Supposedly Roma have agreed a loan-to-buy deal with Bologna for Destro. So Strikers for under £5-6m, any thoughts?
I know. I'm just saying it is not necessarily the best way of hedging your bets - i.e. if taking the risk of spending money they "might" never get can be netted off against significantly lowering the risk of relegation. I'm not saying that is what would happen, I'm just saying in the world of football and the dramatic financial difference between promotion and relegation against the statistical impact of big spending, it's not quite as simple as saying "spending little = prudent, spending lots = risky". On the whole, I prefer the club's approach.
As you say, you have to gamble sometimes but it has to be calculated. We took our 'big risk' last summer by a) keeping most of our squad together and b) spending £15m+ of parachute money in an attempt to bounce straight back. Had we failed we'd be looking at a very different Norwich City today. Thank god we're not!
Last summer's spending has impacted upon this summers too. Our squad is too big and as a result our wage bill is too big thanks to everyone getting a pay rise.
Agreed - despite the unimaginably massive rewards of staying up this season, I still don't think it's worth a roll of the dice given that it's the sort of financial risk that seriously could put a club out of business (and after all, we would still get another bite of the cherry after relegation, though no guarantees and unless you're Ipswich the chances are you will get promoted every six or seven years or so, minimum). The bloated squad is a real issue. It's such a shame our transfer policy has been so weak - I'd say that's been our biggest problem over the last six years.
I think we have already got enough of them. Patience might be a virtue here. If we could sell at least 2 of RVW, Hooper, Turner and Lafferty then the £5m becomes £10m or so and then we are in for a different class of player.
Fair point. I'd add Odjidja-Ofoe to the list too, he doesn't seem likely to make an impact on the first team this season, though I do hope he makes me eat those words.
I do hope Vadis is able to break into the team this year and show us what he can do. But that is still more hope than reality.
Thought the only thing holding him back was an injury? It's hard to know when all we hear is gossip & rumours without knowing what's happening during training. Same thing we Fer we just never really got much out of him
I think it was initially but with the packed midfield we will have to see if he will get a chance to show us what he can do.
He was supposed to be all singing all dancing etc so like you say will be interesting to see if he forces his way through. Fingers crossed!
When you reflect on transfers of late, we really have a pretty poor record. For all the money spent last summer, is Jerome the only one the fans would unanimously call a hit? I guess you could make a case for O'Neill or Grabban too, but it's hardly great!
None of our recent signings have been a major hit! I'm still hoping for some to find their feet in the team. Still feel a bit mugged off for getting odjidja-ofoe on my shirt!
Yep, it's been a bit of a bugbear of mine over the past few weeks. Indisputably successful signings of the last couple of years: Jerome (2014), Olsson (2013), Redmond (2013) Then you can add controversials like Fer (2013) and Grabban (2014) both I'd say probably should count as successful, O'Neil who served a purpose and a few youngsters who you can't fairly count, but that's out of 20+ signings, which is really poor I think. You have to go back to 2012 for the signings of Bassong, Snodders, Tettey and Turner (who was a success in the first season IMO) or the season of 11/12 for Pilks Howson and Bradders (and arguably even Morison for that first season's contribution.
Gary Hooper scored 12 and got 6 assists last season (16 starts). In the Prem he scored 6 and got 2 assists (22 starts). Partial success?
