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Transfers The Summer Transfer Thread 2025

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That's exactly the one that sprung to mind for me, announced during the season on a Saturday morning, I think we played out a drab draw against Bolton later in the day.
I remember watching Euro 2008 with great interest and thinking "fuck me how has no one else seen this guy yet?" Our midfield post-Carrick was horrendous, took Redknapp way too long to see he needed to play at CM.
Wenger rejecting him for being too small for the PL is hilarious.
 
Agreed re Semenyo, he is better at taking a man on than Johnson and is fairly productive from the right wing but IMO it's not a signing you will see any other top 6 club make, he's not really got that "wow" factor, he's not especially quick and his close control is just alright. Don't want to sign players just because they're "gettable" and we have a clear run at them.
With the exception of the Johnson reference, I couldn't disagree more with this assessment of Semenyo.

He's a tank... rapid, with particularly explosive acceleration, strong on-the-ball, and extremely two-footed.

His best position is LW, but he can also play on the right.

He's 6" taller, 6-months younger, and is valued @ €15M less (per Transfermarkt) than Mbeumo, whose best position is RW or 2nd striker.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZNl1eNqifo
 
Mbuemo may well be a fantastic signing (although I’m personally unconvinced), but is a right sided attacker, that replaces our top scorer, really the most imminent need this squad has?

Why aren’t we being linked with a defensive midfielder who has legs and eyes that work?
 
I remember watching Euro 2008 with great interest and thinking "fuck me how has no one else seen this guy yet?" Our midfield post-Carrick was horrendous, took Redknapp way too long to see he needed to play at CM.
Wenger rejecting him for being too small for the PL is hilarious.
Think your being harsh on Harry there. He was the one who moves him there. He was signed as a 10 under Ramos. Harry had him moved to CM by the end of that season so didn't take too long to adjust.
 
This early deadline might scupper United a bit. They surely can't move on Mbeumo and Gyokores without selling first. So If united don't get Mbeumo over the line before this new deadline, then that could open the door especially with Frank now official. I get the impression that the club have lots of groundwork done on Eze and he's been the plan all along so Frank would have a big job to convince them to move for Mbeumo instead.

I don't mind which one we get as long as we get one of them. Anyone else would be very underwhelming for me. Not sold on Semenyo under Frank. He's an out and out winger. He'd have been a better fit under Ange.
This idea that cos Frank had wide forwards that is what he only aspires to is nonsense. They also tried really hard to sign Nusa and Balayoko but couldn’t get either over the line.

Every manager wants players who can beat defenders around the box and as everyone says, he’s flexible and wants different solutions to problems.

If we do get whipped into shape, then it won’t be long til teams come to WHL and sit back against us again and we’ll need players who can cause problems in congested spaces.
 
With the exception of the Johnson reference, I couldn't disagree more with this assessment of Semenyo.

He's a tank... rapid, with particularly explosive acceleration, strong on-the-ball, and extremely two-footed.

His best position is LW, but he can also play on the right.

He's 6" taller, 6-months younger, and is valued @ €15M less (per Transfermarkt) than Mbeumo, whose best position is RW or 2nd striker.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZNl1eNqifo

He is a good dribbler, I will give him that, he's good at breaking lines which we could definitely use, I think you would see much more out of Solanke for instance with Semenyo on the right instead of Johnson, he reminds me a bit of Olise albeit not as good, and maybe operating on average a bit wider than Olise typically did for Palace (haven't watched him at Bayern tbh), I wouldn't hate it as a transfer as I feel it improves the first XI right now but I still think he's the type of player who would only be cover for a top side, Mbeumo feels like he slots straight into any top 6 side on the right at the moment aside from maybe Liverpool (but Salah isn't going to last forever) and Woolwich, although Mbeumo would start plenty of games for them. You could probably go back for Semenyo next year but Mbeumo won't be available beyond this summer IMO. 20 goals and 7 assists in the league won't go unnoticed by the top sides.
 
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Think your being harsh on Harry there. He was the one who moves him there. He was signed as a 10 under Ramos. Harry had him moved to CM by the end of that season so didn't take too long to adjust.
Maybe a bit, it was frustrating at the time though watching a player with that passing range having limited effect on a game playing on the left of a 4-4-2. You could argue the resilience he built up in the PL with Spurs is what transformed him into the complete midfielder he became for RM, he certainly needed the first season being relatively protected out wide rather than in the middle getting poleaxed by some of the cloggers we had in the PL at that time. However did feel like an age from the point where he was really tearing it up off the left for us and when he finally went to the middle and become really world class. I'll give 'Arry the nod for moving Bale forward to LM, he was never a great defender (competent at best) and being liberated from defensive responsibility utterly transformed him as a player. Redknapp can proudly say he coached a player who was nothing but potential into the most expensive player in history at the time.
 
I don’t believe that. I think that like all people who are a bit long in the tooth he’s become convinced he can recreate his earlier success of the start of the Poch era, have a load of young players that will become superstars and control the wage bill with incremental contract increases. The PL has changed and he’s not willing to change with it.
Agree! And I'm long in the tooth😉
 
Honestly, that's one of the reasons I started supporting spurs all the way back in 2008. I hated the money in football from rich owners just pumping clubs with cash for wins (Chelsea, City at the time).

But now, I unfortunately see our owners as more akin to a parasite. I believe we underinvest in football from our revenues, and overinvest in low risk, moderate/high ROI infrastructure/property dealings. Cash that football is generating, that should be invested into the football, is not. Meanwhile other teams are leapfrogging us (in terms of football) by reinvesting the PL tv money (ala Villa, et al).

So, I started out with your belief as well, but I've certainly lost it since the turn of I'd say the end of the Poch reign.

The wages to revenue charts are too much of a smoking gun to see otherwise.
I see. I've also been a bit frustrated the last couple of years with the lack of support for our managers - maybe there will be a full-on 'Levy out' moment for me in the near future 😅
 
I don’t believe that. I think that like all people who are a bit long in the tooth he’s become convinced he can recreate his earlier success of the start of the Poch era, have a load of young players that will become superstars and control the wage bill with incremental contract increases. The PL has changed and he’s not willing to change with it.
Realistically this is the probable thought process, Levy wants to succeed but only doing it his way, he probably honestly thinks he did back Mourinho and Conte (lol) in the market and it only proved him right that we don't have the financial resources to furnish a "win-now" manager with the players that guarantee titles, so he has reverted to what has worked well for us in his time here which is developing young players who come in on low fees and wages into superstars and trying to patch holes in the team with the odd marquee signing.
I don't hate the idea of it (as in the excitement of a so-called "golden generation" all coming through at once, not Levy being a cheap fuck) to be honest but it's a bit depressing to think we might have a 3 year wait til we start to see this squad really mature and show its best. We are undoubtedly well set for the future with the likes of Bergvall, Vuskovic, Gray, Dorrington, etc, even if they don't all necessarily make it we will definitely do well in the market on moving on those who don't make the grade, which is especially important in this day and age since PSR demands you generate revenues organically.
 
There is a thing that I don't understand: why is there so hype on Mbeumo ?
He's a good player, of course, and in the last season he's been one of the top 5 strikers of the league.. But he has no international football experience and there is no pressure to play for Brentford.

I've read incredible price numbers to buy him.. Mmm..
 
There is a thing that I don't understand: why is there so hype on Mbeumo ?
He's a good player, of course, and in the last season he's been one of the top 5 strikers of the league.. But he has no international football experience and there is no pressure to play for Brentford.

I've read incredible price numbers to buy him.. Mmm..
60m for a guy who scored 20 PL goals is really under market value these days.
 
There is a thing that I don't understand: why is there so hype on Mbeumo ?
He's a good player, of course, and in the last season he's been one of the top 5 strikers of the league.. But he has no international football experience and there is no pressure to play for Brentford.

I've read incredible price numbers to buy him.. Mmm..

For me he’s falls into the Solanke category of he’s good and works hard but they’ve both only had 1 stand out season in the EPL and given neither of them are youngsters breaking through, this is of concern. They’re both squad players, options off the bench that are definitely better than what we currently/previously had recently but they’re miles off a prime Kane and Son. I know those 2 were a rarity but if you’re going to drop from the Gold standard then you ideally need Silver and not settle for Bronze.
 
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