crouchy? my god, stoke are desperately trying to get him off the wage bill. no idea what he is on but if stoke don't want him anymore i guess it's a lot. good player but would not be a good signing for us. too old and too expensive with no re-sale value at all. mind you, i'd much rather him than odemwingie or nani imo you've fallen into the 'qpr trap' of looking at players names rather than looking at what they can do with a football at their feet.
I hope not Supers because I could see the car crash that was QPR and never agreed with there transfer policy. For me your just trying to deflect what I'm trying to point out that there is a big hole in our attacking options and all the links to so called big names abroad is no different to looking at players names in this country. It's just as much of a risk with no certainty of what your getting, when at least you know that the likes of Crouch may have the experience to nudge RVW in the right direction when he's trying to settle in.
For me redmond was a really important signing. Last season when Pilks was injured all our play went through Snoddy which made us easy to defend against. Especially as Snoddy move to the left where he was less effective. Redmond means we should always be able to attack down both wings and the threat of him and Olsson down one wing will be frightening to slower right backs.
imo, there is no more risk bringing in players from countries like netherlands or portugal than there is bringing in someone who already plays in our league. these players (dutch/swedes etc) have no issues with language - in fact most speak it better than many of us. the dutch in particular are all brought up well to play football on the floor and the swedes are quite british in their football style. to me, there is way more risk signing crouch than van wolfswinkel. age for one, re-sale value for another, potential, natural ability, record... the list is long
wanyama has signed for saints. £12.5m - overpriced from what i've seen. valuation seems to be based on a handful of champions league matches rather than his league form which was very patchy. celtic must be laughing their way to the bank with that one and i bet they'd rather keep hooper than wanyama. good player but that's all he is at this stage. potential is there though
On a more basic level money spent about £15m jesus wept, when did you think you see that happening and if there are 2-3 more signings, then over £20m in a calendar year, that is some fecking improvement
[/QUOTE] imo, there is no more risk bringing in players from countries like netherlands or portugal than there is bringing in someone who already plays in our league. these players (dutch/swedes etc) have no issues with language - in fact most speak it better than many of us. the dutch in particular are all brought up well to play football on the floor and the swedes are quite british in their football style. to me, there is way more risk signing crouch than van wolfswinkel. age for one, re-sale value for another, potential, natural ability, record... the list is long[/QUOTE] So if the Dutch and Portuguise leagues are exactly the same as the PL and they will have no problems fitting in why do they want to sign for Norwich then? It's because they want to make a step up to one of the toughest leagues in the world. The standard is automatically raised. So no, it's not the same as someone who has already played in the EPL, it's totally different and unknown to them. I thought a man of your knowledge would realise that.
Lets face it, apart from Nash who's ancient our signings have been... Redmond 19 Olsson 25 RvW 24 Garrido 28 Players interested in Fer 24 Hooper 25 Alderweireld 24 Toivonen 27 There is a distinct pattern that the players were signing our not going to be over the hill players or players with no re-sale value. That's why I cannot see us signing someone like N'Doye or Fabio Q etc. They just don't fit the bill!
Give me a Dutch or any other European any day of the week over crappy British players. Barely value for money anywhere, we probably got the only one available. Although I would say the players we are looking at are sadly not the traditional European style of player. Still a strong emphasis on physique and physical traits over craft and intelligence.
Apologies if I misunderstood you about being "a force". I don't really see though how we can yet be a real force in the transfer market either. By that I would understand having such pulling power as a club, and such financial clout, that clubs start to fear us as competitors in the market (as well as on the field). As superman points out, we have started to earn that status with our signing of RvW, and if we do sign Fer that will make a further impact. What I don't see is how signing someone like Peter Crouch is going to make us any sort of force in the transfer market; it would more likely earn us a reputation for being a promising retirement home for other club's ageing players. However, being any sort of "force" aside, I agree with you to the extent that I think a really top quality signing of someone a bit past their peak (of the ilk of say Martin Peters) could be extremely beneficial, but I wouldn't want more than one such player. Mikel Arteta maybe ......... But given where we are now, that sort of signing would need something like the "old West Ham connexions" that brought Martin Peters to Carrow Road. Can't think of anyone at Spurs who would quite fit the bill. [Edit] Incidentally, I don't agree that we are yet "an established Prem team". IMO we will earn that soubriquet only after at least two further seasons, in which we are comfortably mid-table or better.
sorry but you've completely misunderstood what i'm talking about! i'm talking about the transition between these divisions, not the overall quality, although the quality in the dutch league and portuguese league are far higher than i'd guess you're giving credence to, certainly at the top of both. its the english premier league which is overrated in terms of quality. it's just brilliantly marketed
rvw's game isn't based on those traits. fer's traits certainly are but he's got great feet too for such a physically big man and we need someone who can boss a midfield in that manner. redmond is technically gifted with pace as well but he's got the touch, not sure about the vision yet but he's young and will develop. olsson is a speedmeister so i'll give you that one but he's an attacking full back and i'm sure his footwork isn't bad. hughton seems to be going for players with a mixture of capabilities. once again, your dream of a team of spanish dwarves is some way away i'm afraid but surely even you can admit the new signings and i'd argue, the loss of holt, suggest a more fluid approach, even if its not perfect in your eyes yet.
If you read some of the reports in the press - not counting the red-top tabloid gutter press, they seem to concur that us signing Redmond and RvW are major coups for a club of our size. Let's be honest, they're not here for the ££ but because they've been sold a vision of where the club wants to go and how they can be a big part of that. If they just wanted top dollar, they could have done a 'Scott Sinclair' or a 'Sean Wright-Phillips'. (Or joined QPR last season ) Journalists are surprised, fans of other clubs are envious...that surely stirs feelings of belief - and some pride, as well? It does for me
If you had a league consisting of say Spurs, Everton, Liverpool, half a dozen lower PL sides, then made the rest up from the championship, you've probably got a league of similar ability to the Eredivisie. Players at top Dutch sides (Ajax, PSV, Feyenoord, Twente, Vitesse) have hit a ceiling where there isn't a lot more to prove in their current league, but they've not done so well as to make the likes of Chelsea, United, City sit up and take notice. For some of these players, those teams are their aims, but to get there they need a stepping stone on the way. That's where we come in, if players can follow in Benteke's (yes, Genk are Belgian but go with it!) footsteps and impress in the PL, then a top, champions league side are much more likely to come calling. So that's what makes us attractive to the players, whilst the players are attractive to us as there's less money in other leagues, so we can still compete financially with other foreign sides who might be interested. The players we're looking at are young, talented, and ambitious. Those joining us are sometimes leaving behind a chance of domestic cups/leagues, Europa/CL football, so that they can prove themselves. I really like that, and it's something we're going to struggle to find in other PL teams. There's about 10 roughly equal teams in the league right now, if a player thinks they can prove themselves, they may as well do it where they are. The only way to tempt them is with wages, and a hefty fee to the club.
looks like Toby Alderweireld is a no go if this is true: https://twitter.com/RussiaLFC/status/355380975125004288 might be a load of boll*cks though!
A duel bid is highly unlikely in the Eredivisie. Almost never happens. AS Roma is also in bid for Eriksen, Ajax confirmed that this morning. So I doubt there is a bid accepted. HP Sauce in my opinion.
