Summer 2013 Transfer Rumour Thread

£6.4m on him wouldn't make me happy. But hey, what do I know? He's probably quite good on FM so it works for me.

 

I imagine that's Nacional squad, rather than the national squad, if it's the latter than this whole mess got a whole lot more confusing.

 

Genuine question. Why is it seen as okay to question spending too much on a new player while at the same time it's not okay mention what we paid for Gaston when assessing his performance this season? Surely the two are essentially the same thing?

 

It is okay, but people misunderstand it. Gaston has four years to justify the fee, not one.

 

No. If you're assessing Gaston's performance this season, then the fee has literally nothing to do with it. If you're reviewing the transfer, then it's relevant.

 

Yeah, it is, it's one thing I forgot to correct (which just so happens to make the rest seem like one hell of a non sequitur).

 

Completely different to this. You're using the benefit of hindsight, and your question seems to put this hindsight in a completely different context to the question of overpaying for Bueno. The reality for Ramirez is that we will proabbly see a £12m player turn up next season (or so we would hope).

 

Indeed, I re-read it thrice before it clicked, until then I was thoroughly baffled haha.

 

Apologies if this has been posted!

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/football/view/320149/?

 

Yeah, I suppose I get the time scale point (to some extent) but I wouldn't say a player's fee has nothing to do with assessing his first year's performance. Of course, I do think a lot of people set their expectations too high based on the fee and don't take other factors into account but that doesn't mean his transfer fee should be completely ignored.

For me he's not been quite as good as I hoped for but has certainly been perfectly acceptable given the fee, his age, the different style of play to where he grew up and where he was playing a year ago, as well as various other things like injuries etc. So I don't want to start another Gaston debate, I'm making a more general point that completely ignoring what was paid for a player makes no sense when at the same time we all happily discuss what would be a fair fee for a possible new signing.

 

Harding got promoted with Leeds, reading, saints (I think). He's solid if unspectacular, and very much in the same ilk as Creswell. Ie he doesn't really hurt teams offensively like a Shaw would or.i hear targett can. Fox positionally was a liability in the championship in my opinion.
My point is Creswell is no better than either of them, but seems more consistent and less error prone than fox.

 

http://www.calciomercato.com/mercato/southampton-obiettivo-hiroshi-kiyotake-360153


TRANSLATION

 

I wonder if this is case of the Japanese now associating us with their players. At least he is a full international so no problem with work permits.

 

Absolutely. Very clear. Its not that I'm saying that Fox doesn't have talent as a footballer but in 50 years of watching professional football I have NEVER seen a full back with a worse positional sense. Its not even the "error prone" thing. It just keeps coming back to his positional sense. In the championship every time we were beaten or given a hard time it was the opposition's right winger giving Fox the run around. You never got that with Harding.

Anyway, back to the Cresswell thing, he simply isn't good enough to be anything other than a back-up to Shaw and I think we need someone to put genuine pressure on him for a starting position.

 

Also if Shaw's athletitism comes on like Bale's did (and I'm not syaing it will but to have his build and pace combination at 17 is quite startling) then we may have a more forward role planned long term for Shaw.

 

Not commenting on Cresswell particularly, but my fear is that if we fail with the good signings, we end up getting okay players just to make up the numbers. Sometimes towards the end of the season we were struggling in some positions due to injury, but you can get lumbered if you sign people out of desperation. Sorry, it's a bit early to panic

 

Couldn't agree with you more about the fear of signing OK plays rather than ones who will make a material difference. I guess alot of players out there have options, and there will be many reasons why they perceive us not be as attractive as we think they should. For example, despite all of our ambition we still finished 14th and for somebody who doesn't know us that well, that might well put some off, particularly if they wantto play in the CL.

 

Not attractive!!! How shallow can players get...we've got....personality.

 

Probably more to the point, I doubt we offer a massive payday.

 

"Every time we got beat..." Well we got promoted so it wasn't that often and that bad!!! Positionally Fox often got caught out. That is one part of his game. I would say that overall, the other parts of his game were ok or good. I liked Harding but at Chamionship level, Fox edged it for me. You also say that "you never got that from Harding"; maybe because Fox kept him out the team. he was rippwd a new ine by the Leicester winger. Peter Shilton never came off his goal line; didn't make him a bad keeper, just for example.

Now Ramirez ..... Lol