The Summer Transfer Thread 2022.

[Bond Holder 59]

I think not getting enough new recruits would also damage squad morale. Antonio for one having publicly stated the club needs an alternative striker and I imagine Soucek isn't too happy he is being flogged to death whilst not receiving an improved contract offer he desires. Rice obviously wants to see whether the club's ambitions matches his.

Very fair points, but they are from other existing player perspectives. Just wondering whether Moyes has a shorter list for this specific window?

[MB]

No they didn't?

Someone on here implied they could "just" obtain Richarlison for £15m + the money they'd get from selling Broja. That led to multiple pages of Chinese whispers. Notwithstanding Richarlison got sold to a different club anyway so what they paid is irrelevant.

No one tries to hijack a deal by offering less. Various other reports you can find about it being Broja plus £15m so what the other club paid is very relevant to Chelsea's valuation of the player.

I don't think he is worth anywhere near that, but if Chelsea do we have a problem and waiting till August won't solve that.

[Hugh Jargon]

One thing that struck me was his weight. You assume a guy sitting in central midfield who's 6ft5 is going to bully some people but he's listed as 75kg. Like having Stephen Merchant rather than Papa Bouba Diop in the middle of the park.

I'm 6ft 4. I was CM as well.
I was utter toilet. Useless. Pardon?

[hammer1975]

Agreed. I don’t have access to the form table since January, but one team were pushing europe and the other were having a battle down the bottom.

Agree.

I personally wouldn’t want to go to Newcastle if I was a footballer due to their ownership - but I think it’s naive to suggest anyone signing for them is just doing so for the money. Their form was much better than ours in the second half of the season so they are definitely a valid threat for league placing and player acquisition (even if half the players linked are not really their targets).

[Bond Holder 59]

Whatever the number is B-H I hope they are seen as credible first team options in the managers eyes.

Many point to January as a failing in terms of bolstering the squad for the last third of last season. What was equally to blame was the passengers on the bench that Moyes didn’t trust (Kral, Vlasic).

Completely agree. Four starters would be better than eight squad players over the short-term, but January would be equally hectic.

Just pondering with my initial thought, no facts or insight. Moyes doesn’t strike me as a quantity shopper.

[Absolutely Hammered!]

I am not sure DM dithers that much, at Everton he made some shrewd purchases same at Sunderland (ok it didn't work out but got them in quick)
Man Utd, I feel he walked into an absolute poop storm, Rio & Vidic both off , and the rest of the old guard needed replacing so it was a case of where do we start?
West Ham is interesting, how much of his dithering is down to GSB parading thier preferred players , leaking names to the press (like they did with Neymar) only for DM to keep saying 'no I want XYZ'

Yes I would want all targets sorted and in by the first pre season game, but not many other teams have made more than 3 signings so far.

If we still are here mid September saying we needed to have got a LB, CM, Striker in then, something is rotten in the Borough of West Ham

I keep seeing this but what needs to be remembered is that other clubs around us already have real depth and established squads, so really, we need to be more active than them. Who knows, we might reel off 4 new signings in the last week of the window but it's not very likely IMO.

[Doc H Ball]

Someone sensibly said earlier that a lot of our business will be on hold until after the Conference play offs.

If we win that’s another possible 15 games, if we lose we need less of a squad. They’ll be working on having a few lined up ready to finalise or ditch in late August.

[S-H]

It's Magic Monday - There better be another ****ing signing today, or else!

[billtho]

Agreed. I don’t have access to the form table since January, but one team were pushing europe and the other were having a battle down the bottom.

The more, I think about the failure of the January window, the more annoying it gets. This is why this window is crucial to get right.

The form table showed newcastle 4th top and west ham 5th bottom.Dont underestimate them even for this season I still see them at least level with us.

[e20too]

Nah… even my barcode neighbour accepts players are ending up at Newcastle for one last pay day. Trippier and Wood being early examples. It’s no different than Leeds back in 2000s., or Blackburn in mid 1990s. Nothing wrong in that approach, but you need better foundations to sustain the investor interest over five years. If they are signing up and coming stars in three years then it could be different. The only good thing is that would mean one of the established big six dropping down. Only so much gravy to go around.

On the subject of transfers, it’s really only the forums and lazy journalists that keep connecting them to every active transfer. There’s no real evidence. They will have limited appropriate resources in back office so ironically they will also be focused on lists.

….and please god no to ………Josh King…….even if he paid us (another post).
⚒

Ok they bought a couple players to keep them in the premier league, very sensible to me (we have done it too) but those players are not indicative of their policy having achieved that. Now they will as a general rule go for a range of players, some looking for a last pay day true, some young and promising who can afford to wait a few years and build their careers as Newcastle grows and others who are of the quality we seek who aren’t ostensibly good enough for the top six or would be bench warmers for them but some of whom no doubt still strive for that level.

You mention in derisive tones I feel Leeds and Blackburn (who weren’t super rich like Newcastle by the way) as one presumes failures. But equally this is exactly how Man City and Chelsea broke into the elite way back though sensibly Newcastle don’t seem to be willing ( certainly at this point) to be seen as pumped up high spenders and exploited accordingly. They are likely taking things a little more slowly for now because you are right establishing yourself a top six club won’t be so easy now and a more circumspect approach will be required the first stage of which is to be taken seriously, that will take a good season or two no doubt to build appeal. Imagine how difficult it will be for us then without the money but with a couple good seasons under our belt but it seems for what ever reason hardly seeing a rush of talent to join us.

[Kermit]

It's not so much the money, it's more the morals of working for someone with that sort of human rights record. If it was just money, sort of fair enough, but blood money? Not so fair enough.

I wonder how many of us work, or have worked, with organisations who have major shareholders who might not be whiter than white ? In any event while governments continue to export arms to states like Saudi Arabia why should anyone complain if people receive their salaries from them ?

[EastVillageHammer]

Agree.

I personally wouldn’t want to go to Newcastle if I was a footballer due to their ownership - but I think it’s naive to suggest anyone signing for them is just doing so for the money. Their form was much better than ours in the second half of the season so they are definitely a valid threat for league placing and player acquisition (even if half the players linked are not really their targets).

I imagine the 'project' for Newcastle is quite appealing, hence signing the highly rated Botman and Bruno.

The money will be a huge draw, but they are only going one way and will be heavily investing in the infrastructure, making it an exciting place to go to work every day.

Newcastle being a bit cold and far away from London might be a bit of a barrier, but a few extra quid and the likely enormous bonuses based on competition finishes will be a draw over teams like ourselves.

The sneaky 6 has become a sneaky 7, and we'd be naive to expect otherwise.

[El brooko79]

If I was Werner I'd be hightailing it back to the Bundesliga to get my confidence back up and likely spend the rest of my career smashing it in for a top end German club rather than taking a 50% payout and grafting away for West Ham

I think the vacancy is filled here for a forward who is elite level at creating space for themselves but low on the conversion side. Not that it wouldn't be great for the blood pressure watching him and Antonio get out the meat cleavers on a Sunday and set to work butchering chance after chance.

Who in the Bundesliga can afford Werner though?
Dortmund just signed Haller. Doesn't seem like a Bayern player.
Maybe Liepzig but going back doesn't really suit their "model"?

I'd really try to loan Werner with an option. Problem is he is on £14m a year. If Chelsea don't get that fully covered they are just loosing money.
Inter are paying about £8m + full salary for Lukaku.

But I suppose with Werner they have to accept they loosing money and make the best of it. £47m + £14m a year is crazy.
Seems Italy is an option with favorable tax rates for foreign players.

Purely from a balance sheet point of view I would take Werner on a £14m loan (all in) for a season with an option.

If you paid someone £120k a week and paid a transfer fee of £28m over 3 years, you are effectively playing £15.5m a year for that player anyway - like Zouma. £14m is just committing to 1 year instead of say 4/5.

The downside you loose any sell on value like we do have with Zouma if it goes no further. That's If Werner was not prepared to accept day £150k a week should we take up our option- of say £30m.

[ToiletDuck]

Forgot we were in the qualifiers (astra goo goo) and that will have an impact on quite a few players potentially joining us or not.

[yakandyeti]

Someone sensibly said earlier that a lot of our business will be on hold until after the Conference play offs.

If we win that’s another possible 15 games, if we lose we need less of a squad. They’ll be working on having a few lined up ready to finalise or ditch in late August.

I can see your logic, but there is no way we can do without another central midfielder and the need for a left back and a second striker is pretty clear too. I really hope this isn't the case.

Where it might make sense is deciding if we need a fifth CB, perhaps Diop goes if we lose, or we send Vlasic or more of the U23s out on loan but the other positions are needed so badly to have adequate cover in the PL.

[VeniceHammer]

Someone sensibly said earlier that a lot of our business will be on hold until after the Conference play offs.

If we win that’s another possible 15 games, if we lose we need less of a squad. They’ll be working on having a few lined up ready to finalise or ditch in late August.

we have a first team squad of 21 players, including trott , coventry, vlasic and masuaku (both clearly not in the manager's plan). We have 1 centre forward, and two nominal CM's. I'd say we need players anwyay, conference league or not.

[Puff Daddy]

Maybe he’s seen how the last few windows have panned out and doesn’t want a repeat?

Serious clubs do business early, not lowball unrealistic target at the end of August followed by “we tried”

Touche mate and as fans we deserve far better than this

[YorksHammer]

Personally I think we're hoping to get four more players through the door. I suspect we'll end up with three before a trolley dash on the last day for one of them that may or may not come off.

Most important, in my opinion, is starting to become getting some central midfield support. Soucek and Rice currently have nothing behind them except for Coventry and then the likes of Ekwah, Potts, or Appiah-Forson. That's a completely unsustainable position to be in, and frankly we should be looking at just plugging a gap here with someone sturdy and reliable instead of looking at these £30m+ signings that we often end up linked with (Onana being the latest at whatever it is Lille want). This isn't going to be a sexy signing, but just getting someone in there is vital to our next season because we currently have no recognised top level experienced support for our two incumbents. We could then look at whether or not there's someone else we could sign here who comes into more regular first team action, but that would be a luxury signing.

Follow that with a strong left back signing. The links to Raum and Sosa seem to have gone fairly quiet, not just to us but also to other clubs if a quick Google is anything to go by. Lots of fansites for other clubs saying '*manager* must move for absolutely rapid *German Club* assist machine' but very limited actual news articles on either of them moving anywhere. I really think that we need to strike on one of those, they're probably the best left backs we have been linked with.

Those two roles are key - I see the next two as being nice to have but not essential, and think we'll maybe move for one of them.

Left wing/attacking midfield - Moyes probably wants a bit more pace here than we have with either Benrahma or Fornals. Neither are bad players, but equally it's arguable that neither quite fits that role in the way Moyes probably wants. Vlasic would also come under that description in the same position. The good thing is that we currently have options, even if we were to lose one of the group of attacking midfielders we have, that negate the need to sign anybody desperately - if we were to start next season with the same three we played for most of last season (Bowen, Fornals, Benrahma) we'd likely be fine in an attacking sense.

Centre Forward - I initially thought of this as a similar situation to the central midfield but I think it's not quite as bad, not least because it's only one position we need to cover as opposed to two. Taking Bowen and playing him central is possible, but then we weaken our right wing. It's a bit of a shame Perkins has declined professional terms with us, and I'm not completely sure whether there are as high hopes for Odubeko as there once were. It's a bit harder to consider what we want here - do we want to supplant Antonio immediately, or do we want to have someone we bring through to play as a starter next season? The former needs us to shell out a big fee on someone with a good Premier League, or top league, record, the latter allows for us to take a bit of an alternative route.

A lot of the strikers we are linked with seem to fit a type of being physically strong and capable of bringing others into the game in most regards -Raspadori, Scamacca, Dennis, Bayo, Kean, Belotti all come up just from a hasty Google. In truth, the more heavily linked Broja and En-Nesyri are those which don't fit this type. What's not clear is whether we're looking at a clear first choice and Antonio have a rotation brief for next season, or someone to support him and come through - the list looks a bit scattergun in that regard, as Dennis, Bayo, and Kean likely come under the latter while Raspadori, Scamacca, and Belotti are probably the former.

Personally I'm hoping we get some movement on a central midfielder and left back sooner rather than later, and we concern ourselves with the striker and left winger after doing the more key work. That said, I would absolutely jump at the rest of the window being:

Raum - £30m (rumoured to be €40m)/Sosa - £20m (rumoured to be €25m) - either replaces Cresswell immediately
Central midfielder - £15m - this is where I'd advocate for Brownhill as an experienced professional who can capably cover Rice or Soucek in the team when needed, but if rumours are to be believed Moyes doesn't fancy any of the Burnley players which is fair enough. I don't know who the other potential options to fit this position are, but I doubt it will excite us or set pulses racing. Budget is just a rough guess, but I doubt we want to top out over that unless we're going to try and reduce Soucek's playing time.
Dennis - £20m - gives us pace and physicality down the left wing, but also can cover across at centre forward if needed, helping us out in two positions.
Belotti - 'free' - if possible and available, this is the 'too good to turn down' transfer of the summer, in my opinion. I've long said I think he would suit us down to the ground, hard working, brings his teammates into play, and strong as an ox. A lot has been made of his penalties boosting his numbers over the past season but with Noble gone we need a reliable taker anyway.

That comes out at somewhere between £55m and £65m spent on top of the £35m (I think?) already invested in Areola and Aguerd this summer. The total spend shouldn't be beyond us in that case, plus other fees of course. And I wouldn't be surprised to see us have one outgoing from either our pool of attacking players or our centre backs to get some money coming in as well. I don't think that transfer will make us much, though.

[Doyley72]

The form table showed newcastle 4th top and west ham 5th bottom.Dont underestimate them even for this season I still see them at least level with us.

Agree, they have a very good manager and they will slowly build, like City did when they won the lotto...I can see them challenging us for an Europa spot, but not top 4 yet...then next summer they will get more quality in for a go at the top 4 with the lure of European football...

Sad that money completely determines the sport...

[Macca1973]

Doesn’t really matter who Newcastle buy if we can’t get our own squad in shape. I already think the top clubs have strengthened or are already strong enough to make challenging for the top 6 pretty unrealistic.

Out first 11 as it stands in my opinion is 7th/8th, the squad however is much lower. The drop off last season from Rice or Antonio if they were out was massive, now it’s non existent because there are no replacements. Unless there is some serious business done by us in the next month I expect a number of clubs that actually ended up within 10 points of us last season to be much closer.