kingfox

I said yesterday that I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets linked, do these rumours count? 😂

Doubt we’d get Adli, but even though he wasn’t a regular starter for Milan last season, he has some very interesting stats. Of midfielders to play over 1,000 minutes in 23/24 Serie A according to Wyscout... Passes per90 - 69.52(1st) Progressive Passes per90 - 10.94(1st) His defensive stats were also very solid last season. As @StriderHiryu says he can be an all rounder, but it seems AC Milan have been playing him as @Scotch has said, like a deep-lying playmaker https://medium.com/@jake.lakin1991/yacine-adli-once-dubbed-the-new-zidane-now-merging-into-the-new-pirlo-e7bb318ce835#:~:text=Adli's Roots&text=One of the very few,anyone else at the club.

Unsurprisingly linked with Everton Few articles on his time at Almeria... https://breakingthelines.com/player-analysis/el-bilal-toure-the-malian-forward-attracting-interest-from-everton/ https://laligaanalysis.com/el-bilal-toure-almeria-la-liga-2022-23-data-stats-analysis-scout-report

Thanks for the insight mate. Nice to see you touch on his workrate and defensive work, would you classify that as his best trait as his stats seem to indicate so?

Welcome Matt Targett, Sean Longstaff, Philip Zinckernagel and Sam Surridge instead then

Already took Gronbaek, now Jordan James

With Buonanotte looking close and going off the basis of Tom Collomosse’s tweet about wanting 3-4 more, I’ve finally found the motivation to do a list. Hopefully another 3-4 means a LB/LWB, CM, CAM and ST, hoping for 5 more incomings though as I think we need two CM’s, but anyway... LB/LWB Archie Brown(Gent) - Mentioned him the other day, from an attacking perspective his stats were unreal last season. Averaged over 5 successful attacking actions per90 and almost 7 dribbles per90. Has been linked with a few Premier League clubs, but if we can get him for under £10 million, it could be a shrewd pick up. Nicola Zalewski(Roma) - Cut from the same cloth as Archie Brown, very attacking, looks to get crosses in and can beat a man. Out of contract in 2025 and there’s been numerous reports of him potentially leaving Roma, would fit the exact profile we need. Sergio Reguilon(Spurs) - Yes, I know, he hasn’t set it alight at Spurs, but by the end of his loan spell at Brentford last season, their fans seemed pretty happy with him. Like Zalewski he is out of contract in 2025, wouldn’t mind taking him on loan, but on a permanent might prove to be expensive. Gabriel Suazo(Toulouse) - An underrated player imo, the type of player that is often a 6 or 7 out of 10, with a few outstanding performances thrown in. Was statistically one of the best attacking left-backs in France last season, while on the defensive end he has the tenacity of a terrier. Been linked with Everton, but we could probably get him for under £10 million. Javi Galan(Atletico Madrid) - Looks to be firmly out of favour at Atletico Madrid. Was loaned out to Real Sociedad in the second half of last season. Can produce good attacking output and also gets stuck in on the defensive end. Would offer experience and we could probably get him for under £10 million or on loan. Honorable mention to Alfie Doughty who would have been my first choice, but if finances are tight, there’s probably better value elsewhere, unless we can somehow nab him for under £10 million. CDM/CM Now of players linked, I would happily take either Mandela Keita or Richard Rios, they’d both give us some much needed extra defensive stability in midfield. This is also a position where I wouldn’t mind us dipping into the loan market. Lesley Ugochukwu, Carney Chukwuemeka, Stefan Bajcetic, Maximo Perrone and Oliver Skipp, any one of those are surely worth a punt on loan. While there’s a couple of players from the Championship that I wouldn’t mind on a permanent... Ben Sheaf(Coventry) - They might not want to sell to us, but he’s been high on my wanted list all summer. I feel he is exactly what we need in a midfielder, an all action type of player who can be used to dictate play, but also has the capabilities of being an enforcer, his defensive numbers last season were ridiculous. Wouter Burger(Stoke) - Like Sheaf, he was one of the best midfielders in the Championship last season for defensive work. Stoke fans rate him highly and see him as a Premier League player in the making. At 6ft3, he’d also offer some much needed presence. AM Despite Buonanotte coming in, we still need a creative player capable of making defence splitting passes. The following are either a mixture of CAM/CM or CAM/LW. It’s no surprise imo to see us linked with Carvalho and Bergwijn, not too keen on Bergwijn, but if we can get Carvalho then great, but some potentially cheaper alternatives... Hong Hyun-seok(Gent) and Hwang In-beom(Red Star Belgrade) - Two South Korean midfielders who are capable of picking a pass. After delving into Hong Hyun-seok’s creativity, I was extremely impressed with his smart passing ability. He ranked 6th for Smart Passes in the Jupiler last season, while he ranked 2nd for Smart Pass accuracy at 56%. Hwang In-beom ranked very similar in the Serbian Super Liga last season, 5th for Smart Passes, with a 54% accuracy which ranked him 4th. They are also two very versatile players capable of playing in deeper midfield roles. Kamory Doumbia(Reims) - A player that I’ve also mentioned before. Doumbia was on loan at Brest last season, even though he wasn’t a regular starter, he impressed me on a number of occasions. He made a name for himself by scoring four goals against Lorient back in December. In the latter stages of the season, Brest manager Eric Roy gave him numerous opportunities in the starting 11, where he produced a number of impressive performances. On the ball he has lovely technical ability, has an eye for a pass and is a decent dribbler too. Out of possession he is energetic and good in the press. He is also out of contract in 2025 so we could get him on the cheap. Giannis Konstantelias(PAOK) - Fast becoming one of the best talents in Greece, and would probably cost less than Carvalho and Bergwijn. Capable of playing central or off the left, he produced 9 goals and 5 assists last season, a solid return and he’s only going to get better imo. Sebastian Nanasi(Malmö) - Needs no introduction. Along with Bergvall who’s now at Spurs, Nanasi has been the best talent in Sweden for the past year, scores, creates, carries the ball...why the hell we not signed him yet? Honorable mention to Cameron Puertas who also ticks a lot of boxes, wouldn’t be surprised if we’d get priced out for him though. While with Premier League experience seemingly on the menu, even though they are more wide players, I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if Wilf Zaha or Daniel Podence get linked. ST The dream of Fotis Ioannidis is starting to look like a pipe dream, potential alternatives have been very much a head scratcher... David Datro Fofana on loan was of course looking likely a few days ago, but after reading Burnley fans scathing review on him, I’ve gone off the idea. I hope Rob Tanner is right when he said we’re looking at other options... If the money is there to sign either Elijah Adebayo or Carlton Morris...just do it! Both showed last season that they are capable of scoring double figures in the Premier League. Other options...for some reason I wouldn’t be surprised if Chuba Akpom gets linked. In terms of wanting a forward who is good in the link up, he’d be a viable option. While his goalscoring stats over the past two seasons at Middlesbrough and Ajax have been quality. I also like the shouts for El Kaabi, experienced, was lethal in the Europa Conference League last season. I’d expect we could get him for around £10 million. I’ve also mentioned Evann Guessand of Nice in recent weeks who has been linked with a move away, would offer a physical presence, while he’s also a very good ball carrier. I also wouldn’t mind taking Hlozek on loan. Apologies if this looks like an essay and is too long winded for some 👍🏻

Who knows whether we were actually in for Ayew, when it comes from Alan Nixon you kind of expect it to be bullshit. But let’s say we were actually interested in Ayew, but we’ve gone for Buonanotte instead. They might be 10+ years apart, but they are cut from the same cloth in terms of energy and hard work. With this particular transfer, the strategy very much seems find a right midfield player who works hard, Buonanotte ticks those boxes.

I see zero point in throwing toys out the pram just yet. If Tom Collomosse is correct, then we should expect 3-4 more players through the door, hopefully that will include a striker and another creative midfielder. If we come to the end of the transfer window and that doesn’t happen, then they’ll be a justified uproar. Getting in a few players on loan was always going to happen, Buonanotte is a decent talent who will graft for the team, I’d rather have players like that over a bunch of showboaters who don’t give a shit.

After the links to Jordan Ayew, I decided to look around for right midfielders who’d offer similar defensive output, Buonanotte’s defensive numbers showed up excellently. Cooper clearly wants players that will work hard and graft, I’d take Buonanotte over Ayew any day of the week.

After doing some statistical number crunching, I’ve been picturing him or Chuba Akpom in a Leicester shirt for weeks 😬

The deep-lying playmaker role is a key position though mate. It was a position that needed strengthening last season, hence why we tried for Sensi in January, now here we are going into a new season, yet we still haven’t rectified it. Winks goes down, then our midfield is fvcked imo. Choudhury or Soumare being used in Winks’ role is a terrifying thought. Unless he changes his mind, Cooper doesn’t seem too keen on playing Ricardo in CM either. No way would we start Winks and Skipp together as they are similar players, but a lot of work still needs doing and a backup to Winks is needed. Maybe the loan market is something we could dip into when it comes to CM, but whether on a permanent or loan, we could do a lot worse than Oliver Skipp. As I’ve said above, type of position where I’d happily take a loan or maybe someone under the £10 million bracket. Maximo Perrone has supposedly been told he can leave Man City on loan again, he’d be ideal for the role.

Who’s our alternative to Winks though, especially if Braybrooke isn’t going to be given a go? Priorities should be further forward, but still feel we are light in quality in central midfield, we surely need better competition for Winks and Ndidi

Bloody hope we don’t go throwing £20-25 million on Steven Bergwijn. But there seems to be a clear pattern emerging in terms of the attacking players we’re linked with. Soule, Asprilla and Bergwijn all ranked highly in their respective leagues for creative passes and progressive runs. Wilf Zaha will probably be the next one to be linked

Guess our strategy is either client recommendations or players that have fvcked us up in the past. Those two goals against us was probably the biggest highlight of his Spurs career From a statistical perspective, his creative numbers for Ajax last season were very decent. The type of player I could see moving to Saudi though.

Maybe someone has shown Rudkin the comments on the Burnley forum classing Fofana as a “Poor man’s Ade Akinbiyi” and a “BTEC Nathan Tella”, so we’re having second thoughts

If the idea is to stick with a bombing LWB, as others have touched on, we need someone who is more dynamic in certain aspects. Doughty would be my first choice, an alternative option though would be Archie Brown of Gent who has been linked with a few Premier League clubs. Look at those for carries and take-on stats

How he operated at Reims last season was very much like a ball carrying 8. In the first half of the season, he mostly played in a midfield partnership with Matusiwa who was the DM, then Richardson would then have the license to play like a box to box ball carrier 👍🏻

His best stuff has seemingly come with Morocco, with more eye catching performances over the past few weeks at the Olympics. At Reims though, I thought the jury was still very much out on his ability at Ligue 1 level last season. He showed a few glimpses of promise in the first half of the season, but after he returned from AFCON, he was very much in and out of the Reims starting 11 as he struggled to get any consistency going.

As we seem to be addicted to relying on agents, just go back to one of our faves in CAA Stellar and try for Elijah Adebayo or Carlton Morris, simple.

God knows what our strategy is when it comes to a striker, the one’s we’ve been linked with all have different skill sets, as if we’ve just pulled names out a hat. A more physical threat should be the aim, someone like Hlozek would give us that.

The lure of meeting Lucy Pinder is too good to turn down, good luck at Southampton Fabio

Whoever we get as striker will probably be of the unproven or underwhelming type, that’s usually the case with newly promoted clubs in recent years. Burnley - Amdouni, Datro Fofana Sheff Utd - Archer Fulham - Carlos Vinicius Bournemouth - Semenyo Forest - Awoniyi, Dennis, Wood Norwich - Sargent Watford - Dennis, King Leeds - Rodrigo WBA - Grant The only newly promoted club to spend over £20 million on a striker in that period was Leeds on Rodrigo. Some clubs like Brentford and Fulham were lucky to have Toney and Mitrovic to call upon. Doubt we have that luxury with an ageing Jamie Vardy. I just hope whoever we get, can muster between 10-15 goals 🤞🏻 #WelcomePoorMansAdeAkinbiyi