As reported by The Telegraph, the signing of a young right-back is ‘top of the wanted list’ heading into the January transfer window, with a ‘creative and defensive midfielders’ also being looked at.
Rather than looking to add already established world-class talent, they add that our main target is to add strength in depth in key areas in case of a potential injury to the likes of Kieran Trippier or Bruno Guimaraes.
At right-back, the squad is fairly thin at present. Javier Manquillo is Trippier’s immediate replacement due to Emil Krafth’ long-term injury, so it’s believed we’ll target a young deputy to learn from our experienced vice captain; who turns 33 next year.
This would support our recent links to West Ham’s Harrison Ashby (21) and Leeds’ Cody Drameh (20) who are both U23 prospects who wouldn’t demand immediate playing time and could benefit from working with one of England’s best full-backs. With these new claims from The Telegraph in mind, both could be ones to watch in January.
In terms of a creative and defensive midfielder, it seems likely that this could be more of a priority in the summer, unless a deal that is simply too good to refuse presents itself in the next couple of months.
In that department, we’ve been heavily linked with James Maddison, Andrey Santos and Máximo Perrone, to name a few.
