Am I disappointed we lost Fernandes - of course. Am I surprised, no. Does his behaviour (if true) change my opinion of him, yes, but he won't care anyway. One really good player won't win us promotion especially if they don't want to be here after all. My take on the window: Outs: Ramsdale - wasn't going to stay with us in the championship Bella-Kotchap - enough said Bednarak - think it was time Walker Peters - he didn't want to be here Sugawara - not good enough Dibling - he didn't want to be here Sulemana - wasn't consistent / good enough Fernandes - seems he didn't want to be here Possible outs: Aribo - not good enough? Edozie - inconsistent Smallbone - Maybe it's a good move for both parties as he's not getting a game here now So we've not lost anyone who we wanted to keep AND wanted to be here. So for those SR getting as much as they can for them is better for the team. Ins: Roerslav - looks a solid buy and better than Sugawara and the team felt a bit more even keeled against Norwich Downs - think with the right players around him he'll come good Possible / In progress Ins: Fellows Azaz Jandar Those three fill me with confidence and two are stand out championship players and you have to be the best in the championship to win the thing so if we get all three and any other business done I think we are better off overall - the team feels a bit more balanced and they want to be here. I've probably missed a few in amongst the many many puns...
The recruitment system you would need for that to be good would be insane and would have to remain consistent. We have had far too many ins and outs in our recruitment to maintain the stability that this model would need to be effective. I also do t see why we as fans have resigned ourselves to the fact that this is just how it is. What about, god forbid, we buy players to build a good team for the future? Maybe buy a couple of players that are focal points to build a squad over the next few years? Because that model we are currently running is a pure business model. It has nothing to do with football quality. What is the point of supporting a team in which every good player has an expiration date of around 18 months.
Brighton are doing the exact same thing we were doing 10yrs ago, just at a slightly higher clip in terms of incomings and outgoings. They're now an established Top 10 PL side who have a real shot at making some form of European competition every season. It very much can work, your recruitment just has to be good regardless of fees paid.
I agree and that is how we have managed to get players to come to us in the first place. They are almost certainly told to come here for 2 or 3 seasons and showcase themselves. This model seems to be a sensible alternative to academies as things are. In the past when we've produced decent youngsters, they've got into the first team and then snapped up by one of the bigger teams. Annoying but at least we got some decent money for them. Now though, we discover young talent and get them on the path towards a professional career only for Chelsea etc. to lure them away at 10 (or younger) and we get practically nothing in return. We then get left with an academy of average players that don't improve the squad or bring in any decent money. You have to wonder why any small club would continue with the expense of an academy and just use the "buy in youngsters from other clubs" model. I accept that the comment above may have a few holes in it as not every youngster gets hoovered up and there are still some decent players that get to sign professional contracts at the developing club. But the future stars that would normally earn their starting club a fortune are long gone before that. see Musiala. I also accept that young players need somewhere to help them develop into professionals but clubs are not that altruistic if there is nothing in it for them and at the moment they are doing Chelsea's scouting for them. If anyone disagrees or sees a good reason to continue with academies I would welcome their opinions. My points are just based on personal feelings rather than knowledge of how academies work.
Yes, it worked until it didn’t because our recruitment changed which is exactly my point. That model suggests that you’re going to ideally have the same recruitment team and processes for at least 5/10 years to see the benefits which just isn’t very realistic and Brighton (and Brentford) are slowly finding out that if you sell your best players and managers you will slowly find yourself slipping further and further down the league.
https://x.com/plettigoal/status/1961054833709867480?s=46 This is around £43 million with easily achieved add on’s, and a 15% sell on for MF.
One of the big problems for me in the modern game is agents. It seems that as soon as they get a sniff that a player is valuable, they urge them no to sign a contract extension thereby putting the player in control. I wouldn’t mind betting that Dibling has been advised not to sign an extension because 4 years will mean he is approaching his prime in every sense. That forces the club to either sell or lose out. I know in this case that will be good for us but generally I hate the way players are always looking at the next move. Like others have said, I’m glad him and Matty have left because we have the opportunity to replace them with players that are going to work hard for the club. In the end that is what we want to see, surely?
I agree that your recruitment has to be consistently good for any smaller club to be challenging in the top half of the PL. Whilst ours hasn’t been great the last 4/5 years in general the fact that a few of the players have “failed up” indicates to me that it isn’t just us who thought they were good players. Our issues under SR have been far more about managerial appointments in my view. The regular losses of the DoF in the last decade or so has also meant that we have to get that appointment right to identify the right manager/players. It’s a very tough ask, made even harder by financial restrictions on an owner just throwing more and more money at the problem if it doesn’t work
I should have said - mandatory clauses for everyone. Even if set slightly higher than you’d expect It would need to be more widely taken up otherwise agents won’t necessarily go for it But not the silly ones like in Spain
In Spain it’s a legal thing, every player has to have one in their contract, hence the mental ones some players have
Yes I was aware. I meant mandatory clauses from a footballing perspective rather than employment law I guess the obvious downside would be players who quickly improve or are academy players who burst onto the scene. System already incentivises selling them anyway due to the way “pure profit” works. And it shouldn’t be that way
Bloody hell, I'm on paternity leave and today I've been swimming and nearly getting stuck in a soft play tunnel. I currently have a screaming baby and an energetic toddler running around next to me. Can somebody fill me in as I don't have the time to check all this out or should I ask Chatgpt?!
It's rough maths, but if Azaz, Fellows and Jander are each in the £10m - £13m region (before add-ons), then that basically equates to what we sold Dibling for (before add-ons). And the money we got for Ramsdale, Onuachu and Sulemana is seemingly a little greater what we spent on Quarshie, Downs and Roerslev. Obviously there's a huge financial hole to fill from being relegated, and maybe the fee we're selling Matty for will roughly equal what we're wanting to not reinvest in order to help cover that hole instead. If that is somewhere near correct, then selling all three of Aribo, Edozie and Smallbone could still enable us to buy a fourth and final player in that same £10m - £13m bracket. Preferably a left winger. (I often hear good things about Chakvetadze, but to be honest I've seen very little of him and his stats do look underwhelming.)
But as others keep saying, it isn’t us. It is the game is all about money now and dominated by agents who make much more money from players moving clubs than staying put.
Which players were proud and excited to play for us after relegation? Even Le Tissier only says he hopes he'd have given us a year if we'd been relegated when he was here.
