LCCFox96

In the squad for Pao’s opener vs Asteras Tripolis according to their socials this morning.

I don't think we'll need to spend £30m to get Ioannidis. Their record signing and sale is Djibril Cisse for about £6.8m (incoming) and £4.1m (outgoing). That was about 15 years ago, and bar Anton Berg and a young Greek CM who both went for small ~£3m fees they haven't sold anyone of value in the last 10 years or so, so the money on offer here is crazy for them. It will be a permanent move though - I can't see them letting their best young talent in a generation go out on loan.

That’s a fact. He’s won the Greek super league player of the season twice in a row in 22/23 and 23/24. We wouldn’t be getting a clogger here, we’d be getting the best GSL has to offer. He's got the potential to explode in the right team. Hopefully that’s with us. Ioannidis and Zaha coming in would leave me much more confident in attack and would give us two significant goal threats that we badly need.

This is the main upgrade I think of Ioannidis coming in versus Daka, and even a fit Vardy. His hold up play is excellent, and he can come deep and is very strong on the ball, as well as being quick enough to run in behind. Mavididi, Fatawu, DCR and some of the more lively attacking players will hopefully be able to link up well with him. Ioannidis is very well coveted and one of the most exciting forwards and - on paper - best fitting signings we could make.

Weghorst only has a year left on his Burnley deal after initially signing for £12m. It'll likely be a low fee to buy him out of his contract and Burnley will be keen to get him off the books.

Neville Neville Stand Stand

Reuell Walters has left Arsenal in search of first team football. Could be a shrewd pick-up on a free transfer to give us a little extra coverage at right back. England u/20 international and not a player Arsenal wanted to walk away. Ricardo / Walters and Justin / Kristiansen could be good full back options if we're on a really tight budget.

Choosing to start July 1st by catching up on the most exciting transfer rumour on the forum now that we're inside a new accounting year. False hope? Most probably Have to say I agree with these points. My girlfriend is Greek and her family live in Athens and are big Panathinaikos fans so I have been fortunate enough to see Ioannidis play live a couple of times and watched him many times on TV. As a side note, if you ever get the chance to go to a Pao home game, do it. The atmosphere is unreal. Ioannidis an exciting player and would be a coup if we could get him. He's fast, powerful, and skilful, and has averaged a goal contribution roughly once every three games during his time at Pao. At 24 years old, he's still a young man, but he did really step it up last season for Pao and greatly increased his output across the domestic season. He also scored well and assisted well in the Champions League qualifiers and Europa League games against strong opposition. Like you guys say, he's key to how Pao build attacks, and is one of the men they look to to bring the other attacking players into the game in the final third. They struggle in that regard without him. His positional awareness and use of space to do this is very good - he often seems to have an extra half yard of space when receiving the ball and is tidy enough to wriggle out of smaller spaces as well. He's also deceptively quick and more than decent progressively carrying the ball. At 6ft1, great on the ball, strong with his back to goal, quick, and creative, he's an imposing presence and a handful - he's got a bit of everything in that regard. Pao are obviously one of the better sides in Greece so most commonly find themselves facing lower blocks as Leicester did last season. However, I do think he could go both ways dropping deep and going in behind, which only really Vardy has excelled at at Premier League level from our current group. To that extent, I think he'd have been perfect for Enzo ball but would also offer something in the style Cooper is more likely to have to deploy this season. He's a very popular player in Greece and is well regarded by football fans as a good character too. My concerns with this transfer - outside of the price tag which I think we'd struggle to meet, and competition from other attractive clubs in Europe, is two-fold: 1) Ioannidis is definitely better playing with support around him up top. This plays to his biggest strengths at bringing others into play and linking up attacks. He could very much fit the longstanding Leicester City bracket of a striker who's better with a strike partner but we play up top on his own and he gets isolated and struggles. He has most regularly been deployed in the middle of a front 3 for Pao (often featuring Sporar and Palacios or Kotsiras). That could work nicely with Mavididi and Fatawu playing off him and running beyond him. Other times it's a front 2, most often when Pao play the other big 4 teams in Greece as they go a little more conservative. But he's never left on his own up top, so our old PL system with a lone striker would be risky. Depends how Cooper sets up really. 2) Bar last season where his goal scoring output improved massively, to Kingfox's point, I'd have big concerns about him finishing enough of the chances he gets in the Premier League at first. Can we afford that from an expensive signing this year? Maybe, maybe not. Hopefully he had his big breakthrough last year in terms of numbers and kicks on. I'd love him to come here, but can see him ending up in Italy personally.

A lower cash fee to bring Jakub Moder in is a ****ing honking deal. Moder missed the back end of the 21/22 season, the entirety of the 22/23 season and the first third of the 23/24 season with injuries. When he came back he was average at best. He was also average before he got injured. He should be absolutely no where near the conversation for a sale of KDH. Yet here we are, potentially putting him in a deal for - arguably our best - and most valuable player. Get the **** in the bin. By all means sell KDH. It was inevitable. But get the highest cash only fee we can. Don’t clog the squad up with more shite!

Come on now.

I almost feel bad for Cooper. It kind of feels like this script is already written for him and it's only ending one way given how much of a circus we are right now. He deserves and needs our support now, as do the players. Cooper has taken a job and isn't accountable for the mess the club is in off the pitch. The players did their job last season to get us back and are hopefully hungry to keep on climbing under Cooper. The board, however, deserve both barrels. Long-term vision my arse.

Andrej Kramaric scores for Croatia vs Albania at the Euros

Praet’s departure is well over due and we’re finally rid of a big drain on the wage bill. I’ll miss Iheancho, a likeable rogue and has had some big moments for us. Feels like the right time to part ways and I hope his next club is a good fit for him. As for Albrighton - legend.

Very surprised it’s a 3-year deal. The ideal for us would have been a 1-year extension to tide us over in our first year back in the Prem and reassess how he gets on. We don’t have the funds to buy a Vestergaard replacement and strengthen the squad fully. Makes sense he stays. Vestergaard is never signing a 1-year deal though, so I was expecting a 2-year announcement as some sort of middle ground. 3 years - unless he’s taken a significant pay cut from his old PL wage - is a a massive gamble, especially given his previous Premier League form for us and Enzo’s departure.

Top stuff - another year of the GOAT. Nice to get the one obvious bit of business done with the out of contract players too. Assume we'll get the full retained list in the next few days.