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

[Demitri_C]

When you look at first team barring onana and  maatsen its not much stronger at all than last year.

Illing jr being loaned out. Barkley and enzo are backup players. JPB is also a rotation player.

This does concern me tbh i know we have JJ and buendia who we didnt have last year but i still am abit concerned we havent actually strengthed from last year esp when you see how competitive it will be this year in the league and how tough the CL will be.

But last year we had no “ rotation” players….

Thats the thing though i thought illing jr and enzo would be those type of players.

We dont want another scenario where we have to name two keepers on bench again. That happened way too many times kast season.

[cdbearsfan]

https://www.tntsports.co.uk/football/premier-league/2015-2016/raheem-sterling-left-fuming-raging-by-manhester-city-exit-admits-chelsea-move-was-no-brainer_sto9092642/story.shtml

He's 30 in December, and for a winger where pace is important, I personally think we should be shopping in a younger market (*though I think there are areas of the pitch in need of much more attention). Based off his reasoning for leaving Man City, is he really going to enjoy sitting on our bench when he's displaced by the younger, (*and better) Jacob Ramsey and/or Morgan Rogers?

Out for 70 days through injury over last two seasons too... If Purslow and Gerrard were still at the helm, he'd be at Villa Park already. Thankfully, they're not.

EDIT - And it also helps Chelsea out of a pickle if we take him off their hands. Fuck Chelsea!

Nothing in that link suggests troublemaker, it's one throwaway sentence stretched out to make a whole, largely pointless, article. Chelsea aren't "in a pickle", they've raised half a billion in players sales in the last few years. They're one of our rivals, if Sterling increases our chances of finishing above them or beating them to silverware, it absolutely doesn't "help Chelsea".

[Dave]

I have never been Sterling's biggest fan but calling him shit just seems ridiculous to me. Just look at how many appearances he has made at an elite level, club and country. He's not worth 300k now, mind, but he's not shit.

Sorry, you're talking about football on the internet where everything has to be the best or the worst that it's ever been, where everything is shit or brilliant, and where shades of grey don't exist.

Take your understanding of nuance elsewhere please.

[Monty]

I have never been Sterling's biggest fan but calling him shit just seems ridiculous to me. Just look at how many appearances he has made at an elite level, club and country. He's not worth 300k now, mind, but he's not shit.

Sorry, you're talking about football on the internet where everything has to be the best or the worst that it's ever been, where everything is shit or brilliant, and where shades of grey don't exist.

Take your understanding of nuance elsewhere please.

A very illuminating experience for me was going to watch Venezia when Nani was still playing for them. My Man Utd fan friends had assured me that he was 'shit' when he was 27, and here he was, basically a decade later, in Serie A.

Well, he wasn't very fast anymore, and he didn't make the 90, but fuck me you could see what top-level talent looked like. Not only was every touch effortless, it was also purposeful, manipulating the ball and the space two steps ahead like a snooker player.

Now when I hear that such and such a player is 'shit' I feel like rolling my eyes. Whoever it is might not be good enough to challenge for the Premier League title, but 'shit' is ludicrous (thinking of how some people talk about Matty Cash, for instance):

[Drummond]

For those questioning Sterling's character, try reading this from him just before the World Cup in 2018.

https://www.theplayerstribune.com/articles/raheem-sterling-england-it-was-all-a-dream

[pauliewalnuts]

I agree with you Monty, by and large, but I think when people call someone "shit" they're not really suggesting it is such stark terms. They're talking relatively.

For example, Danny Drinkwater, now he was shit. Shit by the standards of the league he was playing in.

Shit at football as judged by a 50 something lard arse who gets tired watching football, let alone playing it?

Cash isn't shit, he's a decent player, but he looks like he struggles to reach the levels of the rest of our usual starting XI.

[Monty]

I agree with you Monty, by and large, but I think when people call someone "shit" they're not really suggesting it is such stark terms. They're talking relatively.

For example, Danny Drinkwater, now he was shit. Shit by the standards of the league he was playing in.

Shit at football as judged by a 50 something lard arse who gets tired watching football, let alone playing it?

Cash isn't shit, he's a decent player, but he looks like he struggles to reach the levels of the rest of our usual starting XI.

I'm sure some people mean that. I'm also sure some people are idiots!

[danno]

I have never been Sterling's biggest fan but calling him shit just seems ridiculous to me. Just look at how many appearances he has made at an elite level, club and country. He's not worth 300k now, mind, but he's not shit.

Sorry, you're talking about football on the internet where everything has to be the best or the worst that it's ever been, where everything is shit or brilliant, and where shades of grey don't exist.

Take your understanding of nuance elsewhere please.

A very illuminating experience for me was going to watch Venezia when Nani was still playing for them. My Man Utd fan friends had assured me that he was 'shit' when he was 27, and here he was, basically a decade later, in Serie A.

Well, he wasn't very fast anymore, and he didn't make the 90, but fuck me you could see what top-level talent looked like. Not only was every touch effortless, it was also purposeful, manipulating the ball and the space two steps ahead like a snooker player.

Now when I hear that such and such a player is 'shit' I feel like rolling my eyes. Whoever it is might not be good enough to challenge for the Premier League title, but 'shit' is ludicrous (thinking of how some people talk about Matty Cash, for instance):

It’s all relative though isn’t it?  Man Utd fans are naturally going to compare him to Giggs or Ronaldo or any other top class wide men they’ve had. It’s the same reason why Ashley Young never got any credit from them.

Diego Forlan, Juan Veron, Matic, Daly Blind, all good players and definitely not shit, but all suffered when compared to their predecessors.

[pauliewalnuts]

For those questioning Sterling's character, try reading this from him just before the World Cup in 2018.

https://www.theplayerstribune.com/articles/raheem-sterling-england-it-was-all-a-dream

Yeah but, that tweet from, like three days ago, that was really, really bad judgement.

It doesn't mean he's a megacunt all the time, it was just a poor show. His "team" should mean the team he plays for, not his management / social media team.

He'd be a horrific distraction for us and is about as far away from an 'Emery type' player as it is possible to get.

[aev]

No interest in helping out Chelsea.

We already have by buying Maatsen.

Well, we have bought a young player from Chelsea, but really on the back of his Dortmund form.

He has plenty of upside.

Sterling is approaching the end of his career, on 300k a week, with 3 years left, and threw his toys out of the pram when he didn’t make the match day squad.

He is the type of signing Gerrard would have pursued (Coutinho, Carlos, Digne (for balance))


.

[coreyfeldman]

When you look at first team barring onana and  maatsen its not much stronger at all than last year.

Illing jr being loaned out. Barkley and enzo are backup players. JPB is also a rotation player.

This does concern me tbh i know we have JJ and buendia who we didnt have last year but i still am abit concerned we havent actually strengthed from last year esp when you see how competitive it will be this year in the league and how tough the CL will be.

But last year we had no “ rotation” players….

Thats the thing though i thought illing jr and enzo would be those type of players.

We dont want another scenario where we have to name two keepers on bench again. That happened way too many times kast season.

You've already named 4 players that weren't available last year but still worried that we're not stronger? Strange

[Dave]

He'd be a horrific distraction for us and is about as far away from an 'Emery type' player as it is possible to get.

I'm not saying we'll sign him, but on the small chance this nubbin of a rumour is true and we do bring him in on loan for season, how would you then square "as far away from an 'Emery type' player as it is possible to get" with Emery signing him?

[pauliewalnuts]

The suggestion we are not stronger than last year just does not stand up to scrutiny.

Are we strong enough for what we want to achieve? Not too sure. Another option up front and a right back, and ideally a centre half with Carlos leaving, and I'd be much happier.

But then i suspect if we had all those, we'd just find other areas to convince ourselves we're not strong enough in.

Plus it is our traditional for at least 20 years to go into a new season at least one signing short.

[pauliewalnuts]

He'd be a horrific distraction for us and is about as far away from an 'Emery type' player as it is possible to get.

I'm not saying we'll sign him, but on the small chance this nubbin of a rumour is true and we do bring him in on loan for season, how would you then square "as far away from an 'Emery type' player as it is possible to get" with Emery signing him?

So you're saying, how would I square really not an Emery type signing with Emery signing him?

Well, I'd re-evaluate, but that's a bit like saying "You say that cat isn't a leopard, but how would you then square that with watching it stalk and rip the throat out of a gazelle after a 500 metre chase?"

I'll believe it when I see it.

EDIT obviously this being H&V someone will go on wikipedia to check and come back and say actually, leopards are all vegan, or they don't live in the same environments as gazelles, or gazelles are faster, but you know what I mean.

[paul_e]

I don't think Stirling is shit (although he's not as good as some people seem to think and he should never have been a mainstay of the England squad for as long as he was) but I do think he'd be a really poor fit for us because I think Watkins would hate playing with him.

For a winger his crossing and passing is poor and he doesn't do particularly well at either tracking back or pressing which means all you pick him for is goals, and to justify that he'd need to be offering Salah levels, and I don't think he's capable of it.

Finally he'd come in and expect to be the superstar that everyone else looked for and to have a team setup around him, whjich would be a huge backwards step for us.