He's very good for a no2 - you'd struggle to get anyone better willing to be a no2

plus it's a ridiculous bargain given the buy out clause - it also is embarrassing for Chelsea as it makes them look incompetent

Back up keeper - check

Somehow winds up the fans even more (sign a striker!) - check

Chelsea reject - check

Top trolling by Berta

I think they just want rid no? They have about 7 keepers.

I will tick one off the list then. I wanted a new reserve keeper so I am happy.

Unless you have unlimited wealth and not many problems to fix then spending a decent chunk of money on a Gk No.2 can work but a cheaper deal for an experienced gk to allow funds to be directed to more important areas of the team.
£5m for Kepa is a bargain. You could sign him and realistically triple your money by selling him straight on.
We needed a secure No.2, we can promote a youth player to No.3 and look to get some other youth GKs out on loan.

Šeško, Williams, Zubimendi would cost about £160m and would be incredible business - all would start for us. Then you’d have played like Havertz, Martinelli, Trossard, Partey as bench options - that’s depth

Don't think we'd afford Sesko, Williams and Zubimendi - plus I don't think Williams fits (it'd then cause trouble with Martinelli and his wages would be very big indeed)

It may not be Williams but I’m sure a new winger is on the cards this summer. It has to be

Nope. I have the ability to write an amateur sentence of hot air with no need for rehearsal.

Both Kepa and Arsenal have been pretty shrewd there.

Basically he agreed a new contract last summer with a pay cut but a really low release clause at 5 million. To put it in perspective Trafford is joining Newcastle for 30 million and Ramsdale would cost 25 for West Ham. Matt Turner cost 7.5 from the MLS. Even if you overpay him on wages a bit to get him onboard it’s just a no brainer so he’s probably quids in and we get a back up keeper who has won a champions league and la liga. It’s more Chelsea madness where they have just burnt money but that’s very opportunistic. Far cry from when we’d had Rhys wilmot between the sticks in reserve and you know a catastrophic game was about to occur.

Ha. I know how that feels.

This presupposes that Trossard stays and Partey stays. If these were our signings I don’t think it is enough unless he shows a belief in some of the young ones and actually plays them. I think the squad looks thin even then. Every player who had a bad injury this year will be susceptible to injury next season. You don’t just get over it and everything is great. The body will put pressure on other areas to compensate and hey presto this season it’s the hip on the opposite side to the knee. We let the squad numbers run down and it’s a long way back from there.

I agree, those 3 I mentioned are the 3 starters to improve the first 11. I’d like 6 players to be added this summer. If we sign a winger then we could afford to let Trossard go. If Partey goes he needs replacing.

Palace may be rejected from playing in the Europa league because their owner is a majority shareholder in Lyon (I think) and uefa rules bar multi club ownership in the same European competition. It stinks that uefa have bent over backwards to accommodate multi club ownership for the likes of Man Cityand then come down on Palace

Were not Girona owned by the same crowd that own city in the CL the same time as city?

Also I see Leao wants to leave Milan. He has pace to burn and he's a handful for defences.

Striker, Striker, Striker ......................... when will we confirm the signing of at least one?

Just google what day does the transfer window close.

Saudi teams are trying to sign Tavares after his loan to Lazio has just been made permanent. Lazio turned down £30m bid, we have a 35% sell on. Could be a handy boost if he goes to Saudi for big money.

Jorginho signs for Flamengo. He turned out to be an excellent signing I think. Good luck and thanks

Zubimendi and Nico Williams on ITV1 right now in the nations league final v portugal

And Zubimendi opens the scoring

Yep. Cracking player. Super first touch, excellent passer and game intelligence in abundance.

I thought he was very good. He takes us up a level if we manage to get him. He got forward more than I was expecting. Could be a really good pair with Rice.

I liked Williams too, he just has more zip and purpose than Martinelli and Trossard. Leao who came on at left wing for Portugal was also very good.

Nuno Mendes worlds best left back, kept Lamine Yamal quiet.

Zubimendi is a more mobile Jorginho.

I didn’t see anything in that performance to suggest that Zubimendi would take us up a level. He was fine but he certainly wasn't a dominant influence. I honestly haven't seen enough of him at all to make a judgement and certainly wouldn't base anything off a single game at the end of the season, albeit a final.

The Leao rumours are interesting, although probably baseless. He has been an exciting player for several years now.

sadly, that's how we work

Ronaldo must be a very happy chap. At 40, he is still scoring goals in major tournaments and winning it. Respect!

Sorry to bring you back to reality. If we leave it late again it borders on negligence. The season has already started, they miss pre-season and really only start to understand other players when half the season has gone.

I didn’t see anything in that performance to suggest that Zubimendi would take us up a level. He was fine but he certainly wasn't a dominant influence. I honestly haven't seen enough of him at all to make a judgement and certainly wouldn't base anything off a single game at the end of the season, albeit a final.

The Leao rumours are interesting, although probably baseless. He has been an exciting player for several years now.[/quote]

I was left with a similar impression of Zubimendi. Absolutely fine but unexciting performance. Williams I thought was busy and wasn’t afraid to shoot with power, but I preferred Leao’s performance even though he seems a bit light on his feet?

I have seen Zubimendi a few times now and am yet to really see what all the hype is about.

A neat and tidy footballer with excellent technical ability but I am not sure his build and skill set suits the PL.

Rich describes him as a more mobile Jorginho which from what I've seen is probably a fair description.

I am just no sure he's the one.

I hope I am wrong.

Hi gooner7,

Funny enough I saw a tweet yesterday saying that Chelsea has switched targets to Sesko and were out in germany attempting to negotiate a quick deal.

Now, I am sure it was just a wind-up but having seen the guzumping of the Mudryk deal, and others, I just thought to myself "that sounds about right".

I see Liverpool haven’t managed to get Wirtz over the line yet and reports they are going to make their “final offer” today of £118m.

That’s total €140m which is within the 130-150 that Leverkusen were wanting so I’m sure after structure is haggled that will get done

I’m not sure anyone is suggesting they are dragging their feet.

On zubimendi who knows but there must be a reason Madrid, Liverpool and ourselves all wanted him. Everyone can’t have got it wrong.

Strikes me he is one of those unfashionable players like Jorginho who is there to keep it moving and tidy up and really he’s there to help Ødegaard and Rice play further forward.

I’d also say if Ward Prowse is worth the 30 million West Ham paid for him and Adam Wharton is worth 60 then zubimendi looks good value at 51

Not sure it is an issue anymore. The days of rough and tumble in the Premier League are over. So many players from other countries play there it is just football really the same as is played in the other big leagues. Ødegaard is smaller than him but build hasn't bothered him.

I'm fairly confident that we'll get Sesko and Zubimendi.

The big question is how good Sesko will turn out to be. He's a high-risk high-reward option. Especially as he will still be our only pure striking option.

I'm not worried about Zubimendi fitting in.

We can have 17 non home grown players in the squad. If we count Vieira and Lokonga and discount Neto, Tierney, Marquinos we're left with:
Gabriel, Timber, Kiwior, Calafiori, Tomiyasu, Zinchenko, Partey, Ødegaard, Merino, Vieira, Lokonga, Trossard, Havertz, Jesus - that's 14 players so only room for 3 more non home grown players. If we assume Zinchenko and Lokonga are almost certainly not going to form part of the quad next year that raises it to 5 non home grown transfers. Still question marks over Partey and Vieira as well. So plenty of room for us to make signings as required.

With the way the rules are there is always the need to look for English talent to build out the squad. We managed to get round the rules with Saliba and Martinelli by getting them here when they were 18, but those rules have closed I think. Raya is also a sneaky one because he was in England from a young enough age to qualify.

I think Zubimendi raises the level of our first 11. For me a lot of the problems we had last season even when everyone was fit was progressing the ball through the centre of the pitch and a slight lack of technical quality as we'd swayed the squad balance to more physical and athletic players.

Zubimendi is a steady presence in front of the back 4, often actually dropping deep enough to split a back 2 and make the back 3 that Arteta likes in build up - might we see games where both our full backs push on in to midfield in a 3-3-3-1 formation? I think what these top level holding midfielders do in terms of retaining possession, setting tempo, putting out fires before they start etc is often unnoticed, because they are unfussy players.

My big hope with Zubimendi (if he signs), as you note is he allows Ødegaard to play further up the pitch and in central areas. Ødegaard too often dropped deep to help progress the play. I think our defence have a part to play here by moving the ball forward with purpose quicker as well.

Ornstein on Zubimendi

Reports are we’ve agreed to pay Sociadad £4m more than Zubimendi’s release clause as this allows us to spread the payments over a number of years rather than the entire fee as a lump sum which would leave us less room in PSR terms this window