We tried the the policy of luring players to the SOL with hefty long term contracts and we have spent the last few season trying to get of all the deadwood who were on said contracts. I'd prefer our club to operate within it's financial means with the odd splash out on 10m+ players. Anything other policy and its looking for trouble.
Hull are the perfect example of how not to run a football club. We tried their approach under Bruce and despite 40k crowds it's taken us to this window to get back in the black. Hull fans laughed at our reasoning and threw the 10th place finish up thinking their right clever. Now it's happening to them and they still haven't clicked how destructive giving Steve Bruce money actually is. Decent players they have bought, but they've spent well beyond their means, spent over the odds and now they're one relegation from disappearing forever. They'll learn the hard way. I don't want to go back to that. I want a future.
So...you can name one? Does that constitute as some these days? I'm not Sndograss' biggest fan actually, but 6 goals from midfield for a relegated side is pretty good going. I wouldn't call him a rotten signing. Pricey perhaps, but values went up again this window. £8mil is the new £6mil as I saw someone post a while back. Interestingly, I remember a few on here (mainly you I suspect smug, in all fairness many disagreed with you too) mocking Bruce for the signings of Jelavic and Long as a catastrophic overspend. As it happens, their goals kept us up, we made a £5 mil profit in 6 months on Long, and Jelavic has scored 2 in 4 this season. So maybe you shouldn't be so hasty in dismissing Bruce's signings, as I can tell you for us, they've been excellent. Certainly no clangers like Altidore.
I thought players weren't allowed to be registered with 3 clubs in a single calander year... How have The Saints got round that one out of interest?
I was asked for an example. I still believe Jelavic isn't a consistent PL striker and also that no one but a desperate Southampton would've paid that for Long. I don't believe Long is worth what they paid for him.
I'm afraid you weren't. I'd know, I asked the question. Fair enough if you've forgotten, but it was: "I'd be interested to know the rotten signings he's made for us?". As you can see, signings is clearly plural, meaning (at the very least) more than one. Given that Bruce has brought in 20+ players, that's a remarkably impressive record. As someone who watches every game he plays I can tell you that Jelavic is clumsy, not the quickest and far from clinical in front of goal. However, he will always work hard, always make clever runs and always be in the right place at the right time. In that sense, he is a very consistent striker and his record of 6 in 20 for us is pretty decent. That, quite frankly, is irrelevant. How many players this window went for what most of us fans would say they're worth? Bruce made a £5 mil profit in 6 months, so there can be no doubts that Long was a fine piece of business by Brucie.
Bruce has always signed well - remember Bent, Gyan, Cana, along with loanees like Welbeck? Steve's failing is he's incapable of organizing a p**s up in a brewery, and can't keep his players. There's no question that he signs well, but I wouldn't have him back for no wages.
As I've said on here before, I believe Jelavic will do exactly what he did at Everton ......... lose confidence and stop scoring. I've no idea of his wages and length of contract but it won't be low and short. Rotten may not be the exact word but signings like 30 odd year old Michael Dawson for £4 million are the kind I remember from Bruce.
Just random guesswork then? No evidence to suggest he'll do that. He had a 1 in 3 record at Everton which he has continued here, doesn't look like a confidence player at all. Dawson? Pretty much sums up what I suspected. You were taking a dig at Bruce hoping no-one would actually question you on the matter, now that they have, you have no ammo/evidence. Bruce's signings at City have been brilliant, and if signing an England international with Champions League experience, highly rated by Tottenham fans, for £3 million (yes, you got that wrong too), when we sold a back-up player in George Boyd for the same fee is an example of a 'rotten signing' then long may Bruce's rotten work in the transfer market continue.
Just like mine, that's just your opinion ...... despite Bruce's 'brilliant signings' Hull finished beneath Sunderland, were knocked out of Europe early on and still have defenders like Bruce & McShane. BBC says, "Hull are reported to have paid £3.5m for the 30-year-old, who has signed a three-year deal with the Tigers." I was just guessing at £4 million but whatever it is I don't think he's a good buy, he's 31 this year. BTW, I think you meant to say ex-England international with less than half a dozen caps and btw how 'highly rated' is he by Spurs fans? I thought he'd played an average of less than 20 games a season over the last three, or summat like that.
Whilst I'm not getting involved, I must point out that Smug is bang on re Jalavic. He may have averaged 1 in 3 but they were all in his early days, he barely scored for over a year at the end. Stats only tell half tales.
It's not really though is it. When you take over a midtable Championship side and win automatic promotion in your first year, stay up comfortably the next whilst reaching an FA Cup Final and getting into Europe with your own players, you've made some fairly decent signings. I think you'd have to be a bit dim to suggest otherwise. You're entitled to such an opinion, but it's not a commonly held one, and one I find a little perplexing. Dawson is a proven quality Premier League centre-half, with 324 apps for a side always in the upper reaches of the Premier League. As I said, the money we spent on Daws, we received for Boyd, so fee wise it was no-brainer. Well if you ask any Spurs fan they'll tell you. They swamped our forum with praise when he joined and most hope he's given a testimonial at some stage. He played 41 games for Spurs last year and 34 the season before that. It was only the 11-12 season in which he wasn't a regular starter due to a long-term injury.
That all sounds very cosy but the reality isn't quite the same. Bruce almost threw away promotion and only just scraped in despite a very poor run of results at the end. He repeated that at the end of last season and somehow managed to finish below a Sunderland side many of you claimed were relegation certainties. Qualification for Europe was due to a handful of results against the likes of 3rd division team and a defeat in the final. Elimination from Europe was predictably quick. When Sunderland supporters responded to the 'look at Hull, we're a top half team and you're going down' by pointing out that Bruce would engineer a post Christmas slump many of you ridiculed the idea. "Oh no, Bruce has grown as a manager and that won't happen at Hull." He's certainly grown If you're happy that Bruce is signing the likes of Snodgrass on borrowed money that's your business. I heard that the debt to the owner was around £80 million at this time last year, which must have risen, and the club are being charged interest. Can that be sustained on gates of around 20,000? Well, the likes Blackpool & Portsmouth thought so .......... you'll be fine BTW, I took your advice about 'asking Spurs fans' and this was one of the first I came across on the Spurs board, "Every Spurs fan I know outside of this board wants him out. Not because they don't like him but because they don't think he's good enough." I agree that he's prone to mistakes, slow and never developed into the class player he could have been.
Hull are in a Mess, Relegation would ruin them. They've good an ok squad, yes they've improved but there's no way that squad is as strong as the Newcastle squad which got relegated which shows you can't take safety for granted, ever. They don't have financial clout or fan base to become a mid-table club while remaining self sufficient. They're a time bomb waiting to go off. It the fans aren't wising up to this potential then I feel very sorry them. Delusional isn't the word.
Oh dear. We were expected to finish midtable with perhaps a play-off push, so saying we only 'scraped' promotion is rather an appalling attempt at attacking Bruce. A little like saying A. Madrid only scraped the title in the Liga BBVA last season. Do you think they give a ****? They did brilliantly. Btw, we may have breezed past you but calling yourself a third division side is a bit harsh. I'm very happy with Bruce's signings, thanks for the concern. The amount of money he is given isn't up to Bruce, all he can do is spend it wisely, and he has done and continues to do. The fact that you liken our situation to Pompey's shows how little you know about both. Okay, you found one person who didn't rate him. Create an article on the Spurs board entitled 'Michael Dawson' if you really give a **** and see what they have to say.
Fair do's, you're happy with the signings. I think Bruce has learned as he's moved (quickly) through his clubs, and he's made some decent signings. I'd have been happy to get some of them here, but they weren't what Gus was looking for. The crucial point that has been made time and again however is the debt that goes with it. Bruce is like a kid in a sweetshop, I'll have that and that and that and that, and not giving a **** about where the money is coming from. You can't argue against the fact that your owner isn't exactly "rock-solid". And that should be a great concern to your more knowledgable fans. He could pull the plug, call the debt in, at any time if he doesn't get his way. We've had Bruce as a manager, and there are still perceived grievances with the guy, not least his scattergun signings. I dare say he's signed better for you than he did for us. But he did so with a somewhat naive relatively new owner. The FFP rules have changed and ES isn't going to make that mistake again, the same mistake that we can see your owner making. Enjoy the moment, but don't forget the outstanding debt in the owners back pocket.
No manager gives a **** where the money comes from. You think when Bruce identified Hernandez as a target and Assem agreed a fee Bruce was going to say "Hang on, can we definitely afford this?". As a matter of fact, we haven't spent anywhere near as much as you seem to think. I don't know where this myth has come from but our net spend in the 3 years Bruce has been at the club, isn't that large at all. Assem is never going to "pull the plug and call the debt in". He's got too much money tied up in the club. He needs the club the be a success to recoup any of his money or find a new suitor willing to take on the debts.
