Those who know wont speak. Those who speak wont know.

Any of yous familiar with stat bombs how’s Upa compare to Ruggsy?

I bet if you run a CIES profile comparator Upamecano’s spider will be larger than Ruggy’s all around. Probably the only place Ruggy will compete will be passing.

I got a feeling we will get Rugani and that’s it and it will be the most anti-climatical ending to our summer transfer window.

Same. I can't see Upamecano materialising unless we're also close to shifting Mustafi.

Meatwad wrote:

de ligt is also on monster wages (€16m base salary that could rise to €24m with add-ons). a big fee for dayot would probably be accompanied with 70k a week wages.

Wow didn’t realise it was that high, still we pay Ozil more than that :ffs:

I really dont want Rugani after reading Klaus and all the Juventus fans take on him. Normally only fans who watch him week in week out will know how bad he is. They are literally begging someone to take him off their books and will be happy to drive him to London if we are interested

I haven’t really kept in touch with his progress but remember how highly rated he was a few years back. Some players just don’t fulfil that promise and some players need a new environment to do it. However if he was 21/22 he might still be worth a punt but at 25 realistically he isn’t going to make massive progress.

JazzG wrote:

I haven’t really kept in touch with his progress but remember how highly rated he was a few years back. Some players just don’t fulfil that promise and some players need a new environment to do it. However if he was 21/22 he might still be worth a punt but at 25 realistically he isn’t going to make massive progress.

2 specific areas of concern for us with Rugani
1) he has been making lots of mistakes of concentration/focus. Would be okay if he was slotting into a defence of Lauren, Campbell, Cole; Burt we are too disorganized across defense and defensive midfield.
2) he doesn’t have the foot speed of an Upamecano. We will get caught if we play a high line and we have him and Sokratis. Sokratis is probably faster.
Otherwise the intrinsics are there. A team with a settled defense should try.

Ok so Rugani is not top quality but is he at least better then what we have? Or just more of the same?

He’s Mustafi. Just two inches taller and a little slower.

Of all the defenders we have been linked with, if we can't get this cat, I'd love to get Kamara. Two-footed versatile defender who can cover at left back as well.

BWoolley wrote:

Of all the defenders we have been linked with, if we can't get this cat, I'd love to get Kamara. Two-footed versatile defender who can cover at left back as well.

Impressive young man that. Reminds me a lot of Vermaelen. Amongst the young defenders, probably the most comfortable on the ball. He's definitely not in the defensive class of Upamecano/Konate but would be a good catch. 

Claudius wrote:
JazzG wrote:

I haven’t really kept in touch with his progress but remember how highly rated he was a few years back. Some players just don’t fulfil that promise and some players need a new environment to do it. However if he was 21/22 he might still be worth a punt but at 25 realistically he isn’t going to make massive progress.

2 specific areas of concern for us with Rugani
1) he has been making lots of mistakes of concentration/focus. Would be okay if he was slotting into a defence of Lauren, Campbell, Cole; Burt we are too disorganized across defense and defensive midfield.
2) he doesn’t have the foot speed of an Upamecano. We will get caught if we play a high line and we have him and Sokratis. Sokratis is probably faster.
Otherwise the intrinsics are there. A team with a settled defense should try.

sokratis is pretty fast, so he's definitely faster than rugani.

I know Sokratis is quite fast. Saw his summer sprint numbers last year, the granddad bod. But Upamecano is a fast bastard.

Rumours that Leipzig want ESR included in a Upamecano deal. I always hate getting rid of young talents, and would rather pay extra, but if it's ESR or no deal then I think I'd have to say yes.

Anyone think we are going all in for Upamecano or just making noises to be able to say on the other side of the window closing that we tried? Most people (Ornstein and a bunch of twitter rumours) seem to think we are pretty confident of being able to land one of the many centre-backs we are chasing - hope it's a good one.