tajjuk

The core of Wolves team still were there from the Championship (Doherty, Bennet, Boly, Coady, Ruddy, Gibbs-White all played a lot in the Championship and all but Ruddy made regular PL appearances) and the players they added included two very experienced and proven quality players in Rui Patricio and Jao Moutinho, who also being Portuguese would have fit in easily with the other multiple Portuguese players already there. None of which really applies to Fulham or Villa, the core of those promotion winning teams was/is not really there, the players they signed were of more unknown quality than Wolves and they were signed from all over Europe so you didn't have the same common language or culture that Wolves have. The Wolves first team is basically made up of UK and Ireland players (Doherty, Bennet, Coady, Gibbs-White, Ruddy) or Portuguese/Spanish speakers (Neves, Patricio, Jota, Jonny, Moutinho, Jimenez). Thus it is much easier to blend new signings into a team that has an existing core and that many of the players share the same language/culture. They only have two players in the first team squad that are basically not UK & Ireland or Portugal/Spain/Mexico. (7 different nationalities represented if you count UK & Ireland as one) Villa in comparison have 11 different nationalities, Fulham have 13 different nationalities represented. So Aston Villa's transfer spree this summer has a lot more similarities with Fulham's last season than it does with Wolves and thus the hypothesis that they will 'do a Fulham' seems a fairly logical one.

I'm presuming the surprising club is probably Spurs. Seems like Bale's exit is imminent and they are not expecting Real to demand a very high transfer fee because they are desperate to get him off the books as he is on £600k a week. But you'd presume Real must be subsidising some of his wages if he has agreed a move or he is agreed to a massive pay cut because no way Spurs or probably even Utd are going to take those sort of wages on.

I don't think he's a terrible manager, but then to be fair Hughes had done a steady job most places he has been. But steady job is probably not enough, Rafa got that Newcastle team punching above their weight, being greater than the sum of their parts, that is not a good squad and he comfortably steered them clear of relegation for two seasons. So expectations of 'steady job' Bruce doing that are probably low, especially when you factor in that they have signed no one so far and they have lost their two top goalscorers in this window. You'd certainly think unless 4-5 quality players come in they are in trouble. Personally I'd reckon relegation is between Newcastle (due to the above), Brighton (terrible ends to a season tend to lead to poor following seasons) Sheff Utd (think they will be this years Cardiff, solid, hard to beat but ultimately not good enough), Villa (they have signed a lot but I am not sure on the quality and you have to wonder if the team spirit is going to be there). Outside chances I reckon are Bournemouth because they seem to have a bad run in them and only really weren't involved in relegation last year because of their fast start, they trailed away terribly and seem to ship goals easily. And the other one being Crystal Palace, especially if they lose Zaha. Norwich I reckon will surprise a few people and stay up comfortably. And I think we will be fine, hopefully a solid top half, outside push at 7th/8th if we can get these 3 more signings in.

Based on what? We were mid table form under Ralph, so with the same defence and more attacking options, there is very little logic that we would be skirting relegation all season if we didn't buy a new one.

I think he can do it, but Lemina just has to get over this period. I think the club have basically played this well, I mean the agreement from the start ok not great, but it happened. So they honour it, and just let him get on with it. If we sell him a for a decent fee then extra funds and wages for a player who was not involved much last year, if not then we have a player that pretty much knows he has to earn a move, should be motivated and who we know has quality, and has no beef with the club because they agreed to sell him just no one came in.

I dont think we chose Carrillo over Haller, that signing was a silly vanity one for a manager we should have sacked way before that. But yeh he does look like the kind of player we need, decent goalscoring record, decent age, big and mobile.

I dont think so, most of these things seem minor at best. Heard far worse for example about the Chelsea squad, how they pretty much down tools for various managers. Lots of issues heard about Man Utd as well. We have what a few disgruntled players who weren't or aren't because they weren't playing or want moves, a minor phone incident, a couple of young players maybe with not the best off the field lifestyle, and that is about it. Most of those are also based on rumour as well. From what we have seen everyone has turned up to training and those who were not with the squad last year like Cedric and Hoedt seem to be integrating well. Never have got this Bertrand bad attitude thing, always seem passionate about the club, seems a generally happy and amenable guy in interviews and stuff.

I'd reckon if we want to shift them for transfer fees, especially to European middling clubs or championship clubs we'll end up subsidising some of those wages. Lemina should be little issue, seems to be plenty takers who'll pay the fee and we should even earn a profit there on transfer fee I reckon. I think Cedric, Austin, McCarth, Gallagher, Reed and Boufal we should be able to sell for decent fees and not have to subsidise the wages. Clasie should have some takers in Holland and seems willing to drop his wages. Its Hoedt, Forster, Carillo, and Elynoussi are the ones that are going to be hard to shift. On big wages and they have basically all either been bad out on loan or basically have barely played in a year, so can't see many takers. I reckon those 4 will end up on loan or just sitting here eating up wages. I think the rest will have enough suitors and we'll clear wages and pick up a decent transfer fee.

Serge-Savic is a proper player, I am presuming that fee has stopped him moving to a European super club earlier, but you'd only think that would go through if they sold Pogba. I'd reckon more Lemina might be a Herrera replacement.

Bookmakers still have as favourites to sign Jarrod Bowen, but can't see why really, don't seem to be many concrete links and you'd think a position we have a decent amount of players in.

A good approach to appeal to the academy kids at the likes of Man City where they will unlikely ever have a path into the first team unless they are truly exceptional whereas there is a much clearer and proven route from academy to our first team.

Kind of agree though most of our forward players are suited to pressing opposition defenders (very natural for the likes of Long and Ings for example), but Ralph doesn't really play a gegenpress a la Klopp, we press the opposition high up the pitch if they play out from the back, but tend to play more of a low block if they have more advanced possession, so I don't think there is as much requirement for our defenders to push so far up the pitch, mainly because we don't have as much possession as say a Liverpool. We are more a counter attack based team. That will mean less space in behind and less need for super quick centrebacks, though they are nice to have. But it does put more onus on the midfield being highly mobile, which is why I agree we need a more mobile DM than Romeu long term. Plus it would be great to have someone who can dribble out of opposition presses to start attacks, a Dembele like player and the sort of role Naby Keita played for Ralph at Leipzig. Though you'd think Lemina could play this role, but obviously he wants to move on.

Also Bertrand is laughing and joking with Hoedt in the training vids, when they are doing the sprints I think.

It's a lot for a player who has had multiple serious injuries.

Not sure we want any Arsenal or Man Utd cast offs. These are two teams that just about stumbled into the top 6, almost falling over themselves to see who could bottle it the most, they are probably the two most likely candidates this year from the top 6 who might end up outside it. I just can't see many players that didn't get into those two teams who would improve us? Talk of Elneny being offered, does he improve us? Honestly unless it was one of their promising youngsters like Reiss Nelson (which seems unlikely) I think we are better off extracting as much cash as we can from these clubs. I am hoping for far more than £18 million, that would be a joke to be honest.

He's on the pre-season tour so I presume based on those that have been left behind either we want him to stay or there are no takers.

Reported fees look too low, if we are selling for as low as £18 million it should be out of the league IMO. The likes of Utd, Arsenal etc. should be paying upwards of £30 million, with some healthy sell on clauses. Today's £30 million is basically £15 million of two years ago pretty much. Good player but inconsistent, not a major loss really seeing as he was a squad player last year but would have liked to see what Ralph could have got out of him.

And Hoedt was doing the bleep test so nothing imminent there either by the looks of things.

Can't exactly seeing him being first choice which might be the issue, he might expect to be and Ralph probably quite rightly would have Hojberg and JWP ahead of him, and hes not really a DM so can't fill that gap, and we then have Redmond/Djenepo/Ings/Adams/Long further forward depending on formation, so struggling to see where he is going to fit in. Ideally you'd like him there to challenge JWP/Hojberg, but if hes not happy not being a nailed on starter probably best to let him go if we can get a decent fee for him.

Well yeh those are players who have proven themselves at Championship level for the most part and have some PL experience, plus still all young enough to improve with more game time, plus English lads so less worries over them settling in etc. So for Championship and newly promoted clubs they are probably decent options, and we are lucky that the Championship is a rich league for a '2nd Division', probably a lot of the richer championship clubs can spend and pay more than most clubs in the bottom half of leagues like Spain and France, as well as more than most clubs in like Holland, Belgium etc.

Good fee if true, I think a lot of people are being harsh on him, he's played some good games at this level and I'd say is a decent PL left back, he;ll do solidly for Villa. Considering he is only 23, English, has decent experience and has time left on his contract the fee seems about right to me. I didn't see many people comment about the fees for say Mepham or that guy from Bristol City which were around £15 million, but seem to think a similar fee for a guy of similar age with more premier league experience and who IIRC was whilst at loan at Fulham the best performing left back in the league, is too high. That seems a bit odd to me. The guy is probably a solid bottom, half PL left back and could still get better, hopefully we have some add ons there as well. But its a good sale as we have a better left back and possibly someone with more potential who needs more game time.

Considering IIRC Fulham were offering more like £12 million last year, I'd hope that initial bid would just be a starting point and we'd be able to get more from them. Things seem to be moving all round as we get closer to July.

Ings got 11 in 35 in the PL for a relegated Burnley side and 21 championship goals the year before, he's just had a career blighted by injuries so far. At least he has shown that he can score a decent amount of goals when fit., he just struggles to keep fit. Origi hasn't got close to that despite playing for Liverpool where he has worse than a 1 in 4 record and then before that in a Lille team that finished 6th, 3rd and 8th whilst he was there, he managed worse than 1 in 5, he literally has no pedigree of being a reliable goalscorer.

He's really not a very good striker, he scored 6 in 31 for Wolfsburg the season before last and I'm pretty sure the only reason he was still at Liverpool last season is that they were struggling for takers. He's just happened to be in the right place at the right time for a couple of high profile goals, but we are talking about a guy who has pretty much a 1 in 5 career record who has never scored more than 8 league goals in a season. He also has a wholly unimpressive international record of 3 in 26, despite playing for a Belgium team with the likes of De Bruyne and Hazard providing him chances. No thanks, I'd much rather pay a bit more for Adams who is younger and has already scored more career goals than Origi, albeit at a lower level.

He's had a decent season, has two years on his contract, is still only 25, there is no way he should leave for £8 million. There will be other takers for him who will pay higher than that, in the current market that is what you might pay for a League 1 player, not a player who has just out dribbled Messi. We should easily be able to get double that if not more IMO. There are probably a decent amount of clubs in Europe that can afford more than Celta can and who he would improve.