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

[curiousorange]

Well, Arthur Numan is our Dutch scout. I expected some transfer action in Holland but not this fella.
I know less than fuck all about him so will have to see him in action before making any comment.

But so far, so... meh.

Trouble is, people have been banging on about us bringing in cheap talent from Europe. We bag somebody that fits that criteria and it's criticised.

[Big Dick Edwards]

This guy's got some pedigree and is entering his peak years as a player. Fingers crossed McLeish has pulled off a coup.

[PeterWithesShin]

Well, Arthur Numan is our Dutch scout. I expected some transfer action in Holland but not this fella.
I know less than fuck all about him so will have to see him in action before making any comment.

But so far, so... meh.

Trouble is, people have been banging on about us bringing in cheap talent from Europe. We bag somebody that fits that criteria and it's criticised.

Indeed Mr Orange. It seems to be the fashion now that whatever the club do they get criticised. 

[Shrek]

14 goals 0 assists in 4 years



I'm really excited.....

Ignore this, it's wrong, he actually doesn't look that bad.

[Billy Walker]

Fair play to the club for getting on with the squad rebuild early.  I don't know much about the player, but at least we are out of the blocks early, thinking ahead and acting as if we have a plan and mean business. 

[nigel]

Olic could be the player that Nilis could've been. If you see what I mean.

Agree,
Nistlroy said that Nilis was the perfect strike partner.
He looked real quality.

[cdbearsfan]

Fair play to the club for getting on with the squad rebuild early.  I don't know much about the player, but at least we are out of the blocks early, thinking ahead and acting as if we have a plan and mean business. 

Indeed. Can you imagine that Sunderland bloke signing a player this early?

[SoccerHQ]

Well, Arthur Numan is our Dutch scout. I expected some transfer action in Holland but not this fella.
I know less than fuck all about him so will have to see him in action before making any comment.

But so far, so... meh.

AZ are currently the league leaders and he's played a good role in helping them. The top Dutch players like Vertongen, Elm, Strootman and so forth will always go for big bucks, but there is a lot of talent out here. I recall us being linked with Immers at ADO at the beginning of the season. Not sure why we didn't follow that one through, as he's pretty decent.

I really think its a good deal

Different position but that goalkeeper Swansea signed for next to nothing has been amazing all season.

[Dave]

As it looks like we might be doing early transfer business this year, this thread might as well be used for the usual summer transfer stuff.

New threads started as and when it starts to look as though there might be substance to the story rather than just tabloid bollocks.

[spaf]

Zarate was very good though. Did AM sign him?

Yep.

Not according to David Sullivan:

I have signed a couple over the years where I have taken a longshot gamble and said to the manager “are you Ok with it, you don’t have to play them but don’t boycott them”. I have only signed them with their approval. I have only said to a manager, say every 50 players, I don’t want them to sign someone, and I might pick one out of 50, subject to finances.

I signed Mauro Zarate at Birmingham on loan and he almost kept us up an he went on to do well at Lazio. I think he’s at Inter Milan now. We signed a little Equadorian who did very well and is now the top scorer in Mexico. Zarate we signed on loan with an option of buying. I wouldn’t buy a player like that on a long term contract. Everyone’s got to be in agreement. Every player we have signed this year, the manager has picked and I have supported him. They all made sense on paper. I also signed Ilan at West Ham. I saw the state of Benni McCarthy when he arrived and had my doubts about him, though he was the manager’s first choice. I had the opportunity to take Ilan for half a season, with an option in our favour for the next season. I signed him as I thought we needed more firepower. He wasn’t a great player, but his five vital goals kept us up. He had an uncanny knack of sticking his right foot out and scoring. Whilst he didn’t do enough for us to offer him a long term contract, I think he did the job he was brought in to do. Zola agreed to take him, though he knew nothing about him, and thankfully he played an important part in our first season survival. I’ve never signed a player without the agreement of the manager in 20 years in football. On the very rare occasions (eg Ilan) I have taken the initiative they have supported my judgement.

[Hazz]

Sullivan also invented the bicycle kick.

[Matt C]

A signing within 10 pages of the summer transfer thread, some sort of record surely?

[Phil from the upper holte]

A signing within 10 pages of the summer transfer thread, some sort of record surely?

I think you might be right

[Mazrim]

Let me clarify that I'm not criticising this signing at all. I worded my post poorly.
 I like unexpected transfers. I definitely prefer signing players with we're not sure how good they can be in this league to players we know are shite.

I'd like to mix in a couple of suprisingly good known quantities though too.

[Matt C]

We've got hundreds of pages left for that, Maz.