Youri Tielemans

[villadelph]

Whatever happened to Steve Walsh?  The scout, rather than the lumbering CB. He was king of the bargain buys for a time there.

He left them to spend countless millions on mediocre players for Everton, until they sacked him.

Now signing players like Ashley Westwood for Charlotte FC in MLS.

Westwood had a decent goal last night against Seattle.

[rooboy316]

Aren’t wages also part of FFP?

Yes but it’s amortised. A £40m signing on £80k a week on a 5 year contract equates to £12.16m a year for FFP. A free signing on £100k a week on a 5 year contract is £5.2m a year for FFP

Is 20% generally the wage premium clubs pay when signing someone on a free? I imagined it would be more, plus a hefty sign on fee.

[edgysatsuma89]

Aren’t wages also part of FFP?

Yes but it’s amortised. A £40m signing on £80k a week on a 5 year contract equates to £12.16m a year for FFP. A free signing on £100k a week on a 5 year contract is £5.2m a year for FFP

Is 20% generally the wage premium clubs pay when signing someone on a free? I imagined it would be more, plus a hefty sign on fee.

I don't think Dave P thinks that is what he will be on, it's just an example to show the rough FFP calculations. The premium would be higher.

[brontebilly]

Tielemans is a very talented player. Proven at club and international level. More of a follower than a leader but give him the right role in a structured team and he can thrive again. I'm just a bit worried that he has barely performed in 18 months and provided no leadership for Leicester in recent times. I did think Emery would want a different type of CM to compliment the group we already have, Tielemans is very similar to Luiz.

[chrisw1]

He's a very good player.  I would have preferred Guendouzi who I felt was a bit more versatile, but even so it's fantastic to get someone of this quality on a free transfer.

[Risso]

Tielemans is a very talented player. Proven at club and international level. More of a follower than a leader but give him the right role in a structured team and he can thrive again. I'm just a bit worried that he has barely performed in 18 months and provided no leadership for Leicester in recent times. I did think Emery would want a different type of CM to compliment the group we already have, Tielemans is very similar to Luiz.

He performed under Rodgers like most of our players performed under Gerrard. We just made the change in plenty of time, and they didn't. And with all due respect to Dean Smith, he's not really the sort who's going to light a fire under players in a short space of time when they've been badly managed for so long.

[Smithy]

Tielemans is a very talented player. Proven at club and international level. More of a follower than a leader but give him the right role in a structured team and he can thrive again. I'm just a bit worried that he has barely performed in 18 months and provided no leadership for Leicester in recent times. I did think Emery would want a different type of CM to compliment the group we already have, Tielemans is very similar to Luiz.

He performed under Rodgers like most of our players performed under Gerrard. We just made the change in plenty of time, and they didn't. And with all due respect to Dean Smith, he's not really the sort who's going to light a fire under players in a short space of time when they've been badly managed for so long.

Agreed, I don't think you can hold the last 18 months of his Leicester career against him any more than you can hold the last 12 month of McGinn under Gerrard against SJM.

At his best, Tielemens is an excellent premier league midfielder, capable of playing at the very top level, both domestically and internationally.  And if there is anyone out there I trust to get him back to that level on a consistent basis, it's Unai.

If this is a sign of the sort of quality we'll be bringing in this summer, then I think it's brilliant news.

[Dogtanian]

I can imagine Emery and his team have spent a lot of time going over his games this season and seeing what is what. So they must be pretty confident that they can get him doing that they need him to do.

[Drummond]

Given we're wanting to strengthen the first team, we should ask if he is a starter? Who would he replace in the midfield from the end of the season?

I guess in my mind he's good enough to replace any of them and for us not to see a drop in quality, but I'm not sure who he'd start in front of. That also says a lot about how good our midfield has been.

[paul_e]

He's a very good player.  I would have preferred Guendouzi who I felt was a bit more versatile, but even so it's fantastic to get someone of this quality on a free transfer.

I still think we might get one more in midfield. We play with 4 central midfielders that 'flex' from a flat 4 to a box and with Tielemans coming in we have 6 players for those positions, with Bailey and Buendia sometimes filling in for the wider roles in specific circumstances.

Given there's some talk of Dendoncker going out I wouldn't be shocked if we looked at someone to replace him to keep that 4 from 6 as a minimum (with maybe AJ and Tim bulking out the depth of the squad).

[OCD]

I think Tielemans will be a direct competitor to Luiz and I think we'll bring in a quality DM to give Kamara competition. We've been linked with Paulinho, Ugarte and Tyler Adams to name but 3.

We could end up with having 2 really top, top players per position with the incoming player often being seen as an upgrade by people with no affiliation. If that comes to pass, we're going to be a really good side next season with the ability to rotate and pick teams based on the tactical adjustments Emery specifically wants to use for that opposition.

[Risso]

Given we're wanting to strengthen the first team, we should ask if he is a starter? Who would he replace in the midfield from the end of the season?

I guess in my mind he's good enough to replace any of them and for us not to see a drop in quality, but I'm not sure who he'd start in front of. That also says a lot about how good our midfield has been.

So much depends on formations etc though, and all we've really seen so far is Emery making do with what he has (which is frightening in itself).

I could easily see something like:

Emi

Cash Konsa Mings Moreno

Kamara Luiz

McGinn Tielemans Ramsey

Watkins

[paul_e]

Tweak that slightly to a 4141 and I'd be happy with that team. Not much natural width (especiailly on the right) though. I seem to recall a link to Dumfries though, which would make sense in that team.

[Risso]

Tweak that slightly to a 4141 and I'd be happy with that team. Not much natural width (especiailly on the right) though. I seem to recall a link to Dumfries though, which would make sense in that team.

Yep, it's obviously highly dependent on who else we bring in especially up front, but when we're 4-0 up against Man City in the FA Cup final, it would do to see out injury time!

[Toronto Villa]

Last season Brighton rotated players like Mitoma and Mac Allister. Both were top players for them. By the end of the season we had a stable 11 or 12 we used pretty consistently and the rest weren’t trusted a lot. So going forward we need to be able tactical utilize more of our squad and not be afraid when the likes of McGinn, Luiz, Mings etc find themselves on the bench. The drop off in quality and consistency from our regular starters to our subs was too great.