Summer Transfer Thread: Speculation, Lies, Absolute Cr*p and Bosman Rumours

[Monty]

But scouting a player is much more than just watching and drawing ad hoc reckons from it. There will be stats they will have checked, then checked against his performances, how he plays in certain systems and with certain types of players, physical stats and so on. Under McLeish, I'd have had the same doubts, but something tells me Lambert wouldn't shy away from putting in the hard brain work to understand who he's getting.

[hilts_coolerking]

But scouting a player is much more than just watching and drawing ad hoc reckons from it. There will be stats they will have checked, then checked against his performances, how he plays in certain systems and with certain types of players, physical stats and so on. Under McLeish, I'd have had the same doubts, but something tells me Lambert wouldn't shy away from putting in the hard brain work to understand who he's getting.

Fair enough but I would at the very least expect them to consider his Euro 2012 performances and reassure themselves that there are fixable issues which contributed to them.  I'm not against signing him but I am against the idea that you can simply dismiss a few shocking games as being near irrelevant.

[Monty]

Well, fair enough, but if you do that you have to then say that you must consider a player you don't know much about doing well at a major tournament - 'you can't dismiss a few brilliant games as near irrelevant', in other words. Well, in fact, we can and we should. The sample is just not big enough.

[Concrete John]

If we are not dismissing the abilities for RVP and Rooney due to the Euros, as we know they are/can be brilliant, then does that not also mean players who are brilliant that we know less about could easily suffer from the same 'looks crap' problem?

Scott Parker is a good example of a player outside that top bracket of true world class players, but still can be a vital player to a PL side.  He had a moor tournament is a struggling team, but would that make us think twice about his ability to improve our side if we were linked with him?

[paul_e]

Let's take a step back from the euro's for a second and look at the dutch squad, the only player they had who looked remotely up to playing at that standard was Sneijder, and even he was far from his best.  For other teams the performances would have a small bearing on things, for a dutch team who, on paper, should've been challenging to win the tournament and, in reality, went home with 0 points you have to take individual performances with a pinch of salt.  If we were linked with Van Der Wiel I'd be over the moon, but he was possibly their worst player over the 3 games (although the left back had some pretty abject moments as well, Van Bommel was so poor his father-in-law dropped him and Huntelaar came off the back a great domestic season and looked like he was a fan who'd snuck onto the pitch).

[hilts_coolerking]

Well, fair enough, but if you do that you have to then say that you must consider a player you don't know much about doing well at a major tournament - 'you can't dismiss a few brilliant games as near irrelevant', in other words. Well, in fact, we can and we should. The sample is just not big enough.

If you're looking to spend a fair chunk of your budget on a 27 year old defender who has just had two excellent club seasons but who then goes on to have a total mare at a major tournament then it seems to me to be incumbent on you to at least try to find out why he was so bad, and whether this is indicative of limitations in his game or perhaps more related to issues surrounding his national team, rather than just dismiss it and sign him regardless.  That's crazy. 

If, on the other hand, you've been scouting a player who you reckon to be very good and he goes on to have an excellent tournament then you can say 'great, he's simply confirming our opinion of him'.  But in Vlaar's case, his Euro performances contradict (presumably) our opinion of him.  I'd say that was worth looking at a bit more closely.

[Summers]

Rumours Vlaar might be as cheap as 3m due to a clause in his contract.

[Brend'Watkins]

Was Vlaar that bad in the euros?  I can't remember him being as bad as people are insinuating, certainly no worse than any of the rest of that 'team'. 

[villastikz]

Lambert has had a month since Holland were knocked out of the Euro's so I'm sure he would of had a good long think about Vlaar and weighed things up thoroughly.

[Steve R]

My guess is that Lambert pulled the stops out to get his part of the deal - meet the player, talk about where he fits blah blah - done before departing for the U.S. Can't otherwise see why he'd be showing the guy around VP on a weekend.

The financial/contractual details, cup and lip issues etc that do not require his presence will take place over the next two weeks. There's no rush unless we plan to try to get Vlaar out to the US to  play some part in the tour.

All we need now is for the team bus to stop somewhere suitably remote in Oregon so that Dunne can take a leak, only to speed off before he as much as gets unzipped.

[john e]

All I can remember is Redknap saying before Hollands first game that their defence was poor and he thought they wouldn't get to the knockout stages,
 the other pundits thought he was mad and Holland would be one of the tournaments favourites, Harry was right the defence was crap and they crashed and burned.

He said all this before they had played one game

[Percy McCarthy]

I've only heard it off a mate, but he reckons one of the papers today says Vlaar was the only Dutch defender to emerge from the Euros with any credit.

[aev]

I work for a Dutch company and my Dutch colleagues reckon he is poor.

They are Ajax fans however, so they could well be biased.

Anyhow if he does join I will wish him all the best etc.

[PeterWithesShin]

Didn't Stam have a bit of a mare at the World Cup just after it was announced he'd signed for the mancs? I'm sure I remember people were taking the piss over the transfer fee afterwards even though the Dutch team itself did well. Of course I could be wrong, i'm at that age where my memory plays tricks with me. 

[Shrek]

All I can remember is Redknap saying before Hollands first game that their defence was poor and he thought they wouldn't get to the knockout stages,
 the other pundits thought he was mad and Holland would be one of the tournaments favourites, Harry was right the defence was crap and they crashed and burned.

He said all this before they had played one game

Hollands defence wasn't really their problem, everyone will concede a goal, they just couldn't put the ball in the net, RVP and co looked shite.