Russell Martin post-Lazio: "There are things well on the way and there are things that are early on and we’re making headway with. And then there’s stuff that we’ve now dropped because they go elsewhere or we can’t afford the fee the club want right now. I’m relaxed about it because I think we’ll end the window in a really, really good place."
Well he’s not going to say “I’m really stressed because I think we’ll end the window with a crap squad”
Interesting he said there’s things well on their way, didn’t he say the other day there was nothing imminent? I guess things can move quickly at this time of the year None of the current rumours sound like they are particularly close so maybe someone more out of the blue
Russell Martin and Adam Blackmore... How do you feel you're getting on with the window now? Well, we are getting on. It's so difficult to do the stuff we want early. Also, we haven't had any players leave the building yet so no money has come in yet. It feels a little like we haven't done much but we signed Taylor and Flynn for a lot of money and so that feels different, because they were already here last year. They're not new signings, but the club have invested a lot of money in those two players. We paid big fees for us, not for the rest of the Premier League but big for us as a newly-promoted team. It feels like we haven't really improved our starting eleven just yet but it's a brilliant eleven that got us to the Premier League and we've now made them our own. So there's a different feeling about that. If we'd signed them fresh this summer people would've been really excited about that. So there's a bit of frustration at the lack of incomings maybe, you will know better than me, but we are working really hard all of us behind the scenes. We are meeting regularly, we discuss everything and there are things that are well on the way - but things can change. And then there are things that are early on and we're making headway with that. Then there's stuff that we were on with but we've now dropped because they're going elsewhere or we can't afford to pay the fee right now. But things will change as the window goes on. I'm relaxed about it because I think we'll end up at the end of the window in a really, really good place and the people that we have brought in are fantastic. I think people forget that you have to wait sometimes before you actually get some money the other way... Yeah, I think so. And also there's squad size. It was the same last summer. A lot of people left and as they left, other people came in. And I am convinced that it will be the same again.
So unfortunately it seems pretty clear that we don’t have anything close to the money we actually need to have a premier league squad with all the wholes filled. It would seem we need to get good fees for KWP, Onuachu, ABK, Alcaraz, Sulemana and maybe Mara. And we might not really get acceptable fees for ANY of them let alone all of them.
Don't underestimate the reassurance it gives a club/owner to see people going off the wage bill and the squad size reducing, as much as transfer fees coming the other way (important though they are)
At least he isn't hiding from the fact that we are no better than we were last season. I would argue without a proper number 9 and without KWP we are actually a bit weaker even. But I also get the impression that we aren't going to be as busy as I think we need to be in order to survive! We probably need to shift 3-5 players and bring in 5 imo.
None of this should come as a massive surprise, though. We can't just carry Tall Paul, ABK, Sulemana, Mara and expect to splash the cash elsewhere. That's how things can go badly wrong. I still think we'll be much improved by the end of August.
We have a lot of players that need shipping out, trouble is finding a club willing to pay the appropriate fee and match/better their wages. Remembering that we want them gone because they aren’t very good, so why would clubs buy them? I would love to see Mara and Suli added to the list of players to be moved on….along with all four keepers!
I do agree, but our 'not very good' is someone else's excellent. How many players have we bought that were crap elsewhere and good for us and vice versa. I think some players fit and some don't.
The trouble is if we leave it too late to sell these players because we want the best deals, our transfer targets could well have already moved elsewhere. It is a fine balance and a really tough one for the club to manage.
