I think Howe struggles to take a chance on overseas purchases. I guess he’s been burned before - wasn’t Danjuma a record signing during his time at B’mth? - and it’s why he’d rather stick with Murphy et al then chance his arm on someone from abroad. The problem is we HAVE to do that, look at the sheer amount of talents to come in for smaller sums like Murillo, Milenkovic, Huijsen, Adams, Mitoma, Verbruggen, Mbuemo, and on and on. Our last meaningful purchase remains the baffling Harvey Barnes.
is allergic to finding talent I think.... our big buys were already found and this is why Mitchell was getting at about recruitment.
He will have a say, undoubtedly. But Mitchell is, I believe, the one who is being paid to have the final say. Otherwise what exactly is he there for?
I ask that question myself all the time because since he came in the only decent transfer activity I can think of is…… nothing. Mitchell needs to start doing stuff. Apparently we are definately selling Miggy to Atalanta. And we have rejected a 6m bid for Kelly who doesn’t want to leave anyways.
Yeah, Howe confirmed in the presser that recruitment has always been a team effort and that he has 'a' say. But regardless of whether you credit/blame/exclude Howe for transfers, I think our overall recruitment since the takeover has been very good, with just a few real question marks. And I don't subscribe to the belief that we only go for British either. - Isak (foreign) - Bruno (foreign) - Gordon - Botman (foreign) - Tonali (foreign) All top quality 1st XI signings - Trippier - Wood (foreign) - Burn - Pope All what we needed at that time. - Tino - Hall - Osula (foreign) Questions from some fans at the time, but looking like they have potential to be very good. - Barnes - Kelly - Targett - Vlach (foreign) Questions over whether they are good enough, or even what we needed. Although I appreciate Targett has been unlucky with injuries. - Minteh (foreign) Never got to play and I know some think we should have kept him, but (commercially at least) a very good piece of business. My main concern with Howe isn't recruitment in, it's more whether (as others have mentioned) he will try to stand in the way of letting go of fringe players and those who are past their best, instead of cashing in and moving on
Think Mitchell wants to focus more on finding young gems, so I'm not expecting to see.too many big name signings.
Yes pretty much agree with all of this. Im still disappointed with selling Minteh. But I understand why. Barnes albeit he is an ok player was the one I think we got wrong.
Nope! From what you pointed out, it's EITHER foreign (as in they were birn in and represent a forign country), OR signed from a foreign club. You can't mix and match to suit your argument. And I wasn't including Vlach in my 6 anyway. Bruno Isak Botman Tonali Minteh Trippier
If you're including Minteh your going to have to include all those youth players we signed from England. You can keep the 7 and we can increase the "from England" brigade to another level
Just obviously choosing to ignore a huge amount of our transfer business since Howe has been in post Biggest signing of his first transfer window in January 2022: Bruno Guimaraes (Brazilian from France - Howe must have temporarily conquered his struggles with taking chances on overseas purchases) - £35m Biggest two signings of Summer 2022: Isak and Botman (Swedish from Spain and Dutch from France - Howe now suffering from PTSD as a result of spending near £100m in foreign markets.) - £95m combined Biggest signing of summer 2023: Tonali (Italian from Italy - Brave Howe, having to constantly confront and overcome his debilitating fear of foreign purchases) - £56m
Of course, but it'll be two years since we went abroad for a signing. After Tonali we then pissed £40m up the wall with Barnes, aimed £60m at Marc Guehi, are (according to some) already signed up on £25m+ James Trafford, and according to two journos' Brian Mbuemo is the number one target. This might well all change but it's undeniable that we have completely failed to discover talent. For the price of one Guehi, we could have gotten Kerkez, Murillo, Huijsen and Semenyo. It's my absolute biggest gripe with this club, a complete inability to find talent and seemingly from the manager not a lot of desire to do so. What's more baffling is our best players all came from abroad. Our English contingent have been a bit hit and miss particularly earlier this season.
