Keeping Mino Raiola above the breadline - 2017 summer transfer window

[Sean of the Shed]

It's that time in the year again when the football clubs of Europe put aside the pursuit of money and silver and do what they can to help the more impoverished people in the game like super agents.
Man City are still pursuing Silva though, signing Bernardo Silva for £43m to play alongside David Silva, Raheem Sterling and Sergio Ag-uero (yeah, alright).
It's only when Ed Woodward gets to use his supreme negotiating skills that we'll see some serious action, though.

[3 Colours Red]

Keeping Mino Raiola above the breadline - 2017 summer transfer window

Guardiola in "signing shortarse midfielder" shock.

[Sam]

Keeping Mino Raiola above the breadline - 2017 summer transfer window

You can definitely have that excellently bad pun for Agüero, Sean. Especially given his nationality.

[jwdd27]

Keeping Mino Raiola above the breadline - 2017 summer transfer window

Guardiola set to follow that up by signing a keeper who is good with his feet - Ederson from Benfica.

£35m for a 23 year old still uncapped by Brazil. His agent has done well there, chap by the name of Mendes.

[Nocturnal Submission]

Keeping Mino Raiola above the breadline - 2017 summer transfer window

Griezmann's future looks to be this summer's interminable will he/won't he sign for X/Y/Z saga.

[ursus arctos]

Keeping Mino Raiola above the breadline - 2017 summer transfer window

There's a great, possibly untrue, story going around that unknown parties hacked one of Barcelona's email accounts and used their access to send Inter a Euro 50 million bid for Yuto Nagatomo

[cantagalo]

Keeping Mino Raiola above the breadline - 2017 summer transfer window

Just a quick mention for Real Madrid's €45m signing of Flamengo's 16 year old Vinícius Júnior. It's the second biggest fee ever paid for a Brazilian, behind only Neymar and the largest ever for a player younger than 19.

He made his debut two weeks ago and has played for a grand total of 44 minutes spread over three substitute appearances. He'll join Real Madrid when he reaches 18 in July 2018.

[Various Artist]

Keeping Mino Raiola above the breadline - 2017 summer transfer window

Jesus wept. (And I don't mean Gabriel.) Just to put that into even starker context, here's the sum (in all senses) of his two-week senior career so far, from his Wikipedia page:

Vinícius Júnior debuted for Flamengo on 13 May 2017 as an 82nd minute substitute in a Brazilian Série A 1–1 draw against Atlético Mineiro. Two days later he extended his contract with the club until 2022, with a buyout clause set at €45 million. On 23 May, it was made official that he will move to Spanish club Real Madrid in July 2018. Vinícius will stay another year at Flamengo and move permanent to Madrid in 2019.

[Various Artist]

Keeping Mino Raiola above the breadline - 2017 summer transfer window

Incidentally, I have socks older than him.

[cantagalo]

Keeping Mino Raiola above the breadline - 2017 summer transfer window

What do I know about him? Well, he was the best player and top scorer in two South American U-17 international tournaments in 2016 and 2017. There's some impressive highlights videos. Plays in a similar role to Neymar with a similar number of tricks but is bigger and stronger. He looks more like 26 than 16.

I saw his 10 minute debut and his 20 minutes against Atlético-PR yesterday. He looked quite promising. And that's it.

[Sean of the Shed]

Keeping Mino Raiola above the breadline - 2017 summer transfer window

Bournemouth and Chelsea have agreed a £10m fee for Asmir Begovic. He was always going to struggle to get picked ahead of Courtois, but I reckon he could be a first choice keeper for a bigger and better team than Bournemouth.

[Nocturnal Submission]

Keeping Mino Raiola above the breadline - 2017 summer transfer window

No, I reckon that the Cherries are about right for Begovic. Lovely guy and decent 'keeper but nothing out of the ordinary.

Chelsea are starting to make a few decision about fringe and loan players. Cuadrado and Atsu have already gone and I'm hoping that Conte will be making a few more definitive decisions about some of the other longer term loanees.

[Ray de Galles]

Keeping Mino Raiola above the breadline - 2017 summer transfer window

Any Palace/Ghana opinions on striker Kwesi Appiah? Or views from supporters of the other fifteen clubs he's turned out for over his career so far (which include Wimbledon as he apparently played 6 games on loan 4 years ago that I can't recall) for that matter?

Sadly he's a (not direct) replacement for target man and current unopposed Dons player of the season Tom Elliott who has agreed terms with Millwall.

[Janik]

Keeping Mino Raiola above the breadline - 2017 summer transfer window

There are two 'bloody hell' elements of that post. One is that Appiah has racked up 15 clubs already and the other is that Elliot could be the player of the year for a League One side. Based on their time at Cambridge, Appiah is way better than Elliot, whose departure from the Abbey was greeted by a collective *meh*. Appiah, by contrast, got a standing ovation when he came back to watch a game after his first loan spell had ended.

But no, Appiah is not a target man. He's not big enough for that. He is more the sharpshooter that plays alongside/off-the-shoulder of a traditional centre-forward.

[steveeeeeeeee]

Keeping Mino Raiola above the breadline - 2017 summer transfer window

jwdd27 wrote: Guardiola set to follow that up by signing a keeper who is good with his feet - Ederson from Benfica.

£35m for a 23 year old still uncapped by Brazil. His agent has done well there, chap by the name of Mendes.

According to A Bola, this deal is now complete. Ederson is joint owned by Benfica and Rio Ave, the latter will hopefully use the money well, but I suspect it will disappear much like the Bebe millions at Guimaraes.

Ederson is worth every penny of that transfer fee, btw. Absolutely outstanding goalkeeper.

[Ray de Galles]

Keeping Mino Raiola above the breadline - 2017 summer transfer window

Janik wrote: There are two 'bloody hell' elements of that post. One is that Appiah has racked up 15 clubs already and the other is that Elliot could be the player of the year for a League One side. Based on their time at Cambridge, Appiah is way better than Elliot, whose departure from the Abbey was greeted by a collective *meh*. Appiah, by contrast, got a standing ovation when he came back to watch a game after his first loan spell had ended.

But no, Appiah is not a target man. He's not big enough for that. He is more the sharpshooter that plays alongside/off-the-shoulder of a traditional centre-forward.

Yes, if I push myself to remember something about Appiah's loan spell with Wimbledon I vaguely recall a shorter, pacier forward which means The Dons are going to have to sign someone else for the Elliott/Akinfenwa role.

I think you gave me a relatively lukewarm review of Elliott when he was signed a couple of seasons ago actually. He certainly upped his game in his two campaigns at Kingsmeadow and I'll be interested to see how he does in D2. A team set up to play to Steve Morison's strengths should suit him, though I presume he'll be his understudy, initially at least.

[Antepli Ejderha]

Keeping Mino Raiola above the breadline - 2017 summer transfer window

Arda Turan appears to be on his way to Arsenal, journalists better beware though as he's verbally and physically attacked a journalist in Turkey who published an article criticising the players over issues about bonuses.

[Sean of the Shed]

Keeping Mino Raiola above the breadline - 2017 summer transfer window

Virgil van Dijk is going to Liverpool from Southampton for around £60m. Nice work for Southampton who paid £13m two seasons ago to take him from Celtic, which seemed like a bit of a gamble back then for a player who had only really had to deal with strikers in the Scottish Premier.
Also nice work for Liverpool as finally their club stats no longer say "Record transfer fee paid: £35m - Andy Carroll."

[hobbes]

Keeping Mino Raiola above the breadline - 2017 summer transfer window

And apparently Southampton are reporting Liverpool for an illegal approach.

That's the what? Fifty millionth time Liverpool have pulled this shit?

[Auntie Beryl]

Keeping Mino Raiola above the breadline - 2017 summer transfer window

All New Arsene has been quick to raid his rumoured £100m warchest: the left back from the tenth best club in Germany has arrived on a free transfer.

[Ray de Galles]

Keeping Mino Raiola above the breadline - 2017 summer transfer window

Auntie Beryl wrote: All New Arsene has been quick to raid his rumoured £100m warchest: the left back from the tenth best club in Germany has arrived on a free transfer.

You always get your 'out of contract' business done first though, the question should be 'How good is he?' not if he's a headline-grabbing signing.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Keeping Mino Raiola above the breadline - 2017 summer transfer window

hobbes wrote: And apparently Southampton are reporting Liverpool for an illegal approach.

That's the what? Fifty millionth time Liverpool have pulled this shit?

The mad thing is that every club basically does this. Why are Liverpool the only club that get complained about? In the normal course of events Southampton go into the summer knowing that they're going to sell one or two players, for outrageous sums. This time liverpool beat off Man city and one or two others and emerged victorious. Normally that is the end of things, with the selling club marvelling at all the trucks they need to carry away the money. But Liverpool frequently seem to manage to get a complaint made against them.

my bet is that someone in the Liverpool Hierarchy is a phantom shitter, and this isn't discovered until after the deal is done. You've waved the player good bye. sent the armoured cash vans off to your giant bank vault, you're giggling to yourself about how much you made on that player, and you open the door of your executive bathroom and.....

[ursus arctos]

Keeping Mino Raiola above the breadline - 2017 summer transfer window

Raiola says that Balotelli is going to sign with Borussia Dortmund, but OGCN isn't so sure about that.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Keeping Mino Raiola above the breadline - 2017 summer transfer window

Do Borussia Dortmund know about this? I'm struggling to think of a player out there less like either Aubameyang or dembele, and they are two very different players.

[hobbes]

Keeping Mino Raiola above the breadline - 2017 summer transfer window

Not only that, but Bosz is the new gaffer and I can't think of a less total football, defend from the front, tiki taka player than Balotelli.