Norwich are thinking of trying to sign Ricky Van Wolfswinkle,if he's available,shouldn't we be in for his signature,as he's a top class striker,which is what we need,Mr Levy!!
Very interesting read Moorph, cheers for sharing The only part I think is a bit wishy-washy is the section that talks about certain countries having expensive, overrated players. - as a general statement, I agree with that. But just as much money can be wasted in the counties he lists afterwards, which are supposedly examples of potential solutions. (Below) "In recent times, we have bought Croatians, South Africans, French, Icelandic, Irish, Russian, American and Mexican all in attempt to find better value" Out of those countries what quality have we got? Modric and keane? Croatia - krancjar and Corluka were seen as average players by a lot of spurs fans. I liked them, but I know many felt they were average. - especially some with regards to corlukas pace. South Africa - pienaar and khumalo. - ill stop there Iceland - sigurdsson - yet to be impressed or see much from him Russia - Pav - same as Croatian players, except with a larger price tag France - Lloris may well impress, but it's too early to cast judgement. Kaboul is top quality now, but lets not forget that we had to sell him once to realise that! American - Dempsey is yet to massively impress. Brad was a stop gap and can't really count in this. Mexico - Dos santos - a waste again. I'm not sure on prices paid, but it's just as easy to waste money by only spending the 8-12 mill mark on a player. When that's added up over time, it's surprising just how wasteful this approach can be too. A lot of prices are OTT, but sometimes they are there for a reason.
very true tots. I expect someone will say "but we made some decent money back when we sold those players". but my point is that there was a lot of average-poor quality amongst that group when they played for us. It's lucky we've got a chairman with good negotiating skills to have got us as much as possible for them. But then the other side of the argument is that we wasted hundreds of thousands (if not millions) on wages, when we should have sold sooner, even if that meant taking a hit.
i Agree with you there,but it seem's like no one wanted them,because of their below par showing's for us
which comes back to the point that the other alternative countries can be just as wasteful on transfer fees (collectively) and that sometimes values are there for a reason.
Morning Roo, I thought Corluka was a great defender. While not a modern day full back of being gifted with blistering pace and attacking ability, Corluka was one of the most solid defenders the club has had in years in my opinion and wasn't he part of the defence with Ekotto, Ledley and Woody that conceded a record low amount of goals at home in a season? Maybe 6061 can clarify that but I'm sure he was. I said earlier about trying to exploit the Croatian, Belgian, Dutch and Spanish leagues for players, usually you can pick up some great "technical" players for peanuts if your clubs' scouts have done their research properly. The Croatian market especially is one I'd like us to look more into when looking for stars of the future. Kovacic and Halilovic of Dinamo are top, top talents (Halilovic is still only 16!!!). Vrsaljko seems a decent RB (also from Dinamo), Vukusic previously of Hajduk had a good strike rate in Croatia, yet since he went Pescara he's only got 1 or 2 goals but then Pescara are relegation candidates so he may not have the best of service. Kramaric (again of Zagreb) has a decent strike rate for a 21 year old. I'm sure there's many others I've not heard of/ noticed/ remembered that are worth looking at, all would probably be available for less than £5m with the exceptions of Kovacic and Halilovic who'll be around £10m+ but they'd be wise investments as with the right development could become £20m-£30m players within a good few years ala Modric. It's just a case of looking in the right places, doing proper research and then a bit of luck to go with it I suppose.
Morning mate, Yeah I liked Corluka. I thought he partnered very well with Lennon. - but there was different opinions on Corluka. A lot of fans we're keen on him. I agree with looking to these leagues for talent, it needs to be done. But it's a different kettle of fish over there and players might look good in these countries, but distinctly average when brought over here. we have to remember that these players need development time, which means a waiting period before we ever see them and a risk they might not be all the cracked up to be. - That's fine, as long as the club is getting the balance between that and having more established players. It's very easy to buy youngsters and hope they develop, but all i'm saying is that it can end up costing a fair chunk of money when you add it all up. The article was saying how certain countries can have overpriced players which turn out to be "flops". -which I agree with. But at the same time, you can take as much of a risk by purchasing loads of unproven talent which might not make it. we've done our fair share of that over recent years. Some of the signings we've made have been minging.
Yeah without a doubt there's a huge element of risk that these players can turn out to be massive disappointments, as like you've said, we've had first hand experience but at the same time, we've had a good number of successes too. Bringing in a youngster should'nt just be done because he's grabbed a couple of headlines in England or his native country, something I genuinely think clubs these days use as a method to how they buy players (think I remember Sven Goran Eriksson admitting that he bought Elano for City because of Football Manager and YouTube clips!). If we can get scouts to seriously watch players, judge them on their capabilities and make a good evaluation as to whether they'll succeed or not, we COULD find ourselves some bargains. Ajax picked up Fischer for pennies and I reckon this kid has an amazing future, they'll easily get £20m for him within a year or two. We need to be able to work like Ajax/ Dinamo/ Barcelona and similar clubs, they place a lot of trust in their scouts to find the best talents around and it pays dividends more times than not.
Roo & SoS! not606's answer to Hawksby & Jacobs. Not that I am suggesting that you talk ****e. THE ROO & SoS SHOW At a forum near you!
and this is it. - getting it right. what is the formula that Ajax and Barca etc use? -That's the level we need to be at, if we're going to adopt the "youngster" approach. And we're no where near that, IMO, which is why we've seen a lot of **** over the years. There have been some successes over the years SOS, but the bad has outweighed the good. - we've got to take the scouting to the next level if we're not going to spend decent money on players. Even if we get on with that right now,it's years before we'll see the evidence of our actions.
Sod working out the formula, we should just offer insane wages and take all their scouts! Though currently we are producing a decent crop of youngsters ourselves to be fair. Caulker, Townsend, Carroll, Pritchard, Coulthirst, Coulibaly all have potential to be in or around our first team for years to come.
A BIG!hello from Roo please log in to view this image Spurs or Sex seems to be busy fitting some new Spurs atm please log in to view this image
Coulibaly has gone out on loan to a Serie B side called Grosetto. Daniel, any chance of a striker coming this way?!
