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

[ROBBO]

Where are these players wanted? certainly not any of the top six, and then out of the rest who has the finances to buy them? i would say very few. I don't mind at all Villa sticking to their guns on price, how mand duds have we paid over the price for?

[sickbeggar]

Have to say all these championship players being linked are all very well if they come off, but at this stage of the "project" i rather have some top level experience injected into the team even if its older and short term. We've just had a season of unproven talent finding its feet and i don't want another one.

[SoccerHQ]

Seems odd to me we've just paid 16m for a championship RB and are seemingly trying to low ball Brentford to sell their attackers for under 20.

Did we really believe Wesley was a 22m forward last summer as that was a great example of overpaying (although there was a rumour we deliberately overpaid for him to make sure he got a work permit).

[RamboandBruno]

Funny how most on here are berating the club, and saying how the grass seems to greener at all our rivals. Here's a Newcastle fan saying how our grass is greener.

Linky

But that sort of proves the point. Because Newcastle will struggle this year (they are a mess, can't see them overachieving like they did last year, owner wants to sell, lack of investment, poor manager) but when one looks at the clubs we will likely be competing around this year (Newcastle, Brighton, Leeds, WBA, Fulham, Palace, WHam, and Southampton), I'd argue Leeds, Brighton, WHam, Southampton have donner better business than we have in the window (to date) and, Palace are just in better shape generally.

Dangerous to predict when the window still has weeks to run but unless we see real quality incoming, I see us struggling again this coming year.

Palace nose dived at the end of last season, a bit like Watford the end of the season before. Palace also have an ageing team and their best player has been dying to leave for a while. I’m not sure where the analysis that they are in better shape comes from.
Leeds, Brighton, West Ham doing better business, that’s subjective to be honest.

[kippaxvilla2]

The income has severely dropped because of lockdown and as a result of this Chinese deal collapsing.  The environment is very different from last year and just as you see no one seemingly want to pay £80m for Jack, we don’t want to be mugged off for championship players.  If it was the same environment as last year I would have no doubt we would pay what was being asked for these players. 

The one I don’t understand if true is haggling over £2m for a proven PL striker - Wilson.  It’s not as if we have an embarrassment of riches up front.

[robbo1874]

I think as a few other posters have noted that it may be more to do with wages than transfer fees. I read recently that the wage bill came down from >100m to around 65m last year. If that’s true and it is to be sustainable then we’ll have to play hardball with the agents. Doesn’t seem much of a coincidence that the first signing we’ve made was for a player who seems to have wanted to sign for reasons other than money primarily, judging by his comments.

I think it’s too early to say whether ‘the bubble has burst’ yet, but the PL China deal collapsing may be something we look back on in a few years time and think, that’s where it all started to unravel. For good or bad depending on your viewpoint.

[robbo1874]

On a bit of a tangent, but it is related to the thread, as it may impact on the signings we eventually make, does anyone know how the academy lads performed on the Wales training camp? If there’s some decent forward options likely to break through in the next 1-2 seasons, that may dictate how we approach signings in this window. Maybe if they think a few of these kids are knocking on the door, we may lean towards proven PL quality who can do a job short term for a season or two rather than championship longer term buys who may be seen as a bit of a risk. From all the stories of players who are linked and we’ve supposedly been chasing, it does seem like we’re going along the championship route. It will be fascinating to see how it all transpires. Nothing like a few big signings to get the fans excited though ahead of the season. I keep madly checking on here to see if we’ve got someone!

[SheffieldVillain]

Funny how most on here are berating the club, and saying how the grass seems to greener at all our rivals. Here's a Newcastle fan saying how our grass is greener.

Linky

But that sort of proves the point. Because Newcastle will struggle this year (they are a mess, can't see them overachieving like they did last year, owner wants to sell, lack of investment, poor manager) but when one looks at the clubs we will likely be competing around this year (Newcastle, Brighton, Leeds, WBA, Fulham, Palace, WHam, and Southampton), I'd argue Leeds, Brighton, WHam, Southampton have donner better business than we have in the window (to date) and, Palace are just in better shape generally.

Dangerous to predict when the window still has weeks to run but unless we see real quality incoming, I see us struggling again this coming year.

Palace nose dived at the end of last season, a bit like Watford the end of the season before. Palace also have an ageing team and their best player has been dying to leave for a while. I’m not sure where the analysis that they are in better shape comes from.
Leeds, Brighton, West Ham doing better business, that’s subjective to be honest.

West Ham doing better business isn't very subjective. They've just sold one of their most two promising young players for a relatively low fee, are rumoured to be selling the second to Chelsea and their entire fan base seems to be furious and wants the owners out. They also don't actually seem to have signed any players yet other than making the loan for Soucek permanent. So I'm at a loss as to how they are doing better business.

As far as I can see from the other clubs mentioned unless their transfer pages haven't been updated.

Southampton have signed two players, one of whom was on loan there last season and they've swapped for one of their best players.

Newcastle have signed Jeff Hendrick on a free, the most Steve Bruce-like signing it's possible to make.

Leeds have spent a fortune on a striker who doesn't score many goals who we would have been up in arms if we'd have signed, and a promising centre half for £11m. Two senior players plus three cheap youth players.

Palace have signed one promising Championship player for around £15m. So the same as us.

Brighton have signed Adam Lallana who may or may not be a good free transfer punt if his legs hold out, a defender from Ajax for £1m, a free transfer from Brugge, and young lads from Wigan and Bray Wanderers.

Burnley have signed no senior players.

Neither have Wolves, they've just sold Doherty for a staggeringly low fee.

Fulham have bought Antonee Robinson from Wigan and reportedly paid him £60k per week to do so and made loans permanent for Anthony Knockaert from Brighton and Harrison Reed who both played for them in the Championship last year.

I can understand people being impatient waiting for our signings, but making out teams around us are doing much different just isn't true whatever the links are on Twitter. About the only club other than the Champions League teams who have made big signings are Everton.

[SoccerHQ]

I think as a few other posters have noted that it may be more to do with wages than transfer fees. I read recently that the wage bill came down from >100m to around 65m last year. If that’s true and it is to be sustainable then we’ll have to play hardball with the agents. Doesn’t seem much of a coincidence that the first signing we’ve made was for a player who seems to have wanted to sign for reasons other than money primarily, judging by his comments.

I think it’s too early to say whether ‘the bubble has burst’ yet, but the PL China deal collapsing may be something we look back on in a few years time and think, that’s where it all started to unravel. For good or bad depending on your viewpoint.

Yeah that's true I guess. A 20M signing will demand 60k a week regardless of where they come form and if they're on 15k a week like Watkins is apparently on there.

I do remember years back though Spurs signed Modric for about 15m and he was only on 25k to start but then got a contract extension a year later that bumped him up to 40/50k.

Even now Spurs first 11 is massively underpaid compared to the likes of Arsenal and Man. United but they seem to get on with it.

[kippaxvilla2]

Agree with all that.  Leeds needed to buy as well.  The Albion are still woefully short in my view as well despite Pereira and Diangana being good signings.

[Shrek]

if we are aiming for a top half, top 10 spot then we will need a top half team
I know we will always need decent back up players but the top 10 players we have currently in my opinion are

G -  Heaton

D -  Guilbert Cash Mings Engels Target

M - Grealish McGinn Luiz

F - 0

fill in the gaps in this window and we can do it

I’m not writing off everybody else obviously but some aren’t and never will be top half quality and others Nakamba Wesley Konsa will need to continue to improve

we are not far of imo if we can fill those gaps in the forward line

I agree on all bar Engels, I think Konsa is better than him personally.

[SoccerHQ]

On a bit of a tangent, but it is related to the thread, as it may impact on the signings we eventually make, does anyone know how the academy lads performed on the Wales training camp? If there’s some decent forward options likely to break through in the next 1-2 seasons, that may dictate how we approach signings in this window. Maybe if they think a few of these kids are knocking on the door, we may lean towards proven PL quality who can do a job short term for a season or two rather than championship longer term buys who may be seen as a bit of a risk. From all the stories of players who are linked and we’ve supposedly been chasing, it does seem like we’re going along the championship route. It will be fascinating to see how it all transpires. Nothing like a few big signings to get the fans excited though ahead of the season. I keep madly checking on here to see if we’ve got someone!

Louie Barry the obvious one but would imagine a loan to championship in next 12 months is the sensible move e.g. what Chelsea did with Tammy before finally giving him a go in the first team.

[robbo1874]

I don’t remember seeing Barry in the photos they put out.
I think there were about 5 or 6, none of whom I’d really heard of other than Bidace. Vassilev’s an interesting one too. Maybe will be ahead of Davies in the pecking order next season, or out on loan?

[algy]

I think as a few other posters have noted that it may be more to do with wages than transfer fees. I read recently that the wage bill came down from >100m to around 65m last year. If that’s true and it is to be sustainable then we’ll have to play hardball with the agents. Doesn’t seem much of a coincidence that the first signing we’ve made was for a player who seems to have wanted to sign for reasons other than money primarily, judging by his comments.

I think it’s too early to say whether ‘the bubble has burst’ yet, but the PL China deal collapsing may be something we look back on in a few years time and think, that’s where it all started to unravel. For good or bad depending on your viewpoint.

Yeah, this.

Also, if we start overpaying for players and acting like the richest club in the league, the price tags we pay will rise accordingly, as will the wages. In that sense we need to follow the Spurs model more than the Man City one - drive hard bargains & keep our costs low enough that we don't end up forking out £100,000 a week in a third choice keeper. I mean, what would that make Jack's wages? Something like £250,000 a week at least .... it's a slippery slope.

[Mister E]

I think as a few other posters have noted that it may be more to do with wages than transfer fees. I read recently that the wage bill came down from >100m to around 65m last year. If that’s true and it is to be sustainable then we’ll have to play hardball with the agents. Doesn’t seem much of a coincidence that the first signing we’ve made was for a player who seems to have wanted to sign for reasons other than money primarily, judging by his comments.

I think it’s too early to say whether ‘the bubble has burst’ yet, but the PL China deal collapsing may be something we look back on in a few years time and think, that’s where it all started to unravel. For good or bad depending on your viewpoint.

Yeah, this.

Also, if we start overpaying for players and acting like the richest club in the league, the price tags we pay will rise accordingly, as will the wages. In that sense we need to follow the Spurs model more than the Man City one - drive hard bargains & keep our costs low enough that we don't end up forking out £100,000 a week in a third choice keeper. I mean, what would that make Jack's wages? Something like £250,000 a week at least .... it's a slippery slope.

All well and good re wages and not overpaying. But we still have the question of purchase price.
 
Brentford would be looking at the benchmark we've set for ourselves (with Cash) and saying that W & B have to be worth £20-25m apiece. And, Bournemouth - who have already mugged off Ake and Ramsdale for high prices - will look at the Cash buy and say that Wilson (England player in the prime of his career) is worth over £20m, too.
Haven't we created our own problem here? Or, maybe the delay is not in the price but the finer details.