Summer Transfer Thread and Gustavo Cisneros Type Rumours.

[London Villan]

For a team that finished 11th to have a net profit on transfers and lose your best player doesn’t scream ambition. Lets hope the next two weeks are busy, but im less confident of that now.

[ChicagoLion]

He explained: “At the moment in midfield places I have John McGinn, Douglas Luiz, Marvelous Nakamba, Carney Chukwuemeka, JJ (Jacob Ramsey), Conor Hourihane and Morgan Sanson coming back from injury.

Pretty staggering this.

McGinn, yes, fair enough.
Luiz poor all last season.
Nakamba patently not good enough for where we want to be.
Chuk - about 13, clearly not going to be starting PL games for a long time.
Ramsey - unproven at best.
Hourihane - Championship quality at the very best.
Sanson - who knows? Perma-injured thus far.

The recurring theme last season was watching the midfield disintegrate. We saw it again last weekend.

I just don't see how he thinks flogging Grealish and using a chunk of the money to buy Ings, Bailey and Buendia addresses the fact that we are absolutely powder puff in midfield.

Coming out of this window having flogged an incredibly important and talented player to spend less than we bring in and neglect the exact area pretty much every single frequent viewer of ours would say we are weak in is absolutely spurning a great opportunity to crack on.

It will be a massive let down.

spot on, Smith is almost alone in thinking the centre of midfield isn’t a problem.

[Risso]

That’s a very good point John, as fans we really only look at the last and next game and our vision is extremely distorted. The owners and management are in the long game.

Still, like you say this elusive specialty enforcer could really make a difference.

I really think that's a load of rubbish. The average manager lasts for 69 matches in the Premier League, so not even 2 complete seasons. So owners aren't looking that far ahead on average, and managers certainly shouldn't be. In any case, the midfield hasn't been right for two years, and we only fixed the fact that we had only one proper striker because Greasy left.

[Clark W Griswold]

Yep, we had enough of that BS with Lerner. I never quite expected us to be doing an Abramovic 03-05 type spend or Man City 09-12 but i would at the very least have expected us to be fully ready in all departments by now rather than just some.

[Clampy]

It really is incredible that some fans seem to think that the owners only want to spend the Grealish money or we lack ambition just because we've not bought in another midfielder. Those two guys have ploughed in fucking millions on and of the pitch. Lets have a bit more patience shall we? Those pair have earned it.

[Ian.]

That’s a very good point John, as fans we really only look at the last and next game and our vision is extremely distorted. The owners and management are in the long game.

Still, like you say this elusive specialty enforcer could really make a difference.

I really think that's a load of rubbish. The average manager lasts for 69 matches in the Premier League, so not even 2 complete seasons. So owners aren't looking that far ahead on average, and managers certainly shouldn't be. In any case, the midfield hasn't been right for two years, and we only fixed the fact that we had only one proper striker because Greasy left.

I don’t know, maybe elsewhere but our owners have been banging on about this long term plan since they arrived. Maybe it may be different this season if we have one of those disastrous runs we seem to have.

Often we can all get quite divided on opinions from one thing or another but everyone seems to be on agreement on the midfield. It’s been our week point for so so long.

[Ian.]

It really is incredible that some fans seem to think that the owners only want to spend the Grealish money or we lack ambition just because we've not bought in another midfielder. Those two guys have ploughed in fucking millions on and of the pitch. Lets have a bit more patience shall we? Those pair have earned it.

I’m sure most are more concerned not with the owners ambition and size of their pockets and are very grateful but there is definitely a cause for concern regarding the midfield. To bid twice on JWP seems to indicate Smith had concerns and it raised my hopes too that it was going to be addressed. Losing Joe has not helped morale and with him on song it could paper over the cracks, it’s a worry that without him we may struggle in this department.

[sickbeggar]

Well at least this might be good news
https://twitter.com/thespursweb/status/1428699855644463110?s=21

Heh. Judging from the spurts fans' comments, Winks staying is slightly more of a disaster than Kane wanting to leave.

[Risso]

It's good to have a long term vision, but you also need to live for today in the Premier League. If we really want to be challenging the top 6 then we can't go on having a midfield that isn't anywhere near as good as the teams above us.

[cdbearsfan]

It really is incredible that some fans seem to think that the owners only want to spend the Grealish money or we lack ambition just because we've not bought in another midfielder. Those two guys have ploughed in fucking millions on and of the pitch. Lets have a bit more patience shall we? Those pair have earned it.

Football doesn't deal in "patience". We need to get in and amongst the top four this season or next at the latest or we will keep losing star players. I'm not going to be very happy if the extent of our spending next summer is buying  replacements for Martinez, Konsa or Carney Chukwuemeka.

There's nothing wrong with being disappointed that the club seemed to have got itself in a position to compete at the top level, but when the opportunity presented itself we have bottled the contest and settled for midtable obscurity.

Not signing a proper midfielder is simply unfathomably stupid.

[N'ZMAV]

can Wesley play DM?

[Rudy Can't Fail]

I reckon Harry winks is incoming. Plan b or c.

Was just going to type that. Seem an ominous August 31st, 11.59pm signing to me now we ain't getting in Ward Prowse.

Just watching Betis play and notice William Carvalho is on the bench. His stock isn't as high as a few years back when likes of West Ham were trying to sign him for 40m but he's an experienced DM for Portugal and Betis and they might move him on for 20m as imagine his contract is running down so for where we are we could do worse....like signing Harry Winks.

Carvalho was absolute rubbish in the Euros.

So was Bruno Fernandes. Just sayin'.

[N'ZMAV]

so was Harry Kane.

[ChicagoLion]

can Wesley play DM?

in that I could have a go at playing the bagpipes but no one would want to listen to it.

[john2710]

Some people need to get some perspective. Three years ago we were on the brink of extinction.

God help us if we lose today.