Summer 2010 Transfer Thread: B*llsh*t, Rumours & Wishes

[Greg N'Ash]

i'm mentoning him beecuse the one time MON spent a decent amount on a   foreign based player he settled immediately which rather wrecks any ideas that MON is worried about them settling

How does it 'wreck' it?  One success hardly sets a trend!

If that was the case he'd only sign 6'4" Norwegian strikers!!

 100% success record on foreign strikers is pretty impressive especially when you consider his 100% failure record on english ones

[hilts_coolerking]

If someone can offer a good argument as to why concentrating on British-based players, to the almost total exclusion of foreign-based players, is to the club's advantage then I'm willing to be persuaded.

[peter w]

i'm mentoning him beecuse the one time MON spent a decent amount on a   foreign based player he settled immediately which rather wrecks any ideas that MON is worried about them settling

How does it 'wreck' it?  One success hardly sets a trend!

If that was the case he'd only sign 6'4" Norwegian strikers!!

 100% success record on foreign strikers is pretty impressive especially when you consider his 100% failure record on english ones

Or alternatively, 100% record on Norwegians so lets go for them

Or, 100% record on people called John lets go for them

Maybe even, 100 % record on 6ft + centre-forwards that fit into his sytem and have played in Spain before.


Yes Carew come off - to a degree - but he's hardly what you call a player that will be remembered as a huge sucess. Don't get me wrong I like Carew and think that fit player for a whole season should always start with AN Other next to him.

[Concrete John]

i'm mentoning him beecuse the one time MON spent a decent amount on a   foreign based player he settled immediately which rather wrecks any ideas that MON is worried about them settling

How does it 'wreck' it?  One success hardly sets a trend!

If that was the case he'd only sign 6'4" Norwegian strikers!!

 100% success record on foreign strikers is pretty impressive especially when you consider his 100% failure record on english ones

Or alternatively, 100% record on Norwegians so lets go for them

Or, 100% record on people called John lets go for them

Maybe even, 100 % record on 6ft + centre-forwards that fit into his sytem and have played in Spain before.


Yes Carew come off - to a degree - but he's hardly what you call a player that will be remembered as a huge sucess. Don't get me wrong I like Carew and think that fit player for a whole season should always start with AN Other next to him.

I'm available for a modest £20,000 a week and can supply my own boots.

[Chris Smith]

Citing Maloney, Cuellar and Petrov supports the argument that players without PL experience take longer to settle than those that do.

And yet Carew is an example of a player with no British experience at all who settled very quickly.  Whereas Curtis Davies, Steve Sidwell and Nicky Shorey, to name just three, are examples of British players with Premier League experience who haven't worked out.

It seems to me that there is no coherent argument to be made in favour of limiting your pool of choices to British based players or those who have Premier League experience.

As we have seen, being based in Britain has no bearing on how long a player will take to settle, and having Premier League experience has no bearing on whether the transfer will be a success.

To say it has no bearing is just wrong. There is no guarantee that they will work out at another club but if a player has already demonstrated that he can cut it in this league then the chances of him doing it again are higher than one who has never played here before.

[hilts_coolerking]

To say it has no bearing is just wrong. There is no guarantee that they will work out at another club but if a player has already demonstrated that he can cut it in this league then the chances of him doing it again are higher than one who has never played here before.

But that's effectively writing off overseas players who have never had the opportunity to prove themselves.  You can't tell me that there were no overseas players who would have worked out better than, for instance, Davies, Shorey, Sidwell, Harewood, Heskey, and so on.

If, by approaching transfers in the way that he does, Martin signed gem after gem then there would be evidence to support his method.  But he hasn't.

[Concrete John]

If, by approaching transfers in the way that he does, Martin signed gem after gem then there would be evidence to support his method.  But he hasn't.

Maybe not, but at the same time there is no assurance that shopping abroad would have bettered his hit rate.  Would we have got better than Milner abroad for £12m?  I don't think so.  Better than Harewood for £3.5m?  Probably, but there ain't many that come over for such relatively small money.

As someone who is overall very happy with his transfer dealings, I guess I have less concern as to where he sources them from!

[Rip Van We Go Again]

If someone can offer a good argument as to why concentrating on British-based players, to the almost total exclusion of foreign-based players, is to the club's advantage then I'm willing to be persuaded.

Because Martin wants it that way and Martin is NEVER wrong.

Better now?

[hilts_coolerking]

As someone who is overall very happy with his transfer dealings, I guess I have less concern as to where he sources them from!

Personally, I don't care where the players are from, providing we get the best players we possibly can.

I don't see how we can say we are doing that if we concentrate almost exclusively on British-based players.  I just don't see how it is to the club's advantage to do it.

[Concrete John]

As someone who is overall very happy with his transfer dealings, I guess I have less concern as to where he sources them from!

Personally, I don't care where the players are from, providing we get the best players we possibly can.

I don't see how we can say we are doing that if we concentrate almost exclusively on British-based players.  I just don't see how it is to the club's advantage to do it.

I can see that point of view, but at the same time if somethings not broken then why try and fix it?

My own standpoint is that the players we now need to really push us on are difficult to find in this country, as they are all already with clubs of our stature or greater, so we probably now should be looking further afield.  But that doesn't mean that Martin has done anything wrong up to now or that I'm not wrong and he can giving us that added edge domestically.

[Greg N'Ash]

i'm mentoning him beecuse the one time MON spent a decent amount on a   foreign based player he settled immediately which rather wrecks any ideas that MON is worried about them settling

How does it 'wreck' it?  One success hardly sets a trend!

If that was the case he'd only sign 6'4" Norwegian strikers!!

 100% success record on foreign strikers is pretty impressive especially when you consider his 100% failure record on english ones

Or alternatively, 100% record on Norwegians so lets go for them

Or, 100% record on people called John lets go for them

Maybe even, 100 % record on 6ft + centre-forwards that fit into his sytem and have played in Spain before.


Yes Carew come off - to a degree - but he's hardly what you call a player that will be remembered as a huge sucess. Don't get me wrong I like Carew and think that fit player for a whole season should always start with AN Other next to him.

well you look at his foreign buys and you'd say carew and guzan have been decent, salifou not. now 60% success rate is far better than his uk and ireland punts which is about 10 from 24 signings. I certainly wouldn't be ignoring the foreign market with that success rate at home but then ISM says we are.

[Concrete John]

well you look at his foreign buys and you'd say carew and guzan have been decent, salifou not. now 60% success rate is far better than his uk and ireland punts which is about 10 from 24 signings. I certainly wouldn't be ignoring the foreign market with that success rate at home but then ISM says we are.

Just out of interest, if we had signed a UK based player that hadn't played too many games and looked a bit iffy if some that he did, would you be classing him as a success the way you are with Guzan?

[Greg N'Ash]

i don't think he's been a bad back-up keeper and performed generally well when asked.. if you think he's been crap, well ok.....

[Concrete John]

My opinion and yours would be about the same on Guzan, but if you class him in the success bracket then I think a lot of other players should be as well, which I can tell you're not counting in the 10 you're giving him for domestic signings.

[MoetVillan]

Greg, which 14 UK players have been failures?