Transfer Rumours JANUARY TRANSFER THREAD

I've said on here before that I liked him. But he's gone now. Bye, move on, done.

 

He acted a dick, but now he gone. No point in caring about him now

 

We won’t sign anyone .

Don’t worry though , money isn’t an issue

 

Especially as we are saving circa £1m a month in wages with all our loan players out there

 

If we don't sign anyone, it will only be because of two things.
Ralph does not want them. Or we can't entice the right character to join.
No-way that our board are saying 'no' to him, he has already got them out of jail.

 

Yes . Fair comment , and Dark Lord SFC .

 

Didn't think there was much wrong with Hoedt as a player, just another who got turned on and then had thousands of sceptical eyes (and voices) on his back at all times. It wasn't long ago that you could read waves and waves of comments about how terrible Vestegaard is, worse player since X, doesn't belong above League One, robbing a living and so on. Now after a handful of games with the team trending in the right direction and the ship being steadied, he's played well and earned begrudging praise.

I do find it hard to believe that Ralph just came in and made a sweeping decision that of all our troubled goods, he was the only one that should be exiled on the merits of past performances. He was looking at attitude and application above all else. So it doesn't seem an unreasonable assumption that Hoedt didn't apply himself to the 'everyone is back to square one and working to get in the squad' mantra.

Maybe he feels he wasn't given a good reason cos he couldn't stomach facing up to questions of his attitude or character. Or maybe Ralph couldn't find a constructive way to call him a twat. I wouldn't be surprised if he just gave 90% instead of the 100% everyone else rose to when Ralph came. He got left behind and instead of rising to the challenge he dug his feet in.

Shame in a few different ways. But ultimately from the evidence we've had, Ralph has been exceeding on giving chances and rewarding his levels being matched. So it's hard to believe Hoedt wasn't given equal opportunity. Ah well. Squad needs trimming anyway and he gets his chance elsewhere.

 

According to Guan, who generally knows these things, Ralph was told that there was no money available to spend before he was hired.

 

No where does he say that.

Guan 2.0
I don't blame Ralph or even RK or Gao that much, to be honest. Gao and RK explained to Ralph the transfer situation when he was approached to be our new manager, and while he doesn't seem over the moon with the situation, he does accept it. Gabbiadini out and Davis/hoedt loans free up enough cash that we shouldn't have to dip into summers transfer funds to cover Ings, which is all for the good. I can't speak for other fans, but I'd rather Ralph has a full range of options in the summer, rather than dip into the advance now and gamble on an overpriced replacement.

If we can get the players in on Loan, fine. Otherwise, I'm a lot more excited by a team training intensively under Ralph for 10 days without interruption than I am transfer countdowns.

He even points out that Gabbi etc going means Ings fee will be covered. So if need there is actual cash

 

We must be reading it differently; everything about that suggests to me that there was no money available, and that only if moving players would we be able to finance anything (and even then, it might just be loans), and that Ralph was told beforehand that it would be the case, and that he accepts that even if he doesn't love it.

That's very different than "if we don't spend, it's because we didn't see anything we liked"; it's far more likely that if we don't spend, it's because very little money has been made available to be spent.

 

I think it likely that there was an element of forewarning that Hoedt was a Cock, and that proved to be true. No hard feelings from me. Good luck to him.

 

I read it as there being funds available, but only from the summer’s earmarked budget, which we probably should keep aside.

So that may suggest no money is available now, but I’ve always thought our position is sell to buy, which isn’t ideal. Especially considering our recent buys are, on the whole, dreadful.

 

I think Schad could have said no money allocated to spend this January, rather than none available. But that's near enough the same thing, though I get the distinction.

On the subject though I'm happy with it and glad it was the plan for Ralph coming in. We had an overfilled squad of players who have performed or shown potential in the past but have gradually been starved of form and confidence. We've got rid of the immediate surplus; Hoedt, Gabbi, Davis et cetera. We've refocused and elevated talented players that we already had that were astray or not getting chances; Redmond, JWP, Bednarek. Restored experienced bedrocks like Maya and Romeu. And removed the blockade on the youth pipeline to give chances to grow and also continue to pump enthusiasm and energy into the team and dressing room.

If instead of doing that we'd tried to skip ahead of the curve and start building up now... We wouldn't have JWP's resurgence, we wouldn't have Valery, Ramsay, Slattery etc. getting chances to play. The only position we're only really lacking is in the winger department, but we're not using formations that rely on classical wingers. And we've got some young guys like Sims and Johnson who can fill the gaps. Better to let them play like 10% of the remaining minutes even if they're short of quality than buy a player to cover the short term need.

I've long thought that with a positive manager that will give young players chances (Nigel, Poch, Ralph) that we could get by with our reserve players being almost entirely youth. With of course the most promising in the actual team. Build a 17 or 18 man squad (including established graduates like JWP, Stephens and Targett) and then backfill with youth when the time comes. Have the 'next man up' ready at every position. Even if they're nothing special, they'll end up playing a fraction of your games, we know their attitude and desire will be second to none, and the upside potential is huge. Even when we were in the EL I didn't think our squad needed to be bigger than about 21. Instead we had two XIs and spare worth of full pros and most were starved of consistent gametime.

When injuries strike instead of turning to Pied, Martina, even Caulker and Caceres, turn to Ramsay, Slattery, Sims, Johnson, Obafemi etc. Bring in the guys we believe in, give them backing and support, and then reassess when it comes time. Don't constantly change strikers every time you fail to score in a game. Don't have 5 similarly levelled CBs and 6 similar CMs and end up with most of them getting nowhere near enough game time to build any kind of progress. No excess players, and in the contingency situations let a young guy come in with his tail up and give it everything he's got, even if it's not good enough.

 

Bit harsh.

I'd say Ings and Gunn have been great signings. Vestergaard and Armstrong, though looking ropey under Hughes, have both made huge improvements. The less said about Elyo the better.

 

I certainly agree on shifting players out; our wage bill was staggeringly overfilled with players who don't play. You don't need to have four senior strikers...you really don't need to have four senior strikers and a striker on loan and also we probably need a striker.

At the same time, the suggestions that our budget is tight is concerning, because our budget shouldn't be tight. For one thing, a new TV deal kicks in next year, and while it isn't as massive a jump as in years past, it's still likely to be substantial ([particularly if you aren't in the relegation places) thanks to booming international rights. For another, despite our wage bloat, we still really don't spend much on transfers; from Jan to Jan, we again have received more than we have spent. And certainly, there are other expenses (paying off managers, as an example), but we had more cash on hand than debt prior in the last set of books available prior to the sale despite that being The Season Of Lunatic Contract Extensions, and the debt was supposedly expunged with the sale.

So, maybe they're saving up for a summer of aggressively seeking our a couple major acquisitions, rather than our past practice of going after a half-dozen average ones. I'm still more than a bit concerned that we seem to be signaling that our belt is tightened by necessity, however, because there's only one way that'd be the case: if the club was saddled with debt in the purchase.

 

I agree that if we're not planning to spend out of necessity, that's troubling for the overall state of the club. But that's not necessarily the case and as you say from the outside looking in it shouldn't be the case. So personally from me it's only curiosity and mild concern at the unknown. It's all a bit up in the air and that's troubling in of itself, but I haven't really gotten the impression that we're being anything other than frugal on the finance front and pragmatic on the footballing front, which at the moment align to not planning to spend this January.

 

Ralph would have been told the situation before he joined...a large squad of players...more talented than most fans gave them credit for and capable of playing better. He seems to be someone who does his research....I bet he had a good idea about the players before he came....though he needed to see them playing in his preferred style. If avoidable, January is a poor time to buy...though I suspect the money would have been found if a player we really wanted had become suddenly available at the right price. Obviously better to save funds for the summer when Ralph will have a good idea about every player (inc. the youngsters) and there will be more time to get it right.

I'm sure Saints not wanting to spend is more to do with good fiscal planning than with the total absence of money. Fans would always clear the coffers for the latest shiny toy, but good businesses don't work that way. We are not one of the top clubs...money will always be more limited...and we will want to get it right this summer after a recent takeover (aggravated by a tightening of China's financial laws) and some bad decisions about players.*

*Remember all teams make mistakes in this area...it's just that we don't pay as much attention to other clubs as we do to Saints.

 

I think it would have been a bit obvious that before we could recruit we would have had to get a few players out. Is there anyone that doesn't think we are a bit over loaded? Personally I think there is a few more to go. Probably the likes of Carrillo and co. Im disappointed in Hoedt although I think his only problem was he tried too hard and made an ass of himself in a few games. Im not expecting any in this window permanently maybe a loan but will be surprised if we do.

 

We may be surprised who leaves in the summer....possibly even players that we think have improved and are getting match time. Good enough for now may not be good enough for Ralph long term.

 

Ings, yes, I'd agree he's been a good buy/loan-to-buy, but his injuries have held him back slightly. Gunn I don't think you can call great yet. He's played a handful of games (and done well in them), but by no means great until he has more of a run in the team.

Vestergaard, like others, was questioned before Hassenhuttl got hold of him and is now doing well, and Armstrong has been solid.

Elyounoussi, Carrillo, Boufal, Hoedt, Caceres, Clasie, Gardos, Mouez Hassan(!), Martina are players who spring to mind as being flops. And some of those extremely costly ones too. Where we used to sign several good players and a couple of bad, it's been the other way round more recently.