Summer 2023/24 Transfer Thread

[stu1]

Is Raphinia, of Barcelona a possibility? Would they consider letting him go?

Unfortunately not

[Peaches]

I think we were starting to settle into our identity after the turmoil of the past year. Paqueta, Emerson, Kehrer and Aguerd came into their own just in time to win our first trophy in 43 years. Three of those 4 and Bowen were our best players on Wednesday night. Everything will be shaken a lot by the departure of Rice. His replacement(s), a striker to replace Scamacca (if he leaves) and Antonio, and a centre back should be our focus this year.
Max Kilman and Edson Alvarez between them can replace a lot of what Rice brings. Kilman, Alvarez, and JWP replace almost all that we lose with Rice, plus add more set piece ability and creativity . Kilman, Alvarez and McTominay replace everything we lose in Rice. Striker is very hard to nail down. The key is to find one who best fits our style of play, or the style of play we are trying to move to. Rasmus Hojlund, is going to be a superstar, a bit raw and inexperienced, but if we could manage to sign him would be unbelievable for us. Boulaye Dia has turned into a better version of Antonio, and would be an ideal replacement, if that is the type of striker we are looking for.if we are just trying to adjust our lack of goals and poor performance relative to our XG, Jonathan David would be a fit. If we are looking for someone to link play and hold the ball up and link up with Bowen and Harbey Barnes, Scamacca is probably the best option.
In a perfect world
In:
Kilman £30M
Alvarez £38M
JWP/McTominay £35M
Barnes £35M
Dia £20M
Keep Scamacca
Total In £158M

Out:
Rice £100M
Arthur £2M
Lanzini free
Vlasic £10M
Antonio £8M
Cornet £10M

Total out: £130M

Net spend £28M

I assume we have more than that to spend so we could strengthen the fullback positions or upgrade creativity, or perhaps even sign Hojlund instead of Dia.

[ironside58]

No idea who we will or should buy. I still think we will struggle to get more than 80M for Dec but hope I'm wrong, which obviously lessens spending power.

For me the biggest fear is Moyes sticks with the current style and forgets about targetting younger players and he goes for hard workers over players who can retain the ball, whereas I think we need both and more pace.

Yes I know we won a cup, but for me it just glosses over what was a v poor in terms of results and watchability season.

[Viv Stanshall]

No idea who we will or should buy. I still think we will struggle to get more than 80M for Dec but hope I'm wrong, which obviously lessens spending power.

For me the biggest fear is Moyes sticks with the current style and forgets about targetting younger players and he goes for hard workers over players who can retain the ball, whereas I think we need both and more pace.

Yes I know we won a cup, but for me it just glosses over what was a v poor in terms of results and watchability season.

You raise a decent point about ball retention. Even with a player like Rice in the side we were pretty woeful at reducing pressure on ourselves. This wasn’t just ball retention, it was the lack of threat posed if we did manage to get the ball back. We seriously lack pace up front in order to support a stranded striker. An opposition needs to have some fear of hemming us in for extended periods. If a ball goes in to Antonio it invariably doesn’t stick too often and if it does there is little to no support for him. We need some pace and threat. Whether that is Harvey Barnes acting as an inside left supporting a striker like Scamacca who when the ball does go into him it will stick and he can distribute through to runners around like Barnes.
I thought it was quite interesting both in the semi final and final how those teams dealt with Antonio. They totally over loaded him to the point where they knew we had absolutely no pressure relief. Lets not forget that possession was high in the agenda for both oppositions and low on the agenda for us. Effectively we didn’t mind allowing them the ball. The problem was that we posed very little threat of turning them often. Thankfully we managed it once and that was enough. But i feel if we can get some pace to support a striker that can control the ball out teams won’t be so comfortable in hemming us in for long long periods.

[hammerman11]

now the dust is settling the facts are we ground out a win when it mattered and as long as you win it doesn`t matter. however,if we do that in the league we will have another hard season. we must keep and use the ball better and quicker.

if rice goes we must replace him with two new midfielders meaning that soucek will not play so much. he is the worst passer but does do a lot of hard work. mctominay and JWP in midfield with paqueta would improve our passing and goal threat from set pices.

antonio is likely to leave which at 33 years old is the right time for the club to say goodbye. he is no longer the player he was and has resorted to falling over trying to win freekicks. hopefully scamacca will stay and get a full season in. harvey barnes and bowen either side of him would be good. still like to see us sign tammy abraham or omoniyi as the antonio replacement .

defence does need some work and we will hopefully bring two new younger CBs in
I can see us leaving RB but hope we bring in walker-peters at LB to compete with emerson and one more year of club captain cresswell.

so a minimum of LB CBx2 CMx2 LW CF 7 players in again. a lot but we need it
outs ogbonna vlasic 10m antonio 5m rice 120m

[funky chicken]

We need to remember that the European competition we’re in next season is more difficult to win. So to achieve European football for a 4th successive season we quite possibly need to finish in the top 7. So we need to make sure by the end of this transfer window we have a squad good enough to compete for the top 7 in the league, as we did prior to last season.

Heck even if we finished 3rd in the group stage of the EL and dropped back into the ECL that’s just as difficult as it was when we won it. Juventus and Frankfurt won’t be a walk in the park if and when you have to play them.

That’s why we need to target players of good quality, this window. We need to not just compete in a European competition again, but we also need to do better in the league than we did last season.

It won’t be easy, with the likes of Man Utd, Arsenal, Newcastle, Liverpool all looking to improve. And we don’t know how the Spuds and Chelsea will respond. Not to mention how Brighton and Villa will get on.

Losing your star player and captain in Declan Rice won’t be the best of starts.

[YorksHammer]

Could someone who advocates for him please explain why we should sign Walker-Peters?

I just don't see him as an upgrade on any player we have in either full back position. He's Ben Johnson kind of levels, to me, and we definitely don't need someone of that level signing this summer.

[SullySpecial]

Szalai pls. Thanks.

[Puff Daddy]

We should address the goalkeeping position. Sign David Rayya. 24. Excellent keeper, and then that position fixed, sorted for 10 years

[Morocco Mole]

I personally think we are still light on the right, particularly midfield. For all his attributes, Soucek offers nothing for Bowen, key passing or quick transition (Downes neither). There is no natural back up for Bowen and although Cornet has played there, he's not very good. If Bowen was injured for a few weeks we'd be fckd, especially if Pablo goes. This window is not going to be as easy as people think

That’s why I like Jack Harrison over Barnes - covers both flanks and a more versatile player in general.

[Lord Zoltan]

Personally, I feel we don't need to upgrade either fullback positions for next Season, we have the glorious Emerson and Cresswell on the left, Coufal and Kehrer on the right with Johnson backup to both sides.

We need some work at CB, Zouma is made of glass, Keher is good cover but bit on the short side, is Ogbonna staying of going? Think we only need one CB if Oggy stays or not, a good one that will challenge the starting positions of Aguerd and Zouma.

Two CM's need to come in to replace Rice, keep Soucek around next Season for another 50 game workload, any two from JWP, Alverez, Fulham Paul and McTomminay, 4 very good players, add the hopefully improving Downes and Soucek to the two that come in.

First one through the door has to be Harvey Barnes, no brainer at all, very direct and scores goals on the left in the way Bowen does on the right, Barnes can rotate the Season with Benny, move Fornals to the centre as backup for Paqueta, sell Lanzini, give a Cornet a good pre-Season and he can backup Bowen on the right.

Striker, give Scammacca a good, hard pre-season and tell him he will be number one striker, get a replacement (direct) for Antonio, keep Antonio if we can't sell him or he wants to stay but not as main striker anymore, his choice really. Would like to see the 18 year kid given more minutes and a hard pre-season.

Keepers are fine BTW.

First 11;

Fabianski
Kehrer Zouma Aguerd Emerson
Alverez/JWP/Fulham Paul/McTomminay (any 2)
Bowen Paqueta Barnes
Scamacca

Second 11:

Areola
Coufal New CB Oggy Cresswell
Downes Soucek
Cornet Fornals Benny
Antonio or Antonio clone

Spares: Ings, Johnson, Mubama (bring him on)

Sell: Rice, Lanzini, Vlasic, Antonio (if can get like for like younger replacement)

Thats only 4 or 5 quality players in

[WestHamLyallStyle]

BBC Sport report we are interested in Arsenal's Emile Smith Rowe...

[Lord Zoltan]

BBC Sport report we are interested in Arsenal's Emile Smith Rowe...

No Thanks

[paulhs1]

Transfer window opens today.

Let's not make the same mistakes as last season and dilly dally.

Let's get our business done early.

[WestHamLyallStyle]

Transfer window opens today.

Let's not make the same mistakes as last season and dilly dally.

Let's get our business done early.

Indeed. Next season's fixtures out in five days ! Football never sleeps.

[Morocco Mole]

Wouldn’t surprise me if it is fitness related. Knee injury in his first match treated with injections. I’m not convinced we saw him fully fit this season. Not saying he’ll magically find the gear he has clearly lost, but he is better than we have seen and I don’t think that is only down to tactics.

He’s had a chronic knee condition for years and plays/trains in constant pain.

[MB]

We should address the goalkeeping position. Sign David Rayya. 24. Excellent keeper, and then that position fixed, sorted for 10 years

He is 27, nearly 28 and they want £40m for him which could be much better spent elsewhere.

[Morocco Mole]

Have we got £200m?

….and Postecoglu as manager?

[Sliema1990]

I would like to think we have some, if not all of our new signings with us when we venture out to Perth next month.

[Viv Stanshall]

If we sign a player or 2 with pace that pose a real threat of counter attack and is used as the most advanced player just ahead of a striker like Scamacca, we won’t need to upgrade full backs. Opposing managers will be reticent to push full backs on for sustained periods therefore doubling up on our fullbacks. How many occasions do we defend the threat, only for the ball to come straight back as we have no out ball. Imagine a situation like Wednesday night where we win the ball in defence or low block, the ball goes out to Scamacca, but it sticks, he then either knocks on to a runner like Barnes or finds someone like Paqueta who immediately plays the ball through or over the top to runners Barnes/Bowen.
With that threat, you won’t need any upgrades at full back as oppositions wouldn’t dare commit both full backs to press on. In possession those runners then push out wide.
As appreciative as we were for Antonios hussle, if anything we don’t really need to stretch play that far up field. If anything you need to invite their defenders even further forward than they dare in order to release runners.