Ok, I will open this thread to discuss all the latest transfers, rumors, involving the club.
As it seems, we have agreed a 3 million deal for Marvin Zeegelaar of Sporting, but he was not a starter there and is a below-average player. The sporting fans are already claiming that Sevilla ‘got robbed’, meaning he is far away from the 3 million, now imagine what we are about to sign.
Out of: Jonny Castro, Alberto Moreno, Holger Badstuber, Grimaldo, Jonathan Silva, Nicolas Tagliafico, Arana etc. we end up signing an anonymous player like Marvin.
Now Bacca also on his way to Villarreal. Jojo definitely worse than Bacca so by the looks of it, Villarreal will seriously compete for the 3rd and we will finish 5th-6th or 4th with extreme luck.
Also we are probably keeping N’Zonzi but we are still one injury to N’Zonzi or Pizarro away to disaster in the midfield, literally. If we don’t sign Marcos Llorente things will get ugly along the way.
So the end result, no third striker, left with 2 average strikers. Crappy LB to be signed, and no back-up DM/CM to N’Zonzi/Pizarro.
Unfortunately not. It was an article in Orgullo explaining an UEFA rule that the players can change the club and play in CL again after the end of the transfer window, because the clubs will submit new teams (those that reach CL stages and those that already are there for the first time) by the group stage level. Messed up.
Escudero is definitely the first choice. We should sign someone who will seriously compete with Escudero, not have to worry and pray when Escudero gets injured/suspended.
Hopefully the management will act wise on this one, as it’s not just to fill the LB spot for the sake of it, we need a decent LB to compete with Escudero, simple as that.
As for the RB, Mercado is very defensive and can’t contribute much to the attack (even though that pass to Navas for the second goal was still good, but not enough). Corchia will probably get the upper hand in the right side.
I don’t think we’ll be able to get a guy who can seriously compete with Escudero because at this point, Escudero may be one of the 10 best left backs in the world. He’s been that good over the last 15 months. That said, we should be able to find either a young guy from a smaller league or a veteran LB from a midtable team.
We need another left back, on same level as escudero. Another great goal scorer, shame we never got bacca, plus another midfielder.
It sounds like we might be getting Marcos Llorente from Real Madrid on loan, that would be good. Plus another left back likely. We still short up front though and need another striker.
Other than that we look pretty strong and set for another great season, maybe better than last! We signed about 7 so far, and we really boosted our midfield with banega, pizzaro, navas, nolito and nzonzi if he stays.
As Edinho mentioned, with N’Zonzi and Pizarro starting, we need another DM most definitely. Unless Berizzo planned to feature Banega as DM and Mudo as AM, which won’t work as Banega is way more suited to the AM role.
So our priorities should be: CF, DM and LB. So far we’re only focusing on LB, which is a shame.
Did some quick research on Masina, he stands at 1.9m tall and is 80kg, started out as a striker before being converted to be a wingback, doesn’t have stellar skills and isn’t particularly fast but is quite a physical presence, would add extra width but at the expense of solid defense both one-on-one and in a zonal system, if he does come I would expect Mercado to start on the opposite side to help retain some defensive solidarity. I would still like to get Grimaldo, he’s from Barca, operates like a natural there and has set-pieces.
The defensive midfielder position is also a concern, we need someone and frankly I’ve run out of viable names. I just know that Borja Lasso is not the solution, he looks flimsy.
As it seems, we have increased the offer for Masina to 7 million and will be just waiting for Tuesday to officially qualify for the group stages and make the move immediately. Bologna now are happier with 7 million and the player’s contract expires in 2018 as he didn’t want to renew, so a win-win for both clubs.
In the meantime, Jovetic has refused Newcastle and is waiting for our call, of course always after Tuesday’s CL match. Reportedly Inter have asked for a lowered fee (in half) from the original 13 million deal in the clause. Perhaps we can sign him for around 5-6 million if lucky.
So as things stand, Masina and Jojo will be ours within the coming week after we seal the qualification off on Tuesday.
What would then remain is obviously another DM, but it seems that the management is not interested in that now that N’Zonzi is staying. Anyway, Masina looks good and we all know what Jojo can do when he is in form, so still content about these two potential moves.
It was 37.5ºC last night at the same time as tonight’s game. And we’ll be resting a few players so expect a game with some rough edges. Lucky for me I got tickets for preferential, that’s to say free beer and food at half-time in the hospitality lounge. Looking at the squad it will be difficult to guess a starting 11 except to say Escudero and ten more.
Sergio Rico, David Soria, Gabriel Mercado, Corchia, Kjaer, Lenglet, Escudero, Nzonzi, Pizarro, Borja Lasso, Banega, Ganso, Sarabia, Correa, Jesús Navas, Nolito, Muriel y Ben Yedder
Some more news seems to have surfaced after the CL game, we seem to have stopped the move for Masina and going all in for Arana, I’m interested to see what he will bring to the team and also provide backup for Escudero
Jovetic move is still in the works, Castro claims this has never stopped and we look to be in good shape for his arrival, can play in the hole for us and lead the line every now and then.
A new name has popped up, a certain Uruguayan by the name of Felipe Carballo is said to be on the verge of joining us for 3m, not much info on him aside from he’s 20, plays for nacional in the centre of the midfield with a height of 1.78m and doesn’t even have a wiki page. Anyone know what to expect? It could also mean montoya would be permanently placed on the wings.
