Given he can play DM and CB I would imagine he gets chances at both. If we're running a smaller squad some utility is important
I think we're playing a dangerous game with the likes of Hughes and Millar. I understand certain deals take time, the Ecuador kid, loan clauses etc. The palace winger weighing up his options, nothing we can do about that. But Hughes and Millar should have been done last week. If both players want to join then we really need to pull our fingers out and agree a price. It feels like both players clubs have said what they want and we're playing the waiting game to see who blinks first. I'm not suggesting we throw stupid money at them but sometimes you just have to give in to their terms to get the players you want, and in our case, players we desperately need. As others have said before you just feel another club is going to come in and snap up our targets because we've been too busy trying to shave off a few hundred grand. It's easy to say that I know.. but we do have the money and these signings shouldn't be breaking the bank after who we've sold.
I don't see why it's a bizarre suggestion to want some stability at the club. All I've heard recently on here is that you need loans to sign players you couldn't otherwise afford. I just don't see it with this, I'm sure he will be a very good player in the future, but young defenders make mistakes and take time to develop. Going back a little while but Tomori was a Rolls-Royce of a defender and always looked liked he'd make it at the top level, but even he struggled with game time for us. Assuming Macca does depart, I would've liked the backup defender to be an older head.
That’s a very different thing. If you’re suggesting he is a waste of a loan spot then you clearly want all the loan spots using anyway. So it’s as stable as it would be regardless, but for some reason you see that individual player as a ‘waste’ of one of them. He sounds decent to me and good luck to him.
But that's the market we are operating in. Simply, we can't afford to buy a squad full of proven top level Championship talents. Either we spend on proven players, but they cost more - we sign risks which might be cheaper but are big when they come off - or we take risks on some young talent. If the talent is promising enough - PL clubs will want to loan them out to see how they get on before they decide to keep them or sell them. If they sell them, chances are they will be expensive if they've had a successful loan in the Championship already or they'll be a bit cheaper and we might all be underwhelmed because they have disappointed elsewhere. We don't have a big enough budget to sign 'proven reliable players' across the board.
I guess if McLoughlin is off as well then it makes sense to get one in now and see what happens over the next couple of weeks.
Meant to be a highly rated youngster, might see him turf Alfie out on current form. Remember Tim won’t care who they are if he doesn’t want them then they won’t be playing.
I guess I'd just hope we have an option to buy in that case. His highest level of experience is league one. Shark is right we need continuity. If this guy does end up playing 35+ times I wouldn't want to lose him at the end of the season.
Fabrizio has insisted no option to buy. He did play 3 times for Swansea but they ended the loan early as he failed to impress. I saw one fan say it looked like he ran in treacle and was average on the ball. Hopefully he’s improved after his loan at Stevenage
That would make sense but City are selling Hamilton to Boro and Robertson to Cardiff so they're definitely open to moving some of their 'older' young players on. Hamilton to Boro looks a real astute piece of business, £3.5m but with a buyback of £11m and he's been around their 1st team and played for them on a few occasions. So they appear to be pretty reasonable on the fees. I have no issues with buy backs, I think they make a lot of sense, and whilst a few got annoyed about the Philogene fee, we got £8m for having him for a year so it was fantastic business. I've said before, I'd like us to fill the squad out with players like Burns who have done well in L1 but they need to be permanent so we can invest the time in developing them.
Alfie is a lot better than he's given credit for. He's a good defender at this level, and he barely misses a game. Young defenders make mistakes and it usually costs goals, if we're having an iffy season, it gets highlighted and they tend to get piled on. The criticism Greaves got was nuts. He was given loads of time and patience but you just don't get that with loans as they're gone at the end of the year.
Hamilton has barely played a first team game for anyone and Robertson has played fewer games than Burns. I'd much rather sign these kind of players on loans to see how they are initially before committing. We might lose a gem along the way - but equally we could avoid signing a dud. £3.5m is a lot for us to spend on an unproven young forward when we need to get so many other players in. Middlesbrough already have a decent squad in place - they are in a completely different place to us.
That's fine, but sign them with an option then. It does all come down to your scouting and the path to the first team. The reason I think it's a sensible approach to sign young players permanently is because a good Championship player goes for £10m, if you're signing a Robertson for a six figure fee as I've read, you don't need many to work for the strategy to be successful. Plus young players should command lower wages so we hopefully don't have to keep running an operating loss of £20m. They won't all work, fans are quick to write players off too so more patience would be needed, but we're seeing Simons and Longman beginning to look like decent players. Longman looked good in his first few months with us, but had a tough couple of years. Now he's looking more like the lad who joined just significantly bigger. If you compare that to our approach of last season, we spent a lot of money on high-profile loans who didn't work out as expected. I'd include Giles, Vinagre, Twine and Zaroury in that. Yes, some loans worked (ironically some weren't high profile), but we're now left with nothing, it's a complete rebuild and our FFP position is damaged/hurt etc. It's just not a sustainable model. I think LD is a loss too because he did provide us with some gems for a pittance.
I don’t fully disagree but I think you have to accept we will have a mix of a squad this summer. Signing players for a low fee like Robertson is high risk - I wouldn’t be against some them but filling a squad with it would be madness. The best loan players available, the top PL clubs won’t entertain an option. Liverpool were never going to put an option in Carvalho’s deal, should we really turn that opportunity down for long term planning? As ever it comes down to budgets, the deal that PL clubs are likely to accept and the necessity for what other business you need to do. Shutting off all loans because they won’t be here next season seems daft, shutting off experienced heads because you want to only make a profit also seems daft. Going down the middle will provide more risk, but more reward - but I wouldn’t fancy a squad full of them. At this stage we also need to get bodies in the building now. There’s a ton of work to do. Also I’d add Longman and Simons still need to do a lot this season to convince they are top half Championship players.
