I don't think they'll be here in August but I don't see the need to replace them yet unless it's with a top quality player. I think Williams deserves a shot, he showed something last year and he looked bright against Fener too. It depends who this signing is, I hope it's not a Liam Delap type. If we're looking for a 3rd centre forward, I'd like us to go for Simpson at Ipswich. He wants out but is young big, strong and scored goals in L2. He'd cost about £500k and wages would be minimal. And he'd get some minutes but wouldn't have to be over relied upon. He'd cost significantly less than a PL loan over the season and he'd be someone we can improve and develop for the medium term. I'm not particularly concerned about where we finish this season, I think it's about developing and settling a new squad. So I don't see why we should target loan players that championship clubs would consider 'instant success' signings. Players like Khadra fit into this mould. He's a good player but probably going to cost around £750k to have for the season and that's extremely expensive for a player that probably won't get into our starting XI. Not only that, he's going to take minutes off the likes of Longman and maybe even Covil if he keeps impressing. In 12 months time, I think those signings make sense, but right now they feel like an expensive waste of money as they only way we'd be able to keep them permanently is if they aren't great, and why would we want to purchase them then?
I'd have signed Bowler last window if we weren't embargoed. Blackpool weren't paying daft money, but there's just one. Didn't we also have an option on Josh King at one point? Didn't we once loan out Connor Townsend? Didn't we just re-sign Baxter? FFS! Too simplistic to say loans only benefit the parent club. Did Frazer Camplbels loan only benefit Man Utd?! It's a market, same as any other. Bad decisions cost you, good one reward you.
Loans with options are alright, I prefer straight perms but I can see the appeal. As long as you aren't doing them with Chelsea. Although their transfer business year after year is remarkably short sighted. But the Campbell's are few and far between. I just feel that for the position we're in right now, that they're a waste. I think if you're a promotion favourite/contender then they're incredibly useful and can give you that extra push to get you over the line. I don't think we're there yet, I think we've had too much upheaval for a promotion push. That being said, under the new ownership the players we've loaned have all been attainable players, Forss was reported to have a purchase option, Walsh was attainable too and Allahyar we've obviously signed. Last summer was a similar vein too, probably because we were also skint but the loanees on the whole did well and we had options on most. I really just want us to build something now, it feels like every summer we've had a major overhaul for one reason or another. I'd like us to get out of a position where we're signing 8+ every summer. I don't think it particularly generates success and we definitely need more continuity.
We haven't had an overhaul like this for a long time. Not even sure Silva signings would compare in terms of numbers.
There's literally no downside to a loan with an option, so long as the fee is a reasonable fee. The key is in the word 'option'. We have the option to buy the player, and the selling club has no means to stop it, so long as the player wants to come. The Campbell's are not few and far between but there's really no need to rehash such a silly argument. All players signed so far have reasonably long-term deals. The next key to not having this sort of overhaul every summer is to negotiate and renew player contracts, which is something we've been notoriously bad at. The corner is slowly being turned with Ingram and Fleming getting new deals, and I certainly hope Greaves isn't far behind. We then need to be in a position where 12-18 months out from a deal expiring we are negotiating with the player, and in cases where the demands are too far apart, we assess whether to sell the player or run the deal down. This approach would result in far less panicked and rushed negotiations at the end of a player's deal. I understand the 'need to know what league we're playing in' element, as a team that has bounced between three different leagues in the last 6 years, but plenty of other clubs go up and down divisions and manage to have less year-on-year turnover than we do. Partly because they actually identify the players they want to keep long term and lock them up long term, so as to stagger the expiries of deals over a broader period than we seem to.
Not related to the post I am replying to but... The way it has been worded by Acun to me seems the mystery signing is being worked on closely by himself which to me insinuates a permanent deal and the PL Loan forward is separate from the mystery signing? Or are they the same...
There’s a few loan players we should have bought Tomori, Wilson, Bowler, Aina, to name a few recently.
Where’s all this Bowler love coming from? He was awful for us. Totally one-footed and predictable. Yes he’s improved with Blackpool, but most of his performances for us were dire.
My memory of him is that he had everything except an end product, which is obviously something you can develop in a player. There was talk of having a 5m option to buy him which was simply absurd, but I didn't think he was awful.
He was **** for us, but isn't **** at all now. Same as happened with Josh King on loan, or Mark Noble, or a whole stack of others.
There was that option to buy. Didn’t he end up being released from Everton? I don’t think Blackpool would have paid a fee. Good for free, not good if it involved anything other than a nominal fee.
Yeah absolutely. I only brought up the fee as there was some discussion that we should try to buy him which was dispelled when the fee option was revealed. There wouldn't have been any discussion if he was really that ****. I remember the Fulham game for instance where he was particularly good. He had some poor performances but so did absolutely everyone that season.
The quality was very clear to see, just didn’t have the end product but he does now. Was worth a few million quid gamble imo
Bournemouth bid £3m for Bowler in January, but it was rejected. They're trying to get him for £1m now, as Blackpool have only triggered his one year extension.
I think a lot of this is hindsight, given his improvement. I think the club would have been daft to gamble even a few million pence on him based on what he showed playing for us, never mind a few million quid.
