

[Vegas Claret]

He signed a new contract yesterday, according to Sky.

[Steddyman]

Bloody hell fire Steddyman. Can I interest you in some of my magic beans?

Those Ajax fans are laughing their cocks off.

I didn't read some of them that way, but could be a language barrier thing.

The key is we are buying potential and the ability to learn. We have a very strong coaching team, so those are the most important attributes.

[Tricky Trevor]

Caught up. He signed an extension a fortnight ago but has now told them he wants out.
They should say, “NO”.

[Ampth7]

If Weghorst leaves will we bring in another striker?

Who knows?! Hopefully we can replace the goal scoring machine that is Wout Weghorst!!! Sorry, I couldn’t resist, and if he is still with us and plays a part this season, fingers crossed he can remember where the goal is.

[gandhisflipflop]

Sorry if I’ve missed something here I struggle to keep up but who is odobert?

[Jakubs Tash]

If Weghorst leaves will we bring in another striker?

I would suggest we need another. Hopefully Weghorst goes permanently - I want shut of him.

[Spiral]

Only recognise 3,or 4.

Quite a few are full internationals and playing in good teams in the top leagues. I recognise Haaland, Sancho, Hudson-Odoi and Vinicius Jr (obviously), but among the others I also recognise Alphonso Davies, Moise Kean, Geertruida, Neto at Wolves, Ferran Torres, so a good 9 I recognise out of that list that are playing at a high level or indeed the very highest level, club and country, and most of those I've mentioned have won something.

[dermotdermot]

Someone who I thought we had signed last week. Odobert, that is.

[ksrclaret]

Sorry if I’ve missed something here I struggle to keep up but who is odobert?

Another French winger from Troyes we're supposedly buying for something like 10 mill

[Jakubs Tash]

I think there’s a good chance that this link to the Ajax winger is a smokescreen. A right footed left winger? When we have Zaroury, JBL and Redmond already…?

I could be totally wrong but I’m not convinced VK wants this lad “at all costs”.

[Ampth7]

Another French winger from Troyes we're supposedly buying for something like 10 mill

Supposedly being the operative word.

[Pickles]

If Weghorst leaves will we bring in another striker?

Another striker's needed anyway.

[gandhisflipflop]

Another French winger from Troyes we're supposedly buying for something like 10 mill

With all these wingers. I can see us playing counter attacking football next season at lightening pace.

[Pickles]

"All these wingers"

Zaroury, Benson, Redmond, Bruun Larsen.

It really isn't that many.

[Spiral]

Another striker's needed anyway.

Agree. Jay can do the job but his fitness over a whole season is not as sure a thing as some other players. If he's injured we might only have Foster and Wout to choose from as the false 9, and that's a risky way to go into the season. For me, order of priority goes CDM, LB, then a striker, even if Weghorst stays.

[ksrclaret]

"All these wingers"

Zaroury, Benson, Redmond, Bruun Larsen.

It really isn't that many.

Koleosho as well, with strong, active links to the following:

Townsend
Odobert
Daramy
Tella
Ramsey
Clarke

Obviously we're not signing them all, but that's why the comment was made.

[RVclaret]

Agree. Jay can do the job but his fitness over a whole season is not as sure a thing as some other players. If he's injured we might only have Foster and Wout to choose from as the false 9, and that's a risky way to go into the season. For me, order of priority goes CDM, LB, then a striker, even if Weghorst stays.

Amdouni?

[Spiral]

I feel as though the Ajax lad and Odobert are because we think the Tella fee is going to be too high.

[Pearcey]

"All these wingers"

Zaroury, Benson, Redmond, Bruun Larsen.

It really isn't that many.

JBG, Vitinho, Twine have all played on the wing and we also have Koleosho.

[Spiral]

Amdouni?

He's more of a 10 than a false 9. That Swiss expert I mentioned earlier said that statistically Amdouni's playstyle profile (not ability or level) is closest to Messi of all other big names used to compare playstyle. I'm imagining him buzzing around the striker, not playing as the striker.

[Pickles]

Koleosho as well, with strong, active links to the following:

Townsend
Odobert
Daramy
Tella
Ramsey
Clarke

Obviously we're not signing them all, but that's why the comment was made.

I hope he's absolutely class for us but Koleosho has played about four games in his entire life so far.

I'm not surprised at all that we're still looking to sign wide forwards/wingers. I don't understand all the fuss. The way we play, the way Kompany likes to change both players in positions in game... five or six options over the course of a season isn't unrealistic. And some of the players listed above aren't wingers. I'm not 100% convinced Tella would be arriving as a winger. And Redmond, I think, could be brought in to play the Gudmundsson role. (Left of a midfield three.)

In short - it's a position we need to strengthen considering how (I think) Kompany will want to play going off last season.

[CFS]

Heard arsenal want Benson on season long loan.

[Pickles]

JBG, Vitinho, Twine have all played on the wing and we also have Koleosho.

Not a chance in hell Gudmundsson, Vitinho or Twine play as wingers in the Prem.

[jedi_master]

Are you sure about that? https://twitter.com/danielAFCdamsco/sta ... 45408?s=20

As I said further up, I was basing this from the (many) Ajax fans who responded to the original tweet from Romano who were not complimentary. There were some who also were, but the majority not.

I have actually been reading an Ajax forum (translation on and I’ve linked below). Similar again, very mixed to negative opinion. On news of our interest they make lots of sarcastic comments about him - and a few wonder if there is even a suggestion put forward of whether we might offer Weghorst in part/ex:

https://www.ajaxtalk.nl/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=13764

[Boss Hogg]

Roma linked with Weghorst on loan

Can’t a club just buy him.

[Pearcey]

Not a chance in hell Gudmundsson, Vitinho or Twine play as wingers in the Prem.

JBG has played as winger a fair bit in the prem to be fair. We also have Churlinov. I guess that people are saying we have a lot of wingers, not just the four.

[AfloatinClaret]

you've only got to look at the improvement in Barnes, Cork, Brownhill and JBG last season to see that VK and his coaches know what they are doing

You don't think the fact that they showed these improvements during the one season they played in the Championship instead of the Premier was significant then?

[distortiondave]

On my BFC FM23 save, upon winning promotion, I sold Weghorst to Ajax for £8m and the fan confidence in my transfer dealings went from a nice green B to a dubious yellow C.

Should have been up to A, but you can't please everyone.

[Spiral]

You're allowed to name 9 subs in the PL. The 6 defensive players including the GK are the tactical basis on which everything Kompany does is built. That doesn't change too much during a game. That gives you 5 progressive attacking players on the field, and you ideally want replacements on the bench for all of them. Kompany only ever plays 1 proper striker, the other players are attackers who can play all across the wide and central forward positions. So you've got 1 striker + 1 striker sub on the bench, maybe 2, and you're got 4 other attacking players around him, with 4 more on the bench to change the game. That means you've got 8 attacking midfielders/wingers/No10's in a matchday squad, meaning you're probably looking at having at least 9 or 10 on the books to cover for injury and suspension.

Looked at like this, you could have

Benson
Zaroury
Amdouni
Brownhill
Twine
JBG
Koleosho
Larsen
Townsend
Redmond
1 more - Odobert, which would make 11

Anything beyond Odobert starts to look like we're giving ourselves a safety net on account of a number of things: Zaroury's form & AFCON, Benny's fragility, Koleosho's inexperience. Say Benny plays like he did against ManU 12 times before Christmas, we're gonna struggle to fend off bids. Koleosho could be a pleasant surprise but the lad is only 18 and has barely played more professional games than any of us on here, so we can't bank on him yet. There's sense in stacking up in that department.

[Pickles]

JBG has played as winger a fair bit in the prem to be fair. We also have Churlinov. I guess that people are saying we have a lot of wingers, not just the four.

He has. But he won't. Different manager, different system. He barely played as a winger for us last season in the division below. And surely no-one envisages Churlinov as a serious suggestion, even if he wasn't injured.

We don't have has many options in those positions that everyone making us out to have. No surprises whatsoever that we still want one or two.

[fatboy47]

Don’t you dare call me racist ,just stating a fact that as I’m getting older I struggle will the less easier names ,your just a **** stirrer.

Apologies. Just being a bit flippant, but fully understand you being annoyed.

[Tricky Trevor]

I hope he's absolutely class for us but Koleosho has played about four games in his entire life so far.

Admittedly a friendly but his second half performance was very encouraging. At the right age for improving if his head is on his football and he listens to his coaches. Never guaranteed with young men.

[Tricky Trevor]

Ray Sist, is he another winger?

[Crookedbillet]

Apologies. Just being a bit flippant, but fully understand you being annoyed.

Well done on the apology, a few people on here could learn from that.

[GodIsADeeJay81]

I feel as though the Ajax lad and Odobert are because we think the Tella fee is going to be too high.

Too high or Saints aren’t in a hurry to sell so we’ve decided to find others instead

[Vegas Claret]

You don't think the fact that they showed these improvements during the one season they played in the Championship instead of the Premier was significant then?

ah, so their first touch, movement and vision only looked improved because we weren't playing Man City, gotcha

[colne-claret]

Daramy is an interesting one. I think as mentioned by many others that this is likely to be a Tella alternative. I’ve seen him a few times and he is very quick, bigger than Tella and good with his feet. This is a signing that would excite me a lot more then Tella.

[123EasyasBFC]

Brighton in for the left back Hartman, that could spell the end of our interest

[roperclaret]

Caught up. He signed an extension a fortnight ago but has now told them he wants out.
They should say, “NO”.

Unless they already knew and the new contract was purely so they could command a fee?

[ksrclaret]

You're allowed to name 9 subs in the PL. The 6 defensive players including the GK are the tactical basis on which everything Kompany does is built. That doesn't change too much during a game. That gives you 5 progressive attacking players on the field, and you ideally want replacements on the bench for all of them. Kompany only ever plays 1 proper striker, the other players are attackers who can play all across the wide and central forward positions. So you've got 1 striker + 1 striker sub on the bench, maybe 2, and you're got 4 other attacking players around him, with 4 more on the bench to change the game. That means you've got 8 attacking midfielders/wingers/No10's in a matchday squad, meaning you're probably looking at having at least 9 or 10 on the books to cover for injury and suspension.

Looked at like this, you could have

Benson
Zaroury
Amdouni
Brownhill
Twine
JBG
Koleosho
Larsen
Townsend
Redmond
1 more - Odobert, which would make 11

Anything beyond Odobert starts to look like we're giving ourselves a safety net on account of a number of things: Zaroury's form & AFCON, Benny's fragility, Koleosho's inexperience. Say Benny plays like he did against ManU 12 times before Christmas, we're gonna struggle to fend off bids. Koleosho could be a pleasant surprise but the lad is only 18 and has barely played more professional games than any of us on here, so we can't bank on him yet. There's sense in stacking up in that department.

I just think we're going to end up with a really bloated and top heavy squad if we sign anymore of those forward types. If we'd have pooled our resources and got 1 or 2 quality players and one of Redmond or Townsend instead of collecting a load of maybes we'd have a starting 11 that looked a big stronger. At the moment I'm seeing a long list of players, most of whom have rather a large question mark against their name with respect to playing PL footy.

I also think we're going to have to go with 7 defensive players quite a bit this coming season.

[Spiral]

We could hypothetically name a PL matchday squad like this:

Muric
Roberts
O'Shea
Beyer
Al-Dakhil
Cullen
Zaroury
Amdouni
Brownhill
Benny
Foster

Subs:

Trafford
Ekdal
Taylor
Lokonga
Twine
Jay
Townsend
Redmond
Odobert

That means, of the main competitive squad (I don't include Bastien, Dodgson, Churlinov etc in that list) you've got Cork, Koleosho, Larsen, JBG, Wout (whom we might move on and replace with another striker), plus maybe another 1 wide player (Tella or his alternative, though Tella would be a starter obviously) not making that given matchday squad. So you've got the 11, plus the 9 subs, taking you to 20, then 6 more players who you can rotate into the next matchday squad in case of injury, suspension and fixture pile-up/rest. Because Trafford, Odobert and Koleosho don't take up squad places (all under 21) we're looking at having space for another few players over 21 that can be added to the squad. I think Daramy even sneaks in as an under 21 by a few days, but I could be wrong. Of course, what that all means there's zero chance Churlinov and Obefemi make the 25 man squad for the first half of the season.

(this post took a lot of concentration, I apologise if I've made a glaring error or omission somewhere in it)

[claretblue]

Tella reported the following before Southampton v Sheff Wed tomorrow:
“Having the chance to play our first game live on Sky (Sports) against Sheffield Wednesday will be a great feeling,” Tella said at the club’s official media day, quoted by the Southern Daily Echo.

“It’s good for the fans to obviously see everything we’ve worked on in pre-season coming into play for the first game and it sets the tempo for how we want to be the whole season.”

[Goody1975]

Tella reported the following before Southampton v Sheff Wed tomorrow:
“Having the chance to play our first game live on Sky (Sports) against Sheffield Wednesday will be a great feeling,” Tella said at the club’s official media day, quoted by the Southern Daily Echo.

“It’s good for the fans to obviously see everything we’ve worked on in pre-season coming into play for the first game and it sets the tempo for how we want to be the whole season.”

Southampton have a tough looking start to the season and especially with the league looking so strong, they'll need to get going early to keep the natives happy.

The fixtures don't start to ease until early October.

[Spiral]

I just think we're going to end up with a really bloated and top heavy squad if we sign anymore of those forward types. If we'd have pooled our resources and got 1 or 2 quality players and one of Redmond or Townsend instead of collecting a load of maybes we'd have a starting 11 that looked a big stronger. At the moment I'm seeing a long list of players, most of whom have rather a large question mark against their name with respect to playing PL footy.

I also think we're going to have to go with 7 defensive players quite a bit this coming season.

It makes me genuinely wonder if we've had some unreported interest in Benny and rather than trying to replace him for like quality, we're taking scatter gun approach in the hope we find another gem. I reckon we're almost certainly gonna end up with at least one more Dervisoglu type situation where someone comes for game time only to play even less than if they'd stayed where they were.

[Spiral]

Thinking about the 25-man squad, here's all the players I can think of over age 21 as the squad stands (because U21s don't take up squad places I don't think). Can anyone see if I've missed anyone?

Muric
Vigoroux
Roberts
Ameen
O'Shea
Beyer
Ekdal
Taylor
Vitinho
Cullen
Cork
Bastien
Brownhill
Twine
JBG
Benny
Zaroury
Redmond
Amdouni
Larsen
Obafemi
Churlinov
Foster
Jay
Wout

25 bang on. Any incomings over 21yo will require someone moving on, or perhaps as I said above Obefemi and Churlinov don't make the first half season squad because of injury. Maybe Wout and Bastien are replaced like-for-like, and maybe if we bring in a LB Taylor goes (will miss him, amazing servant for us). So with all that in mind, assuming Wout, Bastien and Taylor are replaced like-for-like by over 21's, and assuming Obafemi and Churlinov aren't named, we're at 23 over 21's (with the home grown quota easily met). Add Townsend to that and we're at 24. We've got wiggle room for 1 more over 21. After that the only way we make signings is by getting people out the door.

[Goody1975]

Apologies if already posted but couldn't find a link on here to the Weghorst rumour.

So here it is.

https://www.tuttomercatoweb.com/serie-a ... ey-1860355



Rome, Weghorst the new name for the attack: loan hypothesis from Burnley


Wout Weghorst new name for Roma forward. According to what was collected by the TMW editorial staff, the Giallorossi club has targeted the center forward born in 1992 owned by Burnley, but who seems destined to leave the Premier League. In addition to the main coup, with the names of Gianluca Scamacca and Alvaro Morata which have however become very complicated, the general manager of the Giallorossi club, Tiago Pinto, is also thinking of the Dutchman, protagonist in the last World Cup in Qatar with the Orange shirt, also considering the brace, which was of no use, against Argentina in the quarter-finals.


The Formula.

He won't be the onerous purchase that Roma are trying to make for next season's attack, but Weghorst could arrive with the onerous loan formula, perhaps even adding a right of redemption, to be exercised next summer. However, there are also Bundesliga clubs on the player, one meter ninety-seven tall, with the final decision that will be made on the player next week.

The Career.

Born and raised in football in Emmen, he then made his debut in the Eredivisie with the Heracles shirt, before moving to AZ Alkmaar in 2016, for what was his last adventure in his country. In fact, in 2018 Weghorst then moved to the Bundesliga, to Wolfsburg, where he remained for four seasons, before moving on to Burnley. Last year two loans, first to Besiktas and then to Manchester United, without however convincing the Red Devils, given the 14 appearances without a goal in the Premier League.

[Spiral]

Er, here's something interesting: Maatsen's birthday falls after Jan 1st 2002. He's considered an under 21 under PL rules.

pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease. Oh my god it's the hope that kills you.

[Commy]

Have we ever had a team with so much pace, and as many two footed players?