Summer Transfer Thread and Gustavo Cisneros Type Rumours.

[Stu]

The recruitment does fit with Lange's way of doing things when he was at FCK. I don't think we'll see us making JWP type signings for £50m, feel like that kind of signing is pie in the sky.

[algy]

We’ve also had £100m plus whatever we got for Engels in.
We did spend a lot the previous 2 summers and the whole club has moved forward immeasurably since we almost went bump but I think this is the first sign that the ambition only goes so far. We might have to get ready for just being a club that sits comfortably in the PL and sells its best players from time to time rather than one that competes with the elite. I’d have taken the former 3 years ago but the insinuation has been for the latter, a bit like Lerners early days. I think (hope) that at least these won’t lose interest at some point though.

I'm curious to how FFP will pan out after the pandemic.  One things that strikes me is that Man City are sailing very close to the wind right now, if they're genuinely about to spend £250m this summer.

My hope is that Purslow has been a clever operator.   That he's used the Super League fiasco to remove the Scab 6 from the decision making process, and we're staying whiter-than-white in FFP terms because we fully intend to beat Man City et al with that particular stick in the near future.  Scab 6 gone, we've got a room full of probable allies.

If we're honest, the whole league is so skewed in their favour right now that we need more than a couple of relatively free-spending billionaires to reign them in.  My hope is that we're making sure that we hold the levers of power within the Premier League, and we're getting ready to thoroughly shaft Man City once and for all.

[Chris Smith]

So, in the year where FFP doesn't apply, we've decided to come over all Dougish? I appreciate the board say they've got ambition and all but come on. The squad is thin, imbalanced and obviously, painfully lacking in areas. It needs sorting.

Come over all Dougish? We've spent over £90m. I'm sure they want more players in, it's just getting them. But yes, the owners are acting like Doug.

Net spend, me old mate, net spend is in the minus. Hence the FFP comment. And obviously the 'Dougish' thing was just hyperbole.

Net spend is obviously massively distorted due to the sum we got for one player so not sure it’s particularly relevant. We go into the season with better options than we had last season but without that one star attraction. We’re not in the market, currently, to buy players at that level so we’ve had to do things slightly differently.

Some of you give the impression that you’ve given up on the season already.

[Monty]

In all fairness Monty, accusing NSWE of employing Doug-enomics deserves criticism. They are everything Doug wasn’t. Ambitious, committed and they stay out of the media.

But I wasn't. It was just a rhetorical thing. Of course I don't actually think NSWE are really comparable to Doug rat-badgering Ellis. No reasonable person could think that, or think that I think that.

[Monty]

So, in the year where FFP doesn't apply, we've decided to come over all Dougish? I appreciate the board say they've got ambition and all but come on. The squad is thin, imbalanced and obviously, painfully lacking in areas. It needs sorting.

Come over all Dougish? We've spent over £90m. I'm sure they want more players in, it's just getting them. But yes, the owners are acting like Doug.

Net spend, me old mate, net spend is in the minus. Hence the FFP comment. And obviously the 'Dougish' thing was just hyperbole.

Net spend is obviously massively distorted due to the sum we got for one player so not sure it’s particularly relevant. We go into the season with better options than we had last season but without that one star attraction. We’re not in the market, currently, to buy players at that level so we’ve had to do things slightly differently.

Some of you give the impression that you’ve given up on the season already.

And some of us treat any criticism of the club ever as if it were personal criticism of ourselves. Or that any criticism must entail every hysterical interpretation, i.e. 'net spend is down and there are holes in the squad which ought to be addressed' = 'sack the manager, sack the board, forfeit the season and convert VP into an Asda'.

[Clark W Griswold]

The other thing to consider is that it doesn’t actually have to be all about money spent. To have imbalance in the squad after all of the ins and outs over the past couple of years is mental, and that fucks me off more than the fact that we’ve made a £15m profit or whatever it is this summer.

[mr underhill]

the amount of injuries our players pick up  is pissing me off

[chrisw1]

Thing is, we weren't planning to sell Jack, had bough Buendia and were clearly in the market for more.  If FFP was truly behind us then it does seem odd to me to call it a day on transfers when we're in the black for the summer.

It seems there's a huge opportunity when loads of clubs are skint because of Covid.  If we finish the summer without taking further advantage of that it just feels a bit odd given our stated ambitions.

I want the sort of squad depth the top 6 clubs tend to have.   That means not having to play both of Ings and Watkins and compromising shape to do so, not having to play Nakamba or Luiz at DM and ideally having a proper dedicated 10 / left sided winger if that is the style Smith wants to continue to play. 

It just feels a bit deflating.  A missed opportunity really.

[Chris Smith]

So, in the year where FFP doesn't apply, we've decided to come over all Dougish? I appreciate the board say they've got ambition and all but come on. The squad is thin, imbalanced and obviously, painfully lacking in areas. It needs sorting.

Come over all Dougish? We've spent over £90m. I'm sure they want more players in, it's just getting them. But yes, the owners are acting like Doug.

Net spend, me old mate, net spend is in the minus. Hence the FFP comment. And obviously the 'Dougish' thing was just hyperbole.

Net spend is obviously massively distorted due to the sum we got for one player so not sure it’s particularly relevant. We go into the season with better options than we had last season but without that one star attraction. We’re not in the market, currently, to buy players at that level so we’ve had to do things slightly differently.

Some of you give the impression that you’ve given up on the season already.

And some of us treat any criticism of the club ever as if it were personal criticism of ourselves. Or that any criticism must entail every hysterical interpretation, i.e. 'net spend is down and there are holes in the squad which ought to be addressed' = 'sack the manager, sack the board, forfeit the season and convert VP into an Asda'.

Touchy.

[Toronto Villa]

There’s still time in the window to complete deals. If we have seen anything from our incoming deals it’s that they happen quickly. I am sure conversations are happening behind the scenes and for squad space reasons some players need to leave; Conor, maybe Wes etc. So we can’t just bring players in until other things happen; with us or other clubs. These are people with families, relationships and with contracts. It’s not Football Manager where you just push a button.

[Monty]

So, in the year where FFP doesn't apply, we've decided to come over all Dougish? I appreciate the board say they've got ambition and all but come on. The squad is thin, imbalanced and obviously, painfully lacking in areas. It needs sorting.

Come over all Dougish? We've spent over £90m. I'm sure they want more players in, it's just getting them. But yes, the owners are acting like Doug.

Net spend, me old mate, net spend is in the minus. Hence the FFP comment. And obviously the 'Dougish' thing was just hyperbole.

Net spend is obviously massively distorted due to the sum we got for one player so not sure it’s particularly relevant. We go into the season with better options than we had last season but without that one star attraction. We’re not in the market, currently, to buy players at that level so we’ve had to do things slightly differently.

Some of you give the impression that you’ve given up on the season already.

And some of us treat any criticism of the club ever as if it were personal criticism of ourselves. Or that any criticism must entail every hysterical interpretation, i.e. 'net spend is down and there are holes in the squad which ought to be addressed' = 'sack the manager, sack the board, forfeit the season and convert VP into an Asda'.

Touchy.

A little. The bloke you came in to bat for, however, said that my good-faith explanation of something was 'bollocks', so forgive me for feeling a little riled.

[Chris Smith]

Thing is, we weren't planning to sell Jack, had bough Buendia and were clearly in the market for more.  If FFP was truly behind us then it does seem odd to me to call it a day on transfers when we're in the black for the summer.

It seems there's a huge opportunity when loads of clubs are skint because of Covid.  If we finish the summer without taking further advantage of that it just feels a bit odd given our stated ambitions.

I want the sort of squad depth the top 6 clubs tend to have.   That means not having to play both of Ings and Watkins and compromising shape to do so, not having to play Nakamba or Luiz at DM and ideally having a proper dedicated 10 / left sided winger if that is the style Smith wants to continue to play. 

It just feels a bit deflating.  A missed opportunity really.

Me too, I’d love is to be in that poison. It’s a bit chicken and egg though isn’t it. The top 6 have that depth because they are a top 6 club and therefore play more games. It becomes difficult to keep a squad of that size, all with aspirations to play, unless you can give them the expectation that they’ll feature regularly.

[paul_e]

Yep, I couldn't give a shit about net spend but I do care that our only genuine defensive midfielder isn't good enough to be a regular starter for a club aiming for the top half of the table. Getting someone who can sit in front of the back 4 and become, effectively, a 3rd centre back if we get caught on the counter is the signing we need. He might not need to play every game, sometimes 3 8s will work fine and sometimes Luiz sitting deeper with 2 more attacking players ahead of him will be an option but not having a proper DM limits our options massively. Of the links Pape Sarr is the one I still want to see go further, he's young and raw so wouldn't be a regular starter (or expect to be) but him, Chuk and the Ramseys could become a fantastic set of midfield options as they develop together.

I think the squad is generally ok other than that and I don't really get why people, after Saturday, have suddenly decided that we signed 2 right wingers and have a massive gap on the left, Bailey will play on the left more often than not but will swap sides and have licence to drift, just like Grealish did.

[ozzjim]

It's not like the opportunity hasn't been there this summer either. There are a number of decent players out there that could round the squad out. If we signed a holding mid and a wide left creative player, then I would look at the window as successful because we would have genuinely strengthened despite Kira Knightlys tribute act leaving. As it is, we are creatively worse, and still have the same issue in midfield. We have signed 2 right wingers and a striker that we needed. I'm not sure we are stronger at all.

[Monty]

Yep, I couldn't give a shit about net spend but I do care that our only genuine defensive midfielder isn't good enough to be a regular starter for a club aiming for the top half of the table.

Well obviously, we care about net spend if the squad looks patchy, which it does.