yes,butseveral of them are only just with us. 2 or 3 are likely to be gone/not in our 25 man squad for next season.
Tell you what, Southampton are splashing the cash aren't they. 1st Levron from Lyon and now Winyama from Celtic.
Supers, I cant help feeling overly excited about signing this summers and quite possibly getting carried away. I am absolutely buzzing regarding the RVW transfer as I am sure all of us are but I do think this transfer has made me think we are going to be buying other £5m+ european standard players and I dont think we are going to bring in as much quality on top of RVW as I thought. Just a hunch and I hope I am wrong. I also think other clubs are going to eb very active and spending similar sums of money - including those who have just come up. I cannot stress to you how ecstatic I am for the RVW transfer but hes going to need better service which I think means bringing in more quality.
they haven't even put a bid in for him yet, have they? all it'll do is wake up the big boys i expect. lovren is a great defender though - bit of a coup
we won't be buying a host of european standard players, i promise you that - we cannot afford to i'm not saying we definitely won't bring in one more, i don't know, but we won't be splashing the cash cos we don't have much, even with the new tv deal - we are still going to be one of the poorest clubs in the premier league. we also won't be able to solve all our issues in this window so there will be some stop-gaps along the way.
You call us poor, I'd call us well run. Define poorest; Lowest wage bill? least expensively assembled? or In many million pounds worth of debt?wages an unhealthy proportion of revenue? The only thing going for us is that if we go abroad the new TV deal means we look and are relatively rich and may be just may be can afford some european standard footballs (What ever that means? Champions league experience players?) We surely must have a bit more clout than Rosenborg and as demonstrated by RvW a number of portugese clubs. Bah!
I think Southampton are going to have a decent side next year. Lovren is a quality CB who should help there defensive frailties and if they got Wanyama that would be a real coup. I think they are looking to add real quality which obviously is going to cost them a fair bit!
My view is that we desperately need to spend the money on 2-3 quality players. We have the "stop gap" players in place, but of course could improve a little. Another striker is a "must" let's assume that RVW breaks a leg in training before the season starts, we would then be in a worse position. I feel that the defence is adequate, and with the possibilities of players on loan (maybe Naughton) then there is excellent competition for places. 2 midfielders would be nice, one attacking and one defensive, who can pass the ball to other players!. Proper competition for Pilkington's place might just be the kick up the arse he needs to put a shift in during every game, to ensure he reaches his potential.
i mean poor in relation to almost every other premier league club in terms of transfer budget/wage budget. don't get me wrong general, i think the way ourselves and swansea are run are the perfect model - i wouldn't change it for all the money in the world southampton for instance, are no bigger club than ourselves - but they are going to spend a lot more simply because their owner has plenty of money to splash around. this makes us poor in relation.
totally agree. i think we'll get another striker and hopefully toivonen, but what i'm saying is don't expect too many £5m+ signings through the door
I agree, afterall the UK is considered a wealthy country but its all on plastic with little chance of being paid off! Bah!
I agree as well, but really who is expecting any different? We've all probably juggled with the supposed income from the new TV deal and other revenue streams in our head added it all up, taken some away and come up with a thearetical transfer budget. Is it £15M? £20M or even £30M? How has our wage ceiling changed? £25K p/w may be £30K p/w? What sort of incentives also? I expect a couple of more high quality players (still only a relative term given our place in the footballing order) and then some fillers for the squad. But what if say Carlton Cole was our striker signing (I know i don't want him either but he's a free agent) Might that afford us another £5M+ player? Could we hit 4 £5M+ players with juggling of free's and our existing squad? (The trouble is are they all £5.2M or one at £9M the conitations are endless!) Probably not, but its transfer silly season and until the window closes I'm gonna enjoy the speculative ride!
It seems more and more likely that no one wants Hooper, seems as if Hull have moved on, he supposedly spoke to reading but made it clear that he wants premier league football and west ham have got Carroll and are after demba ba ba. I do wonder if theyre still asking for way to much money?
some good points. it's a juggling act. hughton has to keep the squad balanced whilst adding quality where possible whilst staying within budget. i think too many fans think of a budget of say, for example, £20m, and then go straight out and spend it on players, not thinking about where the value could be found which allow us to bring in a better player in one weaker area and maybe cover for a stronger one. re: hooper. as i said a week or so ago, it's a waiting game on him. celtic, as is their right, want a high value for the player but clubs aren;t willing to pay it. the player has made it abundantly clear he wants a move, so clubs are (quite rightly imo) backing off and letting celtic stew a little, trying to get a better deal. all part of negotiating. for the record, i still think he'll end up here, but it's far from certain of course.
I think Hooper will be ones of those deadline day deals. Clubs maybe panic a little and Celtic get what they want, an inflated price. I just hope its not us paying it, not because I don't want him but I don't want to pay over the odds for him.
I think Pablo could be right, but I think it will be someone else's problem if it goes down to the wire. I can't see CH not having at least one other option and if Celtic won't play ball then by deadline day I think/hope we will already have someone bedded in to our squad.
I think there will be 4-5 more players. One or two could be loans like Naughton and/or Livermore which would leave more money to bring in quality players like Toivenon or another, Hooper or another, and Redmond or another. If CH is satisfied with Martin and/or Ayala covering at CB, then that would do. If not, he has the final slot available for a CB. With RvW as well that would be a massively stronger squad than City had last year without losing any players who featured regularly.
