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Jean Michael Seri

DubaiSpur

DubaiSpur

Ian Walker
https://twitter.com/x/status/874334803935596544

This guy is suggesting that we've contacted Nice midfielder Jean-Michael Seri's entourage. He's usually *very* reliable on transfers within France, so it has a bit more weight coming from him than, say, Di Marzio.

But, at the same time, I'm a bit confused, if it is true. He plays that deep-lying midfield distributor role - we have an abundance of CMs at this time, what with Onomah's recent emergence adding to our stable. Wanyama, Winks, Dembele, Onomah, even Dier. He's apparently supremely talented in that role (has been linked to Barca, Juve, Bayern - the superclubs, basically), but I don't necessarily see that as a reason to hinder the development of Winksy or Onomah, who might turn out to be just as good given time. And he's *really* short and slim - if people thought Modric was too lightweight for the Premier League at 5' 7", then they'll be gobsmacked by this guy - he's barely 5' 4". Plus, he isn't going to be cheap - the Nice chairman bluntly stated that he'd only be allowed to leave for his release clause, which (iirc) is about €40m. And, finally, he's 25, about to turn 26 - he's at an age where, if superclubs are indeed targeting him, he'd be best served by going to them, because he's about to hit his peak in footballing terms and can maximise his earning potential right away instead of with a detour to a challenging club like ourselves.
 
And today we have been linked to this guy


Personally I am not sure we need another central midfielder
 
DubaiSpur said:
I haven't been keeping track. Somewhat confusing. I mean, good players are always welcome, and having too many good players usually isn't the most terrible problem to have - but nonetheless, our situation obviates any active *need* for another CM, unless we're planning something radically different for next season.
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Poch might want Dier in defence and there are question marks over Dembele's fitness.
 
Jordinho said:
Poch might want Dier in defence and there are question marks over Dembele's fitness.
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Right, but Wanyama, Winks and Onomah are still three options for two positions - Dembele might not be fit enough to play more than 60-70 minutes once a week, but that's still a lot of gametime he takes up too.

Were we to buy Seri, where would he fit given those circumstances? Someone's going to lose out on time even without factoring in Dembele - and it's likely that said player will be either Winks or Onomah, because Wanyama's an ever-present when fit and Dier can rotate for him in the event that he gets injured.

Don't get me wrong, Seri looks like a fantastic little player - skillful, cerebral, a great distributor. But we have a budding deep-lying playmaker in Winks, and a more direct Dembele rotation option in Onomah. One will have to go off the rotation list if we're bringing in another CM, imo.
 
DubaiSpur said:
Right, but Wanyama, Winks and Onomah are still three options for two positions - Dembele might not be fit enough to play more than 60-70 minutes once a week, but that's still a lot of gametime he takes up too.

Were we to buy Seri, where would he fit given those circumstances? Someone's going to lose out on time even without factoring in Dembele - and it's likely that said player will be either Winks or Onomah, because Wanyama's an ever-present when fit and Dier can rotate for him in the event that he gets injured.

Don't get me wrong, Seri looks like a fantastic little player - skillful, cerebral, a great distributor. But we have a budding deep-lying playmaker in Winks, and a more direct Dembele rotation option in Onomah. One will have to go off the rotation list if we're bringing in another CM, imo.
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Don't think Winks or Onomah are starters yet. This signing would just mean no Wanyama/Dier partnership.

Apparently Seri is allergic to the cold:

Did you know...

Seri suffers from chilblains – painful and itchy swellings on the skin when the weather is cold. That could be a minor problem if he were to live in an English climate, and the Premier League suitors should be aware of the issue, just as the player himself is.

https://www.fourfourtwo.com/feature...ces-classy-playmaker-heart-a-north-london-war
 
Jordinho said:
Don't think Winks or Onomah are starters yet. This signing would just mean no Wanyama/Dier partnership.

Apparently Seri is allergic to the cold:

Did you know...

Seri suffers from chilblains – painful and itchy swellings on the skin when the weather is cold. That could be a minor problem if he were to live in an English climate, and the Premier League suitors should be aware of the issue, just as the player himself is.

https://www.fourfourtwo.com/feature...ces-classy-playmaker-heart-a-north-london-war
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Well, we'll see. Personally, I think Winks did enough last year to make himself our first-choice CM next to Wanyama when Dembele's out and we don't want to have Dier there as a shuttling DM/CM when we switch between three and four at the back.

As for his allergy, hmm. Spain might be better for him in that respect, even if London's only on par with Paris in terms of how cold and warm it gets over the course of a year (still colder on average than Nice, but otherwise fine compared to some other potential European destinations).

NaijaSpurs said:
Personally I am surprised that we would risk having 2 central midfielders who could both be away at the ANC every 2 years.
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I remember reading somewhere that Kenya rarely qualifies for the ANC - a quick check on Wiki reveals that the last time they made it was in 2004, and, prior to that, in 1992. So the likelihood of Wanyama being away every two years is pretty low. Seri, yes - he might be away more often.
 
NaijaSpurs said:
Personally I am surprised that we would risk having 2 central midfielders who could both be away at the ANC every 2 years.
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Agree with that. Personally I do think we need another CM I agree with your reservations of having two africans
 
Jordinho said:
Don't think Winks or Onomah are starters yet. This signing would just mean no Wanyama/Dier partnership.
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I think WInks has been impressive whenever he has played in the first team, and as for Onomah, well if you put him behind 5 other central midfielders then his options are going extremely limited. The truth is I simply have not seen Onomah play as a central midfielder in the first team so I could not not comment on how good he may be. I have seen enough however to want him in the squad behind Dier, Wanyama, Winks and Dembele
 
I think Onomah, Winks, Dier, Wanyama and Dembele "battling" for 2 central midfield positions is sufficient and that funds could be better used strengthening other areas
 
NaijaSpurs said:
I think Onomah, Winks, Dier, Wanyama and Dembele "battling" for 2 central midfield positions is sufficient and that funds could be better used strengthening other areas
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In two minds about a signing like this. On one hand I agree with you that signing someone that could end up blocking the progress of Winks and/or Onomah could be really bad. On the other hand a bona fide deep playmaker at a very high level coming in could be huge for us. Add to that Dembele's fitness issues, Dier being played at the back and Onomah looking very raw still and this might make sense.

I have no idea if this guy is actually good enough and good enough value for money to make sense for us. But a deep playmaker signing makes sense on some levels for me.
 
braineclipse said:
In two minds about a signing like this. On one hand I agree with you that signing someone that could end up blocking the progress of Winks and/or Onomah could be really bad. On the other hand a bona fide deep playmaker at a very high level coming in could be huge for us. Add to that Dembele's fitness issues, Dier being played at the back and Onomah looking very raw still and this might make sense.

I have no idea if this guy is actually good enough and good enough value for money to make sense for us. But a deep playmaker signing makes sense on some levels for me.
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Well, this is a role reversal of sorts. :) Didn't we have a fairly long discussion a long while back about our preferred youth policy going forward? IIRC, I wanted to only put youngsters in if they were first-team ready, and otherwise buy players for the first-team, while you insisted that there was no difference between doing that and 'pulling a Chelsea', so to speak (not without some justification). Don't think we ended up agreeing on a preferred approach back then.

Anyway, why do you think a top-class deep-lying playmaker in particular would be transformative for us? I mean, over, say, a world-class attacking midfielder or backup striker (to use two alternate possibilities as examples).
 
DubaiSpur said:
Well, this is a role reversal of sorts. :) Didn't we have a fairly long discussion a long while back about our preferred youth policy going forward? IIRC, I wanted to only put youngsters in if they were first-team ready, and otherwise buy players for the first-team, while you insisted that there was no difference between doing that and 'pulling a Chelsea', so to speak (not without some justification). Don't think we ended up agreeing on a preferred approach back then.
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And how do you prove a young buck is first team ready until they are given a chance, even if it means starting slowly with substitute performances and league cup matches? :)
 
If Kylian Mbappé had came through the youth ranks in England how many clubs would have given him that many minutes last season? Last season he scored 26 goals in 45 matches and he is just 18 years old. Sure in hindsight we can all say it was because he is a special player but the truth is most of those clubs in France tend to give young players more of a chance.
 
NaijaSpurs said:
And how do you prove a young buck is first team ready until they are given a chance, even if it means starting slowly with substitute performances and league cup matches? :)
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If I recall correctly, I used Alli as the standard for 'first-team ready'. In retrospect, I may have been setting the bar a bit too high. :p

This was at the end of last season, though - I've somewhat changed my views since then, in particular because of the emergence of Winks over the course of the last year and more broadly because of a resolve to be more patient with our players, whether they be signings or youth-teamers.
 
Any player that isn't up for improvement it fighting for poch will be fazed out.

We can't rest on our laurels if we are wanting silverware.

So if we splash money on a player that can stake a claim in front of the current crop ... pochs headache not ours
 
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