Yeah but loans kept us up this year when permanent transfers weren’t an option. There is a place for them but you must not get carried away like Sunderland did at one stage.
No if we had 55m after sales, traditionally clubs of our level don’t really spend more than that. I think we will, I think we will spend 70m. I know what you mean though, it doesn’t go far. I’m a big believer in two really big quality signings and then look at frees and loans. That proved useful under Pardew initially but then we had the Anita window the year after 5th. We ****ed him over there but maybe it wouldn’t have mattered as he was not good enough anyway. It’s sad but we just don’t generate enough to compete. I know the big clubs fans would say “you would say that” but the PL is now uncompetitive and we need to find a way to level this out. I can see why they have the draft in the US. You get more chance for smaller clubs. It’s a better system. Pains me to say it but the yanks have it right. Or the Chinese system of any transfer fee having to be matched by a similar amount into a youth/grassroots fund
Personally think it’s a nightmare to have to spend £25m just to stand still. It’s why the loan market catches up with you. £25m our of pocket to have the same team we ended the season with.
We might well sell £50m worth of players, so you will be happy with a net spend of £5m? Of course you will. There should be about £40m net available for Rafa in my humble opinion.
If we didn't loan those players we would have been a worse team and battling relegation. You have been telling everyone for months that there was no money for permanent signings and loans were all the club afford under Mike's 'every penny' policy. So it was loans and avoid the relegation battle, or nothing and have loose bowels for 4 months as we teeter on the brink of relegation and possibly start next season in the second tier. Loans can be very useful.
If he'd been at a bigger club like Bournemouth or Watford and performed well they'd be happy to pay up for him. But we can't compete
I've got no problems with loaning players who are either a) a possible future signing or b) much better than we have available otherwise. Kenedy, Slimani and Dubravka potentially fitted into both those. What I vehemently dislike is the option c) youth team players to develop for the big clubs who we can't realistically sign and possibly aren't at this stage in their careers better than the players we already have. There's a lot of those and when you rely on them you're spending good money to move backwards. Signing Kenedy and Dubravka is fine by me and not spending to stand still. Loan another couple of players next season who fit into options a) and b) above and we'll be progressing nicely.
Isn't Kenedy "option c"?! Certainly looks unlikely we'll sign him, if he's for sale someone bigger's going to get him and if he's not we've just helped Chelski improve a young player. I like the lad, but I have that niggly feeling that if we end up blowing more or less the budget on Kenedy only to have to keep Dwight fecking Gayle up front, then it's money poorly spent for me. That would take Rafa's winger spend alone to over £50m....Murphy, Ritchie, Atsu currently over £30m. Rafa's not done brilliantly thus far at sorting the attacking issues. I'd even be tempted to give a knowing nod to Free-dor at this point.
Last season was odd in my opinion! I personally wouldn't have signed Atsu, but if we were to due to the fee involved I would then not have signed Murphy as we could have utilised Yedlin as a winger as well. Thus we would have freed up £12M. Then we wouldn't have need to sign Manquillo as we would have £16M to spend on 2 full backs.
He is - but with a full pre-season with us he could be worth double next season. How wonderful it is to view football in MA's eyes!!
I don’t think Kenedy could flourish with limited players around him, not really. We have a much more important position to fill up front.
he looked good first couple of games . then he started to fook about to much with the ball for me .. lots of energy mind
I think people are too busy trying to compare him with a Ban Arfa type of player and saying he isn't skilled enough to jusitfy the price. The only player outside the top 6 who is is Zaha and he's not coming anywhere near us. Kenedy isn't in the league of Ben Arfa for actual skill but he's more like an improved version of Gutierrez, he works hard for the team and just needs to improve his consistency of end product. Bournemouth paid miilions for Ibe and he's not as good to be honest. Ideally we'd try and get a Bolasie type of player but in the current market you're talking about even more money. Kenedy is, in the position we are in, the absolute top level of player we can get I reckon. He's not a patch on Zaha, but there's only 2-3 in the league who are. I'd be happy with players like Merino and Kenedy next season. It isn't standing still as they are at an age they should be improving.
Not option c as he was better than Atsu or Murphy so clearly improved us in my opinion. As for Atsu, he's very limited but the money was small, we needed a body in and he won us more points than Gouffran would have!
