FOOTBALL English Premier League 23/24 Discussion

[Wolfie]

Disagree a little with comments about better value out there. Clubs see United coming a mile away. It's a monumental gamble though, without question.

Especially if they don't also sign another striker after sales are made. Huge pressure on the kid.

I think this signing would be alot more feasible if you were also getting a Kane or someone with guaranteed goals, and slowly blooding the kid.

I still think there is better value. Citeh managed it with Alvarez and Perrone for example. If they wanted proven quality they could have spent their money on somebody like Martinez or Vlhaovic. Even somebody like Ramos from Benfica would be a better, cheaper option and has more of a proven track record than Hojlund.

 

[Brocko]

I still think there is better value. Citeh managed it with Alvarez and Perrone for example. If they wanted proven quality they could have spent their money on somebody like Martinez or Vlhaovic. Even somebody like Ramos from Benfica would be a better, cheaper option and has more of a proven track record than Hojlund.

I just don't think any of them become that much cheaper value as soon as they know United are interested. The early fees quoted for Ramos scared everyone off.

I will say what it truly does highlight, is the need for a much better scouting network when the new ownership is sorted.

Cant be constantly dropping these large fees on players like this that sold 19months ago for 2m.

 

[Super Freak]

Disagree a little with comments about better value out there. Clubs see United coming a mile away. It's a monumental gamble though, without question.

Especially if they don't also sign another striker after sales are made. Huge pressure on the kid.

I think this signing would be alot more feasible if you were also getting a Kane or someone with guaranteed goals, and slowly blooding the kid.

Last I heard they were looking at another striker, I can't remember the name but he was an experienced one and within our price range if we can get sales.

 

[Wolfie]

I just don't think any of them become that much cheaper value as soon as they know United are interested. The early fees quoted for Ramos scared everyone off.

I will say what it truly does highlight, is the need for a much better scouting network when the new ownership is sorted.

Cant be constantly dropping these large fees on players like this that sold 19months ago for 2m.

I'm sure when teams know Citeh are interested they put the prices up. I dont think its something exclusive to United. Any team with money would get the same treatment. I think its more just united are particularly bad at negotiations.

Ramos would go for about £45-50 million. Portuguese clubs always ask silly money and apart from Felix i cant remember them ever getting it. Sporting wanted £80 million for Fernandes, Roughly the same figure Benfica wanted for Dias and neither got it. Vlhaovic wants out of Juve and a fee of about £65-70 million is reportedly what it would take to get him.

 

[Brocko]

I said earlier in the thread Ramos would have been my choice and I stand by it. Not quite as young as Hojlund but still only 22 and what we saw at the WC was very good. We also have 2 of his portuguese teammates in our 11.

But I'm still not unhappy with Hojlund. There's clearly alot of potential there, just hope we see it.

Vlahovic is still a risk, hasn't lit the world on fire at Juve and I don't think he would guarantee goals either.

 

[Super Freak]

United tried getting Ramos, it didn't pan out. They wanted too much at the time.

 

[Wolfie]

United tried getting Ramos, it didn't pan out. They wanted too much at the time.

You have to be persistent with these Portuguese clubs. They like to get teams into bidding wars going for their players. They rarely ever get their asking prices.

In other news, Osimhen is now under a bid from Al Hilal for £120 million. Football is going mad.

Al Hilal 'submit £120.3M offer for Napoli striker Victor Osimhen'

Saudi Arabian side Al Hilal are keen to continue their pursuit of the world's top footballing talent and have apparently made a £120.3million offer to Napoli for striker Victor Osimhen.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[Wolfie]

I said earlier in the thread Ramos would have been my choice and I stand by it. Not quite as young as Hojlund but still only 22 and what we saw at the WC was very good. We also have 2 of his portuguese teammates in our 11.

But I'm still not unhappy with Hojlund. There's clearly alot of potential there, just hope we see it.

Vlahovic is still a risk, hasn't lit the world on fire at Juve and I don't think he would guarantee goals either.

Vlahovic at around 60 million is way better value than Hojlund. He's got a proven scoring record in Serie A over a good period at time. The only issue i can see with him is his injuries in his time with Juve. They have held him back but he's still been a consistent threat in front of goal for side who arent particularly creative.

 

[The True King]

Vlahovic at around 60 million is way better value than Hojlund. He's got a proven scoring record in Serie A over a good period at time. The only issue i can see with him is his injuries in his time with Juve. They have held him back but he's still been a consistent threat in front of goal for side who arent particularly creative.

Don't think there's a world where United get Vlahovic for 60mil.

There's a price for Chelsea and United... then there's a price for the rest. United have over paid for Hojlund but its a buy on potential, he doesn't come with the baggage that Vlahovic would and certainly a lot cheaper than Ramos or Oshimen. As someone said earlier, City dont get stitched up with these huge fees because their scouting is absolutely elite and they don't jump into bidding wars.

Overall it's been a weird window for United so far. Mount improves them for sure, Onana will enable their style of play better (albeit far more error prone than most) and Hojlund could be decent, although I think he may take some time, similar to Nunez at Liverpool.

If they can get Amrabat that would be a good depth signing but there's obviously quite a few more to head for the door which may balance itself out, even if you don't rate the likes of Fred/McTominay/Martial etc. Given they've probably got another 2 seasons at most of Casemiro, Eriksen and Varane, the window to capitalize and challenge for the league is closing quickly.

 

[The True King]

You have to be persistent with these Portuguese clubs. They like to get teams into bidding wars going for their players. They rarely ever get their asking prices.

In other news, Osimhen is now under a bid from Al Hilal for £120 million. Football is going mad.

Al Hilal 'submit £120.3M offer for Napoli striker Victor Osimhen'

Saudi Arabian side Al Hilal are keen to continue their pursuit of the world's top footballing talent and have apparently made a £120.3million offer to Napoli for striker Victor Osimhen.

www.dailymail.co.uk

I tend to go the other way with Portuguese league, they often get exactly what they want. They are patient too.

Felix, Darwin, Enzo, Dias, Bruno, Ugarte, Bruno, Nunes, Jimenez, Fabio Silva... heck you could go all the way back to Mangala.

I think in general it's a league to be cautious with. The hit and miss rate seems pretty well 50/50 but when it does work out generally pays off in spades (Militao, Luis Diaz, Bruno, Dias, Ederson etc).

 

[Wolfie]

Don't think there's a world where United get Vlahovic for 60mil.

There's a price for Chelsea and United... then there's a price for the rest. United have over paid for Hojlund but its a buy on potential, he doesn't come with the baggage that Vlahovic would and certainly a lot cheaper than Ramos or Oshimen. As someone said earlier, City dont get stitched up with these huge fees because their scouting is absolutely elite and they don't jump into bidding wars.

Overall it's been a weird window for United so far. Mount improves them for sure, Onana will enable their style of play better (albeit far more error prone than most) and Hojlund could be decent, although I think he may take some time, similar to Nunez at Liverpool.

If they can get Amrabat that would be a good depth signing but there's obviously quite a few more to head for the door which may balance itself out, even if you don't rate the likes of Fred/McTominay/Martial etc. Given they've probably got another 2 seasons at most of Casemiro, Eriksen and Varane, the window to capitalize and challenge for the league is closing quickly.

He's available for about 60 million. Juve just want their money back from what i read. With them getting kicked out of Europe and deducted points, plus him not settling with them as a clubi think both parties want a sale. Not really sure what baggage Vlahovic has really apart from those injury issues. Its looking like he's off to Chelsea anyway though in a straight swap with Lukaku.

 

[The True King]

He's available for about 60 million. Juve just want their money back from what i read. With them getting kicked out of Europe and deducted points, plus him not settling with them as a clubi think both parties want a sale. Not really sure what baggage Vlahovic has really apart from those injury issues. Its looking like he's off to Chelsea anyway though in a straight swap with Lukaku.

The baggage is his injury record. Says it all that he's in a swap deal with Lukaku.

 

[Wolfie]

I tend to go the other way with Portuguese league, they often get exactly what they want. They are patient too.

Felix, Darwin, Enzo, Dias, Bruno, Ugarte, Bruno, Nunes, Jimenez, Fabio Silva... heck you could go all the way back to Mangala.

I think in general it's a league to be cautious with. The hit and miss rate seems pretty well 50/50 but when it does work out generally pays off in spades (Militao, Luis Diaz, Bruno, Dias, Ederson etc).

In terms of the Wolves players you mentioned, I dont think anyone was in for Fabio until we were stupid enough to pay that amount. That was clearly a dodgy Jorge Mendes orchestrated deal. Nunes as well, they were talking 50 or 60 million, we paid 38 million. We got Raul for 30 million and he wasnt even a regular starter for Benfica when we got him. We certainly didnt overpay for Raul.

I can only really agree with Felix, Enzo Fernandez and probably Nunez. The rest of them had the usual massive release clauses ( when we were rumoured to be signing Ruben Dias it was 100 million ). Portuguese clubs generally cave towards the end of the window, of when Jorge Mendes decides he's getting involved.

 

[Wolfie]

The baggage is his injury record. Says it all that he's in a swap deal with Lukaku.

Hardly baggage. He's played 140 games in Italy at 23. He just needs to get that groin issue sorted instead of trying to manage it.

The swap deal is just a sensible move for everyone. He wants out of Juve and wants to play in the Premier League, Lukaku wants out of Chelsea and want to go back to Italy.

 

[The True King]

In terms of the Wolves players you mentioned, I dont think anyone was in for Fabio until we were stupid enough to pay that amount. That was clearly a dodgy Jorge Mendes orchestrated deal. Nunes as well, they were talking 50 or 60 million, we paid 38 million. We got Raul for 30 million and he wasnt even a regular starter for Benfica when we got him. We certainly didnt overpay for Raul.

I can only really agree with Felix, Enzo Fernandez and probably Nunez. The rest of them had the usual massive release clauses ( when we were rumoured to be signing Ruben Dias it was 100 million ). Portuguese clubs generally cave towards the end of the window, of when Jorge Mendes decides he's getting involved.

30mil for a non-regular starter from Benfica isn't overpaying?

Think there's abit of hindsight at play there, he was a good player for Wolves and ended up justifying the price tag but that's serious cash. It's not that far off what Liverpool paid for Jota a season later who had EPL experience to boot.

I don't think my point is necessarily wrong, regardless of release clauses they seem to get close enough to the price they want more often than not.

 

[The True King]

Hardly baggage. He's played 140 games in Italy at 23. He just needs to get that groin issue sorted instead of trying to manage it.

The swap deal is just a sensible move for everyone. He wants out of Juve and wants to play in the Premier League, Lukaku wants out of Chelsea and want to go back to Italy.

I hope it works out for his sake.. but we all know how strikers go at Chelsea haha

 

[The True King]

Based on movements in the window to date, couple early predictions..

Luton, Sheffield and Fulham (unless they hold both Mitrovic and Silva) to go down.

City, Arsenal, Liverpool and Newcastle to make top 4.

Villa the team to watch, they'll be this years entertainers. Brighton to fall back into mid table.

 

[Wolfie]

30mil for a non-regular starter from Benfica isn't overpaying?

Think there's abit of hindsight at play there, he was a good player for Wolves and ended up justifying the price tag but that's serious cash. It's not that far off what Liverpool paid for Jota a season later who had EPL experience to boot.

I don't think my point is necessarily wrong, regardless of release clauses they seem to get close enough to the price they want more often than not.

No hindsight at all. It wasnt overpaying. We had him on loan. He did well and if he did well we had agreed a fee with them for 30 million, which isnt a great deal of money for a top quality striker like Raul ( before he got taken out by that thug from Arsenal ). The only way that would have been a poor deal is if it was an obligation to buy regardless of how he performed. We got 45 million for Jota plus some addons for a player who was very erratic in his final season for us. A minimum of 15 million more than we paid for Raul is good money. He's done decent for Liverpool but i'd say in terms of how he was playing at Wolves that 45 million plus addons is more overpaying.

In regards to these release clauses, they all have stupid ones in Portugal that they never get. As i mentioned with Dias, his was 100 million and Citeh got him for about 38 million less than that. I wouldnt say that kind of money is close to it, although you really do have to take those release clauses with a pinch of salt, they are just to raise their asking price.