Summer Transfer Window Thread 2016

[stokeriño]

Reports say that a) Costa is definitely staying at Chelsea, and b) Chelsea are still in the market for another striker, with Morata as Plan A and Pelle as Plan B.

The idea of having enough (serviceable) strikers to actually play a 2 striker system again (Costa/Bats/Pelle?/Traore) leaves me a little giddy. Although much of this is no doubt down to fond memories of the Jimmy/Eidur partnership and God knows if it'll even work in the Premier League these days.  

[Lineker]

West Brom have agreed to sign Matt Philips from QPR for £5.5m. 

Sunderland have allowed Santiago Vergini to return home to Boca Juniors. 

Barcelona have resigned Denis Suarez from Villarreal.

Bournemouth's Lee Tomlin is having a medical at Bristol City ahead of a permanent move.

[The Lusophone]

47 minutes ago, stokeriño said:

Reports say that a) Costa is definitely staying at Chelsea, and b) Chelsea are still in the market for another striker, with Morata as Plan A and Pelle as Plan B.

The idea of having enough (serviceable) strikers to actually play a 2 striker system again (Costa/Bats/Pelle?/Traore) leaves me a little giddy. Although much of this is no doubt down to fond memories of the Jimmy/Eidur partnership and God knows if it'll even work in the Premier League these days.  

Don't you have Bamford as well?

[stokeriño]

4 minutes ago, Mad Jack said:

Don't you have Bamford as well?

Technically yes, but he's amongst the list of players who clearly aren't going to feature for Chelsea this season (even if we want them to), so no point counting him.

[DavidMarrio]

1 hour ago, stokeriño said:

Technically yes, but he's amongst the list of players who clearly aren't ever going to feature for Chelsea  (even if we want them to), so no point counting him.

Fixed.

I think Pelle would be a good backup striker for Chelsea. It'd make more sense then Morata going and possibly being 2nd or 3rd choice. 

Also we need Ian Ayre to pick Benteke up and drive him to London in a side car attached to his Harvey Davidson pronto!! 

[Lineker]

Middlesbrough have signed midfielder Marten de Roon from Atalanta for an undisclosed fee of around £12m. 

[Lineker]

Watford have confirmed the departure of midfielder Jose Manuel Jurado to Espanyol.

[Baddar]

We're in for Matuidi, apparently. Could definitely use something extra in midfield. Can't see us signing Matuidi AND Pogba, although the Pogba stuff is surely no more than paper talk.

[Adam]

If Mourinho is right in saying they're wanting to sign four players overall, and of course that's probably not going to end up being entirely accurate, then does he really think the squad would be set by adding Bailly, Ibra, Matuidi and Henrikh to it?

Phil Jones really is going to be relied on at the back, isn't he...

[The Lusophone]

Blind and Smalling would probably be first choice in the center, Shaw on the left, Darmian on the right.

[Lineker]

Harry Kane is set to sign a lucrative new five-year contract with Tottenham in the coming weeks after agreeing a deal to make him the club’s best-paid player. Super-duper.

[Adam]

11 minutes ago, Mad Jack said:

Blind and Smalling would probably be first choice in the center, Shaw on the left, Darmian on the right.

Who else is there for depth behind them? Jones, McNair, Fosu-Mensah, Borthwick-Jackson and Bailly?

It doesn't seem like a very formidable defence for a Top 4 side to me, but then defending wasn't exactly at the best level last season across the league.

[Whisper]

46 minutes ago, Adam said:

Who else is there for depth behind them? Jones, McNair, Fosu-Mensah, Borthwick-Jackson and Bailly?

It doesn't seem like a very formidable defence for a Top 4 side to me, but then defending wasn't exactly at the best level last season across the league.

To be fair, he didnt say he was stopping at four. He said they had identified four key areas that they were going to address well before the window closed and that the window would still be open for further business.

Even so, at centre half you would have Bailly, Smalling, Blind, Jones, Rojo, Fosu Mensah, McNair. Short of signing a Pique/Varane/other superstar, I'm not sure there's too many players you could realistically get who would be a major improvement.

In fact - trying to think of top class centre halves is stumping me a bit. I still always come back to Pique, Cheillini, Varane, Ramos, etc. Outside of Varane, European football doesn't seem to be brimming with top quality, young defenders.

Edited July 5, 2016 by Whisper

[Lineker]

The four key areas: goalie, defence, midfield, attack  

Fabricio Coloccini will return home to Argentina to join San Lorenzo after eight years with Newcastle United, with the north-east club announcing their captain’s contract had been terminated by mutual consent.

[The Lusophone]

Umtiti who has just joined Barca has always been very highly rated, but couldn't get into France's original squad for the Euro's though to be fair, they are absolutely stacked in that position. There's a ton of highly promising players around, like Dortmund's Matthias Ginter who will be Hummels' successor - although Marc Bartra will probably take that place initially. Felix Passlack at Dortmund is a longer term prospect, as is Emanuel Mammana who will replace Umtiti at Lyon.

Jetro Willems from PSV and Ajax's Kenny Tete and Jairo Riedewald will eventually make their way to top clubs and Jonathan Tah and Tin Jedvaj from Bayer Leverkusen will probably play for Munich at some point (). Juve have Daniele Rugani who should replace Barzagli in the Italy set-up after the Euros (although given the longevity of Italian players it could be even later), and AC have Alessio Romagnoli and rebuffed interest from Barca this summer.

There's also Everton's Brendan Galloway (and maybe John Stones in the 'promising young defender' category although considering his season that might be debatable now) and Schalke have Kaan Ayhan who both Turkey and Germany are courting due to his dual nationality.

[Hobo]

There is kind of a dearth of great defenders and strikers. Everyone is a midfielder.

[Lineker]

 

 

[Rich]

So he won't be doing it on a rainy night in Stoke :/ 

[Arjen Robben]

Victor Valdes has started following us on Twitter which is... a thing.

Wouldn't be entirely against that signing tbf, if that's what that is about. Seems a bit random to not be transfer based.

[Colly]

He really wants a parmo.