Chez

yeah pointless showing where we roughly are right now, far more fun speculating on how we might look if we find £100m down the back the sofa. 😉 Bento Sugawara THB Bednarek Taylor Riley Downs Sara AA Banza Carvalho

they need a CB and left back. I wonder what ABK might think of them.

If it's based in rumours, then Sugawara, Che and Ghodoss look strong candidates to be part of the squad. DeCordova-Reid maybe too. Macca Sugawara THB Bednarek Taylor Downes Ghodoss Smallbone AA Adams Fraser Lumley Bree Stephens ABK Manning Charles Aribo Lallana Edozie Stewart Sulemana Wright Abu, Larios, Meghoma Bragg, Alvarez, Djalo Dibling, SAA, Mara/Ballard, DeCordova-Reid

young players that get games get a lot of attention. Look past the young age and what kind of quality is there? He's not stood out at all in the games I have seen. I guess we are looking for players that can hold their own at Prem level. I am not convinced he has.

None of them dominated in the Championship. And IMO to make the step up, you literally need to be stand out championship players. Unless they somehow make a massive leap over the summer (not sure why that would be the case), then they all need a season in the championship. Can't loan everyone out though.

Spot on. Financial suicide to allow players to walk on frees, unless you only ever intend on signing players on frees. That said, the argument made by some last summer was that losing, let's says £12m we might have got for Che (assuming someone was willing to actually pay it - not sure we ever worked out of that was the case or not) was worth the gambling on the benefit he would provide to us getting promotion and the riches that brings. That gamble did pay off, I suppose, even if Adams wasn't the most crucial member of the starting side. Could the argument now be that keeping KWP in this first season back, and losing the £15m, or whatever, is worth the gamble if it helps keep us up? I'd say not, especially if the fee is more like £20-25m. At some point you have stop `gambling' and just get back to good prudent football succession planning. It's actually great news that we have a buyer offering serious money and it is a club KWP wants to join. Both may not have been true and then he;d simply see his contract out and we'd able to do nothing. Next summer we are scratching around for free signings. I don't want to lose him, but that's the hand we have in our hand.

Sure, it's a slight gamble, but West Ham fans didn't suggest he was out of his depth and most thought he should have got more game time. The alternative is to get someone with lots of Prem experience. However, if they have lots of Prem experience and they are good, they ain't coming here this summer. So, all you'd get is a player with lots of Prem experience that has failed to shine in that league. How is that better than a guy that `might' shine?

I have no idea why they gave Lumley a new deal, but they did. So he would come in. The u21 keeper Wright is either a decent prospect or he isn't (I don't really know), so he could be our third choice. It would be two keeper injuries before he saw game time. Third choice is never really getting a game unless there is a crisis. I think there are emergency keeper signings permitted and the January window of course.

I can't see us signing Macca and a first choice keeper. Ghoddos will be out of contract as of Monday. So any announcement of him signing for someone may just happen once we are in July. Although he perhaps started playing further forward (certainly in his first season at AZ), Sagawara has subsequently played RM or RW about ten times in total over the last four seasons (he's played 140 odd games in that time). So not sure you could say he's basically a winger. Is he defensively suspect? Is that what AZ fans have said?

I agree, centre midfield is the most important. I'm really looking forward to see if Downes can be as effective in the Prem (i.e. to see if he has improved, as he did OK for West Ham, but didn't exactly shione like he did for us).

done in this financial year, but no necessarily done this window. Obviously, if either of Adams or McCarthy don't sign, we'll bring someone else in.

With the accounting deadline on Sunday, I assume the swap deal will happen quickly and then any other transfers we make will fall in the next financial year (I am guessing we don't have any wriggle room ourselves to go after players from teams under financial pressure. I assume also that current contracts end on Sunday, so is it possible that McCarthy and Adams deals/departures are announced on Monday?

French clubs with money don't want Mara. French clubs without money probably interested. Doesn't help us much. I wonder if ABK's reputation in Germany still stands. Sully is going to come good. I think the likes Fraser, that lack that yard of pace, may struggle to make an impact in the Prem and there will be times when we are crying out for an injection of pace.

You are probably right, but dDon't underestimate how important the fullbacks are to the way we play. These guys need to have a brilliant first touch and the confidence to drop their shoulder and dribble inside to beat any press. This is something KWP has been doing brilliantly. If we lose quality in the fullback area, we are not going to ever get out of our own third. Hopefully Sugawara can do exactly the same job. Really excited to see him play, assuming that deal goes through.

Most reports have it as €4.5m for Lyanco, so about £3.8m, but certainly good to actually get some money back for some of these guys as it all adds up.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/articles/c4ngen37kwyo BBC reporting the swap deal. For accounting purposes, I guess both players are probably going to have `as big as they can get away with it' price tags announced. So maybe £25m Downes and £30m KWP (or vis versa), but ultimately very little cash moving between clubs.

West Ham have to...for one more year anyway. He wont be taking a wage cut this year. Either West Ham pay him, a new club pays him or the two combine. If he was offered a three year deal on less wages, he might look at the long term gain, but he ain't taking a 50% cut on a two year deal. He could sit tight and earn that in a year.

Puma logo shows up better on white, so that seems more likely.

it would be nice if we had a period of buying guys better than what we have and the current guys all becoming reserves and/or departing. For far too long we seemed to buy guys that we hoped would develop and be the replacement when the better player was sold on.

Interesting thought. Does he fit their style? Doesn't feel like a perfect match. Who is buying Doherty?

Harrison Burrows. Heavily linked with Sheff United. Good young player. Two division jump perhaps improbable.

Yes. That explains it.

Yeah, not a bad word on there. Although not too many words full stop. The only description I saw was `grafter', which doesn't sound overly thrilling, as we had that already with Perraud. Kompany played him at left back all season and he played 28 out of 38 Prem games. He didn't play left back in their promotion season or nearly as regularly. Did they have a left back out injured last season so that he got games?

Is he decent? Dunno, as I have not watched him. He's available on a free and if the best offer he has is Saints, that's not exactly a ringing endorsement. Is it low risk or low cost? Even with a free transfer there is risk. Maybe less financially, but the risk is we sign him and not someone else. He turns out to be no good and the other fella we should have signed turns out to be great. Manning was available on a free last summer and that seemed to be a sensible move, but he turned out to be pretty average to say the least and now we are stuck with hm for another three years. It's annoying there never seem to be highlights videos of Prem players. Wold be good to see how good he is on the ball.

who did he decide to join Athletico-MG or Botafogo? I read €4.5m fee, which is handy.