Easily said, but the reality of making any such signing is another matter altogether. I don't think there's enough appreciation of just how limiting the self-funding model is in terms of reducing even marginal flexibility. Too many people seem to think in terms of our self-funding model as against clubs whose owners inject huge sums into their club, e.g. Fulham, Nottingham Forest. But the ability to call on even quite modest sums can make a huge difference. Two examples. In 2009 we signed Grant Holt for £400k, the money being put up by (I believe) then new director, Stephan Phillips; that £400k made a vastly disproportionate difference, as we all know. In the summer of 2021, we tried to sign Ajer from Celtic. We failed for want of £3m, which Brentford, backed by an owner who keeps a tight rein on the club purse but has the funds to be more flexible when convinced it's necessary. If Mark Attanasio does buy further into the club, his ability to add that little bit of flexibility can be a game-changer, even without any massive further injection of funds.
Robbie BB what is Attanasio’s stake in the club at the moment? I read somewhere that he was in discussion about taking a further stake in the club, but that appears to have come to nothing.
New rumour Rak-Sakyi on loan from Crystal Palace. 20 year old RW, Had a very good loan at Charlton in league 1 last season.
I think it was Michael Wynn Jones that put the money in to sign Holt, pretty sure it was mentioned when he recently left the club. There are a lot of examples players as you mention that we had spotted as talents but couldn’t afford, it was well documented that we wanted Billing but couldn’t afford his wages, Aldeweirald was close to joining before joining Tottenham, Van Dijk was another I think. I don’t expect the Attanasios involvement to mean that we start throwing millions in transfer fees around but hopefully they can help us compete on wages
The exact extent of MA's current stake (i.e. how many Ordinary shares he owns) is unknown. He is widely believed to have purchased the bulk of Michael Foulgar's Ordinary shares, reportedly representing circa 16% of the total number of Ordinary shares issued prior to the recent allotment of a further 194,512 shares (the new shares, if issued, would reduce that percentage from 16% to 12%). IMO the absence of any further public statement from the Club doesn't mean anything either way.
I think DS is treating it as a bit of a test run, if she is happy with them after a year or two working together then she will may offer the rest of the club
Pukki is set to join Minnesota in the MLS. I have to admit I thought he would be going to a slightly higher standard
There's a lot of Finnish/Nordic background to this, and a strong pre-existing link in the form of Teemu's best friend and Finland team mate Robin Lod.
There is also a long history of Scandanavian people settling in Minnesota and Wisconsin from the 19th century onwards so there should be a warm welcome for Teemu. I wish him well.
https://www.pinkun.com/news/23582003.norwich-city-connor-southwell-column-transfer-strategy/ From Connor Southwell, suggests Ince is a genuine target, and that the idea is to bring in experienced players who can help develop younger counterparts and add some ****housery and winning mentality to our squad. Also that 80 percent of our business will hopefully be done by July, per Webber. Not sure if that's been trotted out before.
Heard today that Omobamidele is in Italy, reportedly about to sign for AC Milan! Almost definitely a load of balls, but be interesting, if true, to see how much we get for him.
He is obviously getting about - he was allegedly in Nice last Friday although the local media did not spot him.
