And reported again that Seb Larsson our hendo repacement is choosing us over a host of clubs. Middle of the season some would have done a straight swap they way they were going at JH.
Sorry but i just don't see this as good business, sends out a message to other clubs AND players that we are a selling club, along with the Bent deal, Henderson is a Sunderland lad and would have stayed, not to mention he signed a 5 year deal last summer. If the clubs finances are so good why didn't we tell Liverpool to piss off !. Henderson for me gets harshly scrutinised by the SAFC fans as he is a local lad, Mickey Gray anyone !, we hounded him out.
Cest - surely N'Gog is simply squad building not ambition? After the seasoin just gone and the injuries we all moaned about, surely having a squad is better than having a team with no backup? You are stuck in the Bob Murray days where things were always as they seemed - nowadays we are looking at players (according to Bruce) and trying to build for the future rather than buying someone to simply get us by - and if the Liverpool board stories about £17.5m + N'Gog are right then that's a good deal IMO
I don't see how selling Bent makes us a "selling club" - he requested a transfer in the Summer and we turned him down (if we were a selling club would we not have sold him then??) We sold him when he was ouot of form and looked completely disinterested. Henderson on the other hand produces 100% profit (and no doubt a sell on clause as well) as he came through the ranks. I didn't want him to go but he was poor in the second half of the season and looked jaded (needed a rest mnore than anything) - has played 75 times from 76 league games over 2 seasons I think and is still not even 21 - says a lot
Marcus if building for the future involves selling the most prolific english striker in the country, a very good homegrown promising english midfielder (who was excellent prior to the new year) and having a load of loan signings then looking at Bosmans/squad players who can't get into their current teams starting 11 then i must be missing something !.
But it's still 1 week into the transfer window and building a "squad" rather than having 11 players available and hoping none get injured (look at after January and the injuries which decimated the squad) We sold Bent as he no longer wanted to nbe here - that looked obvious from mid-December when his head wasn't with the club - he was more a liability before we sold him and couldn't hit a barn door for us. (look at the easy chances he missed for us leading up to him leaving). Building for the future is one thing but building for the coming season is much more important and, if N'Gog joins, then he'll be a part of the jigsaw. That's the IF he has (and he'll have something to prove) If he joins then we have 2 strikers to start the coming season (with 2 months still to go until this time) so just let the club do the work and, as Syd has said in earlier posts, judge at the end of August rather than now
Unrelated to the above but just for interest - these are George Caulkin;s Tweets this morning; #Lfc getting great athlete, top pro & keen learner. Having watched him for 2yrs, still lacking goal threat & not sure of best position. In footballing terms, he's much less 'necessary' to #SAFC than Darren B was. But in emotive terms, another NE lad leaving region hurts. Did a 1/1 with Henderson back in November, shortly after England debut. It's yours for a quid. http://ow.ly/1tAOcs #SAFC #LFC Over course of last season, did 1/1 interviews with Henderson, Carroll, Bent, Hughton. You may notice a theme. I'm not a man, I'm a curse.
There is a hardcore group of our fans who will always look for negatives and will be already rubbing their hands in glee at the prospect of having a new ready-made scapegoat in N'Gog: and that's before he has kicked a ball!
selling club or not we must keep our best players and add to the squad if we mean to move on and upwards here we start again and again no moving onward and upwards lets see what happens now
We bought Gyan last season for £13m - financed by the sale of Jones and Cana. So nothing has changed this season. Probably becaused of the millions 'wasted' over the previous 4 years, the owner is undoubtedly preaching prudence. Please remember too that we are still in a better position (investment wise) that we were 6 or 7 years ago. I doubt we have £30m 'in the bank' Have said it before, the money we 'received' for Bent will in reality be much less, as we will have owed a wedge to Spurs. More likely this time around, Bruce will be given the 'cash' generated by Henderson and probably not much more. We must remember too that our income / turnover is much much less than the top six. Even the mags turnover is at least 50% more than we generate (at the moment) Let's all hope that we get value for money in the next few weeks
Marcus you are looking at this defensively from a SAFC fans point of view, rightly so and I understand that, however please look at it from the outsiders pointy of view and what their views of our club may be to potential signings.
I've watched N'Gog a few times, he was laughably bad on those occasions - wouldn't have laughed then if i'd new he'd be a future sunderland player, i'd have cried instead. If it's true we've factored 7 million into this deal to account for N'Gog, it's depressing news! However, it remains a rumour only at this time.
This 7 million could be added to deals for players such as N'Zogbia/Welbeck/Pav. I'd rather we pay over-the-odds for quality than waste money on players not good enough. That's what the top clubs do - they prefer to pay over-the-odds to get quality, it's cheaper on the long run!
Positive's? Ok some like to say 9 goal's in 3 year, I will be positive again and say 8 goal's last season while barely playing.
We sold 2 players who were not doing it for us anymore. Bent could not play with Gyan and it was obvious they could not form a partnership, he head was turned, we got decent money for a player than did not want to be here. Henderson has not been playing great since Christmas and he has been hit and miss for a while, we have a decent amount for a player that has potential but has not reached it yet. I expect Bruce to spend the best part of 60 million this window, its not going to happen over night but by the end of the transfer Window I think most fans will be happier, by the end of next season I expect us to have improved again. I predict a top 8 finish. Remember this post at the end of next season.
