I can't see us sacking him to be honest. Ralph may often be full of ****, but I can't see him bigging up MP so much, particularly on a personal level, if they didn't genuinely believe he's the man for us. He could have just said he's a good manager he's staying, but he backed him pretty emphatically all things considered.
Sky reported last night that former Watford striker Ighalo, is talking to two Premier League clubs. The release fee is £20m.
http://sportwitness.co.uk/contract-...ystal-palace-transfer-60k-week-heading-court/ Some problem with Palace's purchase of a keeper. Getafe upset that they have offered the release clause amount.....which is supposed to be a secret?? Strikes me that the club have been naïve if they think Guaita would keep a low release clause a secret if he wants the move.
P Won’t be us. He’s 29 in June, so will never pay £20 million with little / no sell on value, unless he has an absolute blinder of a year.
Was Ighalo even that good? Remember him more from Spain where he was OK, nothing special then had a hot streak at Watford before doing not a lot? Wouldn't be hugely against it as £20m isn't a lot of money but wouldn't be a massively inspiring signing either.
http://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2018/01/1...on-to-beat-crystal-palace-to-ligue-1-hotshot/ Said to be close to signing Carillo for 17 million. Close like Theo?
Carillo doesn't impress me much and I'm not sure he'd have the right temperament or even be adequately prepared for the physicality of the PL. Tbh I'd much prefer us to take a punt on a young championship player such as Bowen from Hull. He seems to have the right attitude, can play across the front three, has no trouble scoring (11 in 25) and has only just turned 21. Not to mention Adkins is now the manager of Hull...
Fyodor Smolov has a good record at Krasnodar (48 in 64)- similar to Pelle's at Feyenoord. He's been linked with West Ham and from what I've read of him he'd do well in the Prem. Apparently available for £15m so within our price range, one would assume. Here is a goal of his against Spain, apparently his second was better but can't find a link.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football...eve-model-works-now-mauricio-pellegrino-must/ Update from Sam Wallace.
There’s a very interesting and somewhat reassuring tone to that article. No more excuses for Pellegrino.
Interesting. I note that figures show a net spend on players and wages....with an increase in wages of 48 million over the last 4 years. Fans can be too simplistic with arithmetic and assume that money is being squirrelled out of the club. As our chairman said recently 40 million doesn't buy you 2 x £20 million players because you are paying twice the wages.
Good to also see that they agree we have good players in most positions, and also ones that have been letting down the side this season. Not a stab at either as I like both of them and we know what they're capable of, but you can't be a soft touch. Saturday is a big game and hopefully the players show what we know they're capable of.
Interesting to see the difference of the reactions on here and Saintsweb Here it sounds reassuring and promising. Over there it is worrying that the board cant see how **** we have been for 2 years and how we are blaming everything on VVD https://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?59206-The-latest-telegraph-article
A good article and presumably fed by the club. However I found it a bit disjointed and flicked from subject to subject randomly! If Hoedt is VVD's replacement, who is Fonte's replacement? We have Hoedt, Yoshida and Stephens, so I think our priority this window is a striker/winger and a CB.
I have never disputed where the money raised from player sales goes, its the extra £100m or whatever from TV rights that I question. I also don't really understand how clubs with similar revenue as us, but not the player sales, spend similar amounts to us and some offer larger wages. They must be bankrupt if Reed is to be believed that we are close to running at maximum.
