Summer Transfer Thread and Gustavo Cisneros Type Rumours.

[Abbeyfealeavfc]

As much as I dislike them, spuds and levy have played a blinder in the whole kane situation showing they are not a feeder club unlike ourselves. Our naivity never fails to disappoint. If there was a clause regarding grealish which allowed him to talk to sh-tty, that still didn't mean we had to sell

It did! It's exactly what it means. There was a clause in his contract that states if someone meets a certain price, in his case £100m, we are obliged to inform him of it and allow him to talk to them.

It's like being stuck on a merry-go-round on here sometimes.

It's interesting you state "we are obliged to inform him of it (the offer) and allow him to talk to them" but side-stepped the issue of when to sell. Aug 31st would have been time enough for me to disrupt dipstick and man
sh-tty, as we've been disrupted. I get that it was dipstick's decision to go once the clause had been activated and neglected to make this clear on my original post, but managing it was down to our owners and making parties wait would have been my preferred route. I guess most if not all on here are on a merry-go-round judging by contributions and as I've contributed little on this thread I'm certainly entitled to my opinion.
Regarding our midfield (mainly last season's) and our new additions, a lot of players look good on paper, it's when they're in the 1st 11 or active subs that count. With the business we've done so far allied to an existing midfield of Nakamba, McGinn, Luiz and Ramsey it may yet take some time to settle and that's without a commanding cdm that I think most of us would like to see.
I hope the plan comes together, but won't be surprised if there are hiccups and frustrations.

[Dave]

The quality depth is awful.

Dunno about "awful". Burnley keep muddling along with a central two of Westwood and Jack Cork, with Dale Stephens and Josh Brownhill in reserve and nobody else. I'd describe that as awful.

Our strength in depth in central midfield is "not as good as it is in other areas".

This is point. Allegedly our ambitions are greater than the likes of Burnley. We easily have the weakest midfielders in top 12 of the league

Still disagree. Assuming you're working on last years table, our midfield isn't "easily" weaker than Shelvey, Willock, Hayden and Hendrick.

Kalvin Phillips is obviously excellent, but I don't think I'd swap ours for him, Dallas and Klich either.

It's a mid-table midfield. That's not "awful".

Ok, maybe not ‘awful’ but certainly not good enough for a European push

Probably fair. I'm possibly being unnecessarily picky, but given the number of *actually* terrible midfields we've been burdened with over the last decade it sets my teeth on edge somewhat!

[RamboandBruno]

The quality depth is awful.

Dunno about "awful". Burnley keep muddling along with a central two of Westwood and Jack Cork, with Dale Stephens and Josh Brownhill in reserve and nobody else. I'd describe that as awful.

Our strength in depth in central midfield is "not as good as it is in other areas".

This is point. Allegedly our ambitions are greater than the likes of Burnley. We easily have the weakest midfielders in top 12 of the league

Still disagree. Assuming you're working on last years table, our midfield isn't "easily" weaker than Shelvey, Willock, Hayden and Hendrick.

Kalvin Phillips is obviously excellent, but I don't think I'd swap ours for him, Dallas and Klich either.

It's a mid-table midfield. That's not "awful".

Ok, maybe not ‘awful’ but certainly not good enough for a European push

I think I might have posted on this thread, maybe another, weeks ago, that I didn’t think a central midfield of McGinn and Luiz (or Nakamba) was a top six midfield. I think the not a top 12 midfield, probably isn’t right. Daves already mentioned Leeds and Newcastle and I’d add Arsenal to that. I think it’s probably a central midfield that finishes top ten or similar to last year. Obviously don’t know how the defence goes or creative areas will do.
I wouldn’t know, but they seem to be banking on both Ramsey progressing rapidly and Sanson being the player we need once he’s not injured.

[VinnieChase84]

The quality depth is awful.

Dunno about "awful". Burnley keep muddling along with a central two of Westwood and Jack Cork, with Dale Stephens and Josh Brownhill in reserve and nobody else. I'd describe that as awful.

Our strength in depth in central midfield is "not as good as it is in other areas".

This is point. Allegedly our ambitions are greater than the likes of Burnley. We easily have the weakest midfielders in top 12 of the league

Still disagree. Assuming you're working on last years table, our midfield isn't "easily" weaker than Shelvey, Willock, Hayden and Hendrick.

Kalvin Phillips is obviously excellent, but I don't think I'd swap ours for him, Dallas and Klich either.

It's a mid-table midfield. That's not "awful".

Ok, maybe not ‘awful’ but certainly not good enough for a European push

Probably fair. I'm possibly being unnecessarily picky, but given the number of *actually* terrible midfields we've been burdened with over the last decade it sets my teeth on edge somewhat!

Fair. I’m being more critical based on European ambitions etc. Would love us to get a Soucek or someone of that ilk. We are just that one player away from being a top top side imo

[ozzjim]

I think it's 1 injury to Luiz or McGinn from being a 12-20th midfield. All fit 9th-12th at best.

It is very samey, there are not a lot of goals in it, or indeed great range of passing or tackling. They run about a lot.

[Ian.]

If McGinn can recapture that goal scoring form from his first season and for Scotland that would certainly help. Also hopefully with Bailey and EMI in the side we have goals in them too.

[paul_e]

My issue with the midfield is that it's very samey. We have lots of options as general box to box players who are reasonably neat and tidy, have decent engines, etc. What we haven't really got is anyone who stands out in any way. That's not terrible but it does limit how we can setup. A proper defensive option (but better than Nakamba who is too similar to Yacouba Sylla for my liking) would help us in a lot of ways.

[ozzjim]

The balance West Ham have with Soucek and Rice is exceptionally good, and will be what sees them finish top 8 again this season. Scouting and finding players like Soucek and Coufal has been utterly brilliant there. We need to be doing that kind of thing.

[Ads]

Bottom of the league? Jesus.

[supertom]

With Ronaldo now at Utd and every non Utd fan feeling nauseous at the circle jerk surrounding the prodigal sons return, I would guess there's going to be a bit of a rumble with clubs after Lingard. I think he could offer something to our midfield. I think we should be among the 4-5 clubs who'll go for him.

[cdbearsfan]

No thanks. Six months of quality after years of mediocrity. You can guarantee we would get the mediocre version.

[paul_e]

No thanks. Six months of quality after years of mediocrity. You can guarantee we would get the mediocre version.

Agreed, comes across as a similar attitude to Lansbury, plays well when there might be a new contract on offer.

[CT]

No thanks. Six months of quality after years of mediocrity. You can guarantee we would get the mediocre version.

With an added few weeks out with injury.

[Risso]

No thanks. Six months of quality after years of mediocrity. You can guarantee we would get the mediocre version.

Also we're fairly well set for attack minded players. We need the hard but good player in the middle, like Soucek, Kante, Ndidi or Bissouma. Somebody like that would make such a big difference to us, it's pissing me off that in our third year back in the Premier League we still haven't gone for somebody of that ilk.

[cdbearsfan]

No thanks. Six months of quality after years of mediocrity. You can guarantee we would get the mediocre version.

Also we're fairly well set for attack minded players. We need the hard but good player in the middle, like Soucek, Kante, Ndidi or Bissouma. Somebody like that would make such a big difference to us, it's pissing me off that in our third year back in the Premier League we still haven't gone for somebody of that ilk.

I'd say longer than that, to be honest. Townsend perhaps the last we had that was really top class?