January 2023 Transfer Rumours, Discussions and Done Deals Thread

[Bent Neilsens Screamer]

Good post algy.
Wingers by nature are inconsistent, especially the calibre that we can attract, we’d be luck to get a prime Ljungberg or Pires who are contributing goals or assists virtually every game. I’m still hoping that Bailey will give us more even though he’s scored a fair amount of goals, he’s just frustrating to us, as if he could strike the ball like we know he can instead of missing it completely on a regular basis his numbers would be so much better.

[Drummond]

I can't see us wanting to shift Watkins on. I know there's a fair few fans who might like it, but he's a great player and coming into more form again with the new manager.

[chrisw1]

I'd be surprised if we don't bring in a winger or wide forward, given how much a point Emery made about us needing one

We need a regular goalscorer. The problem being the regular ones are eye wateringly expensive.

Exactly.  You can't just go out and buy a 20 a season man any more.  Other than a handful of elite players they just don't really exist.  Nowadays it's far more likley that goals will need to be shared round a lot more.  So the idea of selling Watkins and Ings and getting in a mythical Haaland type player is just so unlikely.  Every team in the PL other than Man City, Spurs and possibly Brentford are looking for one (with the jury still out on Isak & Darwin).  Not even Lukaku could do it anymore for a team that dominates the ball reasonably well.  Teams will have to pay fortunes or take punts like we have with Duran.

The more I think about it the more I think we will keep Watkins for a while yet - he does a solid job for the team even accepting that his finishing is poor.  I wouldn't be particulalry surprised if Ings is still with us next season too, unless Duran (who I feel is more like a medium term project) starts like a rocket.  I expect us to hope for more goals from hybrid players like Bailey and the the likes of Deulofeu or whoever we ultimately go for and hope for 10-12 from the 'front man'

[jwarry]

Azzedine Ounahi doing the rounds at the moment.  Looks like a better version of Sanson from what I can see

[pablo_picasso]

I'd be surprised if we don't bring in a winger or wide forward, given how much a point Emery made about us needing one

We need a regular goalscorer. The problem being the regular ones are eye wateringly expensive.

Especially in January.

[chrisw1]

Azzedine Ounahi doing the rounds at the moment.  Looks like a better version of Sanson from what I can see

That would piss Leeds off, which would be a plus, but Guendouzi feels like a safer bet to me.

[paul_e]

I'd be surprised if we don't bring in a winger or wide forward, given how much a point Emery made about us needing one

We need a regular goalscorer. The problem being the regular ones are eye wateringly expensive.

Exactly.  You can't just go out and buy a 20 a season man any more.  Other than a handful of elite players they just don't really exist.  Nowadays it's far more likley that goals will need to be shared round a lot more.  So the idea of selling Watkins and Ings and getting in a mythical Haaland type player is just so unlikely.  Every team in the PL other than Man City, Spurs and possibly Brentford are looking for one (with the jury still out on Isak & Darwin).  Not even Lukaku could do it anymore for a team that dominates the ball reasonably well.  Teams will have to pay fortunes or take punts like we have with Duran.

The more I think about it the more I think we will keep Watkins for a while yet - he does a solid job for the team even accepting that his finishing is poor.  I wouldn't be particulalry surprised if Ings is still with us next season too, unless Duran (who I feel is more like a medium term project) starts like a rocket.  I expect us to hope for more goals from hybrid players like Bailey and the the likes of Deulofeu or whoever we ultimately go for and hope for 10-12 from the 'front man'

Yep, 100% this.

I've posted before that if you score 50 goals you'll normally be safely in midtable and if you score 60 you'll be in the battle for a european place.

Breaking that down I'd expect the attackers to score half to 2/3rds of them so to get where we want to be we need 30-40 goals from Watkins, Ings, Bailey, Archer, Duran and any new winger we sign. So far this season Watkins, Ings and Bailey have 13 which is a big part of why we've only scored 22. However half of those goals have come in 6 games under Emery, including 6 for those 3 players, if they keep that up then over a season they'd be right on target and as a team we'd be looking at scoring 70+.  We do need another wide player to add more competition but If Emery keeps things up then even with this squad we won't be far off the top 7.

[Flamingo Lane]

I can't see us wanting to shift Watkins on. I know there's a fair few fans who might like it, but he's a great player and coming into more form again with the new manager.

I agree completely, initially new to this level he's run his socks off on his own up front for us for nigh on three seasons now, missing barely a game.  Not only is he now coming more into form again with the new manager, he again looks as if he's enjoying playing.  Whoever we might manage to buy, or not buy, as an 'upgrade' (ugh), it would be madness to consider letting Watkins go.   

[frank black]

Azzedine Ounahi doing the rounds at the moment.  Looks like a better version of Sanson from what I can see

That would piss Leeds off, which would be a plus, but Guendouzi feels like a safer bet to me.

He would be a hell of a lot cheaper and easier to convince. Perhaps we have had to realign our sights this window?

[Risso]

Breaking that down I'd expect the attackers to score half to 2/3rds of them so to get where we want to be we need 30-40 goals from Watkins, Ings, Bailey, Archer, Duran and any new winger we sign. So far this season Watkins, Ings and Bailey have 13 which is a big part of why we've only scored 22. However half of those goals have come in 6 games under Emery, including 6 for those 3 players, if they keep that up then over a season they'd be right on target and as a team we'd be looking at scoring 70+.  We do need another wide player to add more competition but If Emery keeps things up then even with this squad we won't be far off the top 7.

I think we'll share the goals around a bit more to be honest, with the likes of Ramsey and Buendia making up for a shortfall from the strikers.

What's in our favour this this year compared to the last is that the league table is a lot more bunched up.

Last year after the same number of games, there were 10 points between 14th and 20th places, this year there's 2. Similarly last year there were 9 points between 10th place and 6th, this year's there's 3. This means tight 1-0 wins and even draws are valuable for moving you up the table, and a couple of wins on the trot can mean shooting up 4-5 places. I think another wide forward capable of scoring a bit more regularly than Bailey or Buendia would really help to push on.

[paul_e]

Breaking that down I'd expect the attackers to score half to 2/3rds of them so to get where we want to be we need 30-40 goals from Watkins, Ings, Bailey, Archer, Duran and any new winger we sign. So far this season Watkins, Ings and Bailey have 13 which is a big part of why we've only scored 22. However half of those goals have come in 6 games under Emery, including 6 for those 3 players, if they keep that up then over a season they'd be right on target and as a team we'd be looking at scoring 70+.  We do need another wide player to add more competition but If Emery keeps things up then even with this squad we won't be far off the top 7.

I think we'll share the goals around a bit more to be honest, with the likes of Ramsey and Buendia making up for a shortfall from the strikers.

What's in our favour this this year compared to the last is that the league table is a lot more bunched up.

Last year after the same number of games, there were 10 points between 14th and 20th places, this year there's 2. Similarly last year there were 9 points between 10th place and 6th, this year's there's 3. This means tight 1-0 wins and even draws are valuable for moving you up the table, and a couple of wins on the trot can mean shooting up 4-5 places. I think another wide forward capable of scoring a bit more regularly than Bailey or Buendia would really help to push on.

I agree, I think it'll still end up being about half our goals coming from the forwards (which is in-line with them getting 6 from 11 since Emery arrived).

I agree as well that this is a season where fine margins will have a massive impact.

[Dave]

Azzedine Ounahi doing the rounds at the moment.  Looks like a better version of Sanson from what I can see

That would piss Leeds off, which would be a plus, but Guendouzi feels like a safer bet to me.

He would be a hell of a lot cheaper and easier to convince. Perhaps we have had to realign our sights this window?

Isn't he also really likely to be one of those who gets a move on the strength of a three or four decent World Cup matches, playing in a very specific system, with not much thought about whether he is actually any good?

His Angers team are bottom of the league in France by a mile.

[Mister E]

I'd say Guendouzi has to be the main target - he's got Premier League and International experience and offers what we need.
I think the winger/ striker may have to wait till summer - I'm not convinced with Delafeu, and Sourhampton seems to have bid the bank on getting Jackson on loan. Maybe he'll become available in the summer and will be then have had Premier League experience. I'd still be in favour of Sarr in this window but we may again have to wait.
Perhaps they'll be a surprise come the end of this month ...

CB will also be a summer focus, I'm guessing, but we still have Carlos to come back next month ("it'll be like a new signing ...").

[bob]

I hope we get Guendouzi. We've heard a fair bit about our interest but supposedly we haven't made a bid. That isn't how we do business of late.

Then again we did hear about Moreno before it happened.

[john e]

We don’t have to worry about a striker anymore we’ve signed Duran Duran to solve all our goal scoring problems