Summer 2024 Transfer Window - hopes, speculation, rumours etc.

[coreyfeldman]

He'll be a very decent player for us. Bet ya

[PaulWinch again]

He seems to have matured since his loan to us. I'm judging on what I saw last season and from that perspective, I think it's a good move given the constraints we're working with and I'm interested to see whether we sign another DM.

Do we ignore the two seasons in between Villa and Luton? He's had one good season as a pro since his Everton days. Seems like he will be competing with Luiz, Tielemans and possibly McGinn for minutes.

Not ignore, but if you’re trying to assess then using the most recent sample is probably the most relevant. He’s a squad player, and frankly better than we have in support at the moment.

[AV84]

Obviously Champions League is a huge step up from Conference League, but in the group stages when we were mostly at full fitness, Emery did rest players. I don't think Torres played much in the group stages, for example. So it doesn't need to be a case of Barkley competing for minutes, when there's a lot of minutes to go around.

Realistically, next season, our best chance of silverware is one of the domestic cups. So again it's a case of having a squad that can compete on multiple stages consistently. The amount of injuries we has towards the end of the season, and Emery rarely turned to certain players on our threadbare bench. If we had more quality there they'd have got a lot of playing time this past season.

[pauliewalnuts]

Realistically, next season, our best chance of silverware is one of the domestic cups.

Is it, though?

We've managed to look more likely to win the league than the domestic cups this last season. I'm starting to feel it'll never happen.

[Percy McCarthy]

He'll be a very decent player for us. Bet ya

I agree. Some of his underlying numbers were better than our midfielders last season

[Steve67]

Is Barkley the new DCM, cheap but effective, but which will allow us to spend bigger elsewhere on more pressing target areas?

[PaulWinch again]

Is Barkley the new DCM, cheap but effective, but which will allow us to spend bigger elsewhere on more pressing target areas?

If you mean cover for Kamara, I bloody hope not.

[ChicagoLion]

Is Barkley the new DCM, cheap but effective, but which will allow us to spend bigger elsewhere on more pressing target areas?

If you mean cover for Kamara, I bloody hope not.

He is not a DCM.

[Monty]

Barkley's there to compete/rotate with Luiz, Tielemans and McGinn either in the deep central role or the advanced wide '8/10' thing depending on what we're doing that day. Would've been useful in the last few months that's for sure.

[darren woolley]

Barkley's there to compete/rotate with Luiz, Tielemans and McGinn either in the deep central role or the advanced wide '8/10' thing depending on what we're doing that day. Would've been useful in the last few months that's for sure.

Spot on Monty.

[Anthenagin]

I agree, I think he’s more of an 8 so cover for Doug. We are better off with Tielemans as cover for Kamara than anyone else in the current squad so if Doug was injured or suspended then Barkley can cover for him instead of Tielemans. I would still rather get in decent cover for Kamara instead of Tim or the Donk as clearly Unai doesn’t fancy them. Who that is I don’t know, but I for one hadn’t thought of Kamara until we signed him.

[LeonW]

I’m really excited to see what we do this summer. I’m not expecting a sh*t ton of money being spent but smart signings. Rodgers is already a good example of that in January.

[OCD]

Is Barkley the new DCM, cheap but effective, but which will allow us to spend bigger elsewhere on more pressing target areas?

If you mean cover for Kamara, I bloody hope not.

He is not a DCM.

He played as a 6 for Luton.

[PaulWinch again]

It’s a different type of role though.

[LeeB]

Kamara is pretty rare as a player that can take the ball under pressure, play a through ball, and do the defensive screening/dirty work.

If we can't get the same player to cover I get that it's more important the player can do the former rather than the latter, and we'd rather use a Luiz/Barkley/McGinn type player than a Dendonker/Chambers stopper.

Getting Barkley means we can cover the role without losing out a bit further up the pitch.