The £35 million question

New guy here, joined yesterday during the darlo match thread.

Just wanted to see what other toon fans think of the £35 million dilemma that has been posed.

Which of these would you have liked to have seen happen regarding the Carroll money:

A) All the £35 million spent on JUST transfer fees - wages, agent fees etc. come out of the income the club generates but can be more competitive in the transfer market and maybe buy a few more players

OR

B) The £35 million spent on both the transfer fees and all other fees as well - income generated by the club remains intact and could see us make substantial profit for the next few years however we are a bit limited as we may not be able to obtain all our targets

Try to keep from the usual Ashley the greedy bastard blah blah, this isn't about Ashley really, just what you would do and why.

Me personally, i would go for option B as I feel we could still achieve our targets for this season without MAJOR investment. This would save more money for next summer when we really want to push on up the table.

 

B) then hopefully keep money spare for January just in case

 

between the pitch being done up, the training ground getting underground heating and the free signings and agent fees. there's gotta 20-25 million left to spend.
There is still time to get a few signings in before the transfer window closes.
We need to splash the cash on a good striker,which we have been trying to do with gervinho and edric.
I'd go for option A.

 

Yes, but i would like it if we spent more than nothing. We've only spend 5 million, and we've sold a player for 5 million.

We've technically not spent anything. I know it's not all about what you spend, but we need, in my opinion, a top quality striker, and that will cost money. If we sign Sturridge for 15m i'll stfu about Ashley, but for now i'm a bit anxious.

I don't think we've signed enough to reach our goals. We have a fantastic midfield, a good defense, but we lack a bit of depth in certain places and quality up front, and the club for some reason would sell Best and Barton if they had the chance?

It's quite frustrating.

 

Got to agree about the depth. Ferguson injured in our first friendly...so if Enrique DOES leave...who plays left-back? Assuming we dont bring anyone in (which Im sure we will IF Jose leaves I just mean hypothetically). I think we need a decent LB cover, we all want a top striker, and maybe a perch mk II (i.e an actual decent utility player)

 

Kadar can play LB, maybe play Tavs is 2nd half of USA friendlies

 

Yes Kadar can play LB, but are you just talking about the friendlies? Surely you don't think he's good enough to be a first choice PL LB?

 

This

no doubt plenty of that will be 'explained' away. The 'going on players wages' excuse pisses me off, that's what matchday/merchandise income's for. I believe at our peak, the player's wages were about 80% of the clubs income, i reckon it's got to be about half that now.

 

he might be, wouldnt want to be in the position where we had to find out though. hopefully he'll get some good game time at CB this coming season (cups/loan)

 

I agree with this. The only time we will really be able to judge our transfer business is at the end of the window. I think we will sign a striker. The quality of the striker I have no clue but in some way it will surprise us!

 

PS, option A is what Liverpool did with the Torres money. Just saying

 

Yeah I think we have players to cover these positions from the reserves/younger players...but for next season I wouldnt want to throw away games by finding out some of these players arent ready for PL first team action. Every point matters.

This is why I think we need to bring in some decent defensive cover and why the club wanted Naylor...doesnt have to be expensive just be able to do a job and have a decent amount of experience.

 

It says that you joined in February - besides, what £35m? I know nothing of this money?

How about you Mike?

MA: "No, not heard a thing about it"

See?

 

What I meant was I actually made my first post yesterday on the darlo thread. I was on the old 606 and have been following this one since it started.

I do believe we have spent some of the money so in that respect I believe Pardew. In terms of the all of it, I don't think it will be spent.

 

That's incredibly unambitious. What would you say our "targets for this season" are? Personally I feel you should always aim for the maximum possible. £35m worth of investment could see us challenging for a place in Europe, so I don't like the "well we were newly-promoted last year, so we might as well just settle for a comfortable bottom half finish" approach, and I'm sure the more talented and ambitious players in the squad, the Tiotes, the Enriques, the Ben Arfas wouldn't either. Lets face it, if we don't push on while we have the talent and the money they'll all clear off and we'll have to spend big just to survive. From a professional point of view, if I was good enough to play for a European side, and my current club was mid-table with £35m they were unwilling to spend, I'd hand in a transfer request if there was even a hint of interest from a bigger side.

 

This.

 

Every previous manager, after KK, has wasted millions on players who just didn't justify their massive transfer fee and wages. Mike Ashley, after the Xisco, Gonzalez, and also Smith learning curve, is making sure he doesn't ever repeat that kind of epic fail.

That seems to be our transfer policy ...