Risky Business

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I bet QPR staff and fans alike thought they had a dependable acquisition in Bosingwa. Turns out he could be depended on to do absolutely hee haw for the team or club whilst being perfectly content to pocket his cash and smile at relegation.

Absolutely. I'd rather chew my arm off than have Bosingwa at Saints.....
 
I'm getting a little uncomfortable with the amount of Serie A players being linked to us. I know there are good players over there, and we have an Italian connection, but it seems really naive to focus so much on scouting one country and ignore others, especially as the style of football in Italy is so different to that in England.

If our summer signings consist of Astori, Nainggolan, Insigne and Alvarez I'll be pretty annoyed. I'm really hoping that it's just lazy journalism that's resulting in this unbalanced proportion of player rumours being from Serie A.

I would think that Spain would be more likely to be a country we would be looking at to source talent. Their economic situation being dire, gate receipts are down (even Real Madrid and Barcelona); plus our manager having worked and played there for so long.
 
Fact is you can buy ten prospects for the price of one or two proven stars. If only half of them turn out to be successful you're still well ahead. That's the strategy we've generally seen from the club (adding experience when the price is right), and I see no reason to think that will change.

Or you can buy one or two proven professionals for the price of one potential wunderkind who hasn't bedded down.

If you get one proven professional for free (or eventually a knock down fee) off Rangers you can get three!

This season we can probably feel more confident in taking a couple of punts because Boruc, Clyne, Schneiderlin, Shaw and Lambert all look well up to speed and there are a few others who looked OK or showed promise last season.

but if we're still being ambitious we need a couple of automatic first choice players in to kick on and the prospects have to be the kind of prospects the top four (or maybe the second four) would be taking a punt on.
 
Or you can buy one or two proven professionals for the price of one potential wunderkind who hasn't bedded down.

If you get one proven professional for free (or eventually a knock down fee) off Rangers you can get three!

This season we can probably feel more confident in taking a couple of punts because Boruc, Clyne, Schneiderlin, Shaw and Lambert all look well up to speed and there are a few others who looked OK or showed promise last season.

but if we're still being ambitious we need a couple of automatic first choice players in to kick on and the prospects have to be the kind of prospects the top four (or maybe the second four) would be taking a punt on.

That's the exact transfer policy of teams like West Ham, and, although that might help them for a few years, in the long run they are going to seriously struggle. Saints are building for the future, and that's the best way to be. We are building for top 6, but we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves and demand it now. A quality team takes time to build, and we have begun building.
 
That's the exact transfer policy of teams like West Ham, and, although that might help them for a few years, in the long run they are going to seriously struggle. Saints are building for the future, and that's the best way to be. We are building for top 6, but we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves and demand it now. A quality team takes time to build, and we have begun building.

You can't go all one way or all the other, but when your team is already youth centric and inexperienced at the top level it's wise to start off with a few seasoned professionals.

QPR made a mistake carrying on with overpaid dross in their second season up.

Balance is important.

edit: if we're pushing for europe on a short schedule, evolution won't cut it. there has to be some measure of revolution, even if it's only a couple of players.
 
You can't go all one way or all the other, but when your team is already youth centric and inexperienced at the top level it's wise to start off with a few seasoned professionals.

QPR made a mistake carrying on with overpaid dross in their second season up.

Balance is important.

edit: if we're pushing for europe on a short schedule, evolution won't cut it. there has to be some measure of revolution, even if it's only a couple of players.

Heh, that overpaid dross consisted of the sort of seasoned veterans you are pushing for. That's what seasoned veterans become when they don't live up to expectations, and when that happens, you end up with a situation where your only real option is to acquire more seasoned veterans...who, in QPR's case, turned into more overpaid dross. And now not only are they relegated, but they're stuck with a wage bill that could be crippling and very few assets that they can sell for any value to mitigate that damage.
 
QPR made **** signings. Doesn't matter if they're veterans or youngsters when they're ****. Their main problem was being incredibly naive when it came to signing fullbacks, so they got raped down the flanks all season. We won't have that problem.
 
Heh, that overpaid dross consisted of the sort of seasoned veterans you are pushing for. That's what seasoned veterans become when they don't live up to expectations, and when that happens, you end up with a situation where your only real option is to acquire more seasoned veterans...who, in QPR's case, turned into more overpaid dross. And now not only are they relegated, but they're stuck with a wage bill that could be crippling and very few assets that they can sell for any value to mitigate that damage.
So you be selective. You don't go for SWP. you pick up Dimitar Berbatov maybe if you can find the funds. find a chris baird type out of contract who has been a mainstay if not a big name.

And you don't sign 20 of them each season.

Who knows. If a couple of those QPR players had been put in a squad mixed with talented young players maybe they'd have been motivated.

Not SWP though. ****

lol threadsplosion.
 
Not that he'd have signed with a newly-promoted team, but paying nearly 100k p/w in wages to a player about to turn 32 is exactly the sort of thing you don't do. There's a reason why Fulham's chairman has had to cover a tonne of debt...they tend to buy older players, and those wages add up in a big way.
 
And i'm not saying we should tend to sign older players, though some of you seem very insistent that I am.


I withdraw the threadsplosion thing. my browser took a **** and I thought this was the other thread.
 
I do worry that now we are Premier League we are paying Premier League prices. For example, is Lovren £7m better than Fonte? If so he is going to be one hell of a player but I seriously doubt it.

Reminds me of the Aesop fable of the dog with the bone looking into the river and seeing the bigger bone which of course was just an illusion.
 
I do worry that now we are Premier League we are paying Premier League prices. For example, is Lovren £7m better than Fonte? If so he is going to be one hell of a player but I seriously doubt it.

Reminds me of the Aesop fable of the dog with the bone looking into the river and seeing the bigger bone which of course was just an illusion.
Think it's probably better to compare lovren with the guy Villa just signed. Champions league experience, a couple of years younger a lot cheaper.

Short though by centre back standards.

What could we sell Fonte for now ? Could we get our money back? He's 2 (not 2... four?) years older, but he's got PL experience.
 
Think it's probably better to compare lovren with the guy Villa just signed. Champions league experience, a couple of years younger a lot cheaper.

Short though by centre back standards.

What could we sell Fonte for now ? Could we get our money back? He's 2 years older, but he's got PL experience.

Wait. You're upset that we haven't signed more veteran players, but you're approvingly citing a 20 year old whose only experience is in the Danish league? I love the Okore signing myself, but that would seem like the sort of signing you seem to hate, a prospect on the up.

Oh, and Lovren actually has far more CL experience than does Okore. The latter has five games, the former has twelve.
 
Wait. You're upset that we haven't signed more veteran players, but you're approvingly citing a 20 year old whose only experience is in the Danish league? I love the Okore signing myself, but that would seem like the sort of signing you seem to hate, a prospect on the up.
Obviously I hate talented prospects. that's why I suggested we spend two thirds to 3/4 of our budget on them. your logic is flawless indeed.

Oh, and Lovren actually has far more CL experience than does Okore. The latter has five games, the former has twelve.
He's in the same sort of bracket of young talented centre back and Okore hasn't to my knowledge got half of his home country calling him useless and all of his last club's fans cheering his departure. That's the favourable part of my comparison. That said i'm hopeful for our guy. and yes he's got more experience so best of both worlds, hopefully.

big price differential for 7 CL games though let's hope the years of experience set us in good stead.