Fonte gives us a 4th centre back, which improves the squad certainly.steveyrockstar wrote:I get that Fonte is a good player and improves us in the immediacy, but it strikes me as a very strange, short-term transfer and would be very frustrating if that £8m impacts our transfer budget in the summer.
The argument people are making about how he performed at Southampton does not necessarily read across.
He has a 6'7" keeper behind him, some fast and very highly rated specialist full backs, a couple of very capable, specialist defensive midfielders (Schneiderlin, Wanyama, Romeu) etc etc.
To perform identically, it's reasonable to assume that he will need pretty much the same rather than some of our far cheaper and makeshift options.
One loan per club.DDHammer wrote:I'd take Wilshere and the Ox on loan in the summer though and sign them for free the year after.
£5m loan fee on each.
I sympathise on Oxlade Chamberlain though. Think he is versatile, pacey, skilful and could do well for us.