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

[JJ-AV]

This has always been our problem.

Instead of buying shit Wigan midfielders we should be looking at the French, German, Dutch, Belgian and Swiss leagues.

Hopefully somewhere along the line we can inject a bit more imagination into things. As Paulie says though, I won't be holding my breath.

Difficult to disagree with that. But Diame is a good player for our current position 

[luke25]

And a lot of us thought these threads were depressing in the days of the MON regime!!

Fair enough, he spunked away a lot of money and I hope he crashes and burns at Sunderland and we never ever give a manager that much freedom ever again, but, simply as a fan those really were the days. We used to use those threads to find the missing part of the jigsaw. Now we're speculating what Wigan player we can get or if his wages are affordable.

And unfortunately in those days the missing part of the jigsaw was a Wigan forward who's wages we can't afford.

[Concrete John]

We shouldn't be dismissing players because of where they come from, be it MON and his 'buy British' philosophy or us fans bemoaning Wigan players.

What needs to happen, and I hope is happening, is we spread our net far and wide to find what we need.  The scouts come back with 3 or 4 names, which we then have a closer look at and make enquires about.  We then evaluate the risk, ability and cost elements to do what is best for the club and the team.

So far, that's brought us Holman.  If we follow the same process again it may arrive at a player from a relegated club, but that doesn't worry me.

[pedro25]

Why was Stevens bought?  Unless he was injured on Sat he seems to be behind all of the academey players, Aston Villa ladies and the ball boys in the pecking order right now.  I thought he had been playing well for the reserves.

[Concrete John]

Why was Stevens bought?  Unless he was injured on Sat he seems to be behind all of the academey players, Aston Villa ladies and the ball boys in the pecking order right now.  I thought he had been playing well for the reserves.

Stevens was a low risk gamble.  Given the inexperience the side had anyway, giving someone their debut may have been a step too far.

I always said we'll see what he's made of next season.

[ozzjim]

I see there is a lot of talk of the top 4-5 going in for this lad at Crewe for about 2 million. That is the kind of player we should be going at getting if he is scouted and deemed good enough. Give them the platform and make good profits to fund future spending. It requires scouting investment, but there is a whole world of talent out there that we can tap into, and make good profit. Spurs, Arsenal and now Newcastle appear to have cottoned onto the idea of scouting well, buying young and making profit on those players.

[ROBBO]

So we are back to dealing in the cellar, in this period of our history how are we any bigger than Fulham,blackburn and the others that we tend to look down on, anyone of them could find a mega rich owner and overnight be considered much bigger than us. I hate to say this but at this moment we are worse off than under deadly, at least he knew the beast that is the premiership and he wouldn't have employed McLeish. We are with the also rans just looking to avoid being relegated.

[Monty]

So we are back to dealing in the cellar, in this period of our history how are we any bigger than Fulham,blackburn and the others that we tend to look down on, anyone of them could find a mega rich owner and overnight be considered much bigger than us. I hate to say this but at this moment we are worse off than under deadly, at least he knew the beast that is the premiership and he wouldn't have employed McLeish. We are with the also rans just looking to avoid being relegated.

He employed McNeil, Dr Jo and DOL. Not the greatest appointments in history.

[ROBBO]

Didn't say he was a good chairman Monty just saying as a club we are no stronger now than we were under deadly.

[Concrete John]

So we are back to dealing in the cellar, in this period of our history how are we any bigger than Fulham,blackburn and the others that we tend to look down on, anyone of them could find a mega rich owner and overnight be considered much bigger than us. I hate to say this but at this moment we are worse off than under deadly, at least he knew the beast that is the premiership and he wouldn't have employed McLeish. We are with the also rans just looking to avoid being relegated.

Firstly, get the word 'bigger' out of your head.  It's virtually meaningless as it's just a press word to define who they like to write about. 

Football is a money game, so our position in the pecking order is with the Fulhams as our spending power is around the same position.

We have history and previous success most 'big clubs' can only dream of, but that doesn't matter if you start buying into the whole SKY driven media hype.

[ROBBO]

Really just quoting what is often said by posters on this site.

[Seb_AVFC]

So we are back to dealing in the cellar, in this period of our history how are we any bigger than Fulham,blackburn and the others that we tend to look down on, anyone of them could find a mega rich owner and overnight be considered much bigger than us. I hate to say this but at this moment we are worse off than under deadly, at least he knew the beast that is the premiership and he wouldn't have employed McLeish. We are with the also rans just looking to avoid being relegated.

He employed McNeil, Dr Jo and DOL. Not the greatest appointments in history.

TBF at the time of DOL's appointment I was delighted we got him in. But it wasn't meant to be

[pedro25]

While we are currently not big spenders between 5 and 2 years ago, under M'ON we were the second highest spenders in British football behind Man City and it was only 14 months ago we spent £24 mill on the England no. 9.  So yes we are currently in the same spending bracket as Fulham etc., but surely we should still be at an advantage over these teams given our recent spending and that a large chunk of our current squad was purchased during a period when we were spending sums the smaller premier league clubs could only dream of.  The problem is of course these players we spent so heavily on just aren't very good, Collins, Cuellar, Dunne, Ireland, Warnock etc., and more recently we have spent big on Hutton, N'Zogbia and Makoun and likewise they have offered very little.

[Concrete John]

While we are currently not big spenders between 5 and 2 years ago, under M'ON we were the second highest spenders in British football behind Man City and it was only 14 months ago we spent £24 mill on the England no. 9.  So yes we are currently in the same spending bracket as Fulham etc., but surely we should still be at an advantage over these teams given our recent spending and that a large chunk of our current squad was purchased during a period when we were spending sums the smaller premier league clubs could only dream of.  The problem is of course these players we spent so heavily on just aren't very good, Collins, Cuellar, Dunne, Ireland, Warnock etc., and more recently we have spent big on Hutton, N'Zogbia and Makoun and likewise they have offered very little.

You conveniently forget the high spend was on players like Ash, Downing and Milner, who have now all left us.

[mr underhill]

Of course Doug had monumental faults. But in some respects his tenure now looks like a golden era. Two runners up spots, three Wembley finals, of which we won two, managerws who played exciting expansive football and the best of them ex Vlla people who carried an emotional torch for the Club. What wouldn't you give for that now! And the most telling thing of all, we certainly were not losing a million quid a week. Yes things were utterly shite back then