You were Brucey and had £20 million from the Henderson sale, £3 million from Ferdinand, £1 million from Steed and a further £18 million from the Bent sale based on Villa paying us £18 million upfront and not including add ons, Totals = £42 million. This isnt anything to criticise Bruce, just want to see which players you would have went for and at what price you think we could have bagged them at. Lets say the free transfers are a given so we have Larrson, Westwood & Vaughan in. Obviously not all the players might of been available etc but everybody has their price dont they! I'll start, 1. Wes Brown & John O'shea (Manchester United) - £6 million combined - Great deal and I wouldnt change this transfer, both look to be cracking signings, just hope O'shea gets fit soon. 2. Charles N'Zogbia - Left Winger (Wigan Athletic) - £9.5 million - Desperate for a left winger and I would have loved him at Sunderland to link up with Gyan & Sess. 3. Cissoko - Left back (Lyon) - £8 million - Thought he was out of reach until the Mags were in talks with him, quite expensive but if quality left backs like this lad are available at reasonable prices we should snap it up. Added to that we have no left back at the club so would be sound business in my eyes. 4. Connor Whickham - Striker (Ipswich Town) - £8 million - I think this lad has massive potential and will hopefully show it during his time with Sunderland. 5. Nedum Onouha - Right back or Centre Back (Manchester City) - Season long loan with view to buy - Replacement for Anton really but an upgrade. To avoid spending some money I would get him on loan and buy him next season when we have some more cash from TV etc. 6. Bendtner (Arsenal) - Season long loan - Again avoid spending and save money for the strikers below and he could turn out to be a very good siging with a low risk factor. 7. Danny Welbeck (Manchester United) - £10 million - Should have tied up a permanent deal close of the season or even negotiated with Man U while he was injured but would have loved him to sign permanently TOTAL = £41.5 Million ---------------------Mignolet-------------------- Onouha---------O'shea--------Brown------Cissoko Sessegnon-----Larsson----Cattermole-----N'Zogbia -------------Welbeck---------------------------- ------------------------Gyan-------------------- Subs - Westwood, Vaughan, Richardson, Whickham, Turner, Colback, Meyler, Bramble, Bardsley, Bendtner
Although I think Gardner is a good player and should really have had more chance by now its the signing of Gardner and Wickham where I'm scratching my head at Bruces thinking. An outlay of 13m on two players that don't appear to be in his first 11 when we knew we needed a quality replacement for bent, it doesn't really add up. I think the signing of wickham was fully motivated by the figures involved in the sale of Henderson. The club saw a long term profit and that fair enough but not if it affects the short term progression of the club, if we are paying 8-12m for a player he should be a shoe in for a start. Brown and Oshea were shrewd moves The frees of Westwood, Larssen and Vaughan also good moves He obviously sees something in elmo in training that we don't get to.see in matches, he's young and 2m is nowt for a versatile player. Ji is a no lose situation, he either becomes a star or we sell him back to s.korea for what we bought him for. Going into the market Nzogbia and a new striker would have been top of my priority list. We never stood a chance of getting Welbeck. I'm happy with the signing of Bendtner for the year, however neither he or gyan wil be at safc next year so we may need a whole new strike force next season again. What it does do is give wickham and ji the chance to show Bruce that. they are capable of leading the line next year, we also have frazier coming back so if all goes well we may only need to bring in one striker
Not an easy one... ....................................................Gordon......................................... Bardo.........................O'Shea.........................Huth.....................Warnock Larsson......................Gardner........................Catts....................Sess. ...............................Sturridge.......................Gyan..................... Thats O'Shea 5m Huth 8m Warnock 3m Sturridge 15m Gardner 6m Total 37m. O'Shea and Huth would be a good pairing. Warnock a l/b Sess on the left.......sorted. Sturridge, worth every penny. All this with kepping Gyan, who i would have sold anyway and replaced with either Bendtner or Pav. Edit forgot to add my man Ji for 2m, so total 39m.
Good point in your 1st paragraph Parker, strage how we have like you say £13 million on the bench! Never really thought of it like that.
Just want to say, InBruceWeTrust, i love you for putting Larsson in the middle. He'll clearly be excellent there. I think he's a somewhat wasted on the right It's ok saying 10 million for Welbeck, but i'm pretty certain that sort of deal wasn't available. The club were highly put off by N'Zogbia's wages, so he wasn't really available to us either. As for who i think we should have brought in...well my knowledge of european footy is not what it used to be, i don't know much outside of the PL nowadays. Think i'd still have brought in Brown and O'Shea, although that's having seen them play for us where they've been top class. I think we're in desperate need of more pacey, skillful and creative players in our squad. IMO, we're not necessarily in need of strikers, but just a larger pool of attacking players. Couple of injuries to the wrong players and i honestly don't know what sort of trouble we'd be in. I'm not a fan of having two from Gardner, Colback and Cattermole in the middle, especially with Larsson on the right. There's just not enough attack in there for me. Who wouldn't swap Gardner and Vaghan (possibly even Larsson, too, as good as he is) for Kranjar? With wages of three players taken into account, Kranjar would probably have been the cheaper option. We're ALL aware of our left side, which need some attention to say the least. We could put Sessegnon on the left then bring in right winger, as right wingers are easier to find. Even SWP, of all players, at least he'd get the midfield moving forward and have us using the whole field. I like Bendtner on load, i'd still take him. ---------------------Bendtner----------------------- -----------------------Gyan------------------------- Sess--------Kranjar-----Catts------------SWP Bardo-------Brown-----Turner?-----O'Shea We've probably spent less there than we've actually spent but achieved a considerably better team? Money still in the kitty for a left back and or/another top quality addition.
Liked am all, but not a chance of Wellbeck, bollocks we couldnt even get Crouch,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,thank ****.
If he/they couldnt find the money for cisse, then where are you finding all that cash from, and Lyon just bought cissokho for €15 million 2 years ago, so doubt they would sell him for £8 million.
Let's not forget we owed Spurs a good £8 million of the Bent money. I agree with a few bits. Warnock would have been a solid buy for the balance. Sturridge would have been a wonderful addition, Whickham will get there, but maybe not this season, which is a gamble. I'd have liked both, and would have happily let Gyan go to get them, not because i don't rate Gyan, but because a) he ain't settled, and b) ACN. Gardner was a good signing, but has been bafflingly under used. I didn't want N'Zogbia, but i'd have went for Keisuke Honda, he'd have cost £10-12 million, but is 3 times the player. I'd absolutely have signed O'Shea, Brown was no risk at the price, and i'd have brought back Onouha. Vaughan, for all he's a tidy player, and a good signing, was unneccesary, IMO. So, my side, assuming a fully fit squad, would look like - -----------------Gordon---------------------- Onouha-----Brown-----O'Shea------Warnock Larsson-----Meyler-----Gardner-------Honda ------------Bendtner---Sturridge----------- Subs- Mig Bardo Bramble Turner Catts Colback Connor Ji. That would have been ****ing superb, and was easily do-able in my eyes. Steve, Lyon were openly sharking Cissokho for that kinda fee, as he had a fall out with Hugh Lloris, the best young keeper on the planet. He has had attitude issues at all 3 clubs, but he's a cracking, quick player.
To be fair, we all wanted Wickham starting slowly and that's what he's done. Not chucked him in at the deep end and this I agree with. We also all thought that young Colback was playing well so really, all in all, we couldn't play Gardner - although personally I'd put gardner in for Colback (I like Jack but he sometimes disappears from games and gets affected by a mistake - youth!!) For me (ideally): Gordon O'Shea - Brown - Bramble - Bardsley Larsson - Cattermole - Gardner - Sessegnon Bendtner - Gyan That'd be my first choice 11 with everyone fit - midfield looks good imo (I think Cattermole is very important to us)
Yeah I like Kranjcar Keano, thinking on I wouldnt have minded purchasing him as he has the ability to unlock defenses, which we are lacking. I also like that lad from Blackburn, Jnr Hoillette hes called. I was impressed with him back end of last season and this season he is looking good too. Similar to Sessegnon but it cant be too bad having another Sess in the team could it!
Yeah I like that team Brucey, as you say it seems easyily do-able as well and nice to see most of our teams are well balanced with leftys on the elft and rightys on the right. Warnock is probably a more realistic option but would just love us to get a left back like Cissoko, hes the kind of player we need to really push on. Honda is also a good shout, surprised nobody really tried for him this summer.
I'd be over the moon with a Cissokho type mate, but Warnock is solid, and gets up and puts decent balls in, i doubt we could pay for Ciss & Honda, so in a straight choice, Honda everytime for me. Closest thing to Adam Johnson, who we simply won't get.
I think the coming summer is still going to need considerable investment into our squad if we want to push on. We still need a left-back, left winger, striker as Bendtner will leave. Thats probably another £20 million needed right there.
Minimum. Bendtner might well stay if he does well and becomes a fans favourite, i reckon he's the sort who would thrive on the fans adoring him. I reckon we'll go back for Demba Cisse at some point like.
I think we can safely say that Welbeck is beyond our limits now after firmly establishing himself in Fergy's present and future plans.
Personally hink he's one of the best l/b around...a bargain, should have snapped him up when he had his bust up with the manager... He's still in my dream team.
I read that when Houlier was there he was surpless to requirements, then as soon as Mcleash went he was told that everyone would get a chance to impress so they were going to keep him, Mcleash went there on the 17th June, transfer window didnt open till the 1st of July. So from what I have read, He was not available at all in the last window. (he may have been before then though)
