Spurs striker, Man United midfielder dilemmas

Succeeding in the transfer market is very difficult. Some teams are better at it than others, but even the best run operations run into unexpected road bumps and turn to backup targets.

As we close in on the start of the season, teams that haven’t been able to close a deal in a position of need might start scrambling, or concede that they’re going to be giving a lot more minutes to a youngster this season.

Over the last couple of days I’ve come across three sets of rumours where a team appears to have missed on its top target or soured on the large asking price, and is now being linked to less-than-perfect alternatives. I thought it would be fun to show you a quick comparison and let you vote on who you’d sign. Leave your reasoning too, and we’ll share some of the best ones.

Manchester United defensive midfielder — Sander Berge vs. Youssouf Fofana

With Paris Saint-Germain apparently unwilling to budge on their £50m+ asking price for Manuel Ugarte and United not content with their current midfield, we’re seeing them look at a few wildly different profiles. Ugarte is a mega-active ball-winning maniac, Sander Berge is a ball-retainer who adds some set piece threat at 6’5”, and Youssouf Fofana is a bit of an all-rounder who’s not amazing at anything.

While Fofana looks like the more well-rounded player, he also played in a better team relative to his league. You and I might have better looking stats at Monaco than Berge did at Burnley. Both players have a similar rumoured price — in the neighbourhood of £25m.

Tottenham Hotspur striker — Ivan Toney vs. Jonathan David

I’m not sure if Tottenham have actually decided that they can’t pay £65m for Dominic Solanke, or they’re leaking alternative targets to get Bournemouth to consider negotiating. But in any event, Spurs have been aggressively linked to both Brentford’s Ivan Toney and Lille’s Jonathan David in the last 24 hours. Both have one year remaining on their contracts, so they’d cost a lot less than Solanke.

Toney missed time while serving a ban for betting offenses last year, but had 14 non-penalty goals from 13.12 xG the previous season. If Spurs are genuinely debating between these two players, one of the big things their scouts will need to address is whether David is actually a much better presser than Toney, or if the gap in their numbers is mostly about system differences.

David is the much better dribbler, but Toney is quite a bit better in the air. These are, once again, much different profiles.

Leicester City winger — Steven Bergwijn vs. Yaser Asprilla

And now for a much more philosophical question: Should Leicester sign a guy with likely minimal resale value who’s more likely to keep them up, or a guy who might have less immediate impact, but could greatly increase in value?

Steven Bergwijn was Ajax’s captain last season and has previously played in the Premier League for Spurs. He’s an excellent passer for a winger, an OK shooter, and not much of a dribbler. Asprilla’s passing is also his best quality, and I’d say he’s a much more promising dribbler and worse shooter than Bergwijn. Also, he’s left-footed, and Bergwijn is a righty.

Thanks for voting! We’ll talk about the results next week.

News and rumours

• Fab says talks are progressing for Jonathan Tah to join Bayern Munich from Bayer Leverkusen, which could be a good sign for Man United fans who’d like to see Matthias de Ligt arrive.

• PSG are about to sign William Pacho from Eintracht Frankfurt for €45m. He’s a 22-year-old left-footed center back with no obvious holes in his game, but I’m also not sure if he does anything at an elite level. I don’t think this is a bad signing but I also think it’s a lot of money for a guy who doesn’t get PSG closer to the top.

• Armando Broja is still trying to figure out where his future lies, with Everton and Wolves interested in signing him from Chelsea. Another unwanted Blues striker, David Datro Fofana, is going on loan to Leicester. And a recent academy graduate, midfielder Leo Castledine, is the subject of a loan-to-buy bid from Rangers. I imagine this newsletter will be filled with Chelsea outgoing rumours between now and the deadline with the club having about 50 players on pro contracts currently at the club.

• A funny incident yesterday: Turkish journalist Yağız Sabuncuoğlu reported that Lucas Digne was considering a proposal to move to Galatasaray. Digne replied himself to say it wasn’t true. Sabuncuoğlu responded with a photo of an official offer letter from Galatasaray to Aston Villa… which proves nothing. He’d have to be interested in the move.

• Stuttgart have agreed a €27m fee to sign Deniz Undav from Brighton after he was great for them on loan last season. I’m a bit surprised Brighton didn’t just give him a second chance in the first team, but they’re not exactly in the business of rejecting large bids for 28-year-olds.

• Brighton is also in negotiations to sell Billy Gilmour to Napoli. A metronomic DM who plays no defense doesn’t seem like a perfect Conte fit to me?

• Teun Koopmeiners is boycotting Atalanta training after agreeing terms with Juventus, which his manager Gian Piero Gasperini has called “blackmail.” Ethical questions aside, it’ll probably speed up transfer talks and lead to a deal getting done.

• Basically every single team in the Bundesliga wants to sign Sepp van den Berg, but none of them want to pay Liverpool their £25m asking price. He had a very good loan spell at Mainz, and I wonder if Liverpool are just going to give him a shot this year after reportedly missing on Marc Guehi and directing their financial resources into a DM.

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