Transfer thread for 2016-17 season

Well it would seem that normal service has very much resumed on the market front. We have been a 'sell to buy' team since the day Levy took over with just a little bit of flexibility on the profit margins granted to Poch due to his results on the pitch.

I'm starting to believe that the whole Nkoudou thing was a figment of my imagination, and I don't think we'll see any more incomings until the bulk of the higher earning driftwood is cleared out. Despite commanding a generous transfer fee, Pritchard definitely wasn't a drain on the wage budget. Fazio probably was. Bentaleb and Chadli probably still need to be moved on before Levy opens the purse strings again. In a way I don't mind because we got our essential business done nice and early, but on the other hand this does mean more ridiculously late arrivals disrupting our early season form.

 

Berahino talk back

 

West Brom pulled out of their deal for Sack O'****e earlier, though.
Peace will be pissing about and talking out of his arse again, so I can't see that happening.

 

Ouch...

 

So Norwich are the Chelsea of the Championship? Or is it the M25?

I'd say the latter.

 

Pretty dissapointing to hear we'd let a club down like this that we seem to have decent relarions with.

Poor form.

 

Most reports suggest that it has little to do with the club and everything to do with the player's personal choice. The actual transfer fee offered seemed almost identical, albeit Norwich were willing to pay a bit more up front, ultimately both sums were £8m in total. The deciding factor was apparently the fact that Norwich stepped in and offered the player £12k a week more, an increase that Brighton simply couldn't match. He decided to follow the greenbacks at the end of the day.

Maybe there is something to be said for Spurs allowing another club to contact the player with another deal so far down the line, but as far as I know so long as nothing has actually been signed there is technically nothing wrong with it. All it takes is someone well connected at Norwich to call Pritch's agent whilst they're sat in the back of a car together, and it's all over.

 

Does not reflect well on the club, whatever the truth of it.

 

I dunno RD. It sounds to me as though Brighton have come face to face with the financial ruthlessness that now characterises the PL and that Norwich have brought down with them, and simply couldn't cope with it. Yes, it is unpleasant bordering on unethical, but I've no doubt that this sort of thing happens at PL level every single window across multiple clubs. It's when the player has physically arrived on site and is taking a medical a la Will.I.am that it truly becomes disgraceful.

This problem will become more and more widespread as TV windfalls increase relegated teams' parachute payments exponentially, until eventually the Championship will be divided between the 'haves' of those teams lucky enough to have tasted PL football in recent years and the 'have nots' of those who have never had the pleasure.

 

I wonder how much was the player changing his mind, and how much the agent changing it for him ?

And whether at some point he might wonder whether he really needed that extra cash at this stage in his career, and whether he wishes he had rather gone to live in brighton under the tutillage and care of chris houghton.

I generally find as a rule that hasty decisions of that nature are not wise ones.

 

Not sure what it is to do with us tbh. If Norwich matched Brighton's bid I can't see how we could refuse them permission to talk to him.
Can understand why Brighton are upset though.

 

£12k per week is £600k per annum and £2.4m over the length of the contract. That's nearly enough to buy a decent house in Brighton or half of Norwich. If my former employers kept that from me when we'd agreed to part then I'd be miffed and more than slightly! We had a duty to tell the lad someone else was in for him. He's not stupid and...well, that's life!

Brighton got stiffed by a bigger club. If that surprises them, then they are naiive beyond words. I see their website says that they don't consider themselves to be, however, they need to understand that it isn't personal, only business.

 

A deal isn't a deal until everyone has signed it. Brighton are just being naive. As RCL says we can't make one of our players sign for anyone so it can't reflect badly on us in any way.

 

Reports in France say that Marseilles are doing a Marseilles, with Nkoudou barely featuring in training while the saga has continued to drag on - which is obviously not something we want to hear given the Premier League kicks off in less than two weeks, while also explaining why Boufal suddenly reappeared on our radar.

 

If Spurs show me that they were going to get the same initial/projected amount +
payment terms regardless of which of the two Pritchard chose, then I am happy.

Tis the thought that Spurs have profited themselves by Norwich being chosen
that irks me.

 

Well I hope N'Jie has been featuring in full training regardless of what is going on.

 

Nkoudou is allegedly in a London hotel awaiting the deal to be signed.

I hope Levy has deployed a couple of armed guards outside his room, and just to be sure a third armed guard inside the room monitoring all incoming communications.

 

Isn't this fairly similar to how we obtained Toby from Atletico last year, when Saints thought they'd sealed the deal. Business is business, money talks, etc...

 

Sky sources are saying that we've contacted Dinamo Zagreb about the availability of Ante Coric.