Denis Zakaria / signed for Juventus

[Matt851]

I'm in the same boat, I'm thinking far too short term when it comes to targets. I suspect we haven't signed a midfielder cause the good ones don't want to move in January.

I suspect we haven't signed anyone because the only midfielder we are interested in is rice, who isn't attainable now and quite possibly not in the summer

I am not 100% on zakaria but given the only defensive midfielder we have is matic who should leave in the summer, we do need two players in that position. So he could be a short term fix and longer term back up

 

[Adnan]

I suspect we haven't signed anyone because the only midfielder we are interested in is rice, who isn't attainable now and quite possibly not in the summer

I am not 100% on zakaria but given the only defensive midfielder we have is matic who should leave in the summer, we do need two players in that position. So he could be a short term fix and longer term back up

I think Rice is definitely on the list of targets which also includes Aurelien Tchouameni, as reported by David Ornstein. Both players have their strengths but if I was pushed to choose one, I'd choose Tchouameni due to his ability to defend large spaces against the quickest of attackers. Which in-turn would potentially help us press higher up the pitch more effectively.

 

[HailtotheKing]

I get that we have our BIG name summer targets. But if we don't make top 4, we won't be able to attract them anyway, unless we pay exorbitant wages. Which has been our problem for years and why we can't ever shift anyone. Extremely short-term thinking if they don't see the need to get a CDM or midfielder who can replace or help out Matic for the remainder of the season.

 

[talking robot]

I get that we have our BIG name summer targets. But if we don't make top 4, we won't be able to attract them anyway, unless we pay exorbitant wages. Which has been our problem for years and why we can't ever shift anyone. Extremely short-term thinking if they don't see the need to get a CDM or midfielder who can replace or help out Matic for the remainder of the season.

Totally agree. I'm hoping that if we get one or two out of the door on loan that the club will allow Ralphy to bring in a cheap DM. There are a lot of players out there who are better than what we've currently got in that position.

 

[Matt851]

I think Rice is definitely on the list of targets which also includes Aurelien Tchouameni, as reported by David Ornstein. Both players have their strengths but if I was pushed to choose one, I'd choose Tchouameni due to his ability to defend large spaces against the quickest of attackers. Which in-turn would potentially help us press higher up the pitch more effectively.

Sounds reasonable.

I was more making a point about the clubs obsession with big name, big money English players

 

[Reynoldo]

I suspect we haven't signed anyone because the only midfielder we are interested in is rice, who isn't attainable now and quite possibly not in the summer

I am not 100% on zakaria but given the only defensive midfielder we have is matic who should leave in the summer, we do need two players in that position. So he could be a short term fix and longer term back up

Nailed it!

 

[HailtotheKing]

Nailed it!

It's an absolute no-brainer. His stats are good. His price is amazing. And most importantly, he plays in a position we vitally need. He could be the difference to us getting 4th or not, which would give us more of a chance to snare our bigger targets. And if he doesn't work out we could still sell him on at a profit. We should be all over this but sadly, it seems we aren't. And Arsenal and Bayern are. Small-time thinking.

 

[croadyman]

I get that we have our BIG name summer targets. But if we don't make top 4, we won't be able to attract them anyway, unless we pay exorbitant wages. Which has been our problem for years and why we can't ever shift anyone. Extremely short-term thinking if they don't see the need to get a CDM or midfielder who can replace or help out Matic for the remainder of the season.

Yeah shame that our board don't seem to realise that first paragraph is totally key

 

[Bondi77]

Sounds reasonable.

I was more making a point about the clubs obsession with big name, big money English players

Maguire and who else??
Hardly an obsession

 

[HailtotheKing]

Maguire and who else??
Hardly an obsession

Um, we bought Maguire and AWB for overly inflated prices. Then we bought Sancho, who I think will turn out good, but yeah, hasn't set the world alight. All 3 for huge sums. And now we're obsessed with Rice. Is that enough for you? I'm sure there are more. Point the guy's making is that we tend to go after the big Premier League players rather than European gems that the Leicesters pick up and sell on at great profit. We could get two or possibly three good midfielders for the price of Rice, good as he may be. But we like to overly pay for big money British players, big on transfers, big on wages. But small intelligence from our board. Feels like our scouting is as bloated as our squad.

 

[Bondi77]

Um, we bought Maguire and AWB for overly inflated prices. Then we bought Sancho, who I think will turn out good, but yeah, hasn't set the world alight. All 3 for huge sums. And now we're obsessed with Rice. Is that enough for you? I'm sure there are more. Point the guy's making is that we tend to go after the big Premier League players rather than European gems that the Leicesters pick up and sell on at great profit. We could get two or possibly three good midfielders for the price of Rice, good as he may be. But we like to overly pay for big money British players, big on transfers, big on wages. But small intelligence from our board. Feels like our scouting is as bloated as our squad.

AWB would have been a normal price given the season he had at Palace and his age if he went to any of the bigger clubs in England and Sancho was bought on his European club exploits as they were the only ones he had.
It is just paper talk about Rice as he has stated that he is very happy at the Hammers so you just choose what you want to believe I suppose.
I think City dropped out of the running for Maguire when the bidding went above 60mil so while we paid over the top for him we can see what his market value at the time when the big boys came knocking.

 

[EtH]

This guy has a bum knee does he not.

 

[NoPace]

Some Borussia MGB fan comments I found:

"Zak is a good one..but deffo will have a very hard time playing regularly in the EPL."

"But.. it's different with Zakaria. Gladbach made him a player with a name, stood to him, when he was badly injured instead of sold him for the better and he now leaves for a free shitting on the club which helped him coming back. On the other hand, he doesn't deliver on a constant basis but is dreaming of a starter position in Liverpool or Manchester - give me a break. This kid is made to hit reality hard and I wish him exactly that."

"Zak is a good one..but deffo will have a very hard time playing regularly in the EPL..but laundered/black money that free flows in the EPL...will pay for him just to decorate their bench!"

"Zak has overplayed his hand massively and needs another year of performing well (which he hasn't ever since he returned from injury) to get the clubs he believes he's good enough for to actually be interested in him."

"I don't want to see him go. Had a tough last season after injuries and I'm sure he will have an excellent season under Hütter."

 

[Coops73]

This guy has a bum knee does he not.

Eurgh, does he do poos out of it?

 

[Matt851]

AWB would have been a normal price given the season he had at Palace and his age if he went to any of the bigger clubs in England and Sancho was bought on his European club exploits as they were the only ones he had.
It is just paper talk about Rice as he has stated that he is very happy at the Hammers so you just choose what you want to believe I suppose.
I think City dropped out of the running for Maguire when the bidding went above 60mil so while we paid over the top for him we can see what his market value at the time when the big boys came knocking.

Surely the point about AWB is that no other big club would have gone near him for the price we paid, and possibly not even for a substantially lower fee. There was also our weird interest in longstaff for a big fee after half a good season

I suspect we are interested in rice and have been for a while

The city maguire interest may well have been bollocks, if not its yet another player city were supposedly interested in but didn't go for that we have then signed and who turned out to be shit

 

[Bondi77]

Surely the point about AWB is that no other big club would have gone near him for the price we paid, and possibly not even for a substantially lower fee. There was also our weird interest in longstaff for a big fee after half a good season

I suspect we are interested in rice and have been for a while

The city maguire interest may well have been bollocks, if not its yet another player city were supposedly interested in but didn't go for that we have then signed and who turned out to be shit

Some have short memories on how highly AWB was rated when he was at Palace and how pleased a large part of the fan base were when we acquired him;
https://bleacherreport.com/articles...n-wan-bissaka-have-a-price-admits-roy-hodgson

And the Rice interest may be bollocks as well as most of the rumours are until they actually become truth!

 

[flappyjay]

Some have short memories on how highly AWB was rated when he was at Palace and how pleased a large part of the fan base were when we acquired him;
https://bleacherreport.com/articles...n-wan-bissaka-have-a-price-admits-roy-hodgson

And the Rice interest may be bollocks as well as most of the rumours are until they actually become truth!

I don't know about the rest of the fanbase but on redcafe there was a debate about AWB's on the ball abilities up until the day he signed. I remember because I opposed the transfer and only supported him once he had signed.

 

[Bondi77]

I don't know about the rest of the fanbase but on redcafe there was a debate about AWB's on the ball abilities up until the day he signed. I remember because I opposed the transfer and only supported him once he had signed.

Fair enough,
Probably if we were interested in TAA there would be posters that would question his defensive ability because at the time Meunier was talked about but posters questioned his desire and defensive ability.
You only have to look at the Sancho saga to see the general opinion of joy that we had finally got a world class winger and the RW problem was solved...I was not one of those and look at the general consensus now.

 

[TheLittleOne]

What some people don't get is that every transfer no matter the price is always a gamble, because there are so many parameters who are involved in it that can make it a success or fail. Even United can't spend too many 80M contracts on players that dont succeed. Go for Rice sure, I was actually very impressed with him so I'm certainly not against it, but I think we need more than one midfielder and different types of it and cheap transfers to comliment. Especially since we pretty much alreadz know a few will leave.5M is like 10 week wage for some players we already have...If you find a better solution, fine, I will support managments decision and support them untill its clear it won't work. For that price I think he's a good option and will make us spend more money on an other player.

 

[Acrobat7]

For what it is worth, reports in Germany state that Bayern regards him as a CB

 

[tabu]

Zakaria played as CB only as a stopgap, his regular position is CDM and the secondary position CM. Bayern want him in winter for 4-5 million, but they don't hesitate, because Zakaria hasn't reached the level he had before injury. His vulnerability to injury is even greater in the PL, because here a tight schedule increases it.

 

[Devil may care]

For £5M the risk is minimal, we are desperately short in midfield for a 4-3-3 and we need 2 holders in truth as this should be Matic's last season.

#6 - Zakaria/Matic
#8(B2B) - McTominay/Fred
#8(AM) - Bruno/Pogba

That gets us through to the end of the season and then we buy a Matic replacement like Tchouameni and maybe Hannibal becomes Bruno's understudy with Pogba gone.

 

[tabu]

And I strongly fear that Zakaria would much rather have the hand money of 5 million in the summer than the opportunity to earn his club 5 million in the winter. Ingratitude is the way of the world and his club has always stood by him in difficult times. Many top clubs are hesitant because he is not yet ready as he was before the injury. In this context and because of the hand money, he is more likely to move in the summer. And Tchouameni is really a hammer. And the miser pays double.

 

[OrcaFat]

This guy has a bum knee does he not.

I have read this somewhere. Apparently he is not the player he was before the injury but that’s not to say he won’t get his level back eventually. Seems risky to me.

 

[croadyman]

For £5M the risk is minimal, we are desperately short in midfield for a 4-3-3 and we need 2 holders in truth as this should be Matic's last season.

#6 - Zakaria/Matic
#8(B2B) - McTominay/Fred
#8(AM) - Bruno/Pogba

That gets us through to the end of the season and then we buy a Matic replacement like Tchouameni and maybe Hannibal becomes Bruno's understudy with Pogba gone.

Yeah exactly, if not him why not go and get Kamara who could be signed for around £10m

 

[#07]

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[tabu]

Zakaria played catastrophically against H96, rightly got the mark 6 and now on Saturday rightly the mark 4.5 and thus by far the worst mark.

I'll use the Kicker grades, but everyone can really judge for themselves, just as a basis:

Derby 5,0
Freiburg 5,0
Leipzig 4,0
Frankfurt 5,0
Hoffenheim 4,0
Union Berlin 4.5

 

[Dans]

Effenberg is less than impressed that Zakaria is even linked with Bayern.

 

[tabu]

https://sportmax.live/bayern-munich-join-denis-zakaria-race-news-sport-update/

Zakaria will want to transfer in the summer so he can collect the hand money. Friendship ends when it comes to money. Bayerb, Man Utd and other interested parties will keep an eye on him until the summer and see if he is good enough again.Zakaria will want to transfer in the summer so he can collect the hand money. Friendship ends when it comes to money. Bayern, Man Utd and other interested parties will keep an eye on him until the summer and see if he is good enough again.

 

[Wrecking ralf]

Seems Juve are pushing to sign him now

 

[#07]

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[2 man midfield]

This will be one where if he flops he will never be mentioned again, but if he does well everyone will demand to know why we didn’t push harder for him.

 

[Hoof the ball]

This will be one where if he flops he will never be mentioned again, but if he does well everyone will demand to know why we didn’t push harder for him.

Michael?

 

[Mickeza]

This will be one where if he flops he will never be mentioned again, but if he does well everyone will demand to know why we didn’t push harder for him.

Yup. Just like 99% of players the CAF lose their minds over when we don’t sign them.

 

[pcaming]

Signing a player for 5 months is the kind of thing we need to be moving away from. He may not even settle and then we will be replacing him in the summer...This summer we may finally rid ourselves of the majority of the deadwood, let's not add a fresh candidate.

 

[Smores]

This will be one where if he flops he will never be mentioned again, but if he does well everyone will demand to know why we didn’t push harder for him.

So in other words people will retrospectively wonder why we didn't sign excellent footballers that were available, they won't wonder why we didn't sign rubbish footballers.

Not really a mind blowing take is it.

 

[Arios]

it seems Zakaria to Juventus if we sell Bentancur

 

[2 man midfield]

Michael?

Who?

So in other words people will retrospectively wonder why we didn't sign excellent footballers that were available, they won't wonder why we didn't sign rubbish footballers.

Not really a mind blowing take is it.

Nobody will remember that we called the club incompetent for not signing him, if he turns out to be shit was more the point. The forum is full of people calling those in charge out when they get it wrong, but never when they get it right.

 

[golden_blunder]

Personally I don’t see it with him

 

[#07]

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