Transfer Rumours JANUARY TRANSFER THREAD

Do you know which players are safe?

 

Lemina and Bertrand are top players when fit and motivated. We have yet to see how the Ralph effect will inspire them. Positively I expect and I can't see them leaving.

 

Hojberg, Hojberg & Hojberg.

 

I agree 100% with the first phrase of the sentence but I'd say the second phrase should be "we sucked". I really don't feel that we've sucked since the Hütt arrived.

Vin

 

And here's one to bear in mind if we're demanding more be spent. Our record signings.



Boy, there's some dross in there. We could do with some good, rather than just expensive, signings.

Vin

 

There's only 3 players in that team I'd be happy to see playing for us (VVD, Mane & Ings ... possibly Vest at a push)

 

Pierre, Bednerak, JWP and Redmond are safe I guess. And Ings too.

 

Cor, wouldn’t that be nice! Could play one as DM, one as AM & one as supporting striker.

 

Controversial opinion time. If we didn't have an obligation to buy Ings at the end of the season, I'm not sure I'd go for him. And I do wonder whether Hasenhuttl would have gone for him given the choice.

 

Add to that we now have to buy him in the summer, I can fully imagine the club parading him around and cheaping out in other area's.

 

Tin hats at the ready.........lol

 

You mean a 6, 8 and a 10?

 

That is pretty controversial. I was just thinking this morning, how that particular bit of deadline day business last summer is half the reason we're not currently favourites for the drop; Ralph being the other half of the reason, of course.

 

He's the best we've got, he's our leading scorer and an important part of the team in it's current state...and it's not like I don't like him! I'm just not convinced from what I've seen that he fits into a Hasenhuttl team too well. It also feels like the majority of the time he's in one of two states, Injured or rusty and working back his fitness. I'm not slating him, and he's my first choice striker every game right now. But if we didn't have an obligation to buy at the end of the season, I wouldn't be too worried if we didn't take him on. That would of course give us even more work to do in the summer, and good strikers are not easy to buy so it would be a risk given that we'll be looking to bring in a striker anyway.
I mean, it's kind of a redundant thought given that we do have an obligation to buy him. It's just something I've been thinking recently, and wondering what Hasenhuttl would do if we didn't have an obligation to buy.

 

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That's kinda the thing, though: in the context of the economics of football circa 2019, those are not expensive signings.

Take Maehle; he plays in a lesser-regarded league, and thanks to a fairly low buyout clause, he'll merely cost a reported £9.5m. It will be the fourth-most expensive transfer ever from the Belgian league. Because we're forced to dump a number of players for below-market value because i) they are on huge wages, or ii) they're old, or iii) they are bad, or generally some combination thereof, we're not going to recoup enough from sales to strengthen substantially even if we are buying comparatively cheap players, unless we start selling the likes of Hojbjerg, or we're investing money into the squad.

 

I guess I would say I'm not surprised, just disappointed. And really I'm more disappointed with the current state of the club and how the window reflects that, as opposed to pointing out any person or decision in the window itself.

We shouldn't be in the position we are in the first place. We shouldn't be fighting to survive. And we should have the resources in place to both pick up a player or two we need and offload the ones we don't. I think that for a club our size, we should be aiming for more churn than the average club. Our good players (and managers) are always going to get sucked away from us so we need to take on the model of profiting from our best players leaving, and replacing them with cheaper players. If we stand still, we will fail. I guess I'm different than some others on here where I'm not as harsh on the club when players don't work out. I expect that we're going to have some duds, which to me is part of the reason we need to take more shots.

That said, it's clear that our scouting department/football operations have not done a very good job and we probably need a re-organization and new staff post-Reed. And we have spent a lot of bad money that we need to clear. So it's possible that really there was not much more we could have done this window. I'm just saying, that's bad if that's the case.

I can't see how this was a good window for us. But I'm open to the fact that the damage had already been done beforehand and our inability to do anything was a sunk cost. But even then, it raises the question of exactly how deep a hole are we in? Like, I think we're cutting it a little to close to be comfortable, but the three bottom teams this year appear to be crazy bad. So, if we suck it up this window and save some money and get everything squared away and that leaves us in a better position where we will totally kick ass in the summer then that would be worth it. This would still have been a "bad" window, but it'll have been strategically bad.

On the other hand, if we still don't have money in the summer and the black box is irrevocably broken then we're screwed. I'm not saying that's the case, but I'm also not seeing how some people seem to think we're in the clear now. We have some serious ongoing concerns with both the talent on the field and in the boardroom, possible fiscal issues, and we still might only be one Ings injury away from relegation. I do have a lot of faith in Hasenhuttl but it's disconcerting that he's the only one at the entire club I do have faith in.

 

We weren't told that the squad would have abit of cull though. I don't disagree just concerned that it may have been too much, especially in the goal scoring department

 

Its amazing that we got through January unbeaten in the league, but the Palace game showed us just how precarious our position is. Ralph has done an amazing job so far, but there's only so much you can get from our squad. So the fact we were confident enough to let players go in this window should fill us all with great confidence..........so why doesn't it?
This week has brought me back down to earth somewhat.

 

When he plays well he's good but he's far too injury prone