***Official*** English Football Discussion Thread

[Simon]

The rumour is that his agent is trying to encourage bids from teams that have expressed an interest in the past, including City and Madrid. If that happens then presumably we have no chance, particularly if Levy pulls his usual stunts. I can't say I've ever seen Ndombele play (I'm guessing he played in the City games last season but if he did he didn't stand out to me) but the people in the know reckon he is a real elite level player who could play for any top side.

Other news: no one is interested in taking Janssen or Nkoudou off us. Shocking.

[Peter Griffin]

[RuneEdge]

The rumour is that his agent is trying to encourage bids from teams that have expressed an interest in the past, including City and Madrid. If that happens then presumably we have no chance, particularly if Levy pulls his usual stunts. I can't say I've ever seen Ndombele play (I'm guessing he played in the City games last season but if he did he didn't stand out to me) but the people in the know reckon he is a real elite level player who could play for any top side.

Everyone's been banging on about him all season. He's considered as one of the best young box to box midfielders on the market at the moment. Having seen a bits of him for France, I'd say he does look like a quality signing for whoever ends up getting him. I doubt Juve would get him though cuz they're about to sign Rabiot on a free, on top of the already stacked midfield they have (and they're still trying to bring Pogba back there as well).

I'd love United to sign him but it seems like everyone is rejecting us this summer.

[Romford Pele]

They got Ramsey on a free as well

[Simon]

Supposedly talks are at an advanced stage and he wants to come, but there's really no precedent for us managing to sign a really hyped player for big money so it's difficult to believe it. I'm sure we'll sign someone this summer as it would be crazy not to at least tread water, but I suspect we will be buying from the next level down as we always have previously - wouldn't be surprised if we came back in for Grealish and Zaha, although I don't really know with regard to the defensive midfielder position.

Interesting comparison to Tottenham's recent lack of transfer activity - I'm reading a book about the fall-out from Cantona's kung-fu kick at the moment, and was surprised to read that United went two years (July 1994 to June 1996) signing only one player, Andy Cole.

[The Rosk]

You won’t get Grealish now mate.

[Simon]

Yeah probably not.

[son_of_foley]

Spurs had bid accepted and talk is Jack Clarke will sign soon after. Looked good in his cameo against Derby in what I think was January. Doubt he'll get much time at Spurs though

[wardy]

Mad that Arsenals supposed transfer budget is only 50m.

Oh well they can't afford Tierney then.

[Romford Pele]

You think Tierney is worth more than £50m?

[The Comet Kid]

Everyone's been banging on about him all season. He's considered as one of the best young box to box midfielders on the market at the moment. Having seen a bits of him for France, I'd say he does look like a quality signing for whoever ends up getting him. I doubt Juve would get him though cuz they're about to sign Rabiot on a free, on top of the already stacked midfield they have (and they're still trying to bring Pogba back there as well).

I'd love United to sign him but it seems like everyone is rejecting us this summer.

I reckon we'll get Bruno Fernandes done this summer, he should be a good addition to the midfield. Don't know why we're not getting Alderweireld done. £25m for a top class center back should be a no brainer with the situation we're in.

[RuneEdge]

Alderweireld's release clause doesnt kick in until 1st July, so I'm expecting rumours to pick up from tomorrow. But having said that, the only thing we can offer Toby at the moment is a lot of money. For footballing reasons, it makes more sense for him to stay at Spurs than to come here. I suppose we could guarantee him more game time, but I dont think he's our first choice CB signing this summer.
Plus he only has one more year left on his contract. It's starting to become a thing now where players intentionally run their contracts down so that they could sign for another team on really high wages, since they dont have to pay a transfer fee. Team's like Juventus are willing to pay 400k a week to someone like Ramsey, purely because he's free. Toby could easily get a big money offer if he ran his contract down after another years with Spurs in the Champion's League.

[son_of_foley]

Be honest do you keep calling him Toby because his surname is a pain in the arse to type?

Be nice if the Lampard thing was sorted soon. Have a feeling it wont be though

[RuneEdge]

Be honest do you keep calling him Toby because his surname is a pain in the arse to type?

That's exactly, why. Yes.

[Peter Griffin]

Be honest do you keep calling him Toby because his surname is a pain in the arse to type?

Be nice if the Lampard thing was sorted soon. Have a feeling it wont be though

Been what 6 days and now he has been given 2 days off to continue talks, Its pathetic, Does he want to go or not? And it is now affecting pre season.

[son_of_foley]

He only got back on Friday I think Mel said. Assume it'll be done tonight

[Peter Griffin]

Meh the only thing that has amused me throughout the last few days of this has been Rob Dorsett on twitter blocking the 'haters'

Heard Phillip Cocu is now our target.

[Pablo Diablo]

What a fucking disaster the Manchester United ticket sales were. Bought a membership a while back thinking that would be the way to get guaranteed pair of tickets. That was a lie. Because the whole trip is based around these tickets I’ve ended up spending a stupid amount to get the VIP hospitality packages just to make sure I have tickets to see them. Atmosphere around these seats are likely going to be shite.

[Simon]

https://twitter.com/SpursOfficial/st...80708709699584

WE DID IT WE SIGNED A PLAYER YES AT LAST

https://twitter.com/LUFC/status/1145980188762738690

FUCK SAKE

[The Rosk]

Rumours that Man Utd are interested in McGinn for £50m must be a joke.

[son_of_foley]

How much did Targett cost Villa? There was talk of 25m for Webster from Bristol City..I mean that's got to be nonsense right?

[BBF]

£12m wasn't it?

[The Rosk]

£11m rising to £17m if he gets World Player Of The Year and a Golden Boot in the same season.

All our signings have an average age of 24 and are all seen as "investable assets" by the looks of it. Glad we aren't going for over the hill cunts looking for a pay packet way past their best at the moment.

[Simon]

Matt Targett could be really good from what I've seen of him, sounds like a lot of money right now but I think he's been a bit unlucky in that he was stuck behind Shaw and then Bertrand, who tbh probably isn't any better than him. Regular starter at Villa and I think that price could look very reasonable soon.

[Peter Griffin]

£11m rising to £17m if he gets World Player Of The Year and a Golden Boot in the same season.

All our signings have an average age of 24 and are all seen as "investable assets" by the looks of it. Glad we aren't going for over the hill cunts looking for a pay packet way past their best at the moment.

You leave Micah Richards alone.

[Peter Griffin]

Looks like the Cocu/Lampard announcements may be very close together as in bye Frank hello Phillip

[Simon]

Ndombele to be announced soon

[_me]

Ndombele to be announced soon

https://twitter.com/spursofficial/st...821248000?s=21

That is about as official as you can get. I still can't believe they actually pulled it off.

[The Beer Monster]

What a fucking disaster the Manchester United ticket sales were. Bought a membership a while back thinking that would be the way to get guaranteed pair of tickets. That was a lie. Because the whole trip is based around these tickets I’ve ended up spending a stupid amount to get the VIP hospitality packages just to make sure I have tickets to see them. Atmosphere around these seats are likely going to be shite.

You will get some excellent sandwiches though.

[Pablo Diablo]

Better be prawn otherwise I've been misled.

[Peter Griffin]

Fuck off Frank.

[Peter Griffin]

Wonder if my Homies at CD Tenerife have a sell on for Ayoze

[Romford Pele]

We bloody signed someone!

[wardy]

What a fucking disaster the Manchester United ticket sales were. Bought a membership a while back thinking that would be the way to get guaranteed pair of tickets. That was a lie. Because the whole trip is based around these tickets I’ve ended up spending a stupid amount to get the VIP hospitality packages just to make sure I have tickets to see them. Atmosphere around these seats are likely going to be shite.

Picked the wrong league never mind seat if you want atmosphere.

[Peter Griffin]

Bloke on SSN saying how Frank was talking with Chelsea before he went on hols, despite that being before we gave permission I mean the whole thing has stunk for weeks but still

Anyway the main reason I came here was I was watching the transfer show thingy they do now earlier and they were talking Bruno Fernandes to Man Utd and how Sporting will not honour the release clause in Brunos contract as they want more cash, Surely they don't have a fucking choice?

[Peter Griffin]

Apparently the Lampard/Cocu announcements delayed due to fb/instagram being down. Modern football ffs

[Romford Pele]

Depends on how legally enforceable it is. Liverpool chose not to honour the £40m clause for Suarez.

[Peter Griffin]

Madness

[Peter Griffin]

Ralf Fahrmann is a decent pick up for Norwich, Though I can't imagine Krul is thrilled after he signed a new deal last week

[Murphy]

Got my tickets for Spurs/Inter in that pre season tourney thing. Looking forward to visiting the stadium for the first time. My son has shown little interest so far in football, so this may help that or he may never care. Not sure which I'd prefer, to be honest.

[The Rosk]

Hearing Mings will be announced today/tomorrow. Cannot begin to explain how delighted I am.

Also news out today that Stoke are holding out for £25m for Butland, despite the player wanting a move ahead of the Euros next year - and we aren't willing to pay that much for him. So it's now a waiting game for him to actually declare his intention and demand a move. Stoke already have seemingly bought his replacement so this is down to haggling now, unless someone else comes in for him. Would obviously be keen to get him, despite wanting to give Steer a go in the Prem too for what he did for us in the second half of last season.

[The Rosk]

It's times like this that makes me so grateful for Grealish committing to us last year in the Championship, when him forcing a move to Spurs when they were sniffing around could have easily fucked us up as a club. Sold him for £20m and we'd have been midtable. What a fucking hero.

[Peter Griffin]

https://www.whufc.com/news/articles/...e-super-league

This is like when WWE released Cass last year

[Simon]

It's times like this that makes me so grateful for Grealish committing to us last year in the Championship, when him forcing a move to Spurs when they were sniffing around could have easily fucked us up as a club. Sold him for £20m and we'd have been midtable. What a fucking hero.

Fair play to him, now he gets to captain his hometown club in the Prem and, if and when he does leave, he'll probably earn them double that if not more.

[RuneEdge]

Diego Costa rumoured to join Wolves. United's battle for top 6 just got even tougher.

[Romford Pele]

What the hell?! I am worried about Wolves. And Everton. And Leicester

Edu appointment technical director. Can we sign some fucking players now!?

[Peter Griffin]

If Wolves sign Costa my name is Glen Quagmire.

[Romford Pele]

Is he a Mendes player? If so, it is possible.

[MMH]

Costa is finished and will play about 3 games with VAR due to suspension and not playing for one of the "big" clubs.

[RuneEdge]

Is he a Mendes player? If so, it is possible.

Yep, and Wolves is basically Mendes FC

[Torn]

They signed Neves as a championship club it wouldn't surprise me if they signed anyone at this point tbh

Looking like Konsa to Villa @The Rosk. Good move for him and with Pontus and Pinnock signed we have replacements already so works out well.

[The Rosk]

Your thoughts?

[son_of_foley]

God Arsenal are such a fucking joke. koscielny has refused to go on the tour. Laughable tbh. Squad is a fucking mess.

Sign some defenders. Play Iwobi who is looking class atm and start again

[Romford Pele]

Yep. Our best defender wants to leave, brilliant.

[son_of_foley]

The fact he's your best defender should be such a fucking wake up call.

Get rid of him and Mustafi if someone will have them

[Simon]

That's weird, was there even anything linking him away from the club? Strange.

[son_of_foley]

That's weird, was there even anything linking him away from the club? Strange.

Rennes or Lyon. Sky reporting he wants released from last year of his contract so he can go on a free.

He's walking away to go to Rennes potentially fucking hell. He must be on a wedge and Mustafi too.

They should go in for Alderweireld and get laughed out of the place

[Simon]

That is a proper nightmare for Arsenal. Even if they don't let him go for free (and why would they, seems pretty unreasonable for him to demand it) they'll hardly get anything for him and he'd cost a fortune to replace. Which they don't have cos they're skint. And they only have one other decent defender.

[son_of_foley]

Gary Cahill free tho...

[son_of_foley]

Maybe Krystian Bielik actually gets a go. The funny thing is they are siging a CB from france and loaning him back apparently... Even though they have no cash.

[Torn]

Arsenal should have signed Konsa

Your thoughts?

He's not the finished article but he was always going to be a Premiership player, he's a class act. Has massive potential but needs time to grow and when he gets more experience will be worth more than the 12m you paid. And good business for us getting 9m profit on a player with a sell on for a player we signed a year ago and already covers signing replacements.

[Romford Pele]

Maybe Krystian Bielik actually gets a go. The funny thing is they are siging a CB from france and loaning him back apparently... Even though they have no cash.

Apparently Emery has said he isn't part of his plans, which is odd. We want £25m for Mustafi Jokers.

Out of our defenders only Bellerin, Sokratis and Holding are probably up to par. Monreal and Kos maybe we could get one year more from.

Kolasinac cannot defend. Maitland-Niles is not a defender. I would probably move on Callum Chambers as he is someone we could maybe £20m for him. Mavropanos probably needs to go on loan.

Shit show.

[The Rosk]

Should get Wenger back.

[Romford Pele]

Yep because he has nothing to do with the state of this squad.

[RFF Champ]

Koscielny is great. Arsenal are noticeably much poorer defensively when he's not around.

[The Rosk]

Bloody hell, Villa still signing more player. Apparently we're after Douglas Luiz for £15m now. I'm glad we are getting transfers done early and planned (not in August out of desperation) as we really needed to fill the gaps left by Hutton/Tammy/Axel/Whelan etc. Hope it all fits together nicely.

[The Beer Monster]

Koscielny is great. Arsenal are noticeably much poorer defensively when he's not around.

Looks like we are going with poorer.

[Romford Pele]

This may be the worse summer since 96, when we were linked with Davids, Zidane and Roberto Carlos and ended up with John Lukic.

[The Beer Monster]

This may be the worse summer since 96, when we were linked with Davids, Zidane and Roberto Carlos and ended up with John Lukic.

I dunno, it’s stopped raining at least.

[The Comet Kid]

This may be the worse summer since 96, when we were linked with Davids, Zidane and Roberto Carlos and ended up with John Lukic.

Davids in his prime in the Premier League would have been incredible.

Looks like we've got Maguire sorted, so our defence actually looks decent next year. DDG - AWB - Lindelof - Maguire - Shaw. Just got to worry about the rest of the team now.

[Simon]

Davids in his prime in the Premier League would have been incredible.

Excuse me?

[RuneEdge]

He said "in his prime".

[RFF Champ]

United fans suddenly decided Lindelof is alright will be slagging him in a month.

[RuneEdge]

What's happening in a month?

[RFF Champ]

About the speed in which you all change your mind on managers and players.

[RuneEdge]

If the players are inconsistent, then the opinions on them will be as well.

[RFF Champ]

They are what they are.

- - - Updated - - -

Form fairy

[RuneEdge]

Yeah, what they are is "inconsistent".

[Chris Scott]

Wtf that Trippier transfer is a mad one, why did Spurs sell him?

[Simon]

What is it about Trippier that convinces non Spurs fans he is good? He's been terrible for a year, had a good World Cup and was pretty crap the year before that too. Worked hard and seemed like a good bloke but right back is definitely a position we needed to upgrade. The only question I have about it is why Atletico want him.

[Peter Griffin]

Fekir is signing for Real......Betis? Sure, Why not.

[BBF]

Cos his knee is held together with a bit of string and gaffer tape.

[Peter Griffin]

Or maybe he really likes oranges.

[Simon]

Fekir is signing for Real......Betis? Sure, Why not.

Getting the replacement for their star player in early, touch wood.

[Peter Griffin]

Good point... Hadn't connected the dots there.

[The Rosk]

Quite a window for Villa. Glad we have wrapped up a lot of signings early rather than right at the end of the window.

IN:

Jota (£2m)
El Ghazi (£4.5m)
Hause (£3m)
Wesley (£22m)
Mings (£20m)
Targett (£11m)
Douglas Luiz (£15m)
Konsa (undisclosed)
Trezeguet (£8m)
Engels (£7m)

January signing we had Guilbert too

Out:

Elphick
Gardner
McContract
Hutton
Adomah
Jedinak
Richards
Whelan
Bunn
De Laet

Jota and Guilbert look fantastic already in pre season. Very excited over Luiz taking on the DM stole - we shall see. Guardiola was so fucked off at him not being able to play for them last year, hope the work permit comes in. They’ve obviously got a buy back clause, presumably to take over Fernandinho’s spot when he goes.

[RuneEdge]

Making United's spending look like a joke.

[Peter Griffin]

Quite a window for Villa. Glad we have wrapped up a lot of signings early rather than right at the end of the window.

IN:

Jota (£2m)
El Ghazi (£4.5m)
Hause (£3m)
Wesley (£22m)
Mings (£20m)
Targett (£11m)
Douglas Luiz (£15m)
Konsa (undisclosed)
Trezeguet (£8m)
Engels (£7m)

January signing we had Guilbert too

Out:

Elphick
Gardner
McContract
Hutton
Adomah
Jedinak
Richards
Whelan
Bunn
De Laet

Jota and Guilbert look fantastic already in pre season. Very excited over Luiz taking on the DM stole - we shall see. Guardiola was so fucked off at him not being able to play for them last year, hope the work permit comes in. They’ve obviously got a buy back clause, presumably to take over Fernandinho’s spot when he goes.

Some good stuff there, Just got to be careful not to do too much more and 'Do a Fulham' from last season. Hope it works out.

[MMH]

Finally got our new ground plans



Ignoring the fact that the video seems to have been created by the same team who made PES 6 I think it looks rather nice.

I was a bit disappointed with the inside at first but from looking at some still images it looks like there are a lot of nice touches in there.

Happy they have gone with a brickwork motif to fit in with the surrounding area.

[son_of_foley]

So nobody signed Toby Alderweireld for £25m?

Mental

[RFF Champ]

That Everton ground looks amazing.

[Mik]

Some good stuff there, Just got to be careful not to do too much more and 'Do a Fulham' from last season. Hope it works out.

Rosk isn’t the director of football at villa you know?

[Peter Griffin]

Well he should be.

[Simon]

Finally got our new ground plans



Ignoring the fact that the video seems to have been created by the same team who made PES 6 I think it looks rather nice.

I was a bit disappointed with the inside at first but from looking at some still images it looks like there are a lot of nice touches in there.

Happy they have gone with a brickwork motif to fit in with the surrounding area.

Those are some absolutely beautiful depictions of a stadium that absolutely will definitely be built

[UK Blue]

These are the plans for the new ground that Pompey never built.

[Romford Pele]

Good double signing for the Arse. Ceballos by all accounts is a very tidy player, and Saliba is apparently a very good prospect.

Just need an experienced centre-half, left back and winger now.

[Andy]

Arsenal’s squad is laughably imbalanced. Two strikers who would walk into most teams in the world, three number 10s for one place (if that) and desperately in need of a back up GK, at least one centre back, two wingers and probably an improvement on Xhaka who will end up as captain.

[The Rosk]

Some good stuff there, Just got to be careful not to do too much more and 'Do a Fulham' from last season. Hope it works out.

Fulham got a ton of their transfers in on deadline day iirc. Alex will defend it to the hilt - but every other promoted team bar them last season who spent >£50m upon promotion then stayed up.

[Peter Griffin]

Fulham got a ton of their transfers in on deadline day iirc. Alex will defend it to the hilt - but every other promoted team bar them last season who spent >£50m upon promotion then stayed up.

Good point that. And it does seem to be 'smart' spending so far, So who knows, Just hope Villa stay up, More midlands teams the better, And of course Derby will join yous in a year

[Simon]

As good a player as Ceballos supposedly is, and as good as Saliba might become, it seems mental to me that Arsenal aren't signing a centre back for right now. Just completely insane. As of right now they've got one centre back who doesn't want to be there, one who nobody else wants to be there, one who who everyone wants to be there but can't stay fit, and Sokratis who is at least there but barely more than competent. Oh and Calum Chambers

At least Kolasinac has confirmed himself as one of the absolute hardest bastards in the entire world.