Winter Transfer Window Scouting Thread 23/24

[felmani26]

All correct. To be precise about it, Illing-Junior would become Association trained in January 2025 if he joined in Jan 2024.

He's had 2 full seasons from the season in which he turned 15 (2018/19) to when he left Chelsea at the end of the season he turned 16 (2019/20)

He'd then have had another two half seasons at Tottenham over the next 12 months, and you're correct all of next season (when he turns 21) is applicable.

So he could even join in the summer and become Association trained 6 months later in June 2025.

But he won't be immediately association trained in August 2024, which obviously isn't the end of the world.

He'd be U21 eligible in the PL squad but not the UEFA squad in that brief time (fingers crossed if we qualify).

UEFA Documents

documents.uefa.com

Article 45.05
An "association-trained player" is a player who, between the age of 15 (or the start of the season during which the player turns 15) and 21 (or the end of the season during which the player turns 21), and irrespective of his nationality and age, has been registered with a club or with other clubs affiliated to the same association as that of his current club for a period, continuous or not, of three entire seasons (i.e. a period starting with the first official match of the relevant national championship and ending with the last official match of that relevant national championship) or of 36 months. In the context of this paragraph, the season immediately preceding a player’s 15th birthday may be counted if his birthday is after the last match of the relevant national championship but before or on 30 June (winter championships) or 31 December (summer championships), and the season immediately following his 21st birthday may be counted if his birthday is on or after 1 July (winter championships) or 1 January (summer championships) but before the first match of the relevant national championship.

Much obliged

 

[Hotspur88]

I've said it before and I'll say it again, if Richarlison were to leave I hope we take a look at Viktor Gyökeres at Sporting.
He's been absolutely bullying the league so far and I believe he's more or less the complete package. Pacy, strong as an ox, good off the ball, extremely hard worker, quick feet, and a good finisher to boot.

22 G/A in 17 games in all competitions so far, 13 G/A from 11 games in the league.

When he was at Coventry, I watched him a few times and was blown away. I was sure a team like West Ham, Fulham or Wolves would have gone for him and I felt he could probably take that in his stride before moving to the next level. The guy is a very good player and I genuinely thought at the time he would be one to keep a close eye on.

 

[razzmaster]

When he was at Coventry, I watched him a few times and was blown away. I was sure a team like West Ham, Fulham or Wolves would have gone for him and I felt he could probably take that in his stride before moving to the next level. The guy is a very good player and I genuinely thought at the time he would be one to keep a close eye on.

Think he might count as HG too as he was at Brighton as a youngster

 

[fecka]

Think he might count as HG too as he was at Brighton as a youngster

Think he went to Brighton when he was 20. He's from the same academy as Kulusevski, Brommapojkarna, so not HG.

 

[Cochise]

I kind of feel that athletic, press resistant midfielders would better suit our full back roles than actual full backs.

Similar to how Guardiola uses centre backs as his full backs now because of the skill set he needs them to have.

 

[Ghost Hardware]

Looks like Bryan Zaragoza is off to Bayern Munich at the end of the season so there’s one to strike off the wish list. The fact that they are buying him for next season now proves how highly rated and in demand he is. Obviously didn’t want to loose out on him. Only around €15 mil as well as that’s his Granada release clause. Excellent business if you ask me, has taken La Liga by storm somewhat.

 

[Cochise]

Musiala on the move?

 

[FrankSpencer]

I've said it before and I'll say it again, if Richarlison were to leave I hope we take a look at Viktor Gyökeres at Sporting.
He's been absolutely bullying the league so far and I believe he's more or less the complete package. Pacy, strong as an ox, good off the ball, extremely hard worker, quick feet, and a good finisher to boot.

22 G/A in 17 games in all competitions so far, 13 G/A from 11 games in the league.

I watched him a fair bit live last season.

Good player, tenacious with an eye for goal. Personally don’t think he’s good enough for where we need to be and definitely not mobile enough at the tip of the attacking press.

Would be a good pick up for a team like Everton, he would suit their style better.

 

[Carson35]

not that i don't like iling junior or anything. but the more i watch soule, the more i like about him.

 

[Carson35]

Looks like Bryan Zaragoza is off to Bayern Munich at the end of the season so there’s one to strike off the wish list. The fact that they are buying him for next season now proves how highly rated and in demand he is. Obviously didn’t want to loose out on him. Only around €15 mil as well as that’s his Granada release clause. Excellent business if you ask me, has taken La Liga by storm somewhat.

don't really have anything against him but i personally prefer tall players than short players, unless if your name is messi.

 

[Carson35]

I watched him a fair bit live last season.

Good player, tenacious with an eye for goal. Personally don’t think he’s good enough for where we need to be and definitely not mobile enough at the tip of the attacking press.

Would be a good pick up for a team like Everton, he would suit their style better.

who's better, him or gimenez?

 

[Ghost Hardware]

don't really have anything against him but i personally prefer tall players than short players, unless if your name is messi.

Not that he was my top choice but in general I don’t necessarily think hight is such a big sticking point. Eden Hazard was short and didn’t struggle at all in the league. Ultimately if you have good balance and core strength it isn’t such an issue imo. Obviously there’s the draw back of not being a target for long balls or headers but that’s not necessarily that important for a WF especially if you excel in other areas.

 

[Nick-TopSpursMan]

Not that he was my top choice but in general I don’t necessarily think hight is such a big sticking point. Eden Hazard was short and didn’t struggle at all in the league. Ultimately if you have good balance and core strength it isn’t such an issue imo. Obviously there’s the draw back of not being a target for long balls or headers but that’s not necessarily that important for a WF especially if you excel in other areas.

Exactly this and with smaller players you get the benefit of extra explosiveness and a low centre of gravity for quick turns in tight spaces etc.

As you said, as long as they have good balance and core strength then it’s fine to have a smaller player in attack and can actually be quite beneficial.

 

[teok]

don't really have anything against him but i personally prefer tall players than short players, unless if your name is messi.

Let me introduce you to league 1 football.

 

[fecka]

I watched him a fair bit live last season.

Good player, tenacious with an eye for goal. Personally don’t think he’s good enough for where we need to be and definitely not mobile enough at the tip of the attacking press.

Would be a good pick up for a team like Everton, he would suit their style better.

I'm not entirely sure by what you mean when you label him as not mobile enough. Is it agility or something else?

From what I've seen he's an absolute pressing machine for both the Swedish NT and for Sporting, similar to Kulusevski. I've watched him a fair bit as I'm Swedish and I'd be willing to stick my neck out to say that he's been the best Swedish player in all competitions the last 6 months, Isak & Dejan included.

His only real weakness IMO is that he's dispossessed a bit too often due to miscontrolling the ball, or being too ambitious with a take-on at times.

 

[Japhet]

I'm not entirely sure by what you mean when you label him as not mobile enough. Is it agility or something else?

From what I've seen he's an absolute pressing machine for both the Swedish NT and for Sporting, similar to Kulusevski. I've watched him a fair bit as I'm Swedish and I'd be willing to stick my neck out to say that he's been the best Swedish player in all competitions the last 6 months, Isak & Dejan included.

His only real weakness IMO is that he's dispossessed a bit too often due to miscontrolling the ball, or being too ambitious with a take-on at times.

View attachment 135008

Looks like he works his nuts off and backs himself. Not a player I'm familiar with but right off the bat his attitude is a big uptick in Ange's style of play. We could do some interesting business with Sporting.

 

[HildoSpur]

Hope some of these links are true and we are able to bring some in. Focusing on young, talented and hungry players who have good physical attributes is exactly what we need to be focusing on, especially if they are capable in more than one position.

 

[Ghost Hardware]

Its my boys birthday today so I can’t hang about on here to long so will be super brief. Claudio Echeverri is considered probably one of the most exciting young talents in Argentina atm. Ironically I was going to write a post about him as one to watch for the future due to his U17 WC showing but got sidetracked. He’s already been touted as the new Messi. I know that gets bandied around a lot but this kid really does look special. Only 17 and only just breaking into the first team but in Argentina they think he’s a possible generational talent. He’s a true Argentinian AMC. I will be gobsmacked if he came here. I know City are supposedly very interested. Essentially if we got him it would be a big coup as a lot of teams are watching him. Anyway the source is questionable at best but it’s worth posting just because in general all three are players we should be keeping an eye on.

 

[hero]

If my memory serves me well, one of the ITKs mentioned in the summer that we would shift our focus on the S.America market.

 

[brasil_spur]

not that i don't like iling junior or anything. but the more i watch soule, the more i like about him.

Both Iling Junior and Soule coming in would be ideal, and seems like a do-able January double deal with Juve. That's around £30m for two excellent players, one of which will count as HG.

Add a new CB, someone like Caeceres for a reasonable fee and we could very easily looking at an excellent window without an outlay of more than say £35m.

If we can shift Dier, Lloris & Perisic out the door then we start saving around £500k per week in wages.

That also means going into the summer we'd have a squad of:

Vicario, Forster, Whiteman
Porro, Emerson, Romero, Caeceres, Phillips, VDV, Davies, Udogie, Illing-Junior
Bissouma, Bentancur, Sarr, Lo Celso, Maddison, Skipp
Deki, Soule, Johnson, Solomon
Son, Richarlison, Veliz

If Richi proves himself up to the task before the end of this season now he's had surgery on his injury then great. If in the more likely case he doesn't then really the only transfer activity we need to do in the summer is sell Richi and replace him, and possibly get someone else in for the AM role, but it's possible Donley could have earned that spot by then.

Jan Activity:
Ins - Iling Junior, Soule and Caeceres
Outs - Lloris, Dier and Perisic

Likely Summer Activity:
Ins - New ST, maybe a new AM
Outs - Richi, PEH, Sessegnon, Spence, Reguilon, Ndombele, Gil, Rodon & Tanganga

So that's quite a few outs needed in the summer yet again. That being said Rodon and PEH will be easy to sell. I think Tanganga can find a move too.

Ideally Gil gets a good amount of playing time and if we bring in IJ and Soule in Jan we can look to ship Gil out then, if not I think we'll find a taker in the summer.

Spence, Sess, Reguilon & Ndombele are as usual going to be the tough ones to shift.