Summer transfer, gossip, speculation thread

[brontebilly]

I just don’t see how Cahill fits with the philosophy of buying younger talent that can have a long term future with the club.  I am not necessarily against the idea of getting him in, but I just can’t see it happening personally.

He doesn't but - if the Cahill thing is true - there's clearly a recognition that (i) we need to balance philosophy with the need for experience, (ii) the market for young talent is too frothy right now, and (iii) good CB have got a life through to 36-7 if looked after.
Also, I'd say the squad needs more Prem experience in it, to ride the tough times. Given that he was Terry's CB partner for a while, it's almost a no-brainer.

It's a bit worrying that Cahill chose to kick his heels on their bench last season rather than going on loan and playing football. I expect Smith will want someone a bit quicker so we can play a higher defensive line.

[brontebilly]

More generally, I think there are 5 weeks till the window closes

We've done lots of business but probably aren't even halfway done yet. At what point do we worry? Building half a new team, in a new league, always set the alarm bells running (not that we had much choice) but a good pre season, especially for the defence, seems pivotal

A couple of weeks?

It's a bit worrying already to be honest. Given we will have practically a new team by the end of the transfer window, we really need a good pre season to bed everyone in. Transfer business seems surprisingly slow across the division this summer. A

[OzVilla]

Well we’ve been hit with a bit of a perfect storm here, finished the season later than everyone else, all the selling clubs know we need signings so are driving hard bargains and it doesn’t help that the season kicks off so early in August. Cahill makes sense to me for the reasons mentioned, free, experienced and knows the club.

I’d be interested to see if Pitrich has a few more surprises in the next 2 weeks, a quality DM if Phillips is priced out would be the priority for him if Mings, Butland and Cahill eventually arrive.

[eamonn]

I just don’t see how Cahill fits with the philosophy of buying younger talent that can have a long term future with the club.  I am not necessarily against the idea of getting him in, but I just can’t see it happening personally.

He doesn't but - if the Cahill thing is true - there's clearly a recognition that (i) we need to balance philosophy with the need for experience, (ii) the market for young talent is too frothy right now, and (iii) good CB have got a life through to 36-7 if looked after.
Also, I'd say the squad needs more Prem experience in it, to ride the tough times. Given that he was Terry's CB partner for a while, it's almost a no-brainer.

It's a bit worrying that Cahill chose to kick his heels on their bench last season rather than going on loan and playing football. I expect Smith will want someone a bit quicker so we can play a higher defensive line.

Not necessarily. Maybe he backed himself as good enough for a starting place and spent the season trying to get back in the team.

[cdbearsfan]

Undecided re: Cahill. He could be inspired, or it could be that he's gone, like Richards or Lescott. I suppose the fact that he's coming direct from a top club rather than via an unconvincing loan at Fiorentina or a year at West Brom suggests he is more likely to be good for us. Hopefully.

[dicedlam]

If we go into this season with Wesley, Kodjia and Davis as our attacking options we will be fighting the drop. That is a nailed on fact. It won’t happen.

Plain and simple.

We don't know yet how quickly Wes will settle. Kodjia is far to slow for this league and Davis...I'm not convinced he will make it.
I would look to get someone like Hernandez in from West Ham. he wouldn't cost the earth to buy, probably less than £10 million, a proven goalscorer, loves to feed off scraps in the box and would be a great foil for big Wes. He may be 31 now but I reckon still good for another couple of seasons.

[Singapore Villa]

Hernandez is on 145k a week at the Spammers, so you can file that idea in the bin.

[Karlos96]

I wouldn't want Cahill back hardly played for Chelsea last season and prior to that when he has played he's been poor.

[ChicagoLion]

Isn't the cahill thing only in the star?

[VinnieChase84]

If we go into this season with Wesley, Kodjia and Davis as our attacking options we will be fighting the drop. That is a nailed on fact. It won’t happen.

Plain and simple.

We don't know yet how quickly Wes will settle. Kodjia is far to slow for this league and Davis...I'm not convinced he will make it.
I would look to get someone like Hernandez in from West Ham. he wouldn't cost the earth to buy, probably less than £10 million, a proven goalscorer, loves to feed off scraps in the box and would be a great foil for big Wes. He may be 31 now but I reckon still good for another couple of seasons.

100% need another striker. One who can play wide would be ideal

[cdbearsfan]

That Tanzanian sounds alright. If we are paying £22 million for a guy that scored ten in the Belgian League, paying £15 million for a guy that scored twenty-five in the same division seems a bargain.

[ozzjim]

Wesley seems to drift out to wide left a lot too from what I have read, so maybe another central striker might be something we are looking at. I really like Maupay but it seems Smith/ Villa don't fancy paying £20 plus million for him which would make sense.

[Clark W Griswold]

Isn't the cahill thing only in the star?

Cahill would be good, but this thought also crossed my mind.

As for Wesley, i'm expecting him to be a centre forward who will keep hold of the ball and bring others into it, for example the wide players either side of him, the drifting forward Grealish and possibly the bombing forward McGinn. The key to scoring lots of goals is getting lots of players in advanced positions who are all cabable of finding the net, see Man Utd in their pomp.
Davis is the same sort of player but i would imagine a lesser version.

[Dazvillain]

  Currently at a function very near Cardiff city stadium and on pretty good authority from a friend of NEIL Etheridge that he simply needs to choose between us and Liverpool . Feeling is it will be us as he’s worked with deano and NEIL cutler before. Probably tie up next week

[brontebilly]

I just don’t see how Cahill fits with the philosophy of buying younger talent that can have a long term future with the club.  I am not necessarily against the idea of getting him in, but I just can’t see it happening personally.

He doesn't but - if the Cahill thing is true - there's clearly a recognition that (i) we need to balance philosophy with the need for experience, (ii) the market for young talent is too frothy right now, and (iii) good CB have got a life through to 36-7 if looked after.
Also, I'd say the squad needs more Prem experience in it, to ride the tough times. Given that he was Terry's CB partner for a while, it's almost a no-brainer.

It's a bit worrying that Cahill chose to kick his heels on their bench last season rather than going on loan and playing football. I expect Smith will want someone a bit quicker so we can play a higher defensive line.

Not necessarily. Maybe he backed himself as good enough for a starting place and spent the season trying to get back in the team.

Was clear from early on that he was a long way down Sarri's pecking order. Certainly by Jan it was anyway. If he was that bothered about playing he would have gone on loan. Also we already have Chester as backup right centre back so if we are strengthening that position it has to be with a certain starter, don't think that is Cahill.