BirkenheadBlue
Player Valuation: £70m
That wouldn’t be remotely challenging
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Simon Buttle
Player Valuation: £50m
Who is going to pay those wages for a player who produces so little?
ForeverBlue92
Player Valuation: £80m
But my point is if we haven't the means to sign 5-6 ballers then use the tools at your disposal.
Utilise the loan market
Sell players like Bernard/Kenny/Mina who are not deadwood yet are not vital to the starting 11 every week.
David Moyes done that for over a decade - he knew which players wouldn't offer us much more going forward and would sell for a few bob to reinvest in positions desperate for strengthening - Kenwrong never once went "here you go Davey he's £50 million for x,y,z positions.
Thats our problem post Moyes - we have no one at the club who has had the ability to wheel and deal - the closest we came was in Martinez first season signing Lukaku, Barry & Del boy on loan deals.
Fraser is no better than Bernard ability wise but he is physically stronger, more suited to the 442, can cross a ball / take set pieces, earns less per week on wages and would allow us to sell Bernard and reinvest vital funds elsewhere whilst lowering our current FFP figure.
That’s part of our problem, not ‘our problem’. A number of the players weren’t performing in the system they were meant to be comfortable in either. It’s also just an extension of what I was saying really. A centre half who can only play well in a low block and with a defensive shield in front of him, for example, is not a very good player. A midfielder who can’t play in a 2 and needs To be partnered with both someone to do his running and someone to score and create, is not a very good player. We need to bring in some actual quality; players who don’t need absolutely everything to be exactly to their liking in order to perform.
Blues Harp
Player Valuation: £60m
And signing a donkey like Fraser...joke lol
mightymoyes
Player Valuation: £70m
No one is going to pay 10m for him and take on his 120k a week though
mightymoyes
Player Valuation: £70m
Name 1 club that would want to take on his wage and pay a fee
brieverton
Player Valuation: £40m
We just need a lot of good players, better players. The difficulty is balancing quality with quantity of incomings in a given window.
We all know we have neither the finances nor the appeal to shop for the top players. So that's an automatic constraint.
If we accept we need wholesale change in the squad, and start with a budget of X million, plus sales and saved wages, we can only plug certain holes in the squad in any single window.
I think transfers are a lot more nuanced than people think. But I would much prefer if we spent an extra couple of million on one good player, than spread that over two players that are not going to make the same impact.
Delph was an example last year. People say it was only 8m but it's that plus wages and it would have been better spent elsewhere when we knew he was injury prone and taking a step down, with the potential associated attitude problems that brings.
I'm not saying we can't make shrewd signings. In fact we have to focus on bringing cheaper but younger players here who have the potential to be great. But we have to get the balance right.
Fixing one position this summer for the next five years is infinitely better than appeasing people by signing two players that we had to settle on. That's what happens on deadline day. People are human, and they bow to internal and external pressure to fix things. If that's the situation we are in, then that's what loans are for.
We all know we have neither the finances nor the appeal to shop for the top players. So that's an automatic constraint.
If we accept we need wholesale change in the squad, and start with a budget of X million, plus sales and saved wages, we can only plug certain holes in the squad in any single window.
I think transfers are a lot more nuanced than people think. But I would much prefer if we spent an extra couple of million on one good player, than spread that over two players that are not going to make the same impact.
Delph was an example last year. People say it was only 8m but it's that plus wages and it would have been better spent elsewhere when we knew he was injury prone and taking a step down, with the potential associated attitude problems that brings.
I'm not saying we can't make shrewd signings. In fact we have to focus on bringing cheaper but younger players here who have the potential to be great. But we have to get the balance right.
Fixing one position this summer for the next five years is infinitely better than appeasing people by signing two players that we had to settle on. That's what happens on deadline day. People are human, and they bow to internal and external pressure to fix things. If that's the situation we are in, then that's what loans are for.
The shanghai samurais or the Beijing bears!
Bob Elstone
Player Valuation: £35m
Bernard is a waste of a squad number. I don’t want Ryan Fraser but he’d produce more.
Doesn't the "number 10 role" refer to the shirt number of the playmaker in a traditional 442 formation?
alpha1
Player Valuation: £8m
Just my opinion but I think it will be a very long time before we have a manager with the calibre of Ancelotti at our club again.
I mean, he's a giant in management terms, I still pinch myself that he is ours!
If we, as fans and as a club don't back him sufficiently then we may as well give up and accept we are always going to be middle to bottom (and maybe worse) of the Premier League.
The whole situation of Moshiri/Usmanov - Ancelotti - new stadium - feels a bit like a perfect storm to me.
We have money, a manager with universal respect and an amazing project all coming together and I feel this could be our time to really make the step up to where most of us believe we belong.
We just need to stick with it, through the good and bad, and keep the faith that all will be worth it in the end.
alpha1
Player Valuation: £8m
Not always - William Gallas wore number 10 and he was a CB
See the tri-angle of doom where in fine fettle this morning 
yes, but the number 10 "role" which is what you were talking about. Isn't that a traditional role from a 442?
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