I don't think it has much to do with Cortese's lack of experience in the transfer market - I'd imagine a lot of that is left up to Les Reed.
Deleted By BT What part of our clubs business actually concerns you? Fight your own relegation battle with your **** chairman. Many thanks.
I'm not convinced Gorkss was ever a target. QPR threw him in to try and get Puncheon. My guess is QPR cooled their interest in Puncheon and therefore we did not want to go ahead with Gorkss as a standalone.
I'm not sure why people are critisising Saints approach to the Fontaine/Gorkss situation. We simply don't know enough details and speculate. I think the reputed 800K for Fontaine was a good price, but was that low price was based on his injury - BC wanting to cash in on an injured player - us hoping to get a bargain (based on him not being too seriously injured). Sensibly a medical stopped us from making a mistake. As far as Gorkss went, I'm not sure if he's ever really been a target for NA - I think he only came into consideration when QPR enquired about Puncheon. So while I don't doubt his ability, I think he has always been a back -up option in NA's mind. I'm pretty sure NA has a plan as to the type of players he wants and I think Gorkss wasn't one of them. I imagine if none of these 'targeted' players are available or properly valued, we simply won't sign someone for the sake of it and just look to bring in players on short term loan
Do players want to sign for us? I should imagine the fact that we're sitting top of the league at present and are a club on-the-up should make an attractive one to transfer to.
I also agree with this. It's clear that Cortese is a classic hard headed business man with a "my way or the high way" attitude and therefore, he's not about to take anyone "into the building" that won't or can't accept that. It'll get interesting though, when we get to the Prem and he has to think about signing some of those "Prima Donnas"
How true is that.......which while I agree about the attitude of players........hopefully in the not too distant future.......Both NA and NC are going to have to learn how to deal with them....even the lesser of them maybe. None the less if you want to get on then you do have to attract the best who as we know some do tend to be a bit "prima Donna-ish" although they do the goods on the field of play. It's another of the facts of life.........
We will never know of course, but I wonder what Adkins thinks of all this. All he says,'We have a hardworking group of play.....' sorry delete that..'We have a hardworking chairman working hard behind the scenes to get players in.' Wonder if he really means, 'For ****'s sake, get on with it!'
At the beginning of the pre-season, when all the media started to talk to the clubs about what they were thinking of doing, transfer wise, Adkins said we need 2 or 3 players. This got changed to 3 or 4 players later on. 3 or 4 could mean 3, or it could mean 4. Not just 4. Otherwise Adkins would have said, we need 4 players. So: Cork De Ridder Fox Let me count those for a moment... er... 3. So we seem to have transferred in the minimum players we need. Close the transfer window, we're finished here.
I agree completely. Being able to attract but most importantly manage Premiership level players will be the biggest test for NC and the management team. When you look at teams like Chelsea, Man City and Spurs, the players have such big ego's that complying to a certain way of doing things or specifically the NC way of doing things will come really hard. I know we're getting a bit ahead of ourselves here, but something to think about..
I would be very surprised if Adkins didn't have a say in who comes in. I think the interview that hotbovril mentions is probably with Adkins and if the player doesn't fit the Adkins profile then he doesn't get bought, end of. Anyone coming in would have to be: a. Able to fill a position which the team is weak in, or better than the existing players in that position, and b. Able to fit in with the rest of the squad, the coaches, the management team etc.
I am 100% sure Adkins gets a say on purchases. I find it difficult to understand the need to keep seemingly agreeing a price and then getting the player to take a medical going through all the rigmarole and then not carrying it through. Medical failure aside................It is not making any sense. We can all speculate what the reasons are/were, it just does not help us the fan understand. You would be quite right in saying we don't have to understand. The truth is though most are interested in all aspects of the club and its dealings including the reasons for or against........