January 2023 Transfer Thread

[andyt]

McKennie is in Leeds today for a medical.

Daniel Levy was tending on Twitter this morning. The Spurs owner shares a name with an Israeli politician, so sorting through which was which was fun, but it appears the Spurs owner scuppered a deal for Sporting Lisbon defender Pedro Porro over a last minute change to the terms by adding an administrative fee.

 

[VinatieriDefinesClutch]

He's such a cheap bastard. I just saw a story on Twitter about Brad Friedel saying he was confused when he got his wage packet and it had 800 pounds taken out of it and he asked what it was for and was told it was for his kits.

 

[jeffbear]

Talk Sport have McKinnie's loan move to Leeds as a done deal. Option for a 30 million pound permanent move at the end of the year. Whew. Good for Weston, except now he's the middle of a relegation battle. His fate past this season will hinge on how that goes, but Leeds now have quite an impressive midfield group if everyone can stay healthy.

Leeds complete loan signing of Weston McKennie from Juventus

Leeds have completed the loan signing of USA midfielder Weston McKennie from Juventus. McKennie joins until the end of the season, however, Leeds have the option to sign him on a £30million permane…

talksport.com

 

[andyt]

He's such a cheap bastard. I just saw a story on Twitter about Brad Friedel saying he was confused when he got his wage packet and it had 800 pounds taken out of it and he asked what it was for and was told it was for his kits.

Saw that. It was toward the end of his career and lots of players wanted to trade shirts. He went over some unknown allotment and the club started charging him.

 

[andyt]

Deadline day…

Arsenal sign midfielder Jorginho from Chelsea for £12 million, singing a contract through next season with a 1 year option. That’s a bit of a surprise, they had been chasing Moises Caicedo from Brighton, but they weren’t interested in selling. Jorginho gives the the Gunners cover for injuries to Partey and Xhaka. Elneny would normall cover but he is out with an injury, hence the need.

 

[jeffbear]

I like Jorginho for cover more than wildly over-paying for Caicedo. Apparently they upped their offer to 75 million pounds, and while he's good ... is he really that freaking good? Things are going good and the need was for immediate, secondary help. This fits the bill for FAR less money.

 

[andyt]

USMNT striker Matthew Hoppe to Hibs on loan from Middlesbrough.

Keeper Keylor Navas from PSG to Nottingham Forest, loan

Forward Ayoze Perez from Leicester to Real Betis, loan

Centerback Diego Lorrente from Leeds to Roma, loan

Fullback Joao Cancelo from Man City to Bayern, loan with an option to buy.

 

[andyt]

Chelsea replaced Jorginho with Enzo Fernandez, signing him from Benfica for an English record £106 million fee. It was a nice profit for Benfica, who signed him from River Plate just last summer for £12.3 million. He was named Best Young Player at the 2022 World Cup.

 

[jeffbear]

Chelsea replaced Jorginho with Enzo Fernandez, signing him from Benfica for an English record £106 million fee. It was a nice profit for Benfica, who signed him from River Plate just last summer for £12.3 million. He was named Best Young Player at the 2022 World Cup.

Chelsea are even less financially disciplined now that the freaking Oligarch is gone. Who would have guessed that? Injuries? Cool ... let's go buy an entire roster in January, and fund Benfica's recruitment program for the next 2-3 years. That'll fix everything.

 

[VinatieriDefinesClutch]

Insane, Chelsea are looking to destroy the transfer market valuation system a second time.

As for Villa, overall I'm happy with the business done and not done during the window. Moving Ings to a West Ham side desperate for goals made a lot of sense even if we got ten mil less than we paid for him. He's not a fit for the system and clearing those wages makes sense. I like what I've seen so far from Moreno and Durán seems like a very nice prospect for the future. It looks like Unai tried to target a few players he really liked and the teams were either unwilling to part with the players for any reasonable offers during the winter or in one case, the player didn't want to leave Spain. I'm glad we didn't overpay or buy any players just to buy someone. I'm expecting a lot more action from Villa come this summer.

 

[jeffbear]

Yeah, I know the online fan base is whinging about not getting another striker, but if it was up to that crowd every team would have two starting No. 9s "just in case" ... and that's just not realistic. Villa now use a modern, fluid attacking system that doesn't really put a premium on traditional inside the box strikers anyway. They've got several guys who can deputize if needed and honestly, Watkins badly needs to be given a serious run of games to prove whether or not he can grow into the job. It would helpful to do that without Ings or whomever lurking on the bench.

Other than that, they didn't do anything dumb, cleared some salary and added a strong fullback. Fine. It's not like finishing anywhere other than mid-table is an option this season anyway. No reason to take any huge risks or spend a bunch of cash on loans just to maybe improve from 11th to 9th.

 

[VinatieriDefinesClutch]

I was going to say that Villa aren't too far off of Europa league qualification, but then I saw only the fifth placed team and FA cup winner qualify. When did that change? Maybe I'm misremembering or going crazy, but I could have sworn 5-7 used to qualify.

Either way, it's the same people complaining about the amount of money it cost to bring in Ings who were then complaining during the Southampton game that we sure could use a goal scorer like Ings when we couldn't find the net for most of the game despite dominating play.

 

[andyt]

I was going to say that Villa aren't too far off of Europa league qualification, but then I saw only the fifth placed team and FA cup winner qualify. When did that change? Maybe I'm misremembering or going crazy, but I could have sworn 5-7 used to qualify.

Either way, it's the same people complaining about the amount of money it cost to bring in Ings who were then complaining during the Southampton game that we sure could use a goal scorer like Ings when we couldn't find the net for most of the game despite dominating play.

The Prem gets 2 teams into the Europa League, the 5th place team and the FA Cup winner. But if the FA Cup winner has already qualified for Europe, the 6th place team goes. Then the 7th place team goes to the Conference League.

 

[VinatieriDefinesClutch]

I can't find any information on when the changes happened, but when I'm looking at league tables from fifteen years ago around when I first started following the Prem, it shows 5 6 and 7 qualifying for the UEFA cup/Europa League. I think one of those slots was for one of the domestic cup winners, so seventh would only qualify if the winner of that cup was in the top six. I guess the Prem dropped from three entrants to two at some point for whatever reason?

 

[jeffbear]

I can't find any information on when the changes happened, but when I'm looking at league tables from fifteen years ago around when I first started following the Prem, it shows 5 6 and 7 qualifying for the UEFA cup/Europa League. I think one of those slots was for one of the domestic cup winners, so seventh would only qualify if the winner of that cup was in the top six. I guess the Prem dropped from three entrants to two at some point for whatever reason?

IIRC that change in qualification happened early on in the pandemic. So it kind of got lost in the tidal wave of bigger issues. It gave more weight to league champions eliminated in Champions League qualifying and sliced off a couple of automatic slots from the bigger leagues.