Summer 2022 Transfer Thread

[ASHTONVILLA]

We have no cover in the full back positions. Sort it out. Cash and Digne aren't exactly flawless.

We have Guilbert (another that will probably be sold) and Kessler-Hayden to cover right back, and Chrisene and Young (probably) to cover left back.

It seems we are highly likely to buy a back up left back, been linked with a few. Can't see us buying a right back unless Guilbert leaves though.

[trinityoap]

Not too bothered at present who it is ,but PLEASE could somebody stop an opposition player running forty yards down the middle at us  without being tackled?

[dave.woodhall]

Not too bothered at present who it is ,but PLEASE could somebody stop an opposition player running forty yards down the middle at us  without being tackled?

Which reminds me of what was said about Lee Hendrie - he was the only player in the league who would track back half the length of the pitch then bring his opponent down on the edge of our area. 

[Drummond]

Can’t face us this time next year having another “huge” summer - at some point we have got to start doing our talking on the pitch, rather than just by spending big money and saying how ambitious we are

What I'd like to do is not what we normally do in a 'big' transfer window - leave one really important hole in the squad unfilled.

We always seem to emerge from windows a man short.

Are we a man shirt this time? With Kamara in, isn't that the gap we needed filling?

I'm not saying that more, better, additions wouldn't be welcome, but that a 38 game season shouldn't be a problem with what we have already. And the manager has no excuses.

The window is far from finished so let’s see who goes out as well.

Oh yes, I agree. I suppose what I meant was that I agree about us being one man short in past windows/seasons, but this time it doesn't feel like that to me. We've got cover everywhere that means we should compete.

GK Martinez Olsen Steer Sinisalo

RB Cash Chambers Guilbert Kesler-Hayden

LB Digne Mings Hause Young Chrisene

CB Konsa Chambers Mings Carlos Hause

DM Kamara Nakamba Luiz Iroegbunam

CM McGinn Luiz Sanson Ramsey Chukwuemeka

AM Coutinho Buendia Bailey Traore O'Reilly

CF Watkins Ings Davis Archer Traore Wesley

That squad depth is better than we've had for a very long time, there's a mixture of experience and youth. I've repeated a couple of players in different positions, Mings, Hause, Luiz and Traore can play multiple positions. We've not really got any gaps there that are concerning, we just need to improve the quality to compete at the top.


(as a side note, I think it's pretty shit that the OS has Kamara in the squad but not Carlos and still has all the loan players as being out on loan.)

[ASHTONVILLA]

If we get Luiz out for £20m, and replace him with Soucek for £30m it would be a big upgrade for a relatively small spend. Hope that rumour has some substance to it.

[eamonn]

I dont see specialist/proven cover at fullback. Chambers is a utility player, Young isn't up to it anymore, Fred will stay in France and Hause has two left feet which leaves the two young fellas who have never played in the PL.

[paul_e]

I agree with this too.  I think Ings and Watkins are both good but they dont suit the style of play we had last year - and unless we change the type of chances we create I think we will struggle in front of goals.

I think Watkins does better when we play more width, with pull backs particularly, but we dont create those as much as we tend to play through the middle.  His control is too poor, and we cant take advantage of his acceleration

Ings, is probably better suited, but lacks the pace and pressing of watkins.

I disagree with the bold bit. I think Ings is the one that doesn't really fit with how we play. For me his game is that he comes deep to link play and then gets into the box to poach but with 2 10s you don't need the link up element. What you need in a system like ours is strikers who move defenders around, either by running off their shoulder (which Watkins is excellent at) or by bullying the fuck out of them and forcing other defenders to provide cover.

The entire system is about creating space between the lines for the 10s to play in, which means you need to occupy the midfield and full backs (by pushing players past them) and stop the centre backs from stepping out, Ings doesn't do that and forces us to play 2 up top and 1 10 so he can become the player that drifts between the lines, which would be ok if our 10s weren't our 2 best players.

[Clark W Griswold]

Can’t face us this time next year having another “huge” summer - at some point we have got to start doing our talking on the pitch, rather than just by spending big money and saying how ambitious we are

What I'd like to do is not what we normally do in a 'big' transfer window - leave one really important hole in the squad unfilled.

We always seem to emerge from windows a man short.

Are we a man shirt this time? With Kamara in, isn't that the gap we needed filling?

I'm not saying that more, better, additions wouldn't be welcome, but that a 38 game season shouldn't be a problem with what we have already. And the manager has no excuses.

The window is far from finished so let’s see who goes out as well.

Oh yes, I agree. I suppose what I meant was that I agree about us being one man short in past windows/seasons, but this time it doesn't feel like that to me. We've got cover everywhere that means we should compete.

GK Martinez Olsen Steer Sinisalo

RB Cash Chambers Guilbert Kesler-Hayden

LB Digne Mings Hause Young Chrisene

CB Konsa Chambers Mings Carlos Hause

DM Kamara Nakamba Luiz Iroegbunam

CM McGinn Luiz Sanson Ramsey Chukwuemeka

AM Coutinho Buendia Bailey Traore O'Reilly

CF Watkins Ings Davis Archer Traore Wesley

That squad depth is better than we've had for a very long time, there's a mixture of experience and youth. I've repeated a couple of players in different positions, Mings, Hause, Luiz and Traore can play multiple positions. We've not really got any gaps there that are concerning, we just need to improve the quality to compete at the top.


(as a side note, I think it's pretty shit that the OS has Kamara in the squad but not Carlos and still has all the loan players as being out on loan.)

Yes, no glaring holes but you can certainly pick flies with RB, LB, DM and CF.

You have to think full back wise he's going to want like for like on Cash and Digne, i.e. players that are more attacking. I suppose the closest to that would be Guilbert for RB and Young for LB, the others are unproven or not suited to the attacking game and in the case of Guilbert, he seems a bit of a sulker if not in the team and with Young, he's 36/37

DM, we know Nakamba is only really suitable for back up if we want to progress, Tim is completely unproven and i wouldn't want to rely on him at all yet, and Kamara is in Gerrards words, someone suited to various midfield positions and he's also not played PL before so that will be a case of 'hoping' he'll do the job.

CF wise it's a case of how often he'll want to play with 2, but either way in order to progress we need a real top player there i think. If he's only mainly going to play with one we might want to offload one of the ones we have to make room.

[chrisw1]

Soucek wont be leaving West Ham to join us.

[PaulWinch again]

I remember the, at best, clumsy comments from Soucek about racism allegations of one of his team mates. From memory he then sought to clarify his comments were misinterpreted, but seemed a bit flimsy to me.

[Beard82]

I agree with this too.  I think Ings and Watkins are both good but they dont suit the style of play we had last year - and unless we change the type of chances we create I think we will struggle in front of goals.

I think Watkins does better when we play more width, with pull backs particularly, but we dont create those as much as we tend to play through the middle.  His control is too poor, and we cant take advantage of his acceleration

Ings, is probably better suited, but lacks the pace and pressing of watkins.

I disagree with the bold bit. I think Ings is the one that doesn't really fit with how we play. For me his game is that he comes deep to link play and then gets into the box to poach but with 2 10s you don't need the link up element. What you need in a system like ours is strikers who move defenders around, either by running off their shoulder (which Watkins is excellent at) or by bullying the fuck out of them and forcing other defenders to provide cover.

The entire system is about creating space between the lines for the 10s to play in, which means you need to occupy the midfield and full backs (by pushing players past them) and stop the centre backs from stepping out, Ings doesn't do that and forces us to play 2 up top and 1 10 so he can become the player that drifts between the lines, which would be ok if our 10s weren't our 2 best players.

Yeah - thats a fair point, hadnt really looked at it like that.

[Dante Lavelli]

Can’t face us this time next year having another “huge” summer - at some point we have got to start doing our talking on the pitch, rather than just by spending big money and saying how ambitious we are

What I'd like to do is not what we normally do in a 'big' transfer window - leave one really important hole in the squad unfilled.

We always seem to emerge from windows a man short.

Are we a man shirt this time? With Kamara in, isn't that the gap we needed filling?

I'm not saying that more, better, additions wouldn't be welcome, but that a 38 game season shouldn't be a problem with what we have already. And the manager has no excuses.

Squad wise I think we are a man short in that if Digne got injured the day after the window shut we would not have proven left back cover but other than that we are ok.  Suspect there will still be at least one more that Gerrard wants and maybe a loan or two to free up some of youngsters going out on loan too.

Unless Archer is the answer, we do not have enough up front.
Watkins and Ings will not get us where we want to go.

Then the priority should be to first sell either Ings or Watkins whilst their value is high.  We can’t just keep throwing good money at it to solve previous splurges.

[DrGonzo]

I don't think having to sell before we buy has anything to do with FFP.  We are in danger of having a bloated squad with too many players earning money for doing nowt, for example we have Coutinho, Buendia, Bailey, Traore, Trezeguet, El Ghazi and youngsters effectively looking to fill 2 spots on the team sheet and up to 2 on the bench, I'd happily see AEG, Trez go as they aren't up to the standard we need, then if we can find a home for Traore we can bring in another more talented player, this would allow us to use our youngsters to fill holes in case of injuries.

[Dante Lavelli]

I don't think having to sell before we buy has anything to do with FFP.  We are in danger of having a bloated squad with too many players earning money for doing nowt, for example we have Coutinho, Buendia, Bailey, Traore, Trezeguet, El Ghazi and youngsters effectively looking to fill 2 spots on the team sheet and up to 2 on the bench, I'd happily see AEG, Trez go as they aren't up to the standard we need, then if we can find a home for Traore we can bring in another more talented player, this would allow us to use our youngsters to fill holes in case of injuries.

Agree Gonzo.  If we are going down this Dortmund model of youth football then we need to create some room in the squad for them.

What is Guilbert’s situation now, has his contract expired?  From what I read he had a good season in France, could he cover both full-backs next season?  it’d save us £1Xm and give Chrisene and K-Hasler another season to develop.

[paul_e]

Yes, no glaring holes but you can certainly pick flies with RB, LB, DM and CF.

You have to think full back wise he's going to want like for like on Cash and Digne, i.e. players that are more attacking. I suppose the closest to that would be Guilbert for RB and Young for LB, the others are unproven or not suited to the attacking game and in the case of Guilbert, he seems a bit of a sulker if not in the team and with Young, he's 36/37

DM, we know Nakamba is only really suitable for back up if we want to progress, Tim is completely unproven and i wouldn't want to rely on him at all yet, and Kamara is in Gerrards words, someone suited to various midfield positions and he's also not played PL before so that will be a case of 'hoping' he'll do the job.

CF wise it's a case of how often he'll want to play with 2, but either way in order to progress we need a real top player there i think. If he's only mainly going to play with one we might want to offload one of the ones we have to make room. I'd also consider if Bailey can offer the sort of running off the shoulder option we need. I suspect if we do see a forward it'll be towards the end of the window (unless we get a good offer on Ings or Watkins in the meantime).

I'm fine with Kesler as the backup at right-back. If he looks out of his depth then Chambers and Konsa can both do a job there until January, not ideal but I think it would be a mistake to go big on cover there this window.

At DM Nakamba is ok as cover even if he's a limited player compared to Kamara. That gives us the opportunity to keep Iroegbunam in the squad and get him gametime without having to rely on him as a regualr starter in Kamara is out. Another one I'd review in January rather than now. However we do need another midfielder if, as expected, Sanson and Luiz go out, maybe that can be someone more defensive if Kamara is going to play a few roles but personally I think that would be a mistake, he's far more likely to settle in and become the player we need if he's allowed to just be the DM for now.

LB we need something, Chrisene looks a good player but isn't as far along as Kesler and needs a loan this window and none of the options we have (even if Young stays on) really work for me so I'd be happy to see someone come in.

CF is really difficult because we have 4 strikers that I like but they all have weaknesses, Davis is probably going anyway and Archer is one to see how he goes in pre-season before deciding where he plays next season which leaves Watkins and Ings. As I've said a few posts back I don't think Ings really suits how Gerrard seems to want to play so if we could replace him I'd do it but I wouldn't be against going into the season with Watkins, Ings and Archer.