Douglas Luiz - coming back?

[Drummond]

Romano stating it's almost complete.

[cdbearsfan]

What does Iling do?

He's a left sided attacking mid.

Pacy, comfortable on the ball. Lots of potential.

Sounds good, like my kind of player.

Good as a wing back in a back five too...

Why I oughta...

[chrisw1]

You realise McKennie has played right wingback too don't you?  Writings on the walls CD.

[cdbearsfan]

Aaaaaaaagh

[Ozzjim]

If McKennie comes I'll back him, like I do all those wearing claret and blue. But at Leeds he just did not look in good physical shape and his game reflected that regardless of the position he was asked to play.

A good read here about Leeds and his return to Juventus. Enjoy, you fat bastard!

Good article. Also shows how well he's played for a top side this season. Before people say the Italian league isn't what it was, they did OK in Europe this season. We might come back and think this was a decent deal all round in the future.

[Toronto Villa]

I'm bitter about him leaving and more that we are being forced to sell him. Absolute bullshit that we finally make it to the CL and we have to sell a top player.

[boozey182]

I'm trying to look at this as pragmatically as possible, because I've always been a big fan of Doug, right from the start really. He's the type of player you just love to watch - making everything seem so simple.

On the face of it, this deal doesn't seem great. We're basically swapping one of our most important players for two players that are unlikely to start every week, plus a bit of cash that won't get us a suitable replacement. So we end up weaker.

But there's a lot more going on here. First of all, there's the financial regulations. I don't know our exact position, but I would doubt that we would be in such a hurry to get this deal through (especially with the players dotted all over the world) unless we had to. So it looks like our hands are tied in that have to sell someone. Why Doug? I guess first off because someone wants to buy him, and he's open to leaving. Apparently he's had a contract offer on the table for 6 months, that remains unsigned. He was probably waiting to see how everything pans out, which is fair enough. I think he's a Champions League player, so it's natural he'd want to keep his options open. I don't think he owes us anything from a loyalty point of view.

Next is that I think of all the players that we could sell, Doug might be the one we miss least. I've tried to be careful with my wording there - I don't think we can replace him easily, as someone as good on the ball as him will probably cost what we're selling him for. But we can patch up the team without him in a way that might mean we don't miss him. For instance, when we have a fully fit squad (which must have happened once), his job is to sit next to Kamara and help us get up the pitch. His passing range is fantastic, so he's very good at this. But maybe there are other ways we could do the same job - maybe with someone like Gallagher driving us forward with a burst of energy? Beat the press by stepping past the first wave and then playing a simple pass into space? Giving Torres more options by moving quickly to receive the ball, or create space for others - not Doug's strong point.

In fact, Doug's physicality is the main thing that holds him back. He's not big, strong or quick, so in the Premier League you need a player next to him that compensates for this - or you get bullied (which has happened to us a lot with Doug in the side). He often makes up for it by being a second or two quicker in the head, but sometimes we just get overrun in the middle. Looking at the players we've bought and been linked to in the last couple of transfer windows, physicality is something we are looking to add to the squad. More power, height and speed. I think Unai is trying to evolve the way we play - or at least, he's trying to reduce the number of weaknesses in our team. Doug, for all his talent, has zero physicality, and team's target that. Doug isn't the only one, of course, but the middle of the pitch is where we desperately need something more.

The players involved in the swap can all have their value written off for FFP/PSR, apparently, so that all helps. The weird way the financial regulations work means that as soon as June is over, we can start spending money again, I think. So this month is just about getting some money in. I would expect we'll see a few more out the door in the next few weeks.

While I am pretty optimistic about this deal, I have to say that it's a fucking outrage that we have to sell someone. Over the last few years we've been around mid-table in terms of net spend. We've just had our best season for decades, out performing teams that have spent much more than us. We've finally arrived in the promised land, without breaking one rule and without going into any debt, but we have to sell off one of our best players to comply with the rules now. Meanwhile, Man City have broken 115 rules without any punishment so far, Chelsea seem to spend as much as they want and Man United have debt that could cripple some small countries.

Can anyone can honestly say that the rules are in place for 'Fair Play'? They are at best woefully outdated, and at worst, a carefully thought out plan to keep the 'Big 6' in place. To be fair, they need all the help they can get at the moment, because since Unai came, we've been much better than half of them. And we will be next year as well.

[chrisw1]

I'm bitter about him leaving and more that we are being forced to sell him. Absolute bullshit that we finally make it to the CL and we have to sell a top player.

Yep.  Absolutely gutted.  Football stinks.

[SamTheMouse]

I really hate swap deals. It's like those couples that have an open marriage. You just know one of them's lying about being fine with it.

[pelty]

I'm trying to look at this as pragmatically as possible, because I've always been a big fan of Doug, right from the start really. He's the type of player you just love to watch - making everything seem so simple.

On the face of it, this deal doesn't seem great. We're basically swapping one of our most important players for two players that are unlikely to start every week, plus a bit of cash that won't get us a suitable replacement. So we end up weaker.

But there's a lot more going on here. First of all, there's the financial regulations. I don't know our exact position, but I would doubt that we would be in such a hurry to get this deal through (especially with the players dotted all over the world) unless we had to. So it looks like our hands are tied in that have to sell someone. Why Doug? I guess first off because someone wants to buy him, and he's open to leaving. Apparently he's had a contract offer on the table for 6 months, that remains unsigned. He was probably waiting to see how everything pans out, which is fair enough. I think he's a Champions League player, so it's natural he'd want to keep his options open. I don't think he owes us anything from a loyalty point of view.

Next is that I think of all the players that we could sell, Doug might be the one we miss least. I've tried to be careful with my wording there - I don't think we can replace him easily, as someone as good on the ball as him will probably cost what we're selling him for. But we can patch up the team without him in a way that might mean we don't miss him. For instance, when we have a fully fit squad (which must have happened once), his job is to sit next to Kamara and help us get up the pitch. His passing range is fantastic, so he's very good at this. But maybe there are other ways we could do the same job - maybe with someone like Gallagher driving us forward with a burst of energy? Beat the press by stepping past the first wave and then playing a simple pass into space? Giving Torres more options by moving quickly to receive the ball, or create space for others - not Doug's strong point.

In fact, Doug's physicality is the main thing that holds him back. He's not big, strong or quick, so in the Premier League you need a player next to him that compensates for this - or you get bullied (which has happened to us a lot with Doug in the side). He often makes up for it by being a second or two quicker in the head, but sometimes we just get overrun in the middle. Looking at the players we've bought and been linked to in the last couple of transfer windows, physicality is something we are looking to add to the squad. More power, height and speed. I think Unai is trying to evolve the way we play - or at least, he's trying to reduce the number of weaknesses in our team. Doug, for all his talent, has zero physicality, and team's target that. Doug isn't the only one, of course, but the middle of the pitch is where we desperately need something more.

The players involved in the swap can all have their value written off for FFP/PSR, apparently, so that all helps. The weird way the financial regulations work means that as soon as June is over, we can start spending money again, I think. So this month is just about getting some money in. I would expect we'll see a few more out the door in the next few weeks.

While I am pretty optimistic about this deal, I have to say that it's a fucking outrage that we have to sell someone. Over the last few years we've been around mid-table in terms of net spend. We've just had our best season for decades, out performing teams that have spent much more than us. We've finally arrived in the promised land, without breaking one rule and without going into any debt, but we have to sell off one of our best players to comply with the rules now. Meanwhile, Man City have broken 115 rules without any punishment so far, Chelsea seem to spend as much as they want and Man United have debt that could cripple some small countries.

Can anyone can honestly say that the rules are in place for 'Fair Play'? They are at best woefully outdated, and at worst, a carefully thought out plan to keep the 'Big 6' in place. To be fair, they need all the help they can get at the moment, because since Unai came, we've been much better than half of them. And we will be next year as well.

Well said!!

[London Villan]

While it's far from ideal, the sale of him and Cash (plus some of the non-playing members of the squad) could give us a lot of breathing space to bring in 5 or 6 players.

If we end up with Gallagher, Barkley, cover for Kamara, cover for Oli and a new top-drawer right back then it might be worth the upheaval.

[Dogtanian]

More talk of us and WHAM! being leaders in the race to sign Tammy Abraham.

[brontebilly]

Why were Juve so keen to get rid of him twice?

Contract running down this time. He did show good character to turn around his career there last season from flopping at Leeds. However, it does raise questions of his character and professionalism that he wasn't physically fit at Leeds. That's inexcusable really.

Lots of question marks over Barkley too that last season at Luton can't simply gloss over, including a woeful loan spell with us that cost us a 12m fee. He wasn't properly fit for most of his career. Walking around the pitch and sulking coming off is what I remember most from his last spell with us. We will look like some idiots if he bombs again next season.

No such concerns with Luiz. He's top class

[algy]

This FFP/PSR stuff is a load of bollocks, isn't it?


Good luck Dougie.  I'd have rather we kept you.

[Dogtanian]

Thankyou for the gooooals.
The penalties, those corner kicks that went in.

 :'(