Mccourt is precisely the kid of player I hate, he's f**king ****e 95% of the time and then he does something that looks good and everyone w**ks about it on Soccer Am and on YouTube. He really is Lee Trundle. I remember watching him during a game at Spotland and he was a total ****. Completely disagree. He's looked good all season to me.
I was reading a Fulham forum and they seem to think it's both. He'll definitely be on less that the £50k he was on at Chelsea, but I expect he'll still command a fairly hefty wage and I don't think there'll be a lack of competition for his signature.
We might be overreaching with some of the players mentioned. Snodgrass, Dejagah, Mutch and Richardson all have 1 year still on their contracts. Campbell and Parker have 2 years whilst Caulker and Redmond have 3 years to go. Michael Turner and Sidwell are available on a free and would be good value. I could well see Turner returning (forgive the pun) but Sidwell will get better offers. With the "Bean-Counters" lurking in the background I think we will be looking for a couple of youngsters as well as some experienced loan players. I cannot see us going too deeply into the transfer market.
I honestly don't think Turner is the player he was when he was with us. It's a romatic notion that's been passed about, but he's not going to get in ahead of Chester or Davies and we have Macca and Figueroa as back up for that position. If we were going to bring in a CB, it'd be somebody else. From the relegated sides I'd definitely take Snodgrass, possibly Fer and Ruddy from Norwich. From Fulham I'd take Dejagah, but only if he has a good World Cup. From Cardiff I'd take Medel, Kim, Marshall or Theophile-Catherine.
I think I'd get in before Figueroa (and I'm 75) but Turner is established at this level and we need depth on the bench, and he's free. I think most of the others you mention would be good but they would cost money and we haven't got any mate.
I agree with you in that I think most of our transfer dealings are to be done on frees and loans, but we have got money. Our FA Cup run just netted us £6m and we have the PL prize money and next seasons TV money to look forward to. The Allams have always said they'd pay for each player as they come, rather than setting a transfer budget, which I think is a sensible way to do it.
I am not too familiar with new "Fair Play" rule but another poster mentioned that we were a bit 'dodgy' to say the least so I thought that we would have to not only 'pull the pin' on a few players but try to sell some too. In a recent interview I understood that Mr Allam had said that there wasn't much left after expenses from the FA Cup.
I don't know what 'expenses' he's referring to, if it's wages and transfers then he's talking bull, they'd budgeted for every player we have and as Brucey said many times, they had budgeted to finish 20th, which was a smart thing to do. Yeah, we are a bit dodgy under FFP, but not massively, I suppose we'll find out when the accounts are published. I don't think it's got to the point where we have to sell players to stay afloat, but there'll no doubt be interest in some players anyway come the end of the season.
