One of the comments Dick said was that we cannot just buy players for 1-2 or 3 million. On Saturday our back four plus the keeper cost a total of £6.5 million. If you look at the rest of our players, Lens is around £8 million but would any of the others fetch £5 million? Johnson, Rodwell and Cattermole may be worth 5 million each but I doubt if any of the others would go for over 3 million, Fletcher and Pantilimon maybe 4-4.5 million. The complete first team must be worth somewhere in the region of £32-£36 million. Our wage bill is £70 million. Many wonder why other teams progress after being promoted (Stoke, Swansea and Southampton for instance) yet we continue to struggle. The usual way to progress is gradually build up your first team with next level players, 2 or 3 each season letting the lesser players move on or their contracts expire. This would mean (in our case) buying £10-£15 million pound level players, 2 or 3 per season, to improve the team. We do the opposite, buying lots of either old, injury prone, past it or cheap players. A £4.7 million average net spend per season since 2009 (see net spend thread) has given us a poorer squad each season instead of an improved squad. There is only one way this business model will end. Our few buys in this higher range have had mixed results, Bent was a success, Johnson, although possibly our best player still has lots to prove and Rodwell, so far, a flop but maybe he can come good. Our cheap buys are almost all either flops or just seem to disappear. Any that make it into the first team are usually uninspiring. Not always true but as a general rule, you get what you pay for. Some free transfers work (Larsson and Pantilimon) but, as so many have said, we cannot expect to keep in the premier league if we under invest. So then, will Dick get the couple of next level players in before the window closes? If he does I think we can finish around 14-15th but if not then our annual flirt with relegation will continue and we surely can't keep making miracle escapes at the end of each season. I cannot believe that Dick decided to return to us if he was promised a transfer kitty of £5 million so surely we will be getting a couple of big moves in. Here's hoping.
No point spending hundreds of millions of pounds if your players are going to stroll around the pitch, jogging. I saw Leicester dispossess Lens (I think) and break on the counter and Larsson barely even broke his stride into a jog. Looked like Hull last season before Phelan arrived, just completely disinterested. The attitude of some of your players is appalling, there's bad eggs in that squad and so far I count 1 that you've got rid of.
The offending players are on probably the most money they are ever gonna get. So even if some total loon would want them they are not gonna offer them the wages that they get here. So we are stuck with them. The only way we are gonna get rid is either letting their contracts run down, or relegation, depending which comes first. Our club is in a rut and I think things are gonna have to get worse (relegation) before things have any chance of getting better.
will Dick get the couple of next level players in before the window closes? But why haven't they come already, why have we left it so late again ? Ellis must know we can't do the great escape every year and yet he wont spend any really big money to make sure that we don't have to. It's like having a boat with a hole in it, you could pay to have the hole fixed but you'd rather keep frantically bailing out the water because it's cheaper.
Our midfield was over run and gave away possession far to easily, leaving our defence exposed. Lens failed to track back when he did lose possession, but he is learning our league so things can be forgiven. The one player I have yet to see anything good from is Rodwell. He might as well of not being playing. I do not see what he brings to the team. Would have much preferred to see Rodwell off and Catts to stay on.
Again, I don't care how much we spend on players, couldn't give a ****. so long as it's quality. Sterling cost a reported 49M-------------Sanchez cost a reported 35m= The better player cost 14 million less Soldado cost reported 26M---------------Giroud cost a reported 12m= The better player cost 14 million less. Price tag don't mean ****. I want quality myself, not another expensive flop. If quality is available Cheep then ****ing great. Lens is a great example of that. Another club with a different situation we'd have had to pay over 10m.
Lens, M'Vila, Lombaerts, and Fer have all had fees agreed. Therefore, Short must have already released the funds Congerton and Advocaat wanted. All this feeding frenzy on Short is old hat and not supported by observable facts. He's obviously released the money weeks ago. The problem was two of Advocaats's apparent recommendations proved to be crocks.
I'd agree that you need to spend more now, the quality just isn't there for the small fees at this stage of the transfer window. Bargains are usually snapped up well in advance with homework done etc. There's not many there with proven quality who have been dirt cheap this summer... Micah Richards - Free Deulofeu - £4m Fuchs - Free Ings? and Milner - Tribunal/Free Mulumbu - Free Affelay - Free Ayew - Free I'm not including any loans here. The longer you leave it, the more you're going to pay now, come 25th August with a week to go, you're paying £10m for £5m players. Come deadline day, you're forking out £35m for players like Andy Carroll.
This proves my point further. It backs that price can fluctuate on a weekly possibly dailly basis, tic tock the price is going up. An unknown player who we sign for 5m today would be written off, pay 15m on deadline day for the same unknown player and people would be satisfied because of the fee spent.
I know that sometimes you can get an exceptional player very cheaply but on the whole you get what you pay for. I also know that some players are overpriced (Carroll, Rodwell, Di Maria) If you stand back and look at the whole scene you will generally find that the price of a player reflects the level of the player. I know, now everyone will say Phillips was cheap but this isn't normal and players like him are not easy to find. There's a reason why the 4 leagues retain a similar structure with the same names usually in the same positions. The likes of Man U, Chelsea, Man City and Arsenal are where they are because they spend big on quality players. Blackburn and Wigan, although smallish clubs did well when they had a lot of money invested in them. Aldershot or Torquay level of clubs can expect to remain at their level or thereabouts because they have no possibility of buying top players. OK, now someone will mention Bournemouth but they are one of the few exceptions and I'll be surprised if they stay a Premiership club for long. I'm not saying we should do a Leeds or Portsmouth but we are round about the 10th. biggest club in England, maybe higher, we have all the infrastructure in place to be a safe top ten club and we get huge crowds. Imagine what the crowds would be like if we were in say Spurs's position each year. A back 5 costing £6.5 million and an average net seasonal spend of £4.7 million is selling the fans short. (I know) We all want the same thing, that is for us to do well and become a regular top ten finishing place club. It seems to me that the club is being run poorly and that is where our problems stem from. Still, looking forward to two fifteen million pound players coming in next week. Hope springs eternal....
Maybe if Advocaat had committed earlier you'd be further down the line in terms of transfers. Teams in trouble are the way to go, you have them over a barrel, which is why I think nobody is taking QPR seriously, they'll buckle on that £15m price 100% they can't afford for him to leave for nothing next summer, they lose way too much money already.
For all we know we're doing just that. It's all very much a case of sit back see what happens and wait till the window closes. Assess our business, then ask the questions which are being asked if there's a need. In the meantime people are panicking left right and center. I don't see the point. Life's to short to 2nd guess and panic
I ain't panicking, just p*ssed off. Wouldn't it have been great, just for once, if we'd had our business done by now. IIRC Dick had identified players to congers before he quit and came back, so how come they're not signed up already. Remember when we signed Tore Andre flo & Marcus stewart on the last day of the window and paid over the odds ? That's what happens the later you leave it.
It would but the world just doesn't work that way unfortunately, it's why most team will still add to their squad before deadline. I've said before, I'd close the window a couple of days before the season starts but as it stands, so many selling clubs will delay as long as possible to raise the price as Tel said. you could quite easily say, do it too early you get DiFanti's summer window. My I prefer to judge each transfer on it's own merit. It's only the 10th, bit early to be talking about deadline day signings anyway for me.
For comparison... Schmeichel - 1m De Laet - 1m Huth - 3m Morgan - 1m Schlupp - Academy Albrighton - Free Drinkwater - 1m King - Academy Mahrez - 400k Vardy - 1m Okazaki - 7m Fuchs - Free Benalouane - 5.6m Kante - 5.6m Total: 26.6
Vardy has been a bargain to be fair, great find. Can't say I'd ever wish to go to his hairdressers mind. please log in to view this image
