2023 Summer transfer window - hopes, needs, expectations and rumours.

[Monty]

It's not that long ago that Tielemans was considered pretty hot shit. Leicester might have imploded and he didn't have the greatest year, but hey, we remember when our relegation year made good players like Gueye and Veretout look like drunk amateurs. If Unai wants him, then I am up for it.

[Dante Lavelli]

I’m prepared to give Tielemans the benefit of the doubt for his recent form.  There were pretty strong links to arsenal and I can see a situation where Leicester had promised him a move but it never materialised. His form up to that point was arguably the best in that level below Man City/Liverpool.

BTW, is he direct competition for Luiz or Kamara though?

[Dave]

BTW, is he direct competition for Luiz or Kamara though?

Definitely more attacking than Kamara. I'd guess thought that we hope to be able to put a two or three man central midfield together from any of five or six players without any massive drop in quality.

[paul_e]

Tielemans is a funny o0ne, at his best he's a top class player who you'd think should be playing regularly at champions league level but it doesn't seme to take much for his attitude to turn and for him to go through the motions.

I suspect he asked Rodgers to let him leave last year (when he was being linked with a lot of CL clubs) and felt let down that they refused, especially when it was pretty clear that the squad was a mess and Rodgers himself seemed more interested in excuses for why they were going to fail than in trying to fix things. That he was a tit at Monaco as well is the bigger worry for me.

I'd also normally be a little nervy about signing a DM from a team that conceded so many, especially given he was quite clearly shown to be at fault for a few of those, but playing in front of that defence and keeper would be enough to break anyone. As we've seen with Dougie, and the addition of Kamara and Donk, sometimes a technical tempo-setting 6 needs a battler alongside him to let him shine. I'd see Tielemans as very much a option to cover the work Dougie does, giving us 4 genuine starting options in those 2 key spots.

On that basis I'd take the risk given he's 'free', there's definitely enough talent there for Emery to bring out. All along I'd hoped that we'd fill a couple of the gaps in the squad for free/cheap so we could go big on 2-3 players to really push us on so this works well, gutted it's not Asensio coming in for free though.

[pauliewalnuts]

The fact he scored the winner in an FA Cup final alone should be enough reason to sign him, on the off chance he could repeat the trick

If he doesn’t come then Alan Sunderland and Trevor Brooking are back up options.

Football cliches of the 1980s

“And you don’t score many with your head, do you Trevor?”

[Toronto Villa]

As others have said, if Emery wants him then it should be fine with all of us. He’s absolutely earned that.

[LeonW]

Tielemans is a funny o0ne, at his best he's a top class player who you'd think should be playing regularly at champions league level but it doesn't seme to take much for his attitude to turn and for him to go through the motions.

I suspect he asked Rodgers to let him leave last year (when he was being linked with a lot of CL clubs) and felt let down that they refused, especially when it was pretty clear that the squad was a mess and Rodgers himself seemed more interested in excuses for why they were going to fail than in trying to fix things. That he was a tit at Monaco as well is the bigger worry for me.

I'd also normally be a little nervy about signing a DM from a team that conceded so many, especially given he was quite clearly shown to be at fault for a few of those, but playing in front of that defence and keeper would be enough to break anyone. As we've seen with Dougie, and the addition of Kamara and Donk, sometimes a technical tempo-setting 6 needs a battler alongside him to let him shine. I'd see Tielemans as very much a option to cover the work Dougie does, giving us 4 genuine starting options in those 2 key spots.

On that basis I'd take the risk given he's 'free', there's definitely enough talent there for Emery to bring out. All along I'd hoped that we'd fill a couple of the gaps in the squad for free/cheap so we could go big on 2-3 players to really push us on so this works well, gutted it's not Asensio coming in for free though.

I tend to agree. On the face of it, it’s potentially a very good signing that a year ago we’d probably really be happy about. But when you start breaking it down there is potentially an attitude problem there and after the season Dougie and Kamara had together (even in patches), that shouldn’t be disturbed. We’ve gone from midfield being our biggest weakness to it probably now being our biggest strength. Tielemans is probably not going to be happy about being a rotation player at a club not in the champions league. Putting that aside, the biggest thing of all for me is that he’s not a consistent player. Emery has done well in turning some of our players into consistent performers. But i’d much rather we signed players that would regularly guarantee a 7/10 performance every week then another Bunedia or a Bailey who will deliver at least a 70 min decent performance every now and again. Turning out a side that will be at least a 7/10 each game is where we will really kick on.

[Bent Neilsens Screamer]

I’ve read a few comments about Tielemans at Monaco and his attitude. I’m not sure of the finer points but from the outside looking in he moved to a better league than Belgium and then did the same again when moving to England. Monaco is a stepping stone club so he was never going to stop there long term, especially given his reputation when he was at Anderlecht.

[algy]

I think Tielemans would be an excellent signing for a free transfer. If Emery thinks he's ok, then to me it'd be a very exciting move. We'd look incredibly strong in those more 'holding' midfielder roles - any 2 from Kamara, Dougie, Tielemans, and Dendonker - so pretty resilient to injuries, suspensions etc.

[trinityoap]

How about a cheeky £25million plus Olsen bid for Kane? Presumably he wants to play for a club that could offer him European football.

[SoccerHQ]

BTW, is he direct competition for Luiz or Kamara though?

Definitely more attacking than Kamara. I'd guess thought that we hope to be able to put a two or three man central midfield together from any of five or six players without any massive drop in quality.

Tielemans would be straight in if Luiz gets injured or picks up a red card (although his luckily always seem to be overturned).

I'm not going to say he's been amazing lately for Leicester as he clearly hasn't but he has been a top midfielder in the league in the not too distant past and has endless premier league and european experience and still only mid 20s so I think on a free it's a smart pick up and gives us so much depth centrally we can continue playing Ramsey and SJM wider for chunks of next season.

Pretty sure last summer one of the posters here said we were interested in him so get the feeling there's been long term interest from the club and more importantly UE rates him so why not.

If he dosen't step up from what he's been producing for Leicester in last six months he dosen't start for us.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

As others have said, if Emery wants him then it should be fine with all of us. He’s absolutely earned that.

It's the culture Emery has built with the current squad that does it for me. We take no passengers. If he decides to be an arse we flog him in January and make a tidy profit.

Any player moving to us this summer will find out Day 1 it's no summer camp.  Death or glory. As it should be.

[Steve67]

Guendouzi a bit too costly, so we’re using Tielemans to get the fee down? 

[Dave]

Monaco is a stepping stone club so he was never going to stop there long term, especially given his reputation when he was at Anderlecht.

Not sure that's quite fair. When he joined them they'd just won Ligue 1 and got to the Champions League semi-finals.

[brontebilly]

He looked brilliant for a couple of seasons. I’m not sure what went wrong with him last season? However you only have to look at the form of some of our own players under the wrong manager. McGinn in particular went to shit for some time and many of us were gutted to say he didn’t look good enough anymore, now look at him under Emery.

Tielemans, like Rodgers up to recently, was effectively dialling it in at Leicester for the last 12-18 months. Contract running down and he provided little or no leadership during that time. Still...at 26 he still has plenty of years left at the top level, if he still has the application.

Very talented player but something tells me this is one to let slip. For one, he would be competing really with our best player, Luiz, for that deep lying playmaking role, two, free transfers are never free, fat contracts are the order of the day, three, are we really willing to give someone a fat contract on the hope they can flick a switch and start taking their career seriously again?