I'm sure we'll sign what we need to, the market is madness at the moment and the prices being banded around are just plain crazy for bang average players, it'll all change towards the end of the window. I do however think there something in the holding back for a potential sale. If that's the case it needs to be done with enough time in the window!
I think the likelihood is there is nobody buying us anytime soon. I'm not sure we are attractive enough for any investors to pay what Ashley would want. Market is a bastard, selling clubs are greedy, we don't have a great deal of money, and we are feeding off scraps once the big clubs have had their fill is the most likely situation.
You probably know better than me because, yes, I didn't watch much EPL last year and it was a genuine question, but I know Premier League standards and Shelvey and Hayden wouldn't be a relegation standard CM partnership IMHO. The issue for me in CM is strength in depth because Diame and Colback aren't good enough by a long chalk, and, of course, if we are buying we should be looking for better than we have and make some of our 1st teamers into back up players. I think looking at the prices for players these days, we are looking at next season before we can compete for mid-table because we just don't have the big TV deal money that some others have. This season seems to be about making what we do have go far enough that we keep ourselves in the division. Only then will we have this war chest to compete on a level playing field with other clubs.
What about a #10 though? That has to be the most important position to fill, no? Absolutely critical for me and I'm not sure if there's been much talk about someone coming in. Who's been linked?
They are like absolute gold dust. It's going to be very difficult to find a decent #10 for the money we are willing to spend.
I think people are over thinking things... The domestic market just went nuts like never before (Gilfi for £50m??). Rafa has said this himself. We have a prudent owner in an overpriced market so I bet we've had targets and discussions which in all previous seasons would have led to a transfer but the game has changed this year. I actually applaud this approach. I saw a stat the other day which said in the last 9 years cumulatively SAFC for example have made an economic loss of over £200m. Add to that they have little by the way of saleable assets and need to invest badly. Do we want that for our club? People are already speculating that, with declining viewing figures domestically (-19% YOY) the Sky bubble has one more big pay day before it bursts. If this is the case we will see a lot of clubs hit the rocks big time. I'd rather prudently and slowly assemble a team over two to three windows of players who are not so over priced than go out and spank £100m on 4 players who might actually be **** when they bed in. Instead if we get 4 players in this summer who cost £10m they can grow into £25m players. Thauvin was a good example of an expensive player who was **** for us so we need to look beyond the price tag IMHO.
£20m Didier Ndong from Sunderland. I thought he grew in stature as the season went on, he's young and has a good engine. Would free up space for the likes of Shelvey. I prefer him to any of the CM we've been linked with and I suspect Sunderland would sell if we made an offer of £20m. To my mind we need a box-to-box defensively minded player to sit next to Shelvey and it allows us to play any #10 we want without worrying so much about their pace or tracking back (I honestly thought Siem De Jong had ability...). Oh well, there's two controversial things to get pulled apart regarding
Unless the quality of the Premiership has gone up since we were last there, we should have enough to stay there as we are. We've a better manager also - as long as stays.
Think we still have a while to go yet before we teach that point where things start really moving on transfers. Needs the top clubs to get who they want and then they start releasing other players which the other clubs look at. Not really bothered at the moment.
Agree, when we were relegated people were saying if Rafa had a little longer he would have kept that squad up with players like Saylor and Colo. The only player who was better than what we have now was Wijnaldum for me. Janmatt<Yedlin, Colo<Clarke, Cisse<Gayle.
If i take off the panic/cynical hat for a moment, I do think there's a genuine dilemma for Rafa which Hank has eluded to. Do we not want Hayden/Shelvey to be given a chance? If so, who can a newly-promoted team realistically get as backup in such challenging positions - is Hayden not better than Ndong? I reckon he is by some distance. If there's no wider issue/club sale involved, it may be simply that we won't spend without the money in the bank (August we get paid by Sky), aren't happy with the fees and/or cannot get anyone in better than what we have - which would be a Rafa opinion. We'll never really know, unless something big happens like Rafa leaving or the club changing hands.
I'm actually happy with our approach this summer. Some of the fees being paid for unproven premier league players is just absolutely crazy. Some of them you can understand for certain players, Lacazette for example. Then you look at Gilfi (£50m) proven premier league quality but crazy money, Pickford (£30m) 1 season in the premier league...absolutely stupid money...and then Lukaku (£90m) proven premier league quality....£90m is just downright irresponsible and ****ing mental if you ask me. There are far lesser know players moving around for £20-£30m so I'm not surprised we're looking at things from a totally different angle. I still expect to see at least 2 new faces in before the season starts...4 would be ideal but provided that the players were for positions we're crying out for (creative midfielder for example) then I'd be relatively happy. We can re-assess in January of course but I'm pretty sure we don't do much business in that window.
I see Oliver Ntcham has moved to Celtic from Man City. Another one I expect to be "worth" £20m+ within 10 months, like Dembele. They paid just £4.5m, seems like a no-brainer when we have no playmaker at all. Not panicked, don't know a great deal about him, but he has better pedigree than Lejeune and moreover it just feels like the football world is passing us by.
I have to say I think we look like relegation battlers again - as it stands. That is normal for promoted clubs though even with signings. Obviously the issue is the club and manager have talked up expecting more than that. The fans buy into it (which is a good thing). Then when the club doesn't make much progress on a side which made hard work of the championship nevermind the PL, then the fans get itchy. Quality wise I must have watched a different side to some of our supporters. Anyone thinking the PL isn't a step up is mistaken. Yes the gulf between the bottom of the PL and the top of the Championship is not huge, but there is a gap. Then you look at the business done and our squad hasn't moved on much from the one which made heavy work of the Championship. I'm bewildered how anyone could say with any degree of certainty we would survive given its the same players, same manager etc. However the time to judge is September 1st. Yes we could be making the start of the season tricky and putting ourselves on the back foot, but quality when managed correctly can get you out of trouble.
I agree here but we need to be mindful that we don't want to be seen to be brandishing a financial strategy shield to deflect grief for not spending.
Far from it, in fact: https://www.nufc.co.uk/news/latest-news/join-rafa-for-a-night-at-nine-bar Unusual to go public front and centre if there were issues bubbling away. Nice move by Rafa again to deflect the negative media; the Independent the latest attempt at de-stabilising things.
Thought this when I saw it as well, if you were down to the last thread of your patience you wouldn't be doing a meet and greet on the stadium doorsteps!
