Clough's first major signing for Forest was Peter Shilton. Breaking the club record spend to do it. "Teams are built from the back" If Raya is a top goalkeeper then £40 million is not bad when you look at the market as a whole. 60million for Richarlison but not £40 million for a top goalkeeper? That's skew wiff IMO.
There are a few solid alternatives out there who might be available for less but I agree with you in principle. This is a crucial part of team which is harder than most to fill adequately but if you do, you're often set for a decade or more. Making this harder is the fact that the outgoing incumbent was our captain and first choice for 12 years. If Raya is the man we've identified as capable of replacing that, we need to cough up. It's as simple as that.
I think because you really need an outstanding keeper to pay a big whack for and it's rare for a keeper to be a significant upgrade. I haven't seen anything special from raya for example to say he was significantly better than say sanches at brighton or flapianski west ham especially as different teams have different identities in terms of how deep they defend etc. Personally think 40m for a keeper is quite steep considering pressing needs in other positions.
He's got a year on his contract, has very publicly said he isn't going to sign a new deal, and Brentford have already signed his replacement Even with HG Tax being a thing, Brentford aren't negotiating from a position of strength. So let's call it £30m with a few addons and move onto the next item on the agenda: parachuting Sanchez into somebody else's back line
Korean Watch No, it is not Lee Kang-in, nor is it Kim Min-jae: the Mirror have linked us with FC Seoul's 20 year old RW Kang Seong-jin The good news is he does have a Wikipedia page, but if anybody tells you they have a detailed scouting report which isn't based on his attributes on FIFA or Football Manager they're lying What I can gather is he is seen as the Golden Boy of Korean football, with talk of him being Sonny's heir apparent, although weirdly there's very little data to base his form on this season - because he has spent most of the K-League season representing the national youth sides, playing every game of South Korea's run to the semi finals of the AFC U20 Cup in March while since the end of May he's been involved in their run to the semis of the U20 World Cup, meaning he's played jus 18 minutes since the K-League season kicked off in late February (plus 99 minutes in the KFA Cup) Similarly, last season's a little tricky as he was a regular in Seoul's team, though he only got 1 goal and 4 assists in 30 league games - and the regular season ended in September, while the post season wrapped up in October So he's clearly a raw talent, but what is interesting is he does seem to play like Ruslan Malinoiskyi of transfer windows past as he plays as much as a RW as he does an AM, and he does like to come inside to aim a thunderbastard into the top corner - which he can do as he's left footed
...and as I was typing all that out, the Northern Echo claim we have opened preliminary negotiations with Leicester for James Maddison I'm suggesting Ange, Levy, Dunn and Mason had a pretty busy meeting at the training ground on Friday
Raya at £40m seems a decent deal, one year left or not. Guarantees us roughly 6 years of a good number one keeper and seeing as Utd have also been linked I’d rather the club look to try and get it done asap before being trounced. As Spurf has also somewhat said, if we’re happy enough to shell out £60m for Richarlison then £40m on as close to a guarantee of a significant upgrade for a key position in our XI should be a no brainer.
The thing is Man Utd are also quibbling on the £40m valuation, so it's not as if we're the outlier there That is something I've been seeing a bunch in the rumours already: plenty of teams are quibbling over prices or are having to sell to buy, for example Liverpool reportedly won't pay above £25m for James Ward Prowse when Southampton want close to double that, Man Utd are trying to offload Harry Maguire and possible Jadon Sancho to reinvest as well as their quibbling over the price Brentford have set for Raya, while Newcastle are running to their dad and asking him to be their shirt sponsor as they have to sell to buy given 95% of their revenue is going on wages It's ruining the material for people who reply to SpursWeb tweets...
All the more reason for us to just pay the £40m and get it done with. Longer we leave it, the longer it gives Utd a chance to change their mind and match Brentford’s asking price. We need Raya far more than they do at the moment too. It should be a no brainer to get this one done, especially as we’ve been happy to throw money at far, far worse players in recent years.
It also has to be said Man Utd seem to be stuck umming and ahhing about David De Gea leaving this summer or next - which is ironically the situation we expected to be in with Hugo, before he sped up the process The issue with the £40m price tag is that, for the first time in seemingly forever, we are in a position of strength when it comes to negotiating for a player - and yet the response is to give Brentford everything they want even though their position is particularly weak, and that doesn't make sense even before the 'Nam flashbacks of giving the likes of Lyon, Charlton, Valencia et al everything they wanted in transfer windows past Am I saying £20m and vague promises for addons is a good bid? Obviously not, that's at best a placeholder given we're talking with Raya's representatives as it makes our interest concrete, but the fact we're talking with them also potentially tips the odds even further in our favour and that's where £30m upfront with the other £10m in addons seems like the right compromise
We’re not really in a position of strength though, Brentford know we’re desperate for a new number one and with two teams circling their player they’re going to demand what they want and rightly so. We’re not gonna accept any lowball offer for Kane (and we know Levy absolutely won’t), Brentford have every right to feel the same about Raya. With the amount we’ve wasted on **** players over the years, getting someone like Raya who is as close to a guarantee as a successful signing as you can get, should be an easy decision. We paid the same amount for Sanchez, £2m more for Lo Celso and £20m more for Richarlison. If there’s ever a time Levy wants to spend big and get it right, this is one of his best chances.
Raya's publicly stated he won't sign a new contract for months, and Brentford signed his replacement already. That's a position of strength ...unless we somehow have his agent negotiating on the club's behalf in order to get the transfer done quickly, as we did with Ndombele and somehow thought that wasn't at least six red flags in one sentence
He’s still a Brentford player, if we don’t match their asking price they don’t sell and we don’t get a key target… there’ll be zero strength in that. We’re not paupers anymore, pay the money and then work on the next target. This summer is too big to be haggling over a few £m.
If it comes to the crunch and we are seriously interested then we will pay the asking price if you don't. Simple really, you either want him or not.
Er, we are (comparative) paupers, what with the lack of European revenue and the ticket income that would bring in for the coming season Besides, if Man Utd and Liverpool are haggling over players, that does suggest that the market is starting to plateau somewhat compared to the last couple of seasons, presumably because the economies of La Liga and Serie A are still depressed a couple of years after the economies of the Premier League, Bundesliga and Ligue 1 started to rebalance Which begs the question whether we're looking to take advantage of that over the course of the window, for example Lee Kang-in has a release clause which would have looked quaint a decade ago and he certainly looks like he could be a useful addition, while given we have been unable to sell Lo Celso to Villarreal as they can't afford him there's potential to negotiate a deal involving Pau Torres (which, frankly, is something which should have been on the cards this time last year)
Brentford have every right to demand what they want...just like we are with Kane. If we want him we should cough up IMHO. If we have someone else in mind then go for them. Forster is not a first choice keeper so we do not want to start the season with him in goal imo.
And that’s the problem, if both teams then decided to match the asking price, he joins you hands down. It’s why we should act now and get it done whilst you lot are debating over what to do with De Gea.
We are in no way paupers anymore, this isn’t 2006. We had the 10th and 9th highest revenue in Europe in 20-21 and 21-22 respectively, we’re likely in a similar position if not higher for the 22-23 season. We were also massively under FFP as of a few months/ year ago. I’m not expecting a ridiculous City-esque summer of spending but I am expecting my club not to be haggling over £5m-£10m for a key target that comes with some of the closest assurances possible of being a huge upgrade for our starting XI. Also, as fans paying the highest prices in Europe, we have every right demanding our club acts accordingly.
That's my view too. If it were for a squad player or a youngster with potential, I'd understand haggling and trying to whittle things down a bit but a key target who's also HG is gonna come with a premium, regardless of contract length.
