19 Aug 2024 19:52:54
Fulham bidding for berge. Worst case for us is that Scot stays and no one else come in. Hopefully we do get a cm in because I think we will regret it if we don't. We've had a good window but midfield is still a concern.
19 Aug 2024 19:57:53
Update to that. Berge signing for Fulham so they’ve no more interest in mctominay.
19 Aug 2024 20:35:33
Spurs last min.com hopefully.
If we don't sell we can't buy.
19 Aug 2024 21:10:53
We still have an excess of CBs and Sancho we can move on to fund a new midfielder.
19 Aug 2024 21:36:39
Can’t see anybody taking McT. It was reported earlier that United would only consider selling him if he asked to go, doubt he’d do that.
I can only maybe see Lindelof leaving permanently now. And he won’t raise much.
I agree with the above. Without a new midfielder it’s going to be a very tough season. Can’t have another season of Cas or McT playing DM.
20 Aug 2024 05:46:47
Agreed. Without a CDM this window will have been a failure. We are weaker there this season than we were last.
20 Aug 2024 06:16:04
Red seven I agree. A new DM is make or break for this season imo. Cas is nowhere near good enough now. There is still time though, so no need to be negative just yet.
20 Aug 2024 07:43:23
You won’t hear me argue. CM is the vital position and it must be quality. We may be over pricing players when selling. We needed to be decisive with key positions and we haven’t been. We play Liverpool soon and our midfield is still very weak. If we want top four it’s time to buy that CM of quality.
20 Aug 2024 08:53:16
The latest on Ugarte is loan with obligation to buy, so a sale isn't vital in that particular deal.
20 Aug 2024 10:16:28
Massive dissapointment if we don't get a CDM.
This was a massive problem for us last season and should of been one of the first positions addressed in the transfer window.
20 Aug 2024 10:17:01
Berge will be a really good signing for Fulham, and being honest a more suitable signing than McTominay would be.
They lost Palhinha this summer, and they need someone who'll battle for the ball deeper in midfield, and distribute it.
That role is far more suited to Berge than McTominay, who would be better suited to playing as No.8/ No.10 hybrid type role. Which is the role it looks like Fulham have signed Emile Smith-Rowe for.
I wouldn't have a problem is McTominay stayed this season. He's a model professional, rarely injured, homegrown, a leader, and a great ambassador for the club. While his unique skillset offers us something completely different off the bench. Maybe not your go to plan B, but a useful plan C.
However, if he wants to leave to play regular football then the club should do what they can to facilitate that. Personally I've found the way a few of our players have been treated when leaving the club to be pretty poor over the last decade or more.
Someone said about Welbeck maybe not wanting to come back due to how he left the club. While the treatment of DDG last summer was pretty poor to say the least. Along with the departure of Phil Jones, who always have his best in a United shirt and was a player most managers picked as first choice when fit (LvG, Mourinho, and Ole) . His injuries were unfortunate and shouldn't detract from the effort he always gave for the club.
Not every player will have a glorious career at our club, but we should be respectful and value the input of those dedicated players who always try their best and give their all for the club.
McTominay is one of those, and while he has fallen short of the quality needed to be a regular first choice player, he has helped and contributed throughout his career with us. We owe trying to help find him the right club for the next step in his career. For example if he'd rather join Napoli than a relegation battling EPL team then the club should try and facilitate that as best they can. Even if it means accepting a slightly lower fee or a fee paid over a longer period of time.
In my opinion the club gain very little to nothing in trying to force him to accept a move to a club that pays a slightly higher fee. The money doesn't really make a huge difference, but the message it sends to our young academy players and those players who might look to join our club is that we only see them as sellable assets, and we don't value the effort they put in for the club.
20 Aug 2024 11:23:23
We are doomed I tell you, doomed. We are struggling to sell players for decent prices because of the mess we have been left in and the players on silly contracts but I’ve been extremely impressed with this window so far and think we will still get a DM and also sell 2/ 3 more, if so it will be the best window in over a decade. Even without that it probably is despite the difficulty and having to raise funds.
The mess we were in will take 2/ 3 years to fully sort out imo although another 2 windows like this and we may be in a good position this time next year rather than the year after.
If the worst case scenario having a home grown player who always gives 100% staying then I’m sure we will be fine. Scott isn’t a problem, doesn’t complain, gets on with it, has a good attitude but his quality isn’t quite there and if we want to push on and challenge he needs to go, but another year of him isn’t the end of the world.
20 Aug 2024 12:15:25
Call me an outlier but if we don't get a proper deal on mc I am very happy to see him stay. Always one of the fittest guys, Excellent character and gives you huge goals when the rest are not performing. Never been in the camp he must go and extremely useful squad player.
20 Aug 2024 12:30:24
As I said in another thread, I have no issue with McTominay staying on as a squad player. That said, I feel like he’s good enough to be a starter for most of the other mid table EPL teams and so wouldn’t be surprised if he decided to move on.
20 Aug 2024 13:20:53
Redseven
I think if mc goes it has to be the right thing for him and the club. This idea of get rid for me personally is for players who disrespect the club or don't care much/ are toxic and unprofessional to the environment. Sancho going is more important to me than mc or Lindelof.
Every knows we have players that are not ideal and in a perfect world we would replace them but i never question people like Lindelof or MC commitment and never any off the field stuff. Proper pros who have contracts with the club. I am glad eth is not like the Chelsea guy and you will lose players and the locker room very quickly when things go wrong given how he has started. This team stuck together and salvaged a trophy out of a terrible season last year.
It is very difficult to find a solution to everything that was done in years past (Mourinho went for lindelof instead of VVD lol) and remedy everything in one window.
If Lindelof and mc are staying its not the end of the world, it allows us to have a lot more rotation and needed rest for other players in the squad. It will pay off as the season goes on. 60 games is a lot of games and you need good pros to play their part.
I am pretty sure the injury bug will hit everyone again and all teams will need deep squads. The people running the club know what they are doing and it seems we will not do any deals below or above what they think is right and happy to live with the consequences.
I can't think of a single midfielder in the league that you can throw on with 20 minutes to go who will win you games like mc does. They might do the occasional one but not as often as mc does, That itself is a very unique.
I am very neutral on the subject and not as animated or opiniated that he must go. IMO Him and Ugarte btw are two different subjects and not related. Ugarte is a valuation thing imo. I have compete trust in ineos and the new structure in terms of getting many things right.
20 Aug 2024 14:13:48
19 goals in 179 games is not a great return. 5 of then have been match winning goals.
Not a massive return but not awful.
Mctom is not the worst player but not an elite player.
Is he worth a new contract? That's up to those in charge. I'm not that bothered as he won't be playing very much if we sign a new dm.
Hopefully cas stays for the season he will make a much bigger contribution than mctom this session imo.
The less starts mctom gets bodes well for our results.
Lindelof much the same. Although we have no further option of a year on him so I'd rather he left asap.
20 Aug 2024 17:21:16
The one thing that I will say about McTominay is that out of all of the non-essential players in our squad, he’s probably the most desirable. There are no question marks over his attitude or his work ethic, nor has his fitness ever been an issue. What you see is what you get, which is why there are multiple clubs interested in him.
That’s also the reason why Fred was so easy to move on last season, and why several teams were interested in Maguire. It’s the players with talent but poor attitudes like Sancho and Rashford are the ones that will prove difficult to get rid of, which sucks, as they’re also the ones getting paid 250k+ every week.
21 Aug 2024 00:15:27
Ahmad, you’re glad ETH isn’t like the Chelsea guy? You mean Maresca? And what situation are you talking about? By and large, Maresca has very little influence over the squad. Gallagher rejected a contract extension so with 1 year left he’s being sold. Chalobah I’m not quite sure about tbf, Sterling has been poor since signing and is on massive wages so why wouldn’t you move him on, and Chilwell has major injury issues over the last few years and isn’t the most professional of players and doesn’t fit into Maresca’s tactics.
21 Aug 2024 06:14:30
Fuser
Chelsea are unique and yes glad we are not like that and eth not like Maresca. Different type of clubs completely. I respect how Liverpool conduct themselves in public and even city and more my cup of tea. We have had so much noise around the club last few years because of Greenwood, Sancho, Antony and they have it on a constant basis and never seems to stop. Hopefully we have a quiet boring great year.
21 Aug 2024 09:53:23
I don't get the Chelsea plan, it really has been like one of those competitions where you get an empty trolley and 60 seconds to run around a toy shop and fill it with whatever you fancy. 40+ players whilst arguably not improving the first XI and still no striker.
Tbf though these high profile exits make sense - Gallagher (won't sign a new contract), Sterling (ridiculous wages, older) and Chilwell (back-up LB on big wages + poor injury record) .
22 Aug 2024 11:22:51
Spenno, I'm not sure they had one. It was like Todd bought the club and was then like a kid in a sweet shop, and just bought everything he laid his eyes on.
Now they need to dig themselves out of that, and selling players like Gallagher and Chalobah are a big part of that due to them being former academy players and all of the fee they are sold for counts as profit on the accounts.
They sold too many of their experienced players, while signing too many young players with potential. Very few of their signings had 3-4 years of top level European experience when they signed them. Most had either just had their breakout year, or in some cases hadn't even had that.
Their best signing by some way has been Palmer, a player they only turned to when they couldn't sign Olise. While his 40m fee now looks like a bargain, at the time many people questioned paying that much for a player who had only a handful of minutes for Man City.
Looking at how the rest of their signings have done so far it looks like Palmer's success was more down to luck than judgement.
Even highly rated players they've signed like Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo have been fairly average and have failed to live up to expectations.
In allowing all the older experienced players to leave, while also forcing out most of the former academy players they have ripped the identity of the side away. They now have a bunch of talented, but largely inexperienced young players who don't have experienced professionals or a clear team structure and identity to lean on as they make their way into the team.
Add a merry-go-round of managers with vastly different tactical ideas repeatedly changing what is being asked of the players and it becomes clear why they have fallen so far, and just how much work they need to do to get back to where they need to be.
While players like Gallagher and Chalobah might not ultimately be good enough for where they want to be they add something more to the team than they fee they would fetch to help balance the books. They know what Chelsea football club should be, they grew up within a successful Chelsea team with leaders and quality players in the first team. They could help anchor Chelsea to a structure and an identity. Add a couple of older senior pros who can impart their experience on the side and guide them at tricky points and suddenly the ship starts to steady.
Then bring in a manager with a long term plan, commit to playing a specific style of play and start to shape the squad to suit that. It'll probably mean selling some players at a loss, and they will have to take that on the chin.
Yet what the new owner has accomplished in his short time at the club isn't too dissimilar to what the Glazers took over a decade to achieve.
It's like Todd Boehly looked at the Glazers and turned to his mate and said "hold my beer".