The British Transfer Thread

May as well give Lampard a shot while he has the excuse of the transfer ban to fall back on.

I'm extremely jealous of Spurs signing N'Dombele (announced this morning). It seems United weren't seriously in for him at all which both surprises and disappoints me.

Absolute beast of a midfielder and 60 million in today's market is going to prove an absolute steal. My early pick for signing of the season. I get the feeling City, Liverpool and Spurs are going to be a long, long way ahead of the chasing pack by the end of the season.

Key to Sp*rs is how long they keep their coach and squad together. Guys like Kane, Ali, and Erickson must look at their buddy who left for city and got to taste the EPL title while earning more coin.

Here's a summary of some transfer gossip via BBC Football

• United have had an offer for Bruno Fernandes turned down by Sporting  Lisbon
• Neymar's reps are meeting with Barcelona to discuss a return to the team. Real Madrid are also sniffing around
• Dejan Lovren has held talks with AC Milan over a move from Liverpool
• Paul Pogba has been training alone in New York while his team mates are back at United ahead of a rumoured Real Madrid move
• Nabil Fekir may make a surprise move to Arsenal despite being linked since last season with Liverpool
• Liverpool are open to bringing Coutinho back to Anfield after he has struggled to make an impact at Barca. 
• Napoli may hijack Arsenal's move for Kieran Tierney
• Manchester United have agreed terms with Wissam Ben Yedder from Seville with Lukaku likely to be moving to PSG

1. This is picking up more and more steam. Surely Barca are going to have to match their sell price? In a weird way I think it would show great maturity from PSG to sell him. Like a "We're moving on from the sideshows to becoming a serious team"

2. Was France playing late international games? If so this happens every year, and they are allowed to return to training later than usual. I remember a massive scandal when Rooney did the same. Not to say he isn't going to go...

3. Yeah I extremely doubt that and think it would be really stupid.

1. Agree with this, especially with a few other French teams starting to up their game and build their revenue/fanship. 

2. France's last game was the 11th of June so similar to all other internationals. I'm seeing that a swap deal is part of the discussion now, Pogba for Bale + cash. Would you take that?

3. Yeah, this is risky. I trust Klopp but I don't even see where Phil fits in now unless one of Mane, Salah or a regular midfielder leaves. 

Not sure why it's risky to bring back a good player at much less than what you sold him for, to a club and a coach he already knows. Who's to say Salah/Sane/Firmino will all maintain their form? Reminds me of Wenger didn't bring Cesc back for whatever fudgeing reason and then he went on and killed it at Chelsea. I love Wenger but that decision was one of the worst he's ever made.

I think it was the smart decision at the time though. 

We had just signed Ozil, we couldn't carry both in our squad. If only Fabregas had come calling a year earlier, we could've saved ourselves a lot of coin. 

Having said that, I don't think he really killed it at Chelsea. He initially played well but he was never an automatic starter, and never managed to become one in the seasons after that. He had his same old problem of not being able to nail down one position. The only time he ever did that in his career was as a no.10 for Arsenal for about 3 seasons. 

Given the way he left the club, he'd get a rough ride from fans. He's a good player, sure, but we could buy equally good players elsewhere and without the baggage. 

Actually a pretty slow off-season to be fair. 

Yup - boring in fact. I thought with Hazard moving early it would have a knock on effect but it doesn't seem to be the case

Here's the latest...

• Atletico Madrid have started disciplinary proceedings against Antione Griezmann who is expected to make a 107.5m quid move to Barca
• Real Madrin want to sell James Rodriguez to raise cash for a 150m quid Pogba move but the face competition from Juve
• Bayern Munich should know next week if they have convinced Leroy Sane to make a move to them from City
• Fenerbache are in for Mesut Ozil
• West Ham United are willing to pay the 45m quid release clause for Maxi Gomez
• Romelu Lukaku is days away from a move to Inter Milan and may play against United in a pre-season friendly on July 20th.
• After his super-sub appearance this season, Divock Origi has been offered an improved contract with Liverpool with just 1 year left on his current.
• Everton are putting together a 35m quid offer for Barca forward, Malcolm. 

Fener are not in for Ozil; jeez - what a dream that would be. Where's that dictator bastard Erdogan when you need him?

It does seem like he might end up there one day. He's always in Turkey and has talked about Fenerbahce before. 

But does seem unlikely right at the minute. 

Just the small matter of Turkish clubs having no money and Ozil being one of the most ridiculously paid players in the world :(

Turkish clubs got no money? Really? I always thought Fenerbahce and Galatasaray were half decently cashed up, a few players seem to go there for coin during their careers. 

van Persie, Sneijder, Anelka, Kuyt, Nani, Roberto Carlos etc etc.

Is this poorness a relatively recent thing?

Is it just me or has this window been unusually quiet?

The only remotely interesting thing going on right now is the number of players Man U have been apparently trying to sign in the last two days. I get the press like to jump on any tiny shred of evidence as a 'rumour' particularly when things are quiet, but this list is ridiculous.

Bruno Fernandes

Nicolas Pepe

Gareth Bale (or maybe not)

Harry McGuire

Mykola Shaparenko

Sean Longstaff

Ivan Rakitic

Jadon Sancho

Danny Rose

Baise Matiudi

Sergej Milinkovic-Savic

Nathan Collins

Merih Demiral

Paulo Dybala

Neymar (or most definitely not)

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang

Nicolo Zaniolo

All of those are just agents pumping contract negotiation wages with the exception of Bruno and Maguire.

I think we're going to end up with Maguire but I'm not convinced we're in for Bruno. The saga has carried on too long with no tangible facts.

80 million quid for Maguire though... thats more than Liverpool paid for van Dijk and only one of those defenders is favourite for the Ballon d'Or. A wierd side-effect of the current transfer fee and wage bubble is that is seems to have suppressed the transfer market, with most teams not willing to shell out ridiculous amounts of cash for above-average players.

Nabil Fekir to Real Betis is a weird one - 60m move to LFC fell over last season, now a 20m move to Spanish middle of the table team. 

I had seen the transfer, but didn't notice the fee - 20 million for a French international in his prime? Definitely a wierd one in the current transfer climate, doesn't appear to have any injury (or attitute) issues either.

Yeah, totally a bunch of money.

This season United has been trying their best to put the feelers out for players and if clubs come back with stupid prices move on. Hence how we end up with players like Daniel James and not Sean Longstaff.

Unfortunately, our hands are tied particularly in regards to centre backs. Will need to bite the bullet and build some semblance of a normal defence to prevent other clubs knowing we're desperate!

On a personal note I don't think Maguire is worth that much, but I wouldn't be disappointed in the transfer. His only big question marks are pace and I don't think Ole would be interested if that was a major.

Except that he failed his medical with Liverpool? 

It does seem to be a weird window for the preponderance of overpaid stars on offer. Gareth Bale is paid so much money that he may have overpriced himself out of ever playing at a top club again. Bale, Neymar, Coutinho, Sanchez etc., all good players who would probably be interested in a transfer, but most probably won't move because clubs aren't willing to pay the fee and/or wages. 

Yeah in June 2018 - but on the flipside he's played 49, 39 and 39 games for the last three seasons. Doesn't appear to have a problem with injuries.

Edit: Actually I see he had an ACL reconstruction in 2015 and there are concerns about the longevity of his knee.

Agent greed and or stupidity would be a factor in that. Try to get the best deal for themselves...errrr, their client, they successfully screw their client and themselves out of a pay day.

Pobga & his agent have not screwed anyone except Utd. They have done very well for themselves.

I thought at the time the medical thing was being overplayed as an attempt at a reduction in transfer fees but yeah, was pretty surprised when I heard he was off to Betis for that price.

Moise Kean to Everton looks like a terrific bit of business for them. Can't believe Juve are letting him go regardless of the fact they have the most stacked squad in Europe right now. 

Good for Kean as well. 

Fudge all that racist abuse he was getting in serie A.

Everton are making some moves; if they happen to get Zaha, they'd have a scary forward line.

We've seen this before with them, though, and they seem to fail under the weight of expectations.

You'd be pissed if you were a Juve fan. Losing Kean and Dybala for Lukaku and 30m quid. Ouch.

Not sure they will care that much. Have you seen their squad??? Absolute madness. Best squad in the world imo. 

They'll still choke when it comes to UCL time don't worry.

But yeah, I wouldn't want to lose either Dybala or Kean to be honest...

I think they would definitely care about losing Kean. Italian international at 18. Would have been the future of the club. 27-32 million isn't even much for Everton to be paying for that sort of talent in this market, plus he's going to have huge resale value. 

If Juve thought he was the future of the club, they wouldn't be selling him. Not sure it's a given that he'll have a huge re-sale value either, all he is at the moment is a prospect and a talent, and there have been many 'talents' at that age who've never gone very far.

Sounds like the perfect scenario for inserting a buy back clause.

Honestly people, check out their squad. Insane levels. The competition in midfield and in the forwards is crazy. Some of them have to be sold for sure. 

GK's:

Szczesny

Buffon

CB's:

Chiellini

De Ligt

Bonucci

Rugani

Demiral

Fullbacks:

De Sciglio

Alex Sandro

Cancelo

Pellegrini

Midfielders:

Pjanic

Khedira

Ramsey

Matuidi

Can

Rabiot

Betancur

Forwards:

Ronaldo

Dybala

Douglas Costa

Cuadrado

Mandzukic

Kean

Higuain

Bernardeschi

Oh poor Gonzalo

They're signing Lukaku and selling Dybala, so you'd think Lukaku and Ronaldo are guaranteed starters in the front 3, leaving one spot for:

Douglas Costa

Cuadrado

Mandzukic

Kean

Higuain

Bernardeschi

Out of all of that it seems weird that Kean would be the one to go. Surely offloading Mandzukic and Higuain is the option. Or maybe keep Mandzukic as a bench option and sell Cuadrado. 

I'd be keeping Costa, and I know nothing about Bernardeschi. 

I'm sure they'd love to get rid of Higuaín, but I'm not sure that there would be many takers for him. With Mandzukic, apparently CR7 likes playing with him, so he might well be the third starter at the top. Although he is getting on a bit in years, so if they don't sell him soonish they'll probably never get any money for him.