Summer transfer, gossip, speculation and the usual butter ollocks thread

[paul_e]

Exactly. And no one is berating the club. People are expressing concern that this close to the season starting to have only signed a 3rd right back is concerning. People have speculated that IF things remain as is, or we sign one or 2 of the players linked, we might be in for another difficult season. Fancy that. On a speculation and talking utter bollocks thread on a chat site about a football club.

How likely is it that we won't do any business or that anyone would be happy if we only make 1 more signing before the window closes?

Speculation is fine but speculating that everything will be shit and no one at the club cares enough to avoid that is just needless pessimism.

[Drummond]

You can only loan out or sell a player if someone wants them.
I don't see clubs clambering over each other to take any of our players right now.

I think there would plenty of takers for Davis on loan, he is a good player that just needs a run to find his shooting boots.

But there isn't.

Aren't there? May I ask how you know?

[Pat Mustard]

That was a good assessment Pat, I agree.

But if we are to spend around 100mill again this summer, surely the expectation is top 10 from the club?

We can’t be spending that much to finish just above relegation can we?

I’m basing this assumption on the fact there will not be much difference between 8th-10th to 12th-13th.

The expectation will be significant improvement surely, I wouldn't necessarily have thought it's based on finishing above a specific position.  Put it this way, we could finish in the top 10 but still be in danger of relegation with 6-8 games left.  Equally, we could finish 15th but having been safe since Christmas. 

Based on the type of players we seem to be linked with, year on year improvement is surely the plan.  £100 million this year to establish a first 11 who are by and large in their early-mid 20's and can be improved with one or two additions each season, instead of the 10 we needed last year and the 5 or so we want this time.

[gpbarr]

Exactly. And no one is berating the club. People are expressing concern that this close to the season starting to have only signed a 3rd right back is concerning. People have speculated that IF things remain as is, or we sign one or 2 of the players linked, we might be in for another difficult season. Fancy that. On a speculation and talking utter bollocks thread on a chat site about a football club.

How likely is it that we won't do any business or that anyone would be happy if we only make 1 more signing before the window closes?

Speculation is fine but speculating that everything will be shit and no one at the club cares enough to avoid that is just needless pessimism.

How is it pessimism to state the facts (as of today, we know who we have bought versus the clubs we will compete with this year) and to then voice an opinion that if little changes, we will struggle? Its lazy to accuse fans of pessimism when we have seen this movie too many times at the club. We all want the same thing - the difference of opinion stems from whether we believe we will see the additions we all generally agree we need in the final few weeks of the window or not.   

[ChicagoLion]

Callum Wilson?

[ASHTONVILLA]

Exactly. And no one is berating the club. People are expressing concern that this close to the season starting to have only signed a 3rd right back is concerning. People have speculated that IF things remain as is, or we sign one or 2 of the players linked, we might be in for another difficult season. Fancy that. On a speculation and talking utter bollocks thread on a chat site about a football club.

I'd agree with that but also think we need another central midfield player. Whilst we have good players in Grealish, McGinn and Luiz and decent backup in Hourihane (not given up on Nakamba yet either) we don't really have any combination in midfield that isn't lightweight or lacking. We could do with a better ball winner with energy and aggression. Our midfield combinations always seem less than the sum of their parts.

A better left back would be handy too if there is enough in the kitty.

[paul_e]

Exactly. And no one is berating the club. People are expressing concern that this close to the season starting to have only signed a 3rd right back is concerning. People have speculated that IF things remain as is, or we sign one or 2 of the players linked, we might be in for another difficult season. Fancy that. On a speculation and talking utter bollocks thread on a chat site about a football club.

How likely is it that we won't do any business or that anyone would be happy if we only make 1 more signing before the window closes?

Speculation is fine but speculating that everything will be shit and no one at the club cares enough to avoid that is just needless pessimism.

How is it pessimism to state the facts (as of today, we know who we have bought versus the clubs we will compete with this year) and to then voice an opinion that if little changes, we will struggle? Its lazy to accuse fans of pessimism when we have seen this movie too many times at the club. We all want the same thing - the difference of opinion stems from whether we believe we will see the additions we all generally agree we need in the final few weeks of the window or not.   

How likely do you think the "If little changes" scenario is? That's the same question I posted in the post you've replied to. The difference of opinion stems from a handful of people making the huge leap from 'not many signings made with 5 weeks to go' to 'not many signings in the whole window'. If we were a few days from the end of the window and still had big gaps I'd understand but this is like, in a normal summer, being worried because all the signings aren't done by the middle of July. There's plenty of time, the club are pretty obviously working on signings so why can't be keep the debate to the merits of the people we get linked with rather than every page getting repeats of "if we don't sign anyone it'll be shit", no one disagrees with that, there's just no real evidence to suggest it's going to happen.

[sickbeggar]

As i said earlier, Chelsea will have 12 midfielders with Havertz about to join. Would be almost bad manners not to see if we can arrange a loan or loan to buy. You can bet others will if we don't

[sid1964]

from chelsea we would probably end up with Drinkwater

[sickbeggar]

heh. No idea how much money we have to spend but with them going loopy in the transfer market, the likes of loftus-cheek and Hudson-odoi are gonna struggle to get games. Just as an extra option in midfield as a loan is a no-brainer and doesn't stop us chucking money elsewhere. if they worked out, with the 1st team somewhat blocked at Chelsea now, then who's to say they wouldn't sign permanently

[paul_e]

Chelsea have got loads of midfielders but which are likely to be available and worth getting?

As above Drinkwater will clearly  be available but not worth it.
Van Ginkel is probably an option but he's bene injured for so long that it would be a huge risk.
Loftus-Cheek might be available and he'd be a decent option depending on the cost, £15-20m would be fair but I suspect they'd want £30m+ and he's not worth that.
Bakayoko might be available after 2 years on loan and, for me, he's probably the best fit for what I'd like us to be looking for. He might be looking for a club a bit more established though.

[hilts_coolerking]

I think we have to accept that we may have to pay over the odds to get some of the players we need.

[Shrek]

That was a good assessment Pat, I agree.

But if we are to spend around 100mill again this summer, surely the expectation is top 10 from the club?

We can’t be spending that much to finish just above relegation can we?

I’m basing this assumption on the fact there will not be much difference between 8th-10th to 12th-13th.

The expectation will be significant improvement surely, I wouldn't necessarily have thought it's based on finishing above a specific position.  Put it this way, we could finish in the top 10 but still be in danger of relegation with 6-8 games left.  Equally, we could finish 15th but having been safe since Christmas. 

Based on the type of players we seem to be linked with, year on year improvement is surely the plan.  £100 million this year to establish a first 11 who are by and large in their early-mid 20's and can be improved with one or two additions each season, instead of the 10 we needed last year and the 5 or so we want this time.

One thing we need to improve massively, is having players that we can actually sell for decent fees.
Spending the sought of money talked about is fine as long as when we look to improve again, we can sell the current players for good fees. We haven’t done this for as long as I remember.

[paul_e]

That was a good assessment Pat, I agree.

But if we are to spend around 100mill again this summer, surely the expectation is top 10 from the club?

We can’t be spending that much to finish just above relegation can we?

I’m basing this assumption on the fact there will not be much difference between 8th-10th to 12th-13th.

The expectation will be significant improvement surely, I wouldn't necessarily have thought it's based on finishing above a specific position.  Put it this way, we could finish in the top 10 but still be in danger of relegation with 6-8 games left.  Equally, we could finish 15th but having been safe since Christmas. 

Based on the type of players we seem to be linked with, year on year improvement is surely the plan.  £100 million this year to establish a first 11 who are by and large in their early-mid 20's and can be improved with one or two additions each season, instead of the 10 we needed last year and the 5 or so we want this time.

One thing we need to improve massively, is having players that we can actually sell for decent fees.
Spending the sought of money talked about is fine as long as when we look to improve again, we can sell the current players for good fees. We haven’t done this for as long as I remember.

Which is a big part of why the club are against signing older players. Despite all the criticism riley got for the 15/16 signings all the players he bought in sold for at least what they cost. The other signings from that summer went for almost nothing between them.

[ktvillan]

There's been a few comments along the lines of £20m being a decent price for someone who can chip in with 10 goals a season - one every 3.6 games. I don't think that would be much of an improvement on Wesley or Trezeguet who, in terms of goals per games/minutes, wouldn't be far off that ratio. 

Spending £20m on someone we think might get us an additional 2-3 goals over those two doesn't seem to make that much sense unless said signing brings a whole lot more than goals to the party.