I’m not worried really about this one. We’re won’t be struggling for squad space, I doubt, and if he only plays three games plus two as sub, it’s not the end of the world. That’s not what sits behind the signing.
How Everton get on this window is probably going to play a big role for us next season. They need to raise around £100m apparently to avoid another points deduction, this is £100m of player sales which can’t be spent on replacing players they lose. Rumours have DCL and Branthwaite leaving for close to that amount combined. I’d expect Onana to leave for a large fee as well. How they replace them will be interesting
That’s the role that I would like to see him involved in, we’ve got some promising talent which needs honing, could be a shrewd move.
On transfers, we’re going to have quite a lot of squad places to fill. Players now gone from squad:- * BROOKS * FRASER * ROTHWELL * DOWNES Out of Cotract:- * McCARTHY * S ARMSTRONG * ADAMS Of the out on loan players I think only ABK has a small chance of being part of the squad next season as to think RM will want the others gone as comes across as a loyal team manager. Also think Sulemana will be sold and Mara sold or Loaned out. Also possibility of KWP being sold as we don’t know what was discussed / agreed with him last summer? So basically there will be plenty of sales and purchases this summer. I would prefer we shop a bit higher as the £10-£15 million players have rarely worked out recently. I’d imagine a budget of £50-60 million on players but that will increase significantly with player sales.
Even if we do re-sign Downes & Fraser and potentially extend McCarthy/Adams, I agree that our squad is going to look vastly different. Even without sales I think we need to add the following: GK LB CB CDM AM ST Will be a busy window for sure.
Agreed. Think DOWNES will sadly be a slow burner this season. Think we could do with a bit of muscle in midfield. Like the sounds of Clarke from Sunderland, think O’Hare would be a good free signing / squad player from Coventry. O’Riley from Celtic would definitely improve CM as big box to box player. Also like Greaves from Hull City, big, strong and a good RM type of player.
According to everybody’s favourite sports radio channel, there are a lot of premiership clubs having mass clear outs to save themselves from whatever this years financial rules are so may be able to pick up some reasonably priced players with premiership experience which will be invaluable
I think we might have been in trouble had we not gone down and survived this year as well. Assume we are OK by PL standards now because of the sales last season, without those I think we would’ve been right in the ****
If most of the clubs are struggling to meet the rules, then I would suggest the rules are broken. Is it not time for a flat spending cap for each club? Something indisputable and not relative to the wealth of your backer? Doesn't the US - the great bastion of capitalism - have caps on all its sports? This whole system is designed purely for corruption and to protect the vested interests of wealthy clubs.
Yeah, we did spend massively (by our standards) in our last season in the PL but recouped all of that with Lavia, JWP, Tella & Tino. We also have a few of the players we bought in the PL that don't really play but will still have a decent re-sale value (Onuachu, Sulemana, ABK & Alcaraz) so should get decent transfer revenue this summer without actually impacting the playing squad.
Gary Neville actually said it pretty well. He said whatever the richest club is spending, that should be the cap for all as it’s not fair otherwise
Completely agree. Ever since Leicester allowed us to dare to dream the ****ing PL cartel has removed all the stops. Never again will they allow the PL title to go to a club which isn't already a household name in Tanzania. If some gazillionaire wants to buy Wolves and spend a gazillion pounds then let them, its how the top 6 became the top 6 in the first place.
I actually think it’s Man City’s dominance that has caused it. The big teams have seen what can happen if you let a smaller team be taken over and just spend spend spend. It’s clearly too late to stop Man City but they can stop everyone else. Ultimately it’s impossible for a team with a small budget to consistently be competing (by consistently I mean over a 10 year period) in the top 6, money rules all in the end
True but I don’t see an alternative really. If you set the cap at some median level for PL revenues that means no club can really overspend then the owners of the bigger teams will just rake in loads of money (this is what happens in the NFL, the cap is determined every year or 2 with the aim that no team loses money and the owners coin it in). I don’t think fans/players would be happy with that either here