Time for a new thread... Seems like William Carvalho is being linked with several EPL teams, like Newcastle/Everton/ManCity. Wonder if he finally moves on? Hopefully a bidding war is created. His rumored replacement is Filip Baradic, a Croatian who had his first senior NT call up recently. Also linked to Battaglia, midfielder from Braga. Says they want 1million plus player(s).
I like that we are looking to a largely ignored market in Croatia. There are some good players out there. Battaglia is good but I see him as more of an alternative to Adrien, not WIlliam.
Ignored by SCP maybe, but not in general. There are at least 5 or 6 players on the radar of major European clubs every trasfer window.
News media sources today are all saying we've reached an agreement with Braga for MF Battaglia. The 25 year old is negotiating a contract with our club. Rumour is that its a cash + players deal with Esgaio (permenantly) and possibly Jefferson (loan) going the other way.
I'm seeing $3.5 million + Jefferson + Esgaio. That is a heavy haul for a relatively unknown player without much experience. And it leaves us with our two wingbacks, which is the position we are most desperate for at this point. Mind-boggling.
Looks like Coentrao might be coming on loan for a year. Just negotiating salary at this point. This takes care of the left side, with Jonathan Silva's return. I usually hate loan deals, but if we can get RM to pay a portion of his salary, coupled with Coentrao's injury history, I'm ok with this deal. Now the right side of the defense....
Coentrao is a such a huge question mark, I hope Jonathan Silva is ready to play. Is he officially back? Rightback will be Piccini and Schelotto, correct?
Hopefully we get rid of Schelotto too. Piccini doesn't seem to be rated highly by Betis fans, so it would be nice to have some guaranteed quality there. Agreed that Gaspar would be nice. As would Ailton at left back. Battaglia is yet another mind boggling signing from BdC. 3.5mil and two players for a backup in the last year of his contract who's played well for 6 months in his entire career. Seems like another signing for the sake of signing. Don't understand the obsession with mass signings.
Don't know Battaglia at all, so that's concerning to read. How good is Andre Pinto? Will he be a starter alongside Coates?
I don't think Schelotto leaves. As for Piccini, yes the Betis fans weren't sad to see him go but Betis struggle to stay in La Liga and defend most games while we attack and are on the front foot most games. Battaglia seems to be a younger version of Adrien which we needed; when Adrien was injured this season we didn't have cover and lost the plot. Although whenever we've signed from Braga they've usually flopped and I agree though 3.5M + 2 players is a LOT. Lets wait until the transfer is official - just recently everyone was saying Ederson was gone for 51M and he ended up going for 40M.
Schelotto as a backup is tolerable, but as the starter he is uninspiring to say the least. Hopefully Piccini finds his way in Portugal. If William leaves, is Palhinha ready to step up and play more? Edit: rumor about Semedo to the EPL which I hadn't seen before. http://www.shieldsgazette.com/sport...-move-reported-to-be-gathering-pace-1-8573952
I think he'll be Coates backup. They're too slow to play together imo. Not a bad player, but not outstanding in any real way. We might be losing both Semedo and Oliveira though, so who knows, he could start.
I was worried about the same thing, both being taller/slower players. Semedo seemed to lose the plot a bit late last season but he wasn't alone. His youth and long strides were helpful in many situations. Probably gonna add another like you mention.
Schelotto played well towards the end of the season, but yea I would prefer to see him gone. I haven't seen any Betis fans' comments on Piccini but if we could land Gaspar, that'd be a massive upgrade. Andre Pinto is a solid pickup. He attacks the ball well and can defend well too. As I mentioned in my original post, Battaglia is a massive overpay. Looks like the Jefferson portion may be a loan deal rather than an outright purchase, but still, we can get more for selling someone who doesn't want to be here. Selling Semedo for anything less than $25 million would be a massive disappointment in my eyes. $20 million at minimum.
Hadi Sacko, who was loaned to Leeds this past season, has been sold for 2M euros. Leeds exercised their option to buy him.
Today's rumour is that we are interested in 19 year old midfielder Marcus Wendel from Fluminense. We seem interested in paying 5M but the Brazilian club is asking for 10M. From what I've seen he seems to be a midfielder with a lot of stamina - could be a good box-to-box option. The number of midfielders we keep getting linked with makes me think there's gonna be a revolution in midfield and William/Adrien are gone.
From Tuttomercato via Google translate: Through its official channels, Leeds United announced that it had exercised the purchase option for French striker Hadi Sacko. The 23-year-old comes from Sporting Lisbon for two million and signs up to 2020.