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

[supertom]

The main thing with Baros was application. He was so lazy. He needed top notch service, and was made to look far better than he was thanks to players like Nedved and Rosicky providing. Now without Nedved, and Rosicky not the player he was, Baros is no longer pulling up trees at International.

Aside from anything, I don't feel like he ever wanted to join us really. He saw us as a stop gap, nothing more.

Boateng works hard. He's had his problems, but he seems on track now. I wouldn't be worried. He's certainly one of the better midfield links we've had, and one of the more feasible.

[On The Wood]

I think he is as limited as the other Boateng we had a decade back.

[pauliewalnuts]

Baros could have been a top, top striker, but as you said, he was so incredibly fucking lazy, and moody with it.

Unfortunately, being incredibly fucking lazy is a big obstacle to becoming a top, top striker.

Where does he play now? Is he even still playing?

EDIT Ah, Galatasary. Turkey, the refuge of the "can't really be arsed, but the money's good" footballer.

[supertom]

Yep Milans happy to crack them in at a bog standard level of football.  What an arse!

[On The Wood]

Instead of runners we should be maybe looking for players who can actually find the old onion bag.

[Monty]

On The Wood, that's a bit of a stereotype of African players that many European clubs have. It's known by scouts as the "Papa Bouba Diop template", and means that slighter, more talented Africans get overlooked because clubs are looking for other things in their African players. Sad, but true.

[On The Wood]

Maybe these scouts would be better scouting English player with similar abilities then. Sorry we owe Africa nothing and judging by this World Cup they're a million miles still behind Europe when it comes to footballing ability. God knows why you're sticking up for African players as I assume you're an Englishman.

Surely it's not helping England either with this flooding of our Premier League of not just African players, but all overseas players.

Sorry, but the one thing MON does do right is try to play young English players and long may it continue.

[Monty]

It doesn't help England that our ways of training and coaching young players are backward and behind the rest of the footballing world. Once we get round that, the number of imports will decrease proportionally.

[Dante Lavelli]

There's actually very few strikers I've been impressed with so far, after the argies, forlan and villa no one has looked great.

I just think that's the way football is going at the moment.  Most teams play with one upfront and certain midfielders have license to join them (and track back less).  The same goes for the team who did well in the chumps league.

Argentina = Higuain (messi and tevez supporting)
Holland =Van Persie (Robben and Kuyt)
England = Heskey (Roo  ah forget it)

But you get my point.  The system is set up for the Robbens, Messis and Sneiders to look good whereas the main striker has to do loads of donkey work.

[VillaZogmariner]

A couple of pages back someone mentioned the need of an overhaul of our midfield. This concerns me in a way. Last Summer saw a major overhaul of our defence, with a couple of additions in midfield, and overall they were good signings. It was then assumed by the majority of people that this Summer would see the surgery required up front carried out. And I still think this will happen, but with the (likely) sale of Milner, and the fact that Petrov (as much as I rate him, and think he is a key player for us) tires in every game, we need work on midfield too.

Now, this of course is all assumption and no one can say for certain what is going to happen, but this is my predicted squad after the sales I think will happen (but before any purchases)

Friedel
Guzan

Cuellar
Collins
Dunne
Warnock
Clark

Delph (long term injury)
Petrov
Downing
Young
Albrighton

Agbonlahor
Delfouenso
Heskey

So now, going by that I think we need -

2 x Right Back (1 first team, 1 young back up)
1x Left Back (young back up)
1 x Creative Midfielder (first team)
1 x Defensive Midfielder (first team)
1 x All round Midfielder (first team)
1 x Winger (young back up)
1 x Striker (first team)

Looking at our reserves, we could promote Lichaj as back up Right Back, and Bannan as back up winger. So that leaves us with 6 signings required.

Money wise, let's assume MoN gets all the funding from player sales, and maybe a little extra from Randy. So I'll say £50m, with a wage budget of £200k/week. (I'm sure the players we sell will be on more than that combined, but also Randy will be looking to reduce our wage outgoings).

First priority is a replacement for Milner. Someone with that creative spark. So let's look at a couple of the players we've been linked with (Barnetta, Ben Arfa). So an outlay of around £12m I'd say (people will know we have the cash from Milner sale to spend) and £50k/week wages. This leaves us with £38m/£150k.

Then we need a Striker. (Keane, Cole, Eduardo). Again, we'll be looking at around the £10m mark, with (assuming it's one of the above players) £50k/week wages. So that brings it down to £28m/£100k.

Then we'd need that all round midfielder. Someone like Ireland, Boateng. If we say Ireland as the signing, that would be £10m/£60k I think. So we're then left with £18m/£40k.

Of course we'd be short a first team Right Back (I'll be surprised if MoN sticks with Cuellar there). Personally, I wouldn't sell Young, but I think he'll go. So we'd be looking at someone like Richards or Onouha. Assuming the latter, we'd be looking at £4m/£25k I think. So that would leave our budget with £14m/£15k to get a couple of youngsters. But we'd sacrifice the replacement for Stan.

It's then a case of getting them into a team, and them gelling. Now if I were manager, I'd be looking at the attacking 4-1-3-2 formation. So I'd have a line up of -

--------------------Fridel-----------------------
---Onohua---Dunne---Cuellar---Warnock---
--------------------Petrov-----------------------
---Young---------Ireland-----Ben Arfa----------
----------Agbonlahor------Keane----------------

Guzan, Collins, Clark, Bannan, Downing, Delfouenso, Heskey.

As a first XI, I'd be happy with that. But any major injuries and I'd be a bit concerned.

Of course, this is all guess work on my part. But no matter what way we look at it - the Summer will be a lot longer/harder than we think.

[Captain Trips]

Thats pretty much my thinking too. Losing lots of reasonable squad players for little money and having to spend big on replacements, The bench looks weak as shit for central midfielders though.

[VillaZogmariner]

I know CT. Personally, I'd keep hold of Luke Young and NRC.

[ian c.]

... and judging by this World Cup they're a million miles still behind Europe when it comes to footballing ability. .

Indeed, as shown in the England vs Algeria game.

[smudger]

I think realistically we will be looking at maybe spending a maximum of £10m this season (including January) on top of what we get. Based on targets that have been mentioned and being realistic rather than head in the clouds, i would like to see us sell;
Davies - £5m
Milner - £25m (because it appears that he wants to move)
Osbourne - £0.5m
Sidwell - £3m
Heskey - £2m
Harewood - £0.5m
£36m

And buy
Keane - £8m
Doyle - £10m
Ireland - £9m
Wright Phillips - £5m (but only at that sort of price)
O'Hara - £8m
£40m

Leaving around £6m for January if needed.

Squad;
Freidel, Guzan, Marshall.
L Young, Beye.
Warnock, Shorey.
Dunne, Cuellar, Collins, Clark.
Wright Phillips, Albrighton.
A Young, Downing.
Petrov, Ireland, O'Hara, Reo Coker, Delph(inj).
Keane, Agbonlahor, Carew, Doyle, Delfonso.

The new signings would give us a mixture of goals and guile (which we lacked last season). The likes of Doyle and O'Hara (who i thought were excellent last season) would be long term replacements for Carew and Petrov (who might only be good for another season).

[Mazrim]

Nobody let smudger anywhere near negotiations and player acquisitions.