January Transfer Speculation (or lack of) Thread

[badluckeric(gates)]

Now let me think....Mid table club or bankrupt club, which do I prefer..hmm difficult one that but for me mid table just edges it.

[N'ZMAV]

Gotta love mid-table.... Charlton fans would kill for it now, we do need to be careful what we wish for...

[N'ZMAV]

Mutch at Blues looks a decent player...

[richard moore]

Mutch at Blues looks a decent player...

Yes, he does doesn't he

At the other end of the scale, Elikobi (sp?) makes Stephen Warnock look like Carlos Alberto

[Concrete John]

We should really speculate to accumulate, but I can't see Randy doing that again. He took us as far as we could go, without getting enough back to warrant all the expenditure. I see that he's trying to make us a viable business, and probably to sell. Perhaps Randy feels a mid table club that stays in the black, is better than a top six club that loses money every year. That might be wrong, it might not. Perhaps any rich Arabs sniffing around us 2 years ago, have caught another scent whilst we've bombed down to mediocrity.

The thing is the 'speculate to accumulate' philosophy takes a ridiculous amount of cash right now.  If we want to get to where say Spurs are, or back to where we were under MON, you're talking about £50-£100m over two seasons, with no guarantee of success.  If he's got say £30-40m to put in, we could expect to get to 6th-ish again at best, which hardly justifies the expense financially, as he's learnt.

As a fan I'd still say spend the £30-40m and lets be the best we can be, but I must admit I can't see a good business case for it.   

[Rick_avfc]

Realistically for a club our size and the income generated, spending £30m every season on transfers is about right.  I've said all along that at the moment I don't mind finishing mid table due to the financial constraints we are under but all I ask for from the Team and management is some good football.  At the moment, what we are witnessing is just plain dross.

[N'ZMAV]

I like MAtt Phillips at Blackpool too. Think he'd be a useful signing.

[Concrete John]

Realistically for a club our size and the income generated, spending £30m every season on transfers is about right.  I've said all along that at the moment I don't mind finishing mid table due to the financial constraints we are under but all I ask for from the Team and management is some good football.  At the moment, what we are witnessing is just plain dross.

£30 would be close to 50% of our turnover, wouldn't it?

[N'ZMAV]

and about 50% of our wage bill too

[villasjf]

I know it's not the best financial policy, but whatever happened to 'speculate to accumulate'? Instead of reigning in the money available so that McLeish has no room to maneuver, why don't they give say, 10/12 million and see what he can do with it?

Yes but a couple of Huttons maybe or 1 Hutton and give the rest to Spurs for the dud they loaned us.

[Rick_avfc]

ok, maybe about £15 - £20m as opposed to the £30m I mentioned before?  Need to build up our foreign fan base.  Lets sign a couple of chinese players.  that will drum up some interest in the far east :-)

[Concrete John]

I have no problem with that, but only if their good enough.

[Rick_avfc]

I have no problem with that, but only if their good enough.

Yes I agree.  I think we need a core base of experienced players (7 maybe?) on the higher wage bracket with the rest made up of youth players on the lower wages. 

[N'ZMAV]

Onouha on his way to QPR for £3m. Surely we should be looking at players like this. Good right back and can play at centre back.

[Matt C]

Onouha on his way to QPR for £3m. Surely we should be looking at players like this. Good right back and can play at centre back.

And on a reported £80,000 per week. Staggering.