goon wrote:

Interesting the Iwobi sales brings us close to the alleged £45m budget. Coincidence?

Quincy Abeyie wrote:

Luckily we were linked to Rugani in between, so it was more like excited > miserable > happy enough 😃

I can attest to this. Makes me wonder if the top brass simply played the fans the whole way to achieve exactly that outcome. I would say they most likely did.

We went into the summer with a 40 odd million budget and came out having spent very little in excess of it. Were we really going to spend another 60 million on Upamecano on top of that?

Atletico Madrid are apparently close to signing Rodrigo Moreno from Valencia for a fee of 60 million.

Valencia are looking to sign Timo Werner to replace him.

30m Euros for Jeff. 
I'm hoping that the Edu appointment and Ljunberg/Bould trades help us reduce the number of stars that slip through the cracks. The Jeff is possibly going for as much money as Iwobi - so Aulas must really really believe in him because that man is a money doubler. 

Unless The Jeff has been pulling up trees in Ligue 1, Iwobi should be going for much more in the Premiership.

Iwobi is undervalued by us. Everton got a really good deal.

Wonder if we sold Iwobi to Everton with it potentially blocking the Zaha move in mind

Very sneaky Dules. I like it.

Marcia says Madrid trying to offload Jovic on loan. Crazy if it happens

Rumours that Zidane also wants out.

French press says due to the first option we had with Angers when we sold Jeff for 500k, we can match Lyon's 30m bid and hijack the deal.

I always thought it was a stretch when lots were suggesting Jovic would be a starter at Madrid. Benzema is a far better player right now and for the forseeable. I saw it as a bad move for the kid at the time, I think he needs to play a lot more football and score a lot more goals until he's ready, if he ever reaches that level, to play for a club like Madrid.

Clrnc wrote:

French press says due to the first option we had with Angers when we sold Jeff for 500k, we can match Lyon's 30m bid and hijack the deal.

We sold him for €2m (£1.5m) and have a 10% sell-on clause. Obviously no chance we get involved here at that sort of price, but the €3m is welcome.

Still didn't see a proper two-way midfielder in our game against Angers the other week, but at least he's no longer playing wide because his end product was always dreadful. Centre midfield is the only place he can become a good player in my opinion, but he's so weak and flaky and always fancied himself as a forward. Let's see what he does at Lyon.

Ricky1985 wrote:

I always thought it was a stretch when lots were suggesting Jovic would be a starter at Madrid. Benzema is a far better player right now and for the forseeable. I saw it as a bad move for the kid at the time, I think he needs to play a lot more football and score a lot more goals until he's ready, if he ever reaches that level, to play for a club like Madrid.

You're way off on this one Ricky. I watched every single match he played in for the last two seasons and the kid is an incredible striker. He doesn't have any nerves, I can count on one hand the clear chances he's missed in his time here. He's definitely good enough to play for them, he's barely been at the club two months and most of it injured, if that bald fucking idiot really sends him away he needs to be checked. The sources seem to be some dodgy Serbian newspaper and donbalon which makes the whole story a non starter anyway.

I watched him several times, and obviously have a fraction of your knowledge on the guy, but I saw an oustanding finisher, and someone that did a lot of the things well that you'd want from your Number 9, but I didn't see an incredible footballer. I think you need more than he currently has to start up front for Real Madrid.

Muswell Hill Gooner wrote:

Unless The Jeff has been pulling up trees in Ligue 1, Iwobi should be going for much more in the Premiership.

He was one of the 4-5 best young dribblers in Europe last season, statistically. (Edit: 9th - https://www.footballwhispers.com/blog/europe-wonderkid-dribblers). Only ones who seem shocked over the supposed fee and Lyon's interest are Arsenal fans. Seems like his future is almost definitely on the right wing judging by what people are saying about him.

Ricky1985 wrote:

I watched him several times, and obviously have a fraction of your knowledge on the guy, but I saw an oustanding finisher, and someone that did a lot of the things well that you'd want from your Number 9, but I didn't see an incredible footballer. I think you need more than he currently has to start up front for Real Madrid.

Benzema has been piss poor for ages. He is obviously better on the ball, which isnt an insult to Jovic because on the ball Benzema is genuinely one of the best centre forwards ever. He's become extremely streaky though and hasn't been a reliable scorer for ages.

Put it this way - since 2012 when he became undisputed starter for Real Madrid Benzema has had just two seasons where he bettered Jovics tally from last season at Frankfurt, both league and overall. And that was Jovics first full season as a professional footballer, at a club many expected to be fighting relegation last summer.

Madrid need someone to finish the chances which Hazard, their Brazilian kids, Kroos etc will create, they dont need a 9.5 up front.

Benzema had a good season last time out though and scored 21 league goals.

Prior to that he was integral to a team that was obviously very, very successful. Benzema's willingness to the donkey work and his "9.5" role was a factor in Ronaldo's 50+ goal seasons and the proper functioning of their attack overall.

Jovic is no doubt a better finisher, but I still think they need Benzema's all-round ability and class in the team.

It really depends on what they are trying to do. Based on the last couple of seasons and the composition of the team, Madrid would have to start with Jovic. He's already turning into an elite marksman. If, however, Madrid secure Neymar then it makes sense to start with Benzema up front as he has some of the best link play of a number 9 that I've seen and will play Neymar and Hazard in consistently.

Monaco sign Ben Yedder from Sevilla with attacking midfielder Rony Lopes going the other way.

Very surprised that Ben Yedder agreed to this deal.

Monaco are in shambles at the moment and narrowly escaped relegation last season. This season has not started well either with an opening day loss.