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

[Monty]

Even at £2m and circa £30k a week, I think we could get a better, and younger, striker than Holt.  OK, maybe a bit more in the initial fee, but certainly better value for money.

Whatever the fee ends up at, your point is the most salient one - for whatever he costs, we could get a better deal somewhere.

[Risso]

I think Holt is just an obvious link that probably doesn't have a grain of truth in it.  I'm sure that having started to turn the wages situation round, that Lerner is not going to sanction spending on players with no resale value and who are already in their 30s.  I like Holt and I'm glad he had a good season, and it's always nice to see players come up through the leagues, but unless he was very cheap indeed I'd be totally against signing him.  Not because he's a bad player, but he could be a one season wonder and then we'd be into Heskey and Beye territory with a player on a 3 year contract who nobody else would buy.

[JJ-AV]

Holt can impact immediately. He's experienced and a leader. We all saw the lack of fight and leadership in our team last season, especially in the midfield and forward areas. Gabby and Bent are the senior players up there and both are very timid.

You have to remember he's leaving Norwich for money, he's never earned Premier League money. The contract he supposedly wants at Norwich (35k) is supposedly less than we were paying Habib Beye and circa half of Heskey's wage.

If we want to compete we need a squad. Gabby and Bent with Weimann as deputy isn't enough, IMO.

[PaulWinch again]

The other issue with Holt is that he fell out with Norwich because they wouldn't offer him a 3 year deal. Do we really want to offer that to a guy who is 31 and already not in the best of shape?

[ASHTONVILLA]

4-5 signings and a budget of £20m plus money from sales could mean at least one 'marquee signing' given some of the signings could be loans and bosman signings.

Wouldn't mind Benayoun on loan.

Can see a couple of bosman signings, maybe Hargreaves or Owen could add experience on a pay as you play deal, Diame looked good last season, Gordon or Green would be good options in goal seeing as Given is injured a lot.

Think Collins, Warnock and Hutton will go if we get offers. Be lucky to get 4m for the lot of them but the wage bill would come down a lot. Sadly think I Petrov will retire (Though in truth he was past his best anyway and would have been up for replacement).

That leaves 24m still, which needs to go on a ball winning midfielder, a new central defender, two fullbacks and a winger. That would be the biggest shake up since Big Ron sold Platt and rebuilt the entire team.

[maidstonevillain]

Can see a couple of bosman signings, maybe Hargreaves or Owen could add experience on a pay as you play deal, Diame looked good last season, Gordon or Green would be good options in goal seeing as Given is injured a lot.

Wouldn,t mind taking a punt on Hargreaves. Always thought he was a fantastic player. I think he just wants a chance to play football, and if he can recapture just 80% of his old form, and stays fit, he could be just what we need for a couple of seasons.

[Concrete John]

I know I'll be in the minority here, but I think signing too many players this summer may be a mistake.  Trying to integrate them all into the club, while also getting used to a new manager, could prove to be too much all at once.  Rome wasn't built in a day, so it may be a case of 'making do' with some existing players we're not totally happy with for another year and then address those positions in 2013.

[Irish villain]

I know I'll be in the minority here, but I think signing too many players this summer may be a mistake.  Trying to integrate them all into the club, while also getting used to a new manager, could prove to be too much all at once.  Rome wasn't built in a day, so it may be a case of 'making do' with some existing players we're not totally happy with for another year and then address those positions in 2013.

I can see where you're coming from though I would offer 95/96 as an example of  what can be achieved by a thorough summer rebuild. Ok, so Brian Little had taken over mid-season and probably had already stamped his authority on the place but the parallel is still valid. Little had started revamping an ageing under-achieving squad as soon as he was appointed. After many comings and goings a side that narrowly escaped relegation on the final day at Carrow road went on to finish fourth, win a cup and reach and FA cup semi-final.

I'd take that again!

[Concrete John]

We signed three players in summer 1995 - Milosovic, Draper & Southgate.

EDIT:  To be fair, we did sign a few players DURING the 1994/1995 season, when there was no transfer windows - Johnson, Wright, Charles & Taylor.  But all were 'bedded in' already, and not all signed at once, when we got to that summer 1995 rebuild.

[PaulTheVillan]

We signed three players in summer 1995 - Milosovic, Draper & Southgate.

Didn't we also sign Nelson & Curcic about that time?

[Concrete John]

Curic and Nelson were summer 1996, if I recall correctly.  But I'm pretty certain on it only being three signings during summer 1995.

[Irish villain]

We signed three players in summer 1995 - Milosovic, Draper & Southgate.

True but as I said the rebuild started almost immediately on Little's appointment. Weren't Charles, Taylor, Wright and Johnson signed within a couple of months of his arrival?

[Concrete John]

I edited my above post to say much the same!

Yes, they were, but I don't count that as a counter argument to my original point as it was a more gradual change than having 7 players all turn up at once and need to be fitted in.

[Irish villain]

I edited my above post to say much the same!

Yes, they were, but I don't count that as a counter argument to my original point as it was a more gradual change than having 7 players all turn up at once and need to be fitted in.

Fair point. Didn't MON do something similar? Young and Carew arrived in the January window of his first season. Maybe we can bring in 4 in the summer, shift out some dead wood and bring in another couple next January.

[Mazrim]

If we get the players in relatively soon there's no reason why, with a month or so to aquaint themselves with eachother, a team with lots of new players can't gel and hit the ground running. It's not like they're strangers to the game.