Transfer Window Thread

[USABlue]

For me the sum of money spent is not as important as the quality brought in.

Some people get very het up about net spend, but forget that a team who buys no-one and sells no-one has the same net spend as a team that buys £100m worth of players and sells the same amount.

Equally, I would be attaching a hose to my exhaust if we went and spent £49m on Sterling, but even though McGeady is an utter failure I will never think him as bad a buy as Sterling simply because of the fee involved.

Exactly mate. Then people don't even see the context of other team's deals (stoke and villa for example). They see one of them bid 12m for a player and freak out saying " STOKE'S OUTSPENDING US LAD!! with out realizing they sold Begovic and N'zonzi, same with Villa bringing in players like Ayew for 12m after getting 32 for benteke

 

[Coffee and TV]

Ultimately, I think he has made enough astute purchases for me to trust him with a kitty: McCarthy, Barry (the loan), Del, Lukaku (loan and purchase), Cleverly, and Besic were all sound purchases for their price. Some of these could turn out to be real steals. He has also sold well. On the downside: Alcaraz was a disaster and McGeady was symptomatic of Bobby's attraction to players that "flatter to deceive." I'm of the camp that Kone suffered a terrible injury that has crocked him for good.

Yeah I don't understand why people try to use Kone as an example of Martinez buying poorly. The player we have now is nothing near the player we bought, so we really have no idea how he would have done.

 

[Deleted member 24970]

it's dave-k not dav-ek

I know read the end of my little joke and see it says Dave K also known as da-vek, common mistake on here you see

 

[Tree13]

Ultimately, I think he has made enough astute purchases for me to trust him with a kitty: McCarthy, Barry (the loan), Del, Lukaku (loan and purchase), Cleverly, and Besic were all sound purchases for their price. Some of these could turn out to be real steals. He has also sold well. On the downside: Alcaraz was a disaster and McGeady was symptomatic of Bobby's attraction to players that "flatter to deceive." I'm of the camp that Kone suffered a terrible injury that has crocked him for good.

Yeah, in fairness to Martinez his "bad" transfers haven't been financially costly. They've just turned out to be poop players. Whilst that has had a negative impact on the field, at least we are financially in a position to recover and move on.

Alcaraz for instance was a good move in balance sheet terms, because he cost nothing and is reputed to be on a lower wage than Heitinga was. In fact, didn't we get a fee for Heitinga?

 

[Tree13]

Pienaar - much as I have liked him - probably shouldn't have come back from Spurs. Although the agitation was huge for his return, and we probably let him go a year too soon, the end was likely in sight..

Spurs absolutely bummed us, both when they first bought him and also when they sold him back. Very poor work by us there.

 

[Dozbik]

Fume machine ON.

Is this transfer window a joke or what? I mean, they have already been quite frustrating under Moyes, but we're seemingly very inactive in trying to address the issues that are very clear in this squad. We currently have two nominal CBs, one of which is still very doubtful whether he'll still be with us at the beginning of September. Seriously, what are we waiting for? Are we really contemplating buying this 16 year old from City?
Problem no. 2: wingers. Let's see... we have Deulofeu who's not match fit and his fitness is doubtful. We have Mirallas who doesn't seem to be a starter for Bobby lately and wants to leave anyway. And the others... Pienaar who sprains his ankle even when getting up from the couch, McGeady who has absolutely nothing to do in the Barclays Premier League, Osman and Naisy aren't really wingers, are they, neither is Barkel. And that was it!
Whereas we could set up a full team of central midfielders... not to mention we are one Seamus Coleman injury away from seeing Hibbert on the pitch and one Lukaku injury away from seeing that lummox Koné... and then I see that players like Franco di Santo, who carried Werder Bremen back from the relegation zone to mid table on his shoulders and scored many important goals signs for 6 million euros to Schalke, good age, big, strong striker who we could surely have afforded and has already played in England or a Carlos Zambrano who is a very capable Bundesliga defender also at a very good age with only one year left on his contract, looking for a bigger club than Frankfurt... I just don't think we are sending scouts away from England really, these could be great swoops for a financially limited club like us and we're letting them slip from our hands...
Bobby mate, you cannot be serious in thinking that players like McAleny, Galloway and Henen will keep us in the league...

 

[Mrk]

People moaning about us spending so little, if we signed some boss players on free transfers,would it still count?

Bit of a pointless argument, because we haven't and there aren't many 'boss' players going for free at the moment...

 

[Jayhow15]

I agree with you mate. Kone and McGeady are woeful and we never should have purchased them. It is more wishful thinking than a realistic expectation that someone would come in and offer money for them, because they are both truly pony. With Barry and Pienaar however, and indeed Gibson, there is genuine talent there. Pienaar could still do a job in a less physical, or slower-paced, league. I think the same is true of Barry.

However, the fact is that Barry aside, the five named players don't play much and therefore I feel we could risk losing a couple of them without immediately replacing them. Or we could replace them with youngsters who we send out on loan to develop, or loanees to warm the bench. The key word is risk, I suppose. On the one hand we risk wasting wages by keeping players around who, quite frankly, we hope will never have to actually play for us, but if we sell them and only receive minimal transfer fees then we risk not being able to keep the squad at a certain size.

This problem of deadwood is partially related to us not being very sensible with how we dispose of players. We tend to hold on to them for too long and by the time we are actively looking to shift a player, they are at a stage of their career where no-one else wants to pay money for them. We would do better to look at how the New England Patriots continually rejuvenate their roster by moving players on when they have reached their peak and probably have a good couple of years left in them - sure, you lose a year or two of great performances from that player, but you create space (in terms of the numerical size of the squad and available funds for wages) to bring in new, upcoming, younger players. We have obviously held on to Pienaar for too long, from this point of view.

All true mate. I would love Pienaar (I refrain from calling him Peanuts as it grates on me) to be fully fit this season and have one last "hurrah" but I can only see him spending longer and longer in the treatment room at FF. The memories of him at his best for us shouldnt cloud the fact that he is now well past his best and has zero in terms of resale.

The same can't be said for Gibson or McGeady. I genuinely believe that Gibson when fit is a brilliant player. Again the doubts over his long term fitness are well documented, if we were to sell which I dont think we should at this stage maybe a Watford, Bournemouth or Sunderland would pay something for him. McGeady however would probably fetch the highest amount in fees. Again Sunderland or Celtic or clubs akin to them might be interested. Who really knows. Wouldnt sell Barry, he'll be gone this time next year and his fitness isnt questionable, so for this year I would take the hit - and I dont think he's as bad as some make out.

Kone, pfffft ! Who knows ??

The Patriots model is interesting, as are other NFL models to be honest, but agree that once zenith has been reached and nadir is approaching like a steamtrain then some number cruncher "could" be employed to assist the club in suggesting when to let them go - it will happen in football in the next few years, its inevitable.

As for the youth players I think that the mix needs to be handled properly, we dont have the Class of 92 at our disposal, I think Barkley and Galloway and Garbutt have potential, Ledson, Browning and Dowell also to a lesser extent then you have Pennington, Brewster, Duffus and Kenny but out of those 10, who will genuinely take us to the next level? I would get a nucleus of very good players, which I believe then first eleven truly is - then embrace the youth policy. That however does not factor injuries and stupid bids from bankrolled clubs of course !!

Sorry about me - got carried away there !

 

[JustOpp]

Fume machine ON.

Is this transfer window a joke or what? I mean, they have already been quite frustrating under Moyes, but we're seemingly very inactive in trying to address the issues that are very clear in this squad. We currently have two nominal CBs, one of which is still very doubtful whether he'll still be with us at the beginning of September. Seriously, what are we waiting for? Are we really contemplating buying this 16 year old from City?
Problem no. 2: wingers. Let's see... we have Deulofeu who's not match fit and his fitness is doubtful. We have Mirallas who doesn't seem to be a starter for Bobby lately and wants to leave anyway. And the others... Pienaar who sprains his ankle even when getting up from the couch, McGeady who has absolutely nothing to do in the Barclays Premier League, Osman and Naisy aren't really wingers, are they, neither is Barkel. And that was it!
Whereas we could set up a full team of central midfielders... not to mention we are one Seamus Coleman injury away from seeing Hibbert on the pitch and one Lukaku injury away from seeing that lummox Koné... and then I see that players like Franco di Santo, who carried Werder Bremen back from the relegation zone to mid table on his shoulders and scored many important goals signs for 6 million euros to Schalke, good age, big, strong striker who we could surely have afforded and has already played in England or a Carlos Zambrano who is a very capable Bundesliga defender also at a very good age with only one year left on his contract, looking for a bigger club than Frankfurt... I just don't think we are sending scouts away from England really, these could be great swoops for a financially limited club like us and we're letting them slip from our hands...
Bobby mate, you cannot be serious in thinking that players like McAleny, Galloway and Henen will keep us in the league...

I can only assume this is a particularly poor form of satire.

 

[Ollie d]

We haven't signed any boss players on a free tho

True but we also haven't spunked £12mill on an average defender,does a price tag always indicate quality?I'm willing to wait the whole window before getting upset about who Norwich or Stoke has signed .

 

[bluejohn66]

Any news boys on transfers, been away a week like, if someone could list them in alphabetical order, cheers......

 

[Fringe]

Some condensed bubbly wet wipes on here. We'll be sound, Everton are boss.

 

[roydo]

Some condensed bubbly wet wipes on here. We'll be sound, Everton are boss.

Start and finish at "N" mate.

 

[royalbalou]

Wow! Big posts....I'm more of a little post person myself.... Like 'We've bought .....'(insert anyone)

End of post

 

[Ollie d]

Bit of a pointless argument, because we haven't and there aren't many 'boss' players going for free at the moment...

Ok, but if we picked up x,y and z for nothing would people still be upset if West Ham outspent us by £30mill? Hypothetical argument of course but I'm just wondering if people are peed off because we haven't spent money rather than missed out on genuine quality.