Still only 23, he is homegrown with top level experience in both the Premier League and Bundesliga at centre back and right back.
At 6 3, Quansah is strong and athletic. He is is very good in buildup, comfortable under pressure, receiving from the keeer and progressing the ball through the midfield. He is certainly a lot closer to what William Saliba gives us compared to Cristian Mosquera.
A rumoured fee of £40-45m feels a lot more sensible than the £70m Aston Villa are demanding for Ezri Konsa, who is nearly 29.
Quansah has the added bonus of also having played a lot of games at right back. I still expect Ben White to stay, but Quansah would give us additional cover there.
Mosquera has shown himself as more of a Gabriel than a Saliba. A player who wants to be aggressive, feel contact and attack the ball. Defences are all about partnerships and we have seen in pre-season that Gabriel and Mosquera doesn’t really work. I think the Spaniard will move to the left side and become Gabriel’s understudy.
Some will say “Marli Salmon deserved a chance”. No. He is just 16. Let him continue to develop. He is the future. But he is not ready now. Let him make his mistakes in the U21 and then out on loan. He has another 4 or 5 years of development ahead of him.
Said El Mala is a player who came onto my radar when looking into what young wingers we might recruit this summer.
Now I am still reluctant to go into this season with Christos Tzolis and a young, raw talent. That feel like a backwards step in comparison to having two Premier League proven stars last season in Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Martinelli.
However, the proven left wingers currently available on the market do not excite me. They have all proved that they are either not at Martinelli’s level, or not a big enough upgrade for the price they will cost.
So we return back to looking at “the next big thing”.
Fans have pointed out that we had opportunities to sign the likes of Kvaratskhelia, Barcola and Doue when they went to PSG. That perhaps we do then need to look at “the next big talent” of an oven ready talent is not on the market.
El Mala was expected to move to Dortmund this summer. But the deal fell through at the back end of last week.
The 19-year old German is considered one of the hottest young Bundesliga talents and someone that Jurgen Klopp may consider promoting as he looks to bring through the next generation and revitalise the national team.
Quick, strong and direct, his ability in 1v1 situations would be an upgrade on Martinelli. He reminds me a lot of Alexis Sanchez in the way he likes to pick up the ball and drive towards the goal.
Arsenal have denied “offering him to Chelsea” His agent (who is also his mother and has a brilliant story to tell) has also denied doing anything.
The Myles Lewis Skelly is a new type of transfer dealing where “intermediaries” with no connection to either Chelsea, Arsenal or the player try to manufacture a deal. I am calling them the “5th party”.
In this scenario, the 5th party have approached Chelsea, without permission from either MLS or Arsenal, and offered them the England youngster. Their aim is to kickstart a deal and profit at the end of it.
If Chelsea say yes, they then get numbers from Chelsea on a possible contract offer. They then approach the agent of the player and present those numbers. They portray themselves as working on behalf Chelsea.
If the agents bite and inform the 5th party that their client would be interested, they go back to Chelsea and let them know a deal could be done with the player. The buying club would the instruct the 5th party to continue the negotiations and come up with a number that Chelsea can agree to. If the deal gets this far, Chelsea, the 5th party, or even a 6th party then open up negotiations with Arsenal.
So you are in a scenario where a club had no original intention to sell a player, another club had no original intention to buy a player, and a player had no original intention of moving. But a deal the happens all because a 5th party, who is essentially a salesman, manufactures a deal.
They sell to the buying club that the player could be available for transfer. They sell to the player that the buying club is interested. And all they then need to do is help make the deal happen, and they pocket millions.
Agents used to exist to protect players. To ensure they got their clients the best deals. But these days you have these additional intermediaries who do not care about the player, and are not really acting on behalf of the player, or either club. They are acting on behalf of themselves to try to get a deal done which they triggered.
Most of the time, these deals die at source. The buying club has no interest in the player, or the player has no interest in moving. But every jow and again, like a scam phone call, the stars align and these 5th parties get lucky. The deal happens. And they take a slice of the agents fees for being part of the deal. And then chances are in 2-3 years time they run the same “scam” on either the same player, looking to move him elsewhere, or the same club, offering them someone else they have no relationship with.
This is one reason why the likes of Chelsea end up paying so much in agents fees. The day yea to almost everyone offering them up a player. And then have to pay them for helping trigger the deal.
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 