The "January" Transfer Window 20/21 season

[Cjay]

Of all the links, especially the foreign ones, this guy seems to be the only one nobody has poured cold water on yet.

Only 22 (and only just 22 in April)

Earned Argentinian caps while playing in the 2nd tier of German football (cant be easy to earn caps playing 2nd division football, especially given the wealth of attacking players Argentina have)

Seems to play either on the wing or upfront.

Price is about £16mil, not bad really considering what that gets you in English football.

https://www.bundesliga.com/en/bundeslig ... ilan-12093

[White Riot]

Of all the links, especially the foreign ones, this guy seems to be the only one nobody has poured cold water on yet.

Only 22 (and only just 22 in April)

Earned Argentinian caps while playing in the 2nd tier of German football (cant be easy to earn caps playing 2nd division football, especially given the wealth of attacking players Argentina have)

Seems to play either on the wing or upfront.

Price is about £16mil, not bad really considering what that gets you in English football.

https://www.bundesliga.com/en/bundeslig ... ilan-12093

Would do for me Cjay, I prefer a few quality signings than dross

[White Riot]

Latest rumours are Danny Rose and Fabian Delph. God I hope not. Have a look at what the Everton fans think of Delph on their forums = brutal.

It's probably just lazy journalism as Delph would just be keeping a bed warm in the treatment room.

I don't want ex-players, including Milner, we need talented, and ambitious young players that Bielsa can improve

[Fridge]

Latest article from Phil Hay at the Athletic says we’re primarily looking at signings from English leagues and are keen on:

- Ollie Watkins
- Said Benrahma
- Juan Foyth
- Joe Bryan
- Eberechi Eze
- Ben Cabango
- Romero or Martinez (M*nchester Utd and Arsenal GK back-ups)

Plus a few foreign players, all lower down on the list and all from European leagues.

He also says he is expecting legal proceedings RE Augustin as Leipzig are pushing for their money. He reckons Bielsa was unhappy with both his fitness and attitude.

[CHAPELALLMAN]

I thought Radz said we were going to break the transfer record soon? Rio was £18m, so it's be almost £20m. I'm not saying we should just spunk £20m on a random player, but at that kind of price they should at least be proven in a top league.

We probably will - for JKA !

[SG90]

Latest article from Phil Hay at the Athletic says we’re primarily looking at signings from English leagues and are keen on:

- Ollie Watkins
- Said Benrahma
- Juan Foyth
- Joe Bryan
- Eberechi Eze
- Ben Cabango
- Romero or Martinez (M*nchester Utd and Arsenal GK back-ups)

Plus a few foreign players, all lower down on the list and all from European leagues.

He also says he is expecting legal proceedings RE Augustin as Leipzig are pushing for their money. He reckons Bielsa was unhappy with both his fitness and attitude.

So it looks like we're going to massively overpay for Championship players then. Sigh, a real missed opportunity with the likes of Quarta and Almada available for affordable prices.

Why are we looking at Cabango but not Rodon?

[SG90]

Of all the links, especially the foreign ones, this guy seems to be the only one nobody has poured cold water on yet.

Only 22 (and only just 22 in April)

Earned Argentinian caps while playing in the 2nd tier of German football (cant be easy to earn caps playing 2nd division football, especially given the wealth of attacking players Argentina have)

Seems to play either on the wing or upfront.

Price is about £16mil, not bad really considering what that gets you in English football.

https://www.bundesliga.com/en/bundeslig ... ilan-12093

He looks perfect for Bielsaball and would be worth double what we paid in a year. Before anyone moans that this is similar to signing Ekuban and Grot, he is being linked with Inter, AC, Atalanta, Dortmund etc, so obviously has talent and potential.

[Fridge]

Why are we looking at Cabango but not Rodon?

He didn’t go into this in much detail in the article. My guess is that Bielsa just simply prefers the look of Cabango. They have the same number of appearances and are a very similar age (Rodon is 22, Cabango is 20) so I would expect them to be a similar price.

The general theme of all the CB options they were looking at is that they had similar attributes to White. White remains the priority and the club are hopeful they can get hold of him. He has reportedly been offered a couple of new contracts in the past few months already by Brighton but they are ‘yet to meet his demands’

[SG90]

He didn’t go into this in much detail in the article. My guess is that Bielsa just simply prefers the look of Cabango. They have the same number of appearances and are a very similar age (Rodon is 22, Cabango is 20) so I would expect them to be a similar price.

The general theme of all the CB options they were looking at is that they had similar attributes to White. White remains the priority and the club are hopeful they can get hold of him. He has reportedly been offered a couple of new contracts in the past few months already by Brighton but they are ‘yet to meet his demands’

I saw scum were being linked with Rodon, so I guess Cabango would be the cheaper option. I've been reading up on him and he seems a similar player. I think we need one that would go into the starting XI and one to replace Berardi on the bench.

The issue I have with only looking in the Championship, is all our players are already Championship players and thee's no guarantees they will be good enough either. It's a very expensive risk.

[Fridge]

The article seems to suggest that Watkins and Benrahma (who would probably be harder to get ahold of) are two of the club’s main targets.

Slightly worrying as this means:
1) We are depending on Brentford not going up
2) We would have to wait until nearly a week from now until the POF is wrapped up
3) We face huge competition and a bidding war for both players

[White Riot]

So it looks like we're going to massively overpay for Championship players then. Sigh, a real missed opportunity with the likes of Quarta and Almada available for affordable prices.

Why are we looking at Cabango but not Rodon?

I wouldn't waste a penny on Delph or Rose. That Joe Bryan has looked shocking whenever I've saw him playing this season.
Surely Bees are favourites to go up now?
So if BMW are for sale it'll be to top Prem clubs with loads of spare cash.
I've already forgot about Ben White as we can't afford him.
We're probably gonna end up picking over the bones of Cardiff, Fulham, Swansea, Forest, etc and I wouldn't thank you for that.
MB was going on a short holiday last week and his return to hopefully sign a new contract seems to coincide with the play-off final.
Cue Mitrovic for £25 million.
I'm not impressed with all of this and expect we'll be signing a few cheap turkeys again

[Fridge]

It is going to be a tense few weeks.

I think there is definitely a balance to be struck, you just need to look at the spending last summer:

Villa - £144.5m (17th, barely)
Sheff Utd - £43m plus £22m for Berge in January (9th)
Norwich - £1.1m (20th)

We definitely have to spend something, but breaking the bank isn’t the way to go.

Hopefully the club are taking the ‘Sheff Utd model’ into account. Our signings may not be the most exciting, but as long as they are solid and can add something to the team then we may just be able to rely on excellent coaching to keep us up.

[Cjay]

Latest article from Phil Hay at the Athletic says we’re primarily looking at signings from English leagues and are keen on:

- Ollie Watkins
- Said Benrahma
- Juan Foyth
- Joe Bryan
- Eberechi Eze
- Ben Cabango
- Romero or Martinez (M*nchester Utd and Arsenal GK back-ups)

Plus a few foreign players, all lower down on the list and all from European leagues.

He also says he is expecting legal proceedings RE Augustin as Leipzig are pushing for their money. He reckons Bielsa was unhappy with both his fitness and attitude.

Thats a properly depressing and unimaginative list

Eze, Benrahma and Watkins fine if you have £20mil+ each to spend.

Never got the fuss over Joe Bryan, was highly rated along with Bobby Reid and Aden Flint few years ago, all still just average Championship players.

Ben Cabango has what 20 Championship games to his name?

Foyth, thought Phil had already said no to ?

Dont see what Orta does, dont need a team of scouts if you are only after Championship players, just watch Quest.
Blah Phil blah blah.

[White Riot]

Post legal battle with Leipzig.
Radz "we've smashed our transfer record to bring you an amazing signing = Big Kev".

"At the moment he's on the treatment table after a panic attack brought on by MB's training regimen"

Don't worry we'll make sure he's got good company with Forshaw and sick note Delph"

[weasel]

Not sure why people are getting worked up over players we may or probably aren't interested in. How many fans would have been excited if 2 years ago the players we'd have brought in would have been Kalvin Phillips, Stuart Dallas and Liam Cooper? Bielsa has shown that he can improve players, even players most of us had written off just 2 years ago as not being good enough championship players.

So far most of the speculation seems to just be down to lazy journalism. Ex Leeds players, Argentinian players and now just about every player at clubs who fail in the play-offs or have been relegated from the premier league.

[Cjay]

Not sure why people are getting worked up over players we may or probably aren't interested in. How many fans would have been excited if 2 years ago the players we'd have brought in would have been Kalvin Phillips, Stuart Dallas and Liam Cooper? Bielsa has shown that he can improve players, even players most of us had written off just 2 years ago as not being good enough championship players.

So far most of the speculation seems to just be down to lazy journalism. Ex Leeds players, Argentinian players and now just about every player at clubs who fail in the play-offs or have been relegated from the premier league.

The list of players is from Phil.

As reliable a Leeds journo as we have.

The level of risk involved in that list is very high.

Very little top level experience.
Very little international experience.
Very high domestic prices.

In your opinion is it sensible?

[lufc1304]

Just a thought, but perhaps we should all chill out and wait and see who actually comes in instead of getting our collective knickers in a twist over a lot of lazy journalism (Phil Hay aside). Bielsa will sign next week and then we will move for our targets. We get linked with every Tom, Dick and Harry going because it is click bait.

[weasel]

As reliable a Leeds journo as we have.

That in itself doesn't say much. We have people who write blogs, give opinions etc that are suddenly seen as journalists. Yes Phil Hay has much more credibility but I still doubt that Orta will be discussing transfer targets with him.

The level of risk involved in that list is very high.
Very little top level experience.
Very little international experience.
Very high domestic prices.
In your opinion is it sensible?

Hard to say really. Take the Dan James case as an example and it was a player with little championship experience yet he went straight into Man Utd's starting XI.

Flip side is Costa who went from playing fairly regularly in the premier league to dropping down a division and not really being a standout player.

So all signings come with a risk attached. Can championship players make the step up? Will a young foreign player adapt to a strange new country, new language, no friends and family around etc. Yes signing a foreign player is cheaper and has potentially more upside but signing someone who is either British or has played here for a couple of years is less risky in terms that they know the country and know the football.

The main key for me is Bielsa and his ability to get the most out of a player.

[Cjay]

[Cjay]

The main key for me is Bielsa and his ability to get the most out of a player.

That is the key really as you say.

Would be nice to see what he could do with the best young foreign talents.

But despite the prices, would be equally nice to see what he could do with Eze, Benrahma and Watkins to.

Be interested to know who is on MB's list.

He always has his own list going in to negotiations, players he really wants. Phil may know who the club are looking at but he wont know who MB may want.