We all love a rumour or 10 – but 12 days into the transfer window, Claret&Hugh thought it might be a good idea to check the facts against the mass of speculation and hopeful thinking!
Back in June, David Gold declared on Twitter that fans could expect around five new faces this summer. And right now we have Darren Randolph, Stephen Hendrie, Dimitri Payet, Pedro Obiang and Angelo Ogbonna on board. By our reckoning, THAT’S FIVE!
Gold said “new faces”, which may cover loan signings as well as permanent buys. A sixth will almost certainly be Carl Jenkinson, and then, possibly, Alex Song, or somebody like him. There are also rumours about Kevin Miralles and Charlie Austin.
My understanding is that the total cost of the new arrivals tops out at between £21-£22 million leaving, whether we find it acceptable or not, about £3 million in the kitty. A total of £25 million was the ceiling.
Opportunity
However, there’s a good chance that a Stewart Downing departure will add a few more quid to the pot which may allow a bid of sorts to be made.
Many players have been mentioned as far as a new striker is concerned – Chelsea’s Loic Remy and QPR’s Austin among them.
Jarvis look likely to move on should there be any interest, but currently – as reported here previously – there’s not. The club has done a lot of business very early and that is all to the good.
The rest of the summer looks likely to be relatively quiet with Jenkinson and a loan striker on the way – anything else will be a bonus and Downing’s departure may make it possible.
Defensive midfielder, huh?
You don’t rate Noble, Song, Obiang and Kouyate, then? These have all, with the obvious exception of Obiang, been near the top of my OPTA table for tackles etc. at some point or another, last Season.
Our priority should be to get rid of Collins, Nolan and even Carroll – associated with most of our worst performances last Season.
When you look at Sakho,Carroll & Valencia,yes it does look fine.But then you take their injury list into account & we clearly are light of a top forward.I dont see all this it aint a priority.How many more seasons do we need to end up with no strikers before people realize we are short of real options in the striker department.Guess now i will get loads of ‘you forgot Elliot Lee’ comments,lol 😀
Destro OK for you? 😀
It’s not about me Michael but what I’ve been told and what’s already on the record
Well yeah obviously i have seen the Destro news which is why i said we need one & in my eyes it is an important part of the signings this summer.He will do nicely 😀
Nah Lee isn’t ready for prem commitments, give him 45 mins in a couple cup games maybe and see how it goes but until he’s proven himself a bit more he’s too much of a risk to put in this season
We have more defensive midfielders than any other position, except perhaps central defender (since this past week). We on the other hans have a strike force that in the second part of last season was a strong feature of the reason we declined so badly, we simply could not score. Why? because Sakho was less prolific and then suffered injuries, Carroll was predictably injured, Valencia continued his non scoring season and Zarate was off in la la land. Add to that the fact which thankfully Bilic at least has quickly noticed while others remain oblivious, that the midfield do little to help out in that regard. We badly need another striker even with the added threat of Payet, as that is to be partly illuminated by the likely loss of Downing. At the very least another creative midfielder or/and a winger who can score. Nice therefore to see that Bilic again recognises that fact (as others clearly are blind to it) by being associated by various options.
My only fear there is that the options won’t prove good enough but there are of course limits to the funds available so with the overall strengthening we can’t have it all and a few holes will still have to be taped over for one last season.
Why isn’t young Samuelsen included among the “new faces”??
That’s six then!! 🙂
Yep
I thought we had all agreed that there was no £25 million limit only rumours ?
If we get Song for nothing,Jenkinson on loan £1.5 million we still have £1.5 million add 5.5 million for Downing, if rumours are true our new Forward is going to be Italian and free,
That leaves £7 million for a winger plus any money we can get for Nolan,Jarvis and Magia,
Erico is correct if you add Samuelsen,
And you forgot Poyet in your defensive midfielder total
Kouyate,Obieng,Poyet,Song and Noble to cover 2 slots ?
Cant forget Samuelsen,Erikos little viking pal 😉
If ‘Sammy’ is as good as he briefly looked last week then he will be a Godsend next season, exactly the sort of player we need to come on for short periods up front, even start the odd game perhaps if he truly proves up to it and take the weight of the others. Hopefully even Lee may help there too, we shall see. Thats exactly what we lacked last year especially second part when the Dev Squad players proved not up to the job (not helped by BS attitude sadly) to give us such periods of play time to ease the pressure on the first choice squad. That hopefully is going to be an aspect that will be better this year with more and superior options and better encouraged young players showing more confidence when given the opportunity.
Destro in would be a big help.As i said before,if we end up with no strikers for a third season running i will be well ****ed off.It has been a nightmare the last two seasons so really dont see how it cant be of importance to reinforce that area.Dont understand the ‘it aint a priority’ reasoning.Maybe im wrong,i usually am 😀
Haha. It’s a good while since we thrashed England in the WC qualification for USA ’94, nowdays there aren’t many players worth singing praises for!!
If any… they’re all named Martin!! :p
Norwegians, that is!! ..or Vikings.. Samuelsen doesn’t look much like a proper viking though!
Lol,he is a Bieber Viking 😉