I see a few murmurs of not quite panic, but shall we say concern, of the clubs finances, some kind of 'black hole' with the Bent & Henderson fees. I hear doom and panic over the lack of bringing a striker in, but i don't think it's financial at all, i think Bruce has seen Gyan and Sess, and has decided that the best system with what we have is Sess of Gyan, and he will feel Whickham into the league in time for Asa going to the ACN, this is why a link with someone like Piquionne makes sense, why shell a fortune on a 29 year old Defoe, when it could be the case that 18 year old Connor & 25 year old Gyan are there, as well as Dong, Ryan Noble, and Campbell? Who could we have bought for £24million? As a team not in Europe? Nobody who represented value, simple as that. I guess it's this, Steve Bruce is the manager, he'll live and die by his decision. The club are right to get there books in order and manage the wage bill, things like the kitbag tie in, and hopefully a bigger, multi-national sponsor for next season will swell the income, then maybe we can spend the higher wages WITHOUT crippling the club and falling foul of the financial rules. The wage cap is high enough for Gyan & Sessegnon to be happy at the club, it was high enough for Larsson to sign, despite interest from clubs like Villa and Atletico Madrid, who pay significantly higher than our alleged cap, it was high enough to draw 2 players who have played for Manchester United for 10 years, answer this, are ANY of the players we may have refused to match the wage demands of more worthy of a higher salary than these kids? Are any of them more marketable than Asamoah Gyan, a true world star, infectious, famous for his personality as much as his football, a hero and inspiration to Ghana, and Africa? Are they ****. Let's not forget the fact that Whickham was an enormous coup by the club, he will have been convinced of the clubs ambition, indeed, once a fee was settled with Ipswich, he and his agent didn't put the feelers out for 'bigger' clubs, he agreed a deal and signed very swiftly indeed. IMO there's money in the coffers, but not the wage budget, that makes sense, and it stands to reason that we move on some deadwood before our next move. European qualification holds the key to the next stage in the clubs development, we are now a fully established Premier League club, and i am thankful for that. A cup run is essential, as is another top 10 finish. Panic stations? Not for me.
We've bought 9 players, are you truly happy with all 9? Surely there must be some who you think, hhmmm divint know like.
Me either, good read mate! ... The window hasn't even closed yet and the doom and gloom is rearing it's ugly head again in certain sections. Me, I'm happy with the additions brought in, a mix of goals, creativity, experience and youth. All combined in the mixing pot, I feel confident about us getting off to a decent start this season. Bruce will indeed live and die by his sword, I'm sure he's only too well aware, as will be Short and Quinn as to which positions need strengthening and bolstering. At least give them till the end of the window to judge. I think we do have money available but Bruce knows he has to spend it wisely and that may mean bringing in a few additions in January, plus as said before we do have to offload certain players who were rewarded with way ott contracts from the ever generous Keane.
Well said BB - completely agree with every point Commachio - I am not unhappy with any of them but there is really only Ji that i know nothing about - and that's obviously because of his previous clubs - never seen him play so can't comment - although by all accounts he's looked good pre-season so I can say I'm happy with how things have gone for us. BUT I thill think we need a left sided midfielder unless Kieran can step up to the plate (and, from what I've seen of him, it'd be a big step!!) Looking forward to the 13th August - although can't get to see the match as my little lad is playing in a football tournament (and his team are likely to win it so I'll be there all day!!)
Totally agree with your post, I think there'll still be movement in and out of the club as there's a month left of the transfer window, really looking forward to the start of the season!!
Thanks for that Brucey's Beak, totally agree. As for concerns over individuals' brought in, for me its not the individual's talent that is paramount (although highly important), its the balance of the team. Youth is being injected with experience, new players are bringing expectations with them and hopefully this will regenerate the team qualities that we had in the first part of last season. The future is bright - we are not the finished deal yet but we are building on a top ten team.
I'm not convinced we needed Brown, but that's not to say that i don't think he's ok, remember, he cost £1million! Gardner and Larsson i'm delighted with, they fill in gaps in our arsenal, so what they offer the TEAM is far greater than their individual abilities. Whickham may take to the league straight off, he may not, but he's a signing i'm delighted with, and a marker as how the clubs perception is changing to the outside world. Dong, we know nowt about, other than a number of encouraging pre-season displays. O'Shea needs nothing said, a great signing, Westwood is a no lose gamble, as we have 2 decent keepers at the club even if he fails. Vaughan impressed me every time i watched Blackpool last season.
I think we will pick up another player IF we shift the deadwood.... 100k per week off the books approx = room for a big signing. I wouldn't be suprised if it came from an overseas league.
I agree Ken, i think we just need to shed some WAGES then we'll move. N'Zogbia would have been a great fit for us, but there's others.
I dont see panic or doom and gloom TBH and I think most are more than happy with our signings. I do think we need that left sided player and I think even Bruce agrees with that. Its that and the fact we seem to have missed out on N'Zog that leaves us a little dissopointed and I think its natural to ask questions. Its that concern, the ability to ask on a furum like this and a new opinion in the OP that helps me see a new way of looking at it, thats why I like this forum.
I don’t see any panic stations from anywhere, merely a relevant discussion about what we have spent. Whilst we haven’t yet spent ALL the money we recouped from the sale of Judas and Henderson (30m is a conservative estimate) the wage bill has undoubtedly increased and a cull of the fringe players is vital. However and it can be quoted paraphrase fashion, Quinny and Bruce both said that the reason we didn’t bring anyone in January was that there wasn’t any quality about and the y didn’t want anyone who didn’t fit the long term plan. A very reasonable and considered thought process but absolutely undermined if we do bring in the likes of Piquionne. If that’s the best we are after (don’t rate the player at all) then we may as well have got someone in January and we may not have slumped as we did. Both the manager and the chairman stated they would not be afraid to break the clubs transfer record and yet it looks like we haven’t even bid for a player that has been top of the wanted list for over 12 months, for 9.5m? Go figure that one out? Bruce has done a very, very good job in recruiting players this summer but to bring in someone of this dubious, poor quality would undermine that good work for me. Defoe is 5 times the player Piquionne will ever be and is the sort of player that makes clubs sit up and take notice. I don’t particularly like Defoe the man but the player is top class and I see one major tabloid has named the NE1 brigade as a possible club interested. I'd say they will rescue the headlines after an average summer buying, with this one major impact signing if it were true. We have bought soundly and added much needed quality in depth this summer but I wouldn’t say any of them are wow factor signings. Players for instance that will make you top 6 or 7 from top 12. Piquionne won’t bring anything tangible to the SAFC table. Defoe (recapturing form of 18 months ago) would make us contenders at the top half IMO.
Does the club need to break it's transfer record? Should we do it for the sake of it? We can't break it, as we aren't in Europe, and therefore can't attract a player who's value is in excess of £13million. TRy and name a player who we could get for that money who would come to the club, realistically. There isn't one.
we could have bid 9.5 for N'Zog and talked to him, if he then picked Villa because they offered more in wages fair play but would he have come to us for 40k a week, if we did not bid, we can not talk so we dont know.
Good read and I agree with what has been said. I am happy with the players we have bought, would have loved to have N'Zogbia and disappointed we did not even go after him, but life goes on and I am sure there is a rabbit or two in SB and NQ's hat. Does anyone know how long those players; Nogs etc have left on their contract? KTF
Wigan winger Charles N'Zogbia is expected to fly into England to undergo a medical with Aston Villa on Thursday. Villa have agreed a £9.5million fee with the Latics for the 25-year-old, who has only one year left of his current deal at the DW Stadium. The Frenchman is understood to be close to finalising personal terms and will sign a five-year contract with the Midlands club. The former Newcastle player will end his current break in Dubai and head to Villa's Bodymoor Heath training complex for his assessment by the club's medical staff. Villa are optimistic of tying up all the loose ends by the weekend, although N'Zogbia will not meet up with his new team-mates until next week as they are currently away at the Barclays Asia Trophy in Hong Kong. Villa manager Alex McLeish hopes N'Zogbia's arrival can go some way to compensating for the loss of Ashley Young and Stewart Downing to big-money transfers this summer
Agreed, it's also a statement of intent showing the club has ambitions of moving upward. For one I am happy with what we have got but think as do quite a few of you that we need a couple more. One thing that did concern me was the handling of the Gibson deal (if True) in that we had a package (wages/lenghth of contract) only to back track and offer him half of what was initialy offered. If this is true it's not a good signal to send out to players/agents.
i thought it was his agents fault?? it was all ment to be set up and he agreed the terms then his agent went and demanded 40,000 a wk or something.
