Some of our recent transfer activity

[casablancas]

14 minutes ago, phildw said:

 

 

 

 

 

If you're not sure about Fatawu after yesterday's masterclass then I don't think your sure about football! 

 

Good job there’s an obligation. Be interesting where his name popped up from. 

[SafewayFox]

On 21/09/2023 at 19:03, JimJams said:

The trouble with that mindset is that it's not done in a vacuum. Other clubs are talking to agents, and interested clubs won't be offering incentive based contracts, they'll just offer straight up better terms. So if you want to keep the best players, you need to do it to some degree.  Unless we manage to get ourselves a conveyor belt of talent where we can let them go if they're not playing ball.

I half agree but half disagree.

 

We had European football, a “higher ceiling” than Southampton as an example but Jannik “would only join us if we added an extra 20k per week”??

 

That doesn’t make any sense to me, throw in how much we offered to PL unproven youngsters like Soumare etc….it’s fair to question our previous wage structure.

[Ric Flair]

If we go up, we'll need to spend heavily or pull several rabbits out of a hat. The gulf in class is massive. 

[JimJams]

2 minutes ago, SafewayFox said:

I half agree but half disagree.

 

We had European football, a “higher ceiling” than Southampton as an example but Jannik “would only join us if we added an extra 20k per week”??

 

That doesn’t make any sense to me, throw in how much we offered to PL unproven youngsters like Soumare etc….it’s fair to question our previous wage structure.

No but its probably then a question of options. Did we have another option to go to that cost less than Vesty? Or was another 20k (if that's the difference) actually not that big a leap compared to what we'd have had to spend for a preferred option?

I'm not saying we can't question the wage structure, just that the idea that you can stack a contract totally in the clubs favour is unrealistic. If there's no competition, you probably can to an extent, but coveted players in the prem, probably not so simple.

[Drink Water]

3 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

If we go up, we'll need to spend heavily or pull several rabbits out of a hat. The gulf in class is massive. 

Yes, I assume Maresca will have his eyes on the Serie A and La Liga, two leagues which he's very familiar with.

Edited 24 September 2023 by Drink Water

[LCFCJohn]

5 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

If we go up, we'll need to spend heavily or pull several rabbits out of a hat. The gulf in class is massive. 

I’d be keeping an eye on Sheffield United. Even if they come down, they have been in games and the following would be interesting to monitor to see how they go on:

 

Ahmedhodzic

McAtee

Hamer

Archer

 

3 of who we were either officially or wishfully linked with. If they do well individually but come down…

[SafewayFox]

14 minutes ago, JimJams said:

No but its probably then a question of options. Did we have another option to go to that cost less than Vesty? Or was another 20k (if that's the difference) actually not that big a leap compared to what we'd have had to spend for a preferred option?

I'm not saying we can't question the wage structure, just that the idea that you can stack a contract totally in the clubs favour is unrealistic. If there's no competition, you probably can to an extent, but coveted players in the prem, probably not so simple.

Again - some great points but how we allowed our wage bill to spiral to 8th in the PL and then have FFP fears highlights that something in our business model/wage structure was off.

 

I think that’s my biggest gripe in recent seasons, Jannik is clearly one example of many.

 

You could also argue that this has meant that we haven’t been able to then shift these below average players on too.

 

Things right now are making me love football again but Rudkin and co will always have a big question mark next to their name in terms of the above IMO.

[LinekersLugs]

14 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

If we go up, we'll need to spend heavily or pull several rabbits out of a hat. The gulf in class is massive. 

£150m ?? 100m don’t really get much now a days 

 

the problem is  could it destabilize the squad ? 
 

but I 100% agree with you if we don’t want to be in the bottom 3  this time next year we will need to spend huge 

 

possibly our biggest spend in any transfer window ever 

 

and has Top got access to that sort of spending and will FFP catch us out again ? 

 

[glebe_sydneyfox]

21 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

If we go up, we'll need to spend heavily or pull several rabbits out of a hat. The gulf in class is massive. 

I think we are capable of some magicians tricks with transfers. You're right though, we'd need more than a couple.

[JimJams]

Well we're in a great position to witness the best players this division has to offer and we can probably nick a few from here if needed when we piss the league.

Then we can just sign a bunch of absolute fxxking nobodies and Maresca can turn them into gold.

Piece of piss this football lark.

[foxpleasure]

33 minutes ago, SafewayFox said:

Again - some great points but how we allowed our wage bill to spiral to 8th in the PL and then have FFP fears highlights that something in our business model/wage structure was off.

 

I think that’s my biggest gripe in recent seasons, Jannik is clearly one example of many.

 

You could also argue that this has meant that we haven’t been able to then shift these below average players on too.

 

Things right now are making me love football again but Rudkin and co will always have a big question mark next to their name in terms of the above IMO.

Something in the FFP structure was wrong that favoured the "big clubs".

[SafewayFox]

2 minutes ago, foxpleasure said:

Something in the FFP structure was wrong that favoured the "big clubs".

Or, don’t have a longer term business model offering such huge wages unless confident of increasing our revenue?

 

FFP is def there to create a closed shop but I will be an annoying voice about our mismanagement of wage structure over the years.

[foxpleasure]

A big factor was the way they are moving the goal post as to what percentage of our income is allowed to be spent on wages 

[Sol thewall Bamba]

1 hour ago, Ric Flair said:

If we go up, we'll need to spend heavily or pull several rabbits out of a hat. The gulf in class is massive. 

Yeah. If we stayed up and made the same signings I think this thread would look very different. But as the famous saying goes We Are Where We Are and they've worked out so far.

[Jimmy]

we need a left sided CB for sure, we only have 1 and he's young and on loan, must be someone we can find for January or at least next summer

[CaliFOXnia]

2 hours ago, LCFCJohn said:

I’d be keeping an eye on Sheffield United. Even if they come down, they have been in games and the following would be interesting to monitor to see how they go on:

 

Ahmedhodzic

McAtee

Hamer

Archer

 

3 of who we were either officially or wishfully linked with. If they do well individually but come down…

Agree with all 4. Why Hamer and McAtee bothered for one season in the Prem getting absolutely bent over every week is beyond me. Sheff Utd are absolute manure. 
 

McAtee especially IMO would have been better off starring here for us, going up and further increasing his stock and possibly going on to bigger and better things if we struggled. 

[Ginger_Filbert]

5 hours ago, Stormfox said:

Is that because he knows he won't get anywhere near the man city squad? 

Someone I know is doing a bit of business for him at the moment. 

[Stormfox]

3 hours ago, Jimmy said:

we need a left sided CB for sure, we only have 1 and he's young and on loan, must be someone we can find for January or at least next summer

Nelson is a left sided CB... If they renew his contract. Not sure why they wouldn't though as he is highly thought of. 

Edited 24 September 2023 by Stormfox

[Ric Flair]

4 minutes ago, Stormfox said:

Nelson is a left sided CB... If they renew his contract. Not sure why they wouldn't though as he is highly thought of. 

He's right footed, not so sure he's what fans are on about when they refer to an LCB. That's more in the mould of Colwill, Doyle type.

[Ric Flair]

4 hours ago, LinekersLugs said:

£150m ?? 100m don’t really get much now a days 

 

the problem is  could it destabilize the squad ? 
 

but I 100% agree with you if we don’t want to be in the bottom 3  this time next year we will need to spend huge 

 

possibly our biggest spend in any transfer window ever 

 

and has Top got access to that sort of spending and will FFP catch us out again ? 

 

There'll be a destabilising of the squad anyway, like there was this summer. We've another 8+ players out of contract and a few loan players. In these instances it's about the effectiveness of the manager whom is still at his optimum in getting his ideas across quickly to his players.

 

It's rare for teams to come up and comfortably stay up in their first season spending conservatively, certainly not in recent years anyway. Fulham managed to do so last season but you look at Forest and Villa in recent years and it's startling. 

 

We still have a nucleus of established PL players but we're Maddison and Barnes genuine quality down already and we need an elite finisher if we harbour any intentions of being anything other than PL strugglers.

 

£100m minimum but I'd say over two seasons more like £200m. Those that spend that when they come up tend to be because they've got so much FFP wriggle room as they've not maxed themselves out in recent years (victims of our own success).

 

Let's hope this training ground musters up some quality from the academy. 

[LinekersLugs]

11 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

There'll be a destabilising of the squad anyway, like there was this summer. We've another 8+ players out of contract and a few loan players. In these instances it's about the effectiveness of the manager whom is still at his optimum in getting his ideas across quickly to his players.

 

It's rare for teams to come up and comfortably stay up in their first season spending conservatively, certainly not in recent years anyway. Fulham managed to do so last season but you look at Forest and Villa in recent years and it's startling. 

 

We still have a nucleus of established PL players but we're Maddison and Barnes genuine quality down already and we need an elite finisher if we harbour any intentions of being anything other than PL strugglers.

 

£100m minimum but I'd say over two seasons more like £200m. Those that spend that when they come up tend to be because they've got so much FFP wriggle room as they've not maxed themselves out in recent years (victims of our own success).

 

Let's hope this training ground musters up some quality from the academy. 

100% spot on 

[Fox on the Rox]

15 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

He's right footed, not so sure he's what fans are on about when they refer to an LCB. That's more in the mould of Colwill, Doyle type.

He's genuinely two footed. Used to play mainly on the left in the 23's/21's and at Doncaster where he moved into the centre of the back three only to cover injury. 

 

Presumably he's been played on the left a lot as left footers are rarer. He can do a good job on either side or in the middle of a three.

 

Do you think he's a different type to Doyle? He's a ball playing CB, not that he got the chance to show that at Rochdale. Donny wanted him for that reason though. 

[Lillehamring]

5 hours ago, SafewayFox said:

I half agree but half disagree.

 

We had European football, a “higher ceiling” than Southampton as an example but Jannik “would only join us if we added an extra 20k per week”??

 

That doesn’t make any sense to me, throw in how much we offered to PL unproven youngsters like Soumare etc….it’s fair to question our previous wage structure.

The vestergaard signing should never be used in a discussion over the quality of our transfer dealings - we simply had to sign a player in a position we hadn't been looking to fill.  As such we had to pay him what he wanted or we'd have been massively understaffed at CB for the season - we just had no other options.  Also, if he'd been used and played the way he's paying this season, no one would be questioning his salary.

[Lillehamring]

5 hours ago, SafewayFox said:

Again - some great points but how we allowed our wage bill to spiral to 8th in the PL and then have FFP fears highlights that something in our business model/wage structure was off.

 

I think that’s my biggest gripe in recent seasons, Jannik is clearly one example of many.

 

You could also argue that this has meant that we haven’t been able to then shift these below average players on too.

 

Things right now are making me love football again but Rudkin and co will always have a big question mark next to their name in terms of the above IMO.

Not really, our average league position over the five years or so before last year was around 5th or 6th, so to have the 8th highest wage bill was perfectly natural.

 

The problem wasn't our wage bill, our problem was failing to make it into europe which drove down our income, causing our ffp issues to become serious and preventing us from spending on the required refresh.

[Lillehamring]

5 hours ago, LinekersLugs said:

£150m ?? 100m don’t really get much now a days 

 

the problem is  could it destabilize the squad ? 
 

but I 100% agree with you if we don’t want to be in the bottom 3  this time next year we will need to spend huge 

 

possibly our biggest spend in any transfer window ever 

 

and has Top got access to that sort of spending and will FFP catch us out again ? 

 

I don't see that at all, I think we already have - on paper - a better squad than the three teams that went up.

 

I also believe that psychologically, we aren't going to be like luton or sheffield where the PL is unchartered waters.  And also, if we go up playing the way we are, or hope to be by the end of the season, it'll be a massive advantage over perennial strugglers like wolves and bournemouth.

 

I think maybe 3-5 players at 15-25M so about 100M max; considering we spent 45M this year and made a 61M profit, that's a relatively reasonable ask.

 

I don't see us going up to the 218M we spent in 2018, or even the 167 we spent the year after.  The club has always understood a measured approach, last time we went up we spent 72M - we know how it works, and we'll strengthen as and where it is necessary.