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

[AV84]

We've just signed someone.

Someone from Nas's Egyptian club.

Omar Khedr, a 17 year old winger.

Obviously in the works for a while, thats from April
 
https://twitter.com/espenstrand/status/1644305051240869889?s=20

[Toronto Villa]

Pau Torres is a good footballer, but will have to adapt to the speed and aggression of the Premier League quickly

If he adapts he will be a brilliant player if he doesn’t he will sink without trace and return to the European leagues

Over the years I’ve heard so many players some who went on to become great players talk about how difficult they found their first few games in the Premier League, It is different from any other league in the world and I think Pau found that out on Saturday

Personally, I think he will become the best central defender we have at the club

He already is just going by his resume. But the PL is the fastest league in the world and defending in it is the hardest. There are plenty of top defenders who’ve looked average until they got up to speed. Literally. And making your debut at Newcastle is hard enough without having to come on for Mings in the middle of game we are already losing might have been the worst possible way to start. He’s plenty good enough to work it out. And he will have to faster than he and Emery imagined.

[eamonn]

I don't accept we're limited by FFP.  I simply don't buy it, we just haven't spent enough.

23/24 - approx £75m
22/23 - approx £40m
21/22 - approx zero net.

I know there's wages etc, but other clubs pay wages too.  We must be miles off any thresholds - we could probably spend another £100m if we wanted to.

Tielemans and Kamara would both have signed chunky signing-on fees for themselves and their reps in lieu of any transfer fee due to their clubs. I imagine we also had to pay them more wages than other clubs offered (i.e in the Digne/Coutinho ballpark).

Not saying this stymies us for FFP but it might make us a little more cautious than would first appear. And selling "the project" to Diego Carlos when he was coming back off being the best CB in Spain probably added to the high earners. McGinn and Mings have also signed one last big career contract in recent months, presumably we've increased their take-home quite a lot.
I reckon getting Ings' wages off the books was seen as a real opportunity in January that was too good to refuse bearing in mind the new high earners in our squad.

[SoccerHQ]

The more I think about it the more Carlos-Torres makes sense at CB.

Konsa could easily just be dropped for the third goal alone so not a bad signal to send to him to get his standards up.

Those two are very experienced at the top level and there won't be as many language issues between them.

Our next four games are Everton, Burnley and possibly Hibs twice so to me looks ideal run of fixtures to ease them in as a couple of clean sheets isn't a big ask.

[Villafirst]

A few places reporting Zaniolo is pushing to make the move happen. Seems its Galatasary holding it up, but it's expected to go through.

Read something there about Aaron Ramsey being expected to sign a new deal with us and then move to Burnley. I assume that has something to do with the buy back clause. Apparently that's what's holding things up there. I guess he's agreeing the terms he'll come back on if we activate it.

Aaron Ramsey should only go if the squad numbers are bolstered first. I understand that 8 players are unavailable through injury. With potentially 50 plus games to play this season we need more reinforcements quickly.

[SoccerHQ]

A few places reporting Zaniolo is pushing to make the move happen. Seems its Galatasary holding it up, but it's expected to go through.

Read something there about Aaron Ramsey being expected to sign a new deal with us and then move to Burnley. I assume that has something to do with the buy back clause. Apparently that's what's holding things up there. I guess he's agreeing the terms he'll come back on if we activate it.

Aaron Ramsey should only go if the squad numbers are bolstered first. I understand that 8 players are unavailable through injury. With potentially 50 plus games to play this season we need more reinforcements quickly.

Ramsey is way down the pecking order even with the injuries.

From the bench on Saturday we had Tielemans and Chambers who were midfield cover and Coutinho as the attacking option.

It's a shame given how good he's looked in his two loan spells last season but that is our strongest area by a mile now and I assume Donk injury is only short term so he'll be involved soon.

[Brazilian Villain]

Over the years I’ve heard so many players some who went on to become great players talk about how difficult they found their first few games in the Premier League, It is different from any other league in the world and I think Pau found that out on Saturday

Indeed.

It was only earlier this year that Alex Moreno looked iffy as fuck in his first few matches for us.

Didn't Thierry Henry struggle for a few months when he moved to the Premier League? He turned out to be all right.

[AV84]

It's a shame given how good he's looked in his two loan spells last season but that is our strongest area by a mile now and I assume Donk injury is only short term so he'll be involved soon.
[/quote]

Is Donk injured? I thought he just missed basically all of preseason because he was on parental leave.

[SoccerHQ]

It's a shame given how good he's looked in his two loan spells last season but that is our strongest area by a mile now and I assume Donk injury is only short term so he'll be involved soon.

Is Donk injured? I thought he just missed basically all of preseason because he was on parental leave.
[/quote]

He was listed as being injured alongside Traore on the fitness update last week.

[Risso]

Over the years I’ve heard so many players some who went on to become great players talk about how difficult they found their first few games in the Premier League, It is different from any other league in the world and I think Pau found that out on Saturday

Indeed.

It was only earlier this year that Alex Moreno looked iffy as fuck in his first few matches for us.

Didn't Thierry Henry struggle for a few months when he moved to the Premier League? He turned out to be all right.

He was used mainly as a sub for the first couple of months, but he soon got up to speed. 30+ goals in his first season.

[pablo_picasso]

Jeremiah St. Juste or Lutsharel Geertruida.

Both pacy, especially St. Juste, both good on the ball & both can play at either CB or RB.

Good call. Sadly, St Juste is injured from a shoulder knock he took last season. He's missed all pre-season and probably won't be back for Sporting until the autumn.

Shit. St. Juste would have been my preferred of the two.

[OCD]

Pushing to sign Zaniolo on a 3m initial loan deal (with option to buy) feels to me like we're either being mindful of FFP or that we're trying to keep some of our powder dry because we were already planning for a final push in the transfer window. Maybe still planning a £40m+ deal for Brennan Johnson or similar.

I appreciate he himself has had a couple of bad injuries and while that could be a factor, I don't think it would be the main consideration.

As for Pau-Carlos against Everton, Burnley and probably Hibs home and away, that would make sense. Emery may also use Konsa at right back and try to get the system working the way he wants it to. Moreno may then be able to slot in after the international break.

[Risso]

I think we're going to come up short in the transfer window. We always have since we came back up. It would be nice to be proved wrong, but we never seem to go the extra mile like some clubs.

[Brazilian Villain]

Over the years I’ve heard so many players some who went on to become great players talk about how difficult they found their first few games in the Premier League, It is different from any other league in the world and I think Pau found that out on Saturday

Indeed.

It was only earlier this year that Alex Moreno looked iffy as fuck in his first few matches for us.

Didn't Thierry Henry struggle for a few months when he moved to the Premier League? He turned out to be all right.

He was used mainly as a sub for the first couple of months, but he soon got up to speed. 30+ goals in his first season.

He still took a while to adapt, and didn't score 30+ goals until his 3rd season (which included 7 in Europe).

[AV84]

As for Pau-Carlos against Everton, Burnley and probably Hibs home and away, that would make sense. Emery may also use Konsa at right back and try to get the system working the way he wants it to. Moreno may then be able to slot in after the international break.

I think Mings was the "problem" in terms of selecting the central defenders. If you wanted Torres in his preferred position you had to drop or move Mings, and if we did that, already missing 1st choice RB, can you really bring Carlos in too, meaning an almost entirely new back line?
 Now that Mings has unfortunately been removed from the equation it changes things entirely, and if we're going to have to play Torres, without him having time to slowly adjust, I don't think he needs to be worrying about keeping Konsa in check too. Playing Carlos beside him just makes more sense to me.
It might be a case that we have to change tactics for a few games and then once Moreno is back, and Torres and Carlos have settled, we can go back to whatever the original plan for the season was.