Kai Havertz is already done and dusted, Julien Timber is not far behind, and it sure looks as though West Ham will accept £100 plus add-ons for Declan Rice. All three are top quality. Rice and Havertz are more than adequate replacements for Partey and Xhaka, both 30 years old now, if (as expected) they leave the club. Timber is an upgrade on Rob Holding. I'd keep Kieran Tierney, but I don't think he wants to stay; Pepe has to go; Tavares should be worth something; and Balogun should be a hot property across Europe. We'll still need depth, so there may be another midfield or fullback signing, but then again we have some excellent youth players. This is the sort of lineup Arteta can look forward to fielding:
Martinelli Jesus Saka
Havertz Odegaard
Rice
Zinchenko Gabriel Saliba White
Ramsdale
Trossard and Nketieh (and Nelson?) can slot in on offense, Tomiyasu, Kiwior, and Timber on defense. This is a powerful squad.
Guadloupe routed Cuba 4-1 in an interesting concacaf match. Both teams got red carded. The ref shut off all stoppage time to get the bitter match over ASAP.
ReplyDeleteSorry I missed it. The US looked good against T&T just now, without a lot of their best players (Pulisic, McKennie, etc.). I love the depth the US has now.
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