2024 January transfer window - hopes, needs, expectations and rumours.

[TonyD]

Has to be the quietest window ever.   

[TelfordVilla]

If we have no FFP wiggle room in the summer. Maybe we just keep the squad we have, sell no-one and add a couple of free transfers (if available). As a Champions League team we would be an attractive option for many to join and no-one we want to keep will be desperate to leave?

[Ads]

The summer window will be a different accounting period.

[VillaTim]

Has to be the quietest window ever.

Cost of elite football living crisis

[ozzjim]

Smart free transfers and 17-21 year olds with big potential are clearly a strategy, as I think will be the South American and Japanese markets in the next couple of years. We've been linked with a 22 year old centre half in Argentina that looks like he has some potential, he'd be £50m over here. The key, as Brighton are proving so well, is to have good coaching that shows off the talent of your well scouted player, and be willing to back your scouting to repeat the trick when you sell one.

[pablo_picasso]

Even if it did happen, imagine Emery / Monchi with a £100m , I'd be confident we'd be improving overall

Zaniolo, Diaby & potentially Rogers would be about £100M under Monchi.

Would I swap all three of those for Douglas Luiz?

No...

If we are tight on FFP, we will be in the old position of selling somebody like Luiz, because we need the money and we can’t match his ambitions.

If there’s truth in the rumour Man City want him for £100m I can see that happening.

We'd be mad to turn £100m down for him if anyone offered that, whilst he's been very good every player has a price and that would be excellent business

And yet, playing right into the hands of the media favourite status quo clubs & fuck all changes...

Talking of 3 year cycles, we’ve got a £99.5m loss dropping off the accounts this year, so that’s good.

If Percy is correct, and I’ve no doubt he is, I think we can breath easy regarding selling our better players.

Hopefully.

And if the words of Chris Heck are anything to go by, we are looking to keep our best players if he wants to make bids for bidding clubs players.

Not sure I trust the word of Chris Heck, but as it stands, its all we have to go on officially regarding our best players.

We have to be super realistic. Any bids of over £100m for any of our players would have to be seriously considered. Would also be best part of £10m p season off wage bill at the sametime. Luiz is basically "homegrown" for ffp since his amortisation is basically nil

That kind of money would give us massive ffp headroom to bring in 2-3 top top level players

Having said this, not overly worried. Trust Unai and his team to have a plan regardless

Im sure Leicester said the same thing when they were being offered for their best players, & look at them now.

A bird in the hand & all that...

[eamonn]

The summer window will be a different accounting period.

And, I think Percy mentioned, the point at which our awful £100m loss falls-off the 3-year cycle for these rules.

[OCD]

Smart free transfers and 17-21 year olds with big potential are clearly a strategy, as I think will be the South American and Japanese markets in the next couple of years. We've been linked with a 22 year old centre half in Argentina that looks like he has some potential, he'd be £50m over here. The key, as Brighton are proving so well, is to have good coaching that shows off the talent of your well scouted player, and be willing to back your scouting to repeat the trick when you sell one.

Given this, I'm surprised nobody's posted a list of players who's contract expires this summer. So here's a list of them - https://www.footballtransfers.com/en/transfer-news/uk-premier-league/2023/05/out-of-contract-2024-best-football-free-agents-bosman.

[Percy McCarthy]

The summer window will be a different accounting period.

And, I think Percy mentioned, the point at which our awful £100m loss falls-off the 3-year cycle for these rules.

I think that drops off when the accounts up to June 2020 are replaced in the three year cycle by the accounts up to June 2023, which if following the same pattern, will be reported in March this year.

[Somniloquism]

Joe's sale is still on the books for next season isn't it?

[Smithy]

Smart free transfers and 17-21 year olds with big potential are clearly a strategy, as I think will be the South American and Japanese markets in the next couple of years. We've been linked with a 22 year old centre half in Argentina that looks like he has some potential, he'd be £50m over here. The key, as Brighton are proving so well, is to have good coaching that shows off the talent of your well scouted player, and be willing to back your scouting to repeat the trick when you sell one.

I think the advantage we have over someone like Brighton, is that given a few years of on-the-field success, we have the potential to match the commercial off-the-field success of the current "top 6". So although such a transfer strategy is an excellent one, it isn't something we should have to rely on forever, unlike Brighton - who, with the best will in the world, are never going to have the sort of commercial success of the likes of Chelsea, Spurs or Arsenal.  Without that off the field success, you can unearth diamonds till the cows come home, but you're unlikely to be able to afford the wages to keep them for more than a couple of years at a time.

Our commercial ceiling is certainly as high as pretty much anyone in the league, bar perhaps Manchester United and Liverpool, who have a forty-year head start in building up a global fan base.  Everyone else is certainly catchable with 5-10 years of reasonable success on the pitch.

[Smithy]

Smart free transfers and 17-21 year olds with big potential are clearly a strategy, as I think will be the South American and Japanese markets in the next couple of years. We've been linked with a 22 year old centre half in Argentina that looks like he has some potential, he'd be £50m over here. The key, as Brighton are proving so well, is to have good coaching that shows off the talent of your well scouted player, and be willing to back your scouting to repeat the trick when you sell one.

Given this, I'm surprised nobody's posted a list of players who's contract expires this summer. So here's a list of them - https://www.footballtransfers.com/en/transfer-news/uk-premier-league/2023/05/out-of-contract-2024-best-football-free-agents-bosman.

To be honest, a big chunk of that list appears to be players on the way down (or close to it) who probably haven't been offered a decent-length contract where they are, rather than trying to run down their contracts to get a lucrative free elsewhere. 

If we're going down the free transfer route, we want free transfers like Bouba and Youri - 20-somethings with their best years ahead of them, not the guys looking for a 3-year contract when they're legs are already going.  I'm not averse to giving older players a short-term contract (like Ashley Young), but I hope to God the days are long gone of us giving out 3 or 4 year contracts with big wages to 30-year-old players just because they are "free".

[Percy McCarthy]

Joe's sale is still on the books for next season isn't it?

Yes, the accounts for the year Joe was sold showed a profit of £400k. I think they fall off next year.

[LeeS]

Smart free transfers and 17-21 year olds with big potential are clearly a strategy, as I think will be the South American and Japanese markets in the next couple of years. We've been linked with a 22 year old centre half in Argentina that looks like he has some potential, he'd be £50m over here. The key, as Brighton are proving so well, is to have good coaching that shows off the talent of your well scouted player, and be willing to back your scouting to repeat the trick when you sell one.

Given this, I'm surprised nobody's posted a list of players who's contract expires this summer. So here's a list of them - https://www.footballtransfers.com/en/transfer-news/uk-premier-league/2023/05/out-of-contract-2024-best-football-free-agents-bosman.

That Mbappe fella looks like he might make it. I'm surprised no-one on here has mentioned him. Could be a good back up for Olly and get some playing time in the League Cup.

[UK Redsox]

Has to be the quietest window ever.   

Triple glazed