Summer Transfer Window 2025 Thread

[bluestevon]

I'd he amazed if we bothered with Fofana any further he or his agent have made it patently obvious he's not interested in joining us at all, the latest is he said he's staying put, because no club that has come in for him can "match his ambitions" i.e CL football. Besides we are well stocked now where he plays on the left wing. Can't see it at all.

What's said in public and what's said in private are very often a lot different though mate especially from agents.

 

[jamieni]

Already come out yesterday saying that no clubs / offers match his ambitions so he is going to stay at Lyon!

I think Lyon need the money badly though. Don’t see it happening myself but imagine he’ll move somewhere.

 

[Mozza1987]

Wonder if Wolves might come in for Beto if they sell Strand Larsen.

 

[little elfin]

 

[Saint Domingo]

Everton needs a talent infusion in the club so I'd be all over this. But i'd be curious how we'd line up with Fofana in the team. Ndiaye up top? Grealish sitting further back as an 8 and Ndiaye as 10?

I’d cautiously say that I’m not sure whether Ndiaye would make the line up if we bought Fofana in.

You don’t pay out big money as a manager on Dibling Grealish Fofana KDH to then bench one or two of them for Ndiaye who was brought in by a previous manager.

Ndiaye is great but he’s not going to run away from anyone and doesn’t get many assists.

Alcaraz and Ndiaye as options to come on though in that 3 behind the striker would be brilliant.

 

[jazzy]

I’d cautiously say that I’m not sure whether Ndiaye would make the line up if we bought Fofana in.

You don’t pay out big money as a manager on Dibling Grealish Fofana KDH to then bench one or two of them for Ndiaye who was brought in by a previous manager.

Ndiaye is great but he’s not going to run away from anyone and doesn’t get many assists.

Alcaraz and Ndiaye as options to come on though in that 3 behind the striker would be brilliant.

So....you'd rather have totally unproven Dibling and Fofana in the side than arguably our best outfield player and certainly the most creative player that we actually own.

 

[matty1878]

On YouTube looks like deep lying winning the ball back and the moving it forward quickly. Our front 4 would love it.

Deffo does megs.

i’m in!

 

[_jamlev]

View attachment 323039

Saw this the other day. I think it's a bit misleading in terms of how I've seen people using it.

It's based on Market Values from Transfermrkt, but these are waaaaaaay off from actual sale values. For context, Baleba is valued at the same as Ugarte (40mil). I think it's probably easy to look at it as an example of buying players and increasing their values, but that's not really what it shows. For example, the majority of Arsenal's huge gain comes from Nwaneri and Saka (whose values combined aren't far off 200mil).

 

[Saint Domingo]

So....you'd rather have totally unproven Dibling and Fofana in the side than arguably our best outfield player and certainly the most creative player that we actually own.

I’m not saying I would. I’m saying I could see Moyes doing it. Managers tend to pick their signings over the players they inherited.

Long term though we can improve on Ndiaye. He’s a good player but I do think sometimes he is overhyped by blues. He’ll get goals for sure but when you say he’s our most creative he doesn’t get many assists.

 

[FTY]

Just to make the case for Hackney, because I still think he'd be a fantastic development signing if we have space for one alongside a proper defensive 6 - here's some more high-level stats on him:

View attachment 323036

The things that obviously stand out are a) the Deep Progressions (that's passes and carries into the final third - i.e. moving the ball into attacking areas) and b) Dribble & Carry OBV (that's essentially how much do his dribbles make his team more likely to score and the opposing team less likely to score). He is BANANAS good at both for a young player.

The other thing is that he is defensively pretty mid - tackles and interceptions, how much he gets dribbled past and how much value his defensive actions add are all pretty average at Championship level. This is understandably what is giving prem clubs pause. BUT - the other thing that stands out to me here is is possession-adjusted pressures. He has a hugely high work-rate defensively. This is probably what leads him to be out of position a lot, maybe a bit of a headless chicken defensively. I'd argue that defensive positioning is probably the single thing you could be most confident about coaching a player coming into their early/mid-30s, and he's got the athleticism and work-rate to get into the right places, he just needs to be taught where those right places are.

If you can coach him to be even just Premier League average with his defensive positioning, rather than Championship average, then you've got a really good Prem midfielder for cheap.

Anyway that's my rant, I hope we have 15-20m left over to get him in and train him up.

Was saying in the boozer on Sunday that need a midfielder with an OBV of at least 2.1

Scouts must have overheard me

 

[FinchFarmBlue]

I got laughed at for saying McNeil could leave.

I think he's a prime suspect.

And it will be a decent 30 to25m if it happens and I like McNeil but he will fstruggle for time unless out of firm/injuries struke with 1st choices. Would go with my blessing as a decent servant.

 

[Drico]

I’d cautiously say that I’m not sure whether Ndiaye would make the line up if we bought Fofana in.

You don’t pay out big money as a manager on Dibling Grealish Fofana KDH to then bench one or two of them for Ndiaye who was brought in by a previous manager.

Ndiaye is great but he’s not going to run away from anyone and doesn’t get many assists.

Alcaraz and Ndiaye as options to come on though in that 3 behind the striker would be brilliant.

This would show we have massively upgraded our squad - which was surely the aim all along.

 

[Saint Domingo]

And it will be a decent 30 to25m if it happens and I like McNeil but he will fstruggle for time unless out of firm/injuries struke with 1st choices. Would go with my blessing as a decent servant.

Not sure we’d see anywhere near those fees.

He was 20 mill when we bought him and we’ve had 3 seasons of his five year deal. His book value is probably about 8 mill so I’d wager anything from about 10-15 mill to a championship club to help our PSR position and give him the game time he wants. Maybe Burnley might come back in or another lower end prem team. He’d be an absolute star for Wrexham.

 

[jimmythenut]

And it will be a decent 30 to25m if it happens and I like McNeil but he will fstruggle for time unless out of firm/injuries struke with 1st choices. Would go with my blessing as a decent servant.

If Fofana was even an option still around 35 to 40. And we got the equivalent for McNeil that's a wet dream.

 

[Lanolin]

I'd be amazed if we signed Fofana now, and not necessarily in a good way. We've signed 2 wide players since we were linked with him, it's no longer anywhere near a priority position to strengthen.