Player Suggestions

I wonder how much Toulouse would want for Mark Mckenzie?

We were linked with him a while back, has had a good season with Toulouse. Rapid, strong and good with the ball for a cb.

Only drawback would be his height, but if we kept Trusty and brought in another younger CB who's a bit taller, it's something that could work.

 

You got me curious, so I’ve tried looking through Transfermarkt’s match details/lineups from Matchday 27 onwards, which is when his involvement largely drops off. Obviously I’m at the mercy of whoever’s updating the stats and whatnot, so I’m only partially to blame if this is all nonsense!

From what I can see, it does look like he lost his place to a guy called Junior Mwanga, who plays primarily as a DM. Mwanga’s only a little bit older (22 to Diawara’s 20) but he’s played nearly double the amount of games (106 vs. 58). In what could be considered as a bit of a twist, Mwanga was also a January loan deal, from Strasbourg - and given that they apparently paid €10m for him back in 2023 I can’t imagine he’s going to be a long-term option for Le Havre either. For the outlier PSG game on Matchday 30, where Diawara returned in a more substantial capacity, it looks like Le Havre were opting for a more defensive shape - so Diawara & Mwanga both made the starting XI (and while Diawara got subbed off for André Ayew in what’s listed as a ‘tactical change’, Mwanga lasted the full match).

You’d probably need to be a Le Havre fan, or at least seen some of their matches, to get the full picture, but at a glance it looks like their manager just preferred Mwanga, or didn’t particularly fancy Diawara after a point. Even in his slightly longer sub appearances in the latter half of his loan, it sort of looks like he was just being thrown on whenever someone needed to come off.

He was one I liked the look of when he was first linked, and a 20 year old having a poor-ish/middling six month loan isn’t necessarily a sign of them not being good enough, but it probably would have me pumping the brakes on any interest.

 

Koki Machida a left footed centre back with plenty experience, close to going to Hoffernheim for only €5M but surely we could hijack that. He’d be a starter for us.

 

Germany is a big pull for Japanese players right enough but this is definitely a missed chance for us. The type of experienced signing we need.

 

size of his quads in that thumbnail btw

 

Looks class, although first 2 clips if he was that greedy at us I'd be smashing my telly

Didn't realise there's a few Brazilians in South Africa..

 

If he's so greedy, then he's useless as a 10.

 

I know it's hardly a position we need recruiting for.

But after Lyon getting relegated, I'd nosey on what Ainsley Maitland-Niles would cost.

 

Have suggested Dendoncker before as an experienced option who would add balance to our midfield.

Wouldn’t cost very much.