There are many issues here not the least being our wage structure. Players who are going to cost £4m and upwards to buy are not going to come here for the wages we pay. Our squad is built on team spirit, a sense of adventure and the knowledge that they are all in it together within the wage structure in force. As soon as you breach the structure to accomodate one player the team spirit goes and the inevitable happens. As examples i give you Jimmy Bullard at Hull and Joey Barton at QPR. I would also mention that the only players who move in this transfer window are those that the clubs want to get rid of - not a good recommendation - and those where the price paid is way over the odds. Our wage structure is one of the lowest in the league and as soon as other Premiership Clubs are interested - and also a couple of Championship clubs - we cannot compete. All the players mentioned on this thread are in that category so forget about them. It ain't going to happen!! Just look at Rhodes as an example. Huddersfield do not want to sell, their owner is loaded so doesn't have to sell, they are looking quite capable of promotion to the Championship and, taking the blinkers off, it is possible that we might be in the same division next year. Why would he want to come to us now rather than wait and see what has happened at the end of the season. The only way he will move is if an established Premiership Club takes the gamble and pays, say, £10m for him with wage terms to match. Let us remember that when Arteta moved to Arsenal he had to take a wage cut - what does that tell you about the wage structure at Everton? Finally, we haven't got £12m, £10m, £8m or even £5m to spend and I go crazy when I hear people suggest spending money we will get next year IF we stay up. Whatever way you look at it we would be spending money we haven't got. Have we completely forgotten 1957, the Chase era, where we were 3 years ago, what happened to Leeds and Portsmouth etc etc. All brought about by gambling that things would go right and spending money they did not have and would not get if the gamble failed. This must never happen to us again. Everybody at the Club, including PL, accepts that and that is why I suggest that people should not get too worked up about what will happen in the next 3 weeks.
Very true, I'm getting carried away by the January Madness in this transfer window...just very happy with how we are doing
I think some people are getting too impatient. Lambert was given a relatively generous transfer budget in the summer which he spent very wisely as all the new players coming in have done well and gelled into a strong squad with an excellent team spirit. Lambert has warned about the dangers of January spending and is being careful accordingly. With Whitbread and Ayala forming a good partnership and players resting in turn, I think we look very good going into the second half of the season. It would be good to get a new player or two, but with Vaughan, Korey and Ward getting fit again, they will be like three new players for the rest of the season. I think Lambert will get it right if the right deals are available and if they aren't he will see us through safely and have a larger budget in the summer.
I will be very surprised if Lambert isn't very confident of bringing in at least one player.... (this is more-a-less a direct quote of Lambert's post match conferences over christmas...) "We played well but the lad's need a hand. I can't fault them but they need a hand. I will do what I can to make sure the lad's get a hand. We need a hand" He knows the impact that his comments have on his players and iwouldn't have said that if he didn't have faith he could land at least one target.
I would be shocked if we don't bring in one signing. I expect two. But I also think it sounds like a couple have fallen through already, which is a shame. The great thing, though, is we don't actually desperately need signings, they would just help out, so can afford to wait rather than rush through a dodgy deal. I've completely changed my mind on this one.
The other issue with bringing a player on a higher wage to the club is that some of our present players will have contracts stating that their wages cannot be lower than any other player at the club, so this also raises the overall cost of bringing a high wage earner to NCFC. I am in slight disagreement with other folk saying we shouldn't spend. There is a huge difference between going all out to stay in the PL at the start of the season, compared to doing it now, when we have a very solid platform. It is less of a gamble. The decision to spend money will depend on the goals of the club, for example Blackpool's goals were to get a new training ground and build a new stand. We need neither of those things and our infrastructure is pretty solid. We'll just have to wait and see, but I can envisage us making our 'record' signing, if not in Januay then during the summer.
We need to save the money to demolish that stupid fecking hotel and fill that corner in, would make the atmospher in carrow road even better.
i know for a fact (sorry about entering 'colu_mike mode') that no city players are on contracts stating their terms must match the highest earner at the club. some clubs do this but not ours
media contacts with big gobs, i'd take anything they say with a huge pinch, actually make that a pile of salt
Might be alone here but,failing a Blackpool style collapse I don't see relegation as in any way a realistic risk.I think it's the bottom five - minus posibly Bolton who I think have the ability to escape.It wouldn't surprise me if one other team gets sucked in that could be WBA especially if they don't beat us Saturday,their current form is not good. On that basis I think we might be ok not to buy in the transfer window.A lot of deals get done at silly money out of desperation.
as lambert says, the players need a hand. resting on our laurels could be a big mistake. everyone else will try to do some business and i'm sure lambert will get a couple in. its still early remember and selling clubs always want to replace an outgoing player before they agree to sell.
