Teams wanted Khusanov because stat wise he’s the best defender in Europe in transitions stopping counter attacks. A few accounts that know about young players with potential say he’s a wrecking ball when he knows the team. I’m guessing we pulled the trigger on Khusanov, as his price would double by the summer. Was having a very good season this year
Nico González
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Teams wanted Khusanov because stat wise he’s the best defender in Europe in transitions stopping counter attacks. A few accounts that know about young players with potential say he’s a wrecking ball when he knows the team. I’m guessing we pulled the trigger on Khusanov, as his price would double by the summer. Was having a very good season this year
Porto had a very important game in Europa League two days ago, they would have been knocked out of the group stages if they lost. Nico is their best player. We might have had a gentleman agreement with them to wait until they secured top 24 in EL
Dribble
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Which suggests to me he wasn't our first, second or third choice...
Bellamy's Caddy
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Yeah, sorry, I was referring to this season, particularly with our run of upcoming fixtures. Dias, unfortunately has had a very disrupted season and while Khusanov is a really exciting prospect, as we saw against, Chelsea he's young and raw.
Brilliant if Gonzalez can solve that issue for us. Its just been incredibly frustrating watching all of our midfield duck challenges and getting steam rolled over since Rodri's injuries. Particularly when we got the sneak preview during his suspension last season, but did nothing to resolve it.
i'm not sure - I think it would have been leaked if we had approached anyone else, as word gets out.
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Gaz (FMwkdsoul)
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Porto winning 1 game in Jan probably helped. Bounced out of the cup, now 11 points off first, scraped though into a playoff on Europa. Season is pretty much done.
David Silva
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Quite similar circumstances to how we ended up with “3rd choice” Ruben Dias
Taylor
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Only other apparent link was Luiz returning from Juve
Dribble
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Word doesn't always get out. I heard nothing about the 4 we've acquired so far until the deals were near enough completed.
It seems odd that the main position we needed filling urgently, could be one of the last (if at all) to be resolved. Just strikes me that we had several options which for whatever reason haven't worked out.
southamptonblue
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Some of this thread is beyond hilarious.....
The last couple of months, 99% of posters "the centre of our m/f is slow and old, we need some pace in there"
The last 2 days, thinking we are signing Gonzalez, who isn't pacy, 99% of posters "you don't need pace to play in the centre of m/f" !!
The last couple of months, 99% of posters "the centre of our m/f is slow and old, we need some pace in there"
The last 2 days, thinking we are signing Gonzalez, who isn't pacy, 99% of posters "you don't need pace to play in the centre of m/f" !!
Or that as he has a release clause we felt it was easiest to sort out when needing to pull the trigger. Word doesn't always get out, but if we were talking to multiple players, respective clubs & agents, there more than likely would be a leak - too many moving parts and interested parties to not hear anything
southamptonblue
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How do you know it took 30 days of January?? Arsenal allegedly put a bid in just before Villa kicked off in the week....but turns out, it was put in days earlier. When a 'twitter twat' puts something up, it's not because they get a phone call the second a club is contacted ;)
We’re probably bringing another 2 or 3 midfielders in the summer. Rather than getting out first choice CM (who would probably be £70m+ and very hard to do in January) this window, it looks like we’re getting the Rodri backup instead. No need to flap
I don’t think you realized but the first time you quoted my post, was a post where I made an answer regarding kovacic’s speed. So naturally I thought you could read.
TBF you don’t need pace to play DMF. You need positional awareness, strength and concentration unlike Kovacic who is 100 MPH and will be letter suited as an 8
We need energy, decent recovery pace (which he has, just not acceleration) and the ability to not be blowing out of his arse from the 50th minute. As well, he's good on the ball, press resistant and can tackle. Signing Gonzalez, or a player like him, will help the others as well.
Porto to buy 20% more rights from Barca for €6m which would save €12m so therefore they make an extra €6m.
Seems to me this is happening and then also the possibility its not the €60m release clause but cheaper with very achievable incentives which Barca wouldn't get.
Seems to me this is happening and then also the possibility its not the €60m release clause but cheaper with very achievable incentives which Barca wouldn't get.
Alan Harper's Tash
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Think the biggest issue we have is pace of attacks. We attack so slowly, which allows all our players to creep too far forward and then struggle to get back.
Hopefully Marmoush’s directness will quicken us up and negate some of our deficiencies as the players shouldn’t be too far out of position to stop transitions.
the mad thing about that stat is that we arent slow upfront , haaland, doku , savinho are all quick and now marmoush so it must be our style of play that negates that quickness
southamptonblue
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I am aware of what we need, though that might not be 100% the same as everyone else's view, and what is required to play there.........I was simply, and correctly pointing out the 360° turnaround in most posters view about pace ;)
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