Transfer Rumours The Summer Transfer Rumour Thread 2016

West Ham's previous policy of keeping hold of their players, was a combination of; signing average players, players with poor injury records, players towards the end of their careers, lots of dubious loan signings, and to play prosaic football which cunningly made no one look particularly good. Cannily they also based themselves in London...but a less desirable part of London. Another tactic was to ensure these players were paid more than more successful medium sized clubs, then to hide under the radar 12 or so points behind them in the league.

They have timely changed tack with the advent of their kindly present from the people of Great Britain of a sexy stadium in a regenerated part of a global capital; and started to sign; better players, younger players, (even going as far as to produce their first coverted youngster in 12 years!) and to play a brand of football which makes them desirable to many, and West Ham Football club VERY annoying.

 

Said that the last 3 yrs. Enjoy the players while they are here. Then don't go crazy when they want to move on.

 

West Ham:
Are a bigger club.
Pay bigger wages.
Are in London instead of Southampton.

Everton:
Are a bigger club.
Pay bigger wages.
Are in Liverpool instead of Southampton.

People don't realise how big a pull teams being in bigger cities actually is.

 

We should be able to match those teams in wages with the new TV money coming in.

 

We could but we won't. The way our club is being run is different. West Ham like to buy players at their peak age, we buy up and coming players.

 

Hopefully, and this is what I hope is the reason for new deals for VVD/Forster/JWP are. If we continue to be prudent with wages then the sort of player exodus or whatever you want to call it that happens each summer will continue for aslong as we keep recruiting well.

 

Its all well and good doing this, but it is when those players have proven they can cut it in the PL that we need to be able to offer them money in line with other players at clubs in similar positions to us. Otherwise we will continue to lose players on a regular basis, until we recruit some players who aren't as good and are not wanted by the top teams, and then we will fall down the table.

 

And then sell a couple of seasons later before they've even reached their peak. Buying up and coming players is all well and good, but we need to keep them more than a couple of seasons. We only kept Morgan as long as we did because he needed to prove himself in the Premier League before a bigger club came in for him. We should be offering Mane a substantial pay rise.

 

VVD and Forster were on contracts....two things were needed for them to choose to lengthen their stay here....they are happy to play for Saints and were offered sufficient funds to warrant signing again. That indicates money is available and others may be offered the same. This will be sufficient for some, but for some, the money may not be everything, they just want to move to a different club.

 

Being cynical there are 3 things needed, they are happy to play for Saints, were offered sufficient funds to warrant signing again and no bigger clubs were in for them.

 

May be true for future players seeking to leave, but Forster and VVD signed without waiting to see what teams were in for them.

 

Not sure I'd prefer to live in Liverpool than Southampton

 

To a foreign player Liverpool is a bigger/ better city.

 

Then we should go full English.

 

Really?

 

Nonsense - it all depends on your situation in life.
If you have a young family then you'll choose to live in Southampton/Hampshire

I understand London as a pull, but players are not staying at Everton for the local amenities

 

There are nice parts of every city, and if you are a PL footballer you will be able to afford to live in that nice part. I don't think location matters that much outside of London.

 

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As a visitor I would rate Liverpool above Southampton. Liverpool has many rather architecturally impressive parts of town and has some cool trendy areas.

 

I understand the pull of big cities and certainly West Ham will offer bigger wages than we do, however I would say that a lot of players want to win things as well as earn a tonne of cash, so I think that really desirability is difficult to gauge.

 

Liverpool is a major city Southampton isn't. If you look at my other post I also said paying higher wages was a factor. That and both West Ham and Everton are bigger clubs.


If anything Southampton is where old retired players come to live.