We've heard all this before though, especially in his first window and it was a car crash. I'm still waiting for us to replace Smallwood. When we're basically having a major rebuild every summer, you're only a bad window away from being in a relegation scrap.
Equally with few long term expensive contracts, we're only one really good window away from promotion. We've got absolutely no idea what the squad will look like. On Norwood, yes please. We are desperate for experience and depth. Even if we only have him for one season - we should be signing a number of cheap players like this.
Zajc isn’t really a box-to-box midfielder. He’s a deep-lying playmaker like Seri and even Norwood for that matter. The few times I saw him he looked completely uninterested, lazy and blowing out his arse shortly after coming on as a sub. And before you say ‘Tufan was unfit and out-of-shape when he arrived and look how he improved’. Yes, he was, and did. He now leaves us probably the fittest he’s ever been in his career. We’ve sold a 29-year-old midfielder for peanuts after spending time improving his fitness and look like we’re going to replace him with a player who turns 30 soon who will also probably take 6-12 months to adjust to the rigours of English football and improve his fitness when the squad requires a massive rebuild. It stinks. It’s a moronic transfer policy similar to Man Utd paying fortunes to sign aging players on stupid contracts. Signing Zajc wouldn’t do Acun any favours dispelling the myth he’s using City to funnel money into Fenerbahçe and do them favours. Sayyadmanesh for £4 million with a 50% sell-on clause and selling him for £2 million 18 months later stinks.
Signing players like Norwood and Zajc just screams ‘repeat of the 2022 summer transfer window’, which many regard as scattergun and poor value for money.
Norwood is on the last big payday hunt...I think most Blunts fans would agree that his legs have gone....Anyway didn't he turn us down before he went to the Blunts and he's been there about 7 years....Leave well alone. Would be a backward step.
It depends. If they are intended as first team players - maybe - but we are in a position now where we basically need to sign three quarters of a full squad, never mind a first team. We're going to have to get some cheap players otherwise it won't be possible.
Difference between Zajc and Norwood is simple, one is looking for last big contract, other one is looking for a chance to play proper football.
Why do you think Norwood and Zajc would be ‘cheap’? Norwood could ask for £20,000-a-week at least, as could Zajc. Seri and Tufan were on about £25,000+ from what I’ve heard and people say they are our highest-earners and getting them off the wage bill would be a big help for FFP. Ryan Woods is apparently on 5 figures a week ffs. Paid Brum a transfer fee for one of their deadwood players and gave him a 3+1 contract on decent wages only for him to become a deadwood player here and get loaned out to League One teams. We look on course to repeat the same mistakes made in 2022. There really is no benefit for selling the likes of Tufan to get him off the wage bill to then sign aging players on similarly high wages with little resale value.
I meant more the transfer fee. Obviously whether Norwood would be feasible depends on his wage demands - but regardless - someone of his experience and quality on a shorter term contract - would be more preferable to me to a player we've got to pay a fee for and maybe sign on a longer term deal that we can't get shut of in future as they don't work out (Lokilo). We're going to have to go for a blend of punts/experience (wages medium to high and fee low) and big signings - otherwise we won't be able to get a large enough squad together in one window.
So then next summer we have to sign replacements for the aging players we signed this summer and go through the same process of rebuilding the squad from near scratch again every year lmao. Great transfer policy. Can’t see anything going wrong.
Not at all. I'd hope the experienced players would compliment some of the more progressive signings - and if they do leave after one year - we'll be in a position to replace them with further progressive signings next year. Simply - our squad is in need of such depth this season - we're going to have to accept that we need to go for a few different styles of transfer. Getting enough younger promising players could be either expensive or not work out or both. Getting all experienced players on short term contracts - like you say - will mean that we'll be doing the same thing next year. Taking risks on cheaper players abroad is fine - but filling a squad with it would be a huge risk when some will work out and some won't. Ideally - we should be at the stage now where we are waving bye to Tufan, Seri and the like to be replaced with more progressive signings - but the scattergun approach so far means we aren't. We need to get a squad together for this season using a blend of players - and start working on a plan on how to move that on next year.
But that’s every club, most clubs sign free agents on short term deals to pad out the squad. We can’t just sign U23s all time because it means we will be bereft of experience (and money because they tend to be more expensive), which I think is what cost us last season. Seri aside, we only had Allsop over 30 who was in our starting line up. We had Billy Sharp and Cyrus Christie, but they barely contributed on the pitch and that’s where the mistakes were being made. We need to make sure the squad is more balanced this time around and ensure we aren’t over reliant on kids to take us up.
It is Euro year, big teams are waiting Euro to splash money, mid-teams are waiting that money to be splashed so they can sign secondary players, then Hull like teams will have a chance on market to attract those secondary players who didn't choose top leagues. I don't expect a 21 man squad to be formed before mid-august.
We weren’t over reliant on kids last year either. People talk like Alfie Jones is still 22 when he first joined. He’s 27 in October. Coyle is 28, McLoughlin 27, Tufan 29 and Seri 32. Other than McLoughlin, these were all key players. We’re not an exceptionally young team like Sunderland who almost exclusively recruit players in their early 20s as that is their transfer policy. Buy young, develop, sell. I’m not saying we need to copy Sunderland, but given we already have Seri as an aging holding midfielder past his prime and Simons hasn’t exactly proven himself ready to step up, I do think we should be signing someone in their early or mid-20s for the holding midfield role. Someone with longevity. Not a 33-year-old who rejected us 7 years ago and looking for a last decent payout in England to compete or replace our 32-year-old midfielder in his final year. It just seems like our transfer policy is incredibly short-sighted. There’s no forethought or future planning. It’s just ‘sign some big name on big money and kick the can down the road’.
No, I think he’s played his last game in a City shirt. I also think Sinik isn’t going to get a look in either which means we signed him on a three-year contract and he’ll have spent most of it on loan somewhere else before he leaves on a free.
But we’re talking about signing one or two free transfers here, that doesn’t mean our entire transfer philosophy for the window is set by this theme or that every transfer we make will be like this. I understand that buying young players, developing them and selling them on is what helps us keep going and is profitable, but it can’t be all we do. We’ve been incredibly lucky that we’ve had Bowen, KLP and Greaves sold for high prices recently and I think that’s pushed people’s expectations up with regards to how easy it is to pull that off on a regular basis. Simons was brought in as one for the future, he had a stuttering loan last year and a bad injury so he’ll need to go somewhere to improve and build confidence next year. It might be that Walter works wonders with him and he becomes a first team player. Whatever happens, I don’t think we will see the approach of “I want the fans to be impressed with a big name” because we did that before and it didn’t work out. I think this window will be a lot more pragmatic and will therefore be a bit slower than the others in terms of the rate at which they arrive.
