How can he be overrated when seemingly no-one rates him? £18m for those two does seem a lot given that Cardiff were relegated.
If true, my opinion is this is not good news. Neither player adds more than just depth to the squad imho with both being about level but no better than the weakest starter in their position. I'd value them around at £7m and £3m personally, and neither signing would 'excite' me even if we did manage to get them at £10m for the pair. I'm really not a big fan of buying last year's relegated players. I do know that they may be better than the team's overall position, but to expect that taking 2/5ths of a defence that conceded 74 will improve a defence that conceded 46 in the previous season is flawed from my perspective. If it was an attacker who didn't show their full potential because they hadn't been given service I'd maybe be more inclined to think they'd improve more for the move, but with defenders and keepers I'm a lot more wary.
I've no problem improving squad depth, because we desperately need to. Seems a lot just for that though.
You could argue Marshall was the busiest keeper in the league (or one of them), which is why he has been receiving praise for pulling off great saves, as if a keeper is constantly having to deal with shots then even average keepers will make great saves. Artur Boruc (imo) is a better keeper.
To be honest, 18m isn't ridiculous money.. Marshall would command atleast 5m after a fantastic season and Caulker shone above most Cardiff players is young and has an England cap, 13m for that isn't over the odds by any means.
He was playing behind possibly the worst defence in the league. Put any half decent keeper in there and they would have been Cardiffs best player. Apart from Tommy Forecast.
Each to their own, wasn't posting to stir anything up. It's just my opinion that if I was manager they'd both be options from the bench and not starters, which when you think we're allegedly spending £18m on them wouldn't make great business sense imho. I thought the club strategy was more to buy where necessary to improve the starting XI, and trust the youth with filling the spots on the bench and taking their opportunities where they come. Personally I'd only spend as much as £18m if I thought they were guaranteed starters. If the club thinks that this is the case then either I'll have to be wrong (and I'll admit it if thats the case) or we won't be finishing 8th again next season.
I think they'd both be starters. That doesn't mean there aren't better options available for that kind of money though.
seems a high price but i don't know what out budget overall is. instinctively i will be a tad disappointed it that's half or more of it gone.
Same and Marshall, 12-15m would be what I would pay for them. But in the end it aint our money to worry about.
even though I'll take les at his word that all funds from sales will be available in the transfer budget, I'd be surprised if we spend it all in one window. that way lies tottenham. £35m was what i read elsewhere, i think.
assuming that this 18m comes out of the original budget (we're not replacing anything we've sold unless lovren is a done deal) we've got between 17 and 22m for two strikers and maybe a quick wide player. Pelle at £8m leaves 9-14m to play with then.
