Transfer Rumours transfer thread fact and fiction

  • Please bear with us on the new site integration and fixing any known bugs over the coming days. If you can not log in please try resetting your password and check your spam box. If you have tried these steps and are still struggling email [email protected] with your username/registered email address
  • Log in now to remove adverts - no adverts at all to registered members!
I agree with your theory but the problem is the club isn’t buying the best available, they’re largely buying players that West Ham, Brentford, Everton etc could buy and it’s why we as a club have declined ever since we got into the new stadium. It’s not even down to bad luck either, many thousands of fans could’ve told the so-called experts of our hierarchy that Richarlison or Solanke would never be top strikers, many of us knew Gallagher is a midtable at best midfielder. Archie Gray at £40m was crazy business, not the lad’s fault by any means and maybe one day he’ll come good but a Championship player should never cost that much, Palace paid half that amount for Wharton who’s currently 10x the player.

I’ve said it before but our recruitment strategy, if we can even say we have one, has been stupid. We've wasted incredible amounts of money over the last 5 or so years.
I don't disagree with those specific examples but fans are equally likely to be wrong. Hardly anyone rated Bale early on, Son was deemed to be a waste of money and Harry Kane didn't have a hope of solving our striker issues. And there are plenty of other examples.
And presumably we would have signed someone else instead of each of Solanke and Richarlison. Not sure anybody else has done much better in that price bracket.
 
I agree with your theory but the problem is the club isn’t buying the best available, they’re largely buying players that West Ham, Brentford, Everton etc could buy and it’s why we as a club have declined ever since we got into the new stadium. It’s not even down to bad luck either, many thousands of fans could’ve told the so-called experts of our hierarchy that Richarlison or Solanke would never be top strikers, many of us knew Gallagher is a midtable at best midfielder. Archie Gray at £40m was crazy business, not the lad’s fault by any means and maybe one day he’ll come good but a Championship player should never cost that much, Palace paid half that amount for Wharton who’s currently 10x the player.

I’ve said it before but our recruitment strategy, if we can even say we have one, has been stupid. We've wasted incredible amounts of money over the last 5 or so years.

We also double down on the stupidity by having wonky squads, with insufficient true first team options.

That stupidity leads to the 'better' players being selected too often, which leads to injury, and having to panic buy at extortionate prices...and so it goes on.

If we had a half decent academy, that produced players who could play at PL level, our position would be less calamitous, but we don't.

It's what happens when everything's left to go to ****.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Dier Hard
I don't disagree with those specific examples but fans are equally likely to be wrong. Hardly anyone rated Bale early on, Son was deemed to be a waste of money and Harry Kane didn't have a hope of solving our striker issues. And there are plenty of other examples.
And presumably we would have signed someone else instead of each of Solanke and Richarlison. Not sure anybody else has done much better in that price bracket.
Not sure about that, many fans rated Bale. They were just concerned over his constant injuries.

Son had a poor first season but then was electric in his second. I think he admitted himself that he was considering leaving after his first season too, thankfully he didn’t!

Many of us on here actually said Kane could have a future at Spurs, I just don’t think anyone could’ve predicted he’d become arguably our greatest ever player and one of the greatest English players of all time.

Fans can of course be wrong though but equally we’re not paid to be right or wrong. Those in charge are paid handsome amounts and they’re getting a lot wrong. There are certain players that anyone can tell just aren’t good enough and for some reason we’ve made a habit of paying over the odds for quite a few.
 
  • Like
Reactions: remembercolinlee
We also double down on the stupidity by having wonky squads, with insufficient true first team options.

That stupidity leads to the 'better' players being selected too often, which leads to injury, and having to panic buy at extortionate prices...and so it goes on.

If we had a half decent academy, that produced players who could play at PL level, our position would be less calamitous, but we don't.

It's what happens when everything's left to go to ****.
Obviously if we signed more better players we would perform better. But there is no recipe for doing that. And how are we supposed to attract the best youth players away from other academies?
Competing with clubs with more resources is hard and no-one has succeeded without huge expenditure.
 
Rudy Galletti is saying the agreement between us and Senesi is now done.

Another really good signing. Good start to the window, cant let up though. Still tons of work to do.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Allledleykingsmen
Not sure about that, many fans rated Bale. They were just concerned over his constant injuries.

Son had a poor first season but then was electric in his second. I think he admitted himself that he was considering leaving after his first season too, thankfully he didn’t!

Many of us on here actually said Kane could have a future at Spurs, I just don’t think anyone could’ve predicted he’d become arguably our greatest ever player and one of the greatest English players of all time.

Fans can of course be wrong though but equally we’re not paid to be right or wrong. Those in charge are paid handsome amounts and they’re getting a lot wrong. There are certain players that anyone can tell just aren’t good enough and for some reason we’ve made a habit of paying over the odds for quite a few.
Perhaps the difference between us is that I expect the management to get a lot wrong. Getting more than 55% of close decisions right is impossible.
 
Perhaps the difference between us is that I expect the management to get a lot wrong. Getting more than 55% of close decisions right is impossible.
If we could get 50% of signings right I think we’d move forward and progress but we’re probably closer to about 20% at the moment. What’s exacerbating our issues too is that our bad signings are really bad but our good signings aren’t really good, so it’s not levelling out.
 
  • Like
Reactions: remembercolinlee
Perhaps the difference between us is that I expect the management to get a lot wrong. Getting more than 55% of close decisions right is impossible.
It can be done you only have to look at the players in and passed through Bournemouth, Brighton, Brentford, Palace. Tony Bloom has also improved Hearts out of sight as well as Brighton.
They're finding the players and Arsenal, City, United and Liverpool are paying large sums to take them.
There is another way.
 
Rudy Galletti is saying the agreement between us and Senesi is now done.

Another really good signing. Good start to the window, cant let up though. Still tons of work to do.
Yes delighted with the Senesi signing. Good defender, Experienced and very good on the ball.
Surprised we’ve had a free run at him tbh.

Four more needed - GK, CF, LW and Ball playing CM.

New contracts for VDV and Porro and a huge trim down of the squad.
 
It can be done you only have to look at the players in and passed through Bournemouth, Brighton, Brentford, Palace. Tony Bloom has also improved Hearts out of sight as well as Brighton.
They're finding the players and Arsenal, City, United and Liverpool are paying large sums to take them.
There is another way.
But we are trying to compete with those clubs not become a feeder club for them. And very few of those players are more than squad fillers at the big clubs.
 
But we are trying to compete with those clubs not become a feeder club for them. And very few of those players are more than squad fillers at the big clubs.

We’ve been grappling with this problem for years and the advancement of the midtable sides has only complicated the issue.

We can’t offer the same development opportunities that the Bs, or Palace can. We can’t offer consistent CL football and consistent runs at trophies that the rest of the Big 6 (which really is a purely financial term) can.

The solution might look like trying to find a sweet spot between the players that City recruit, and the players that Brighton recruit. But there’s problems with that too:

As the midtable of the PL has improved and compressed in quality, access to European football is more widespread, and the financial picture changes, players at those clubs don’t need another stepping stone before their big move.

There’s a proven risk in recruiting from those clubs for the fees they demand. How many of the buys from them are really successful? Buying from Bournemouth to sell to Liverpool is a loser’s game.

Our unwillingness and/or inability to sell players to more successful clubs over the years means that even if a stepping stone was needed, we run the risk of players not wanting the move because they’ll be locked out of a bigger move for 4/5 years.

We either have to do what the ambitious midtable clubs do but even better - I think this was where we were going with the Sarr/Gray/Bergvall etc signings but none of them have progressed as our development planning seems to be nonexistent. Or we have to splash the big bucks on wages as well as fees to compete for the biggest talents. You’ll miss out on a lot because of course you will, but you’ll get some too. What we can offer players right now vs some of those other clubs is consistent playing time (assuming we’re talking positions that are weak for us right now - LW, striker etc) and we have to accept that after a few years they might get poached away.

The biggest risk for us right now is that we’re seen as a toxic club. The limelight is the same as the other Big 6 clubs but we’re so bad at offloading players that they might worry that if it goes wrong, they’re stuck with us for 3-4 years and their career completely derails. And it has been going wrong.

The solution has to be having a clear vision for what the club want to be, and communicating that clearly to players and coaches. But we have been missing that for years now.
 
But we are trying to compete with those clubs not become a feeder club for them. And very few of those players are more than squad fillers at the big clubs.
I was not suggesting we buy and then sell. I was suggesting that we should find the players that the 3 Bs and P find. If they can find them we should look at why we can't. Semenyo, Guehi, Zabarnyi, Eze, Caicedo, Cucurella, Pedro, White, Burn, Mbeumo, Raya, Toney. Squad Fillers? <laugh>
 
  • Like
Reactions: KingHotspur
We’ve been grappling with this problem for years and the advancement of the midtable sides has only complicated the issue.

We can’t offer the same development opportunities that the Bs, or Palace can. We can’t offer consistent CL football and consistent runs at trophies that the rest of the Big 6 (which really is a purely financial term) can.

The solution might look like trying to find a sweet spot between the players that City recruit, and the players that Brighton recruit. But there’s problems with that too:

As the midtable of the PL has improved and compressed in quality, access to European football is more widespread, and the financial picture changes, players at those clubs don’t need another stepping stone before their big move.

There’s a proven risk in recruiting from those clubs for the fees they demand. How many of the buys from them are really successful? Buying from Bournemouth to sell to Liverpool is a loser’s game.

Our unwillingness and/or inability to sell players to more successful clubs over the years means that even if a stepping stone was needed, we run the risk of players not wanting the move because they’ll be locked out of a bigger move for 4/5 years.

We either have to do what the ambitious midtable clubs do but even better - I think this was where we were going with the Sarr/Gray/Bergvall etc signings but none of them have progressed as our development planning seems to be nonexistent. Or we have to splash the big bucks on wages as well as fees to compete for the biggest talents. You’ll miss out on a lot because of course you will, but you’ll get some too. What we can offer players right now vs some of those other clubs is consistent playing time (assuming we’re talking positions that are weak for us right now - LW, striker etc) and we have to accept that after a few years they might get poached away.

The biggest risk for us right now is that we’re seen as a toxic club. The limelight is the same as the other Big 6 clubs but we’re so bad at offloading players that they might worry that if it goes wrong, they’re stuck with us for 3-4 years and their career completely derails. And it has been going wrong.

The solution has to be having a clear vision for what the club want to be, and communicating that clearly to players and coaches. But we have been missing that for years now.
The truthful answer to your last point is that we want to be one of the top 4 clubs in the PL with a realistic chance of winning the League. The problem is that there are almost insurmountable obstacles between us and that objective.
 
I was not suggesting we buy and then sell. I was suggesting that we should find the players that the 3 Bs and P find. If they can find them we should look at why we can't. Semenyo, Guehi, Zabarnyi, Eze, Caicedo, Cucurella, Pedro, White, Burn, Mbeumo, Raya, Toney. Squad Fillers? <laugh>
But we've been doing exactly that and until our injury crisis have been finishing comfortably above all of them.
The only player in your list who has been a key member of a side which has actually won the League is Raya. Olise and McAllister would be other examples.
 
I was not suggesting we buy and then sell. I was suggesting that we should find the players that the 3 Bs and P find. If they can find them we should look at why we can't. Semenyo, Guehi, Zabarnyi, Eze, Caicedo, Cucurella, Pedro, White, Burn, Mbeumo, Raya, Toney. Squad Fillers? <laugh>
I reckon because the idiots running the show would rather we overpay on mediocrity like Richarlison, Solanke, Gallagher etc or splurge £40m on Championship teenagers.

We need some proper football people running things, not accountants and spreadsheet enthusiasts.