In - 6 Loans - 4 Buys - 1 Free Marcelo Djalo - Lugo (undisclosed) Ibrahima Cisse - Standard Liege (undisclosed) Aboubakar Kamara - Amiens SC (undisclosed) Rui Fonte - Braga (undisclosed) Lucas Piazon - Chelsea (loan) Oliver Norwood - Brighton (loan) Tomas Kalas - Chelsea (loan) Sheyi Ojo - Liverpool (loan) Rafa Soares - Porto (loan) Jordan Graham - Wolves (loan) Yohan Mollo - Zenit St Petersburg (free) Out Cameron Burgess - Scunthorpe (undisclosed) Jack Grimmer - Coventry (free) Ryan Tunnicliffe - Millwall (free) Jozabed - Celta Vigo (undisclosed) Scott Malone - Huddersfield (undisclosed) Richard Stearman - Sheffield United (undisclosed) Jesse Joronen - AC Horsens (free) Lasse Vigen Christensen - Brondby (undisclosed) Sone Aluko - Reading (undisclosed) Ragnar Sigurdsson - Rubin Kazan (loan) Cauley Woodrow - Bristol City (loan) Marek Rodak - Rotherham (loan) Dennis Adeniran (Everton) (unconfirmed) Scott Parker (retired) Contract Renewals Ryan Sessegnon Tom Cairney Marcus Bettinelli
For me at the beginning of the Transfer window our Priority was to get in a Striker (in the style of Zamora) & a Centre Back (in the style of Hangeland). At the end of the Transfer window we haven't got them in. Good work with the Contract extensions. Kalas and Piazon were good loans to get back in. Neither Malone or Aluko would have been my choice to sell. Of the players actually bought by the club only Fonte made me happy. The other loans that have come in are squad players and only time will tell if they are a step up. Norwood seems to have settled in. Hoping Soares is the answer to the LB position, and would hope Ojo & Graham will do well.
Time will tell, comes Christmas we may be heaping praise, on the wise acquisitions our management made
The club did an excellent job last year, so I prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt (Adeniran aside). Resigning Cairney is a huge deal for us. As shown against Ipswich, once he is back to fitness he is the best midfielder in this division and the heart of this team. Sessegnon should drive forward alot this year and in a worst case scenario I would expect his value to stay the same (i.e. £25m for a 18 year old is still good next summer). Fonte and Norwood look like good additions. Soares may be a very astute acquisition and a good replacement for Malone. I'm still somewhat undecided about Aluko and whether Ojo/Kebano/Ayite can cover him effectively.
I'm excited by the additions. Can't wait for the break to be over to be honest. Does anyone know the value of the undisclosed sale fees?
Thanks for the summary at the top of the thread SuperBri. Agree with your assessment here (although have to admit Malone was never one of my favourites - not doubting his contribution last season but too much of a 'show boater' and not convinced he'd have repeated his performances this year). Cookie put forward a sound case in the other thread of which newbies would replace the outgoing players and make for a stronger team. A wee concern is with the proliferation of "wingers" (it's not entirely clear who is ideally left and who right) is how Jocanovic will use them to find a settled team. Rotation is fine but chopping and changing unnecessarily is not the way to go. Also a tad concerned whether we've got the right cover in the two key positions you mention at the top of the post. Fonte's injury at Ipswich has to be an immediate concern, as is the fact that Soares probably won't even start training properly for another week. Factor in further injuries (last season was extraordinary in how few we had), the inevitable suspensions (no comment required about Championship referees) and well ... ? Overall, I'm content with the business done if not "over the moon". That said, the whole episode has been somewhat blighted by letting Dennis Adeniran go. I'm well aware that he wouldn't step into the first team tomorrow but .... ugh! Simply livid!!! .
Cash wise looks like a neutral window - Out Jozabed + Malone + Aluko = £15-16m In Kamara + Soare + Fonte = £15-16m With loose change on either side covering the other 'outs' and 'ins', including loan fees. However, if the stories are true we may have 'banked' around £10m from Roberts going from Man City to Celtic and Mitroglou being sold by Benfica to Marseilles (for £20m!).
On our Current Transfers (only) Transfermarkt has us down -£467k Like C58 I'm livid with our policy of selling young players who the club has progressed through the Ranks only to be mostly sold before we have gained the benefits. Roberts, Dembele, LVC, Hyndman, Woodrow, only Dembele was given a real chance to shine. We have to revise our youth contract policy because we are losing players of potential. Let's hope the Sessegnon brothers contracts are the start of movement to securing talent to bring them through to first team prominence. But worryingly Adeniran has been sold to Everton (Everton fans reporting total fees going upto £4m), we have a few more gems waiting in the wings by all accounts, lets hope they are allowed to benefit the club, with either better contracts or given their chance in the squad. Each season we seem to bring in players who I assess as being 'Tax Loss' Bench warmers, they hardly ever play, we can all name 2 or 3 a season, which is to the detriment of our own home grown. My feelings are that we are an experiment for Tony Khan & Kline's Analytical software, again having players come through who they haven't sourced doesn't show their system in it's best light.
Dennis Adeniran rumored to be up to £4m. I haven't picked up if he had wanted a move or not, which is significant.
Saw in todays soccer gossip that Celtic had their offer of 30m for P Roberts turned down. Must agree with earlier postings that our younger talented players must be offered longer contracts,and not what seems to be happening waiting until the last minute which can be to late.
When players get their first professional contract I understand that there is limit to how long you can contract them for (I think it's three years). That being the case, there was nothing we could do to tie Roberts, Hyndman, etc down for longer. If they didn't want to extend their contracts it was out of the club's hands. You can make a case for saying that if Kit had picked Roberts more often, he might have been keener on staying, but other than that I don't think you can blame the club.
You are of course correct Captain. My problem though is post-Kit and in the Rigg era when youngsters like Dennis Adeniran were only give 2 year contracts; arguably not giving them time to break through to the senior team. Or us to capitalise on the investment. I've also got a problem with our "analytics" signing 2 or 3 players who have been nothing other than bench warmers; as the two K's have done over the last (quite a few, including the most recent) windows. These players have regularly blocked youngsters from getting a chance - Georgie Williams for instance?
Seems a very disappointing window on the face of it - so many youngsters gone who I was excited to see become regulars, or at least get a chance in the first team. Even more galling is that we've got 2 Chelsea youngsters who won't be with the club long-term either. Hopefully I'll be made to eat my words!
Another newcomer has signed - the Trialist - Rob Atkinson. please log in to view this image Link to Club story: http://www.fulhamfc.com/news/2017/september/06/atkinson-signs
Interesting signing. On paper he sounds like the kind of player Jokanovic wants - a centre back who is comfortable playing the ball. However as I have previously said, my concern is that modern defenders are more like converted midfielders and are lacking in the defending department. Time will tell whether this lad can really defend. No issue with the signing though, sounds like a potential upside with little to no downside. If he works, he's the next Ream. If he doesn't, we can probably get £500k from Brentford.
And I suspect more so than our 'analytics' choice, Marcello Djalo. Signing Rob Atkinson makes me curious about another player though - Aron Davies. Aron came to us in 2015 as a 'Welsh Wonderkid' from Bristol City and did well in the U18s before moving up to the U23s last season. Since then he's been kind of well, anonymous. Actually thought we might have put him out on loan this window and since we didn't not sure where that leaves him. As you'll recall Atkinson in his two games at centre back for the U23s as a Trialist was also, unusually, made team captain.
The Fulham Supporters Trust (FST) met with Club officials on Tuesday. Here's the officials' take on our business during the transfer window: AM is Alistair Mackintosh (chief executive officer) SOL is Sean O'Loughlin (chief revenue officer) "AM reiterated that Fulham’s priorities following the play-off semi-final defeat were to retain Ryan Sessegnon and Tom Cairney given the significant interest in their services. Bringing back Tomas Kalas and Lucas Piazon was important to everyone – and they eventually arrived for a second season on loan. AM said that the club then wanted to build on the strong second half of last season so that Fulham could be promoted. The recruitment of two strikers was one of the club’s highest priorities. Both Rui Fonte and Aboubakar Kamara had been tracked by Fulham for a considerable period of time and were the subject of serious interest from the club during the January transfer window. They were two of the club’s top targets this summer with the club’s scouting network and analytics department in agreement to proceed – and it was then a matter of concluding a financially acceptable deal, which proved successful. Once Fulham had signed Fonte and Kamara, both Tony and Shahid Khan gave their support to finance a move for a further striker on deadline day with Dwight Gayle viewed as a bonus were a deal to bring him in be concluded. Gayle was ultimately not signed because Newcastle United were unable to bring in a replacement. Sone Aluko was offered a very lucrative contract, which would have made him one of Fulham’s highest-paid players, but he turned it down as he wished to secure a longer-term deal, which he was offered by Reading. The transfer represented a very healthy business return on a player Fulham signed on a free transfer last summer, which strengthened the club’s financial position. Tony Khan and Fulham were happy to allow Aluko to join Reading at this price once Fulham had brought in Sheyi Ojo and were close to recruiting further wide players – Jordan Graham arrived from Wolves on loan and Yohan Mollo was signed a free transfer on deadline day." And in respect of Financial Fair Play (FFP) - "AM and SOL confirmed that Fulham remained comfortably within the limits allowed under the EFL and Championship Financial Fair Play regulations. By way of further explanation, SOL said that the rules in place from the 2016-2017 season – which contained a new set of ‘Profit and Sustainability’ regulations to solidify a consistent approach for those clubs that move between the Championship and the Premier League – permitted a maximum loss of £39m over a three-year season timeframe from March 2017 to March 2020. The reporting date to the EFL has also been shifted from December to March and Fulham’s player sales that would fall in this reporting period, including Ross McCormack and Kostas Mitroglou as well as this summer’s departures, leave the club with considerable headroom within the current regulations."
