January transfer thread

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Why would Roker Report have an inside scoop on the deal? I'm not sure I'm believing that, as good as it sounds. Why would West Ham let him go for free? They might as well have loaned him for the rest of the season and see if his performances got any bites for a fee in the summer.
Didn’t he only have 6 months left on contract which means he would be away for free in anyway in the summer
 
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In a world of spend spend spend we have not.
Bob, you just seem to have the hump with everyone recently or are deliberately trying to wind people up. In previous posts (e.g. the no spend one) you imply a dissatisfaction with the way the KLD regime is doing business. That's why people get annoyed because it is just obviously so much better than the previous regime. They may be your mates but face the facts. Let's have a think - compare the Ekwah deal to the Will Grigg deal...
 
Disagree mate. If we go up as we are,and we don't disrupt the squad as you suggest, we will get murdered. We would have to do a Forest to gut our squad,sign a dozen players for massive fees,just to stand a chance of staying up,and we would be back where we were under Ellis Short.
No,patience,marra,patience. We've spent 5 years in the wilderness.....it'll take that to get back to where we feel we belong.
We're on the right road,I don't want to go back to those days where every home match we were sitting deep hoping to get a point without being taken apart.....can't go back to those days again.I'd rather stay where we are.
Everyone's entitled to their opinions and I respect yours, but disagree with it completely. If there is a sniff of promotion we should be going for it 100%. How could we not? This talk of 'stability' and 'slow building' is frankly, nonsense. How do you make sure we "don't" go up? Throw games? Not try? We try 100% and if we fail, we fail. If we end up in the PL somehow we'll be starting from a base of a group of players who have already displayed extraordinary ability in a short space of time, have developed over the course of 18 months or so and are on an upward trajectory. Sensible signings and a commitment to our policies could easily see us avoiding the bottom 3 - most of the PL teams I've seen this season are just us with more money. And if we fail, we regroup (with parachute payments) and go again. The players, mangement and owners have earned out support, long may it continue.
 
People seem to be falling into two camps:

We’ve got a shot at promotion so why not spend some extra cash to have a better go at it. The PL money, even for one season, would be a game-changer.

We’re doing well, and have a shot at promotion as it is. It doesn’t matter if we fall short as we are building gradually and will be that bit better next season.

Both are well-reasoned arguments. I fall in the latter category. If we spend big(ish) and have a good go at promotion this season, the chances of going up are still not that high. That big spend is exactly what the new people in charge don’t want to do, I think, because failure would leave us in a poorer position next year (financially and player development-wise).
 
Everyone's entitled to their opinions and I respect yours, but disagree with it completely. If there is a sniff of promotion we should be going for it 100%. How could we not? This talk of 'stability' and 'slow building' is frankly, nonsense. How do you make sure we "don't" go up? Throw games? Not try? We try 100% and if we fail, we fail. If we end up in the PL somehow we'll be starting from a base of a group of players who have already displayed extraordinary ability in a short space of time, have developed over the course of 18 months or so and are on an upward trajectory. Sensible signings and a commitment to our policies could easily see us avoiding the bottom 3 - most of the PL teams I've seen this season are just us with more money. And if we fail, we regroup (with parachute payments) and go again. The players, mangement and owners have earned out support, long may it continue.
I look at it this way. The club will always aim for promotion. This season we will be aiming to finish as high as possible. But we wont go beyond our plan to achieve it. I suspect if you look at our wage bill we would be closer to mid table (guesswork) than top 6. What I dont think we will do is suddenly say we have a chance lets push the boat out. That is where the steady build people talk about comes from I think. That is fair enough in my opinion and how I want us to operate. Mowbray and the players though dont worry about such things, they focus on winning each match. We have the best of both worlds right now I think - clever and sensible structure with a bloody good team.

I am not of the opinion we would be embarrassed in the prem either. I agree we have a side who are on a massive upward curve. I said in League 1 we were playing a championship style of football and I thought we had a real chance this season. I think if this lot go up we might just surprise everyone, just because we play such an attacking style. You could see Amad staying and other top young talent spending a season with us along with our own young lads revelling. I reckon it would be an enjoyable ride, whatever the outcome.
 
We’re doing well, and have a shot at promotion as it is. It doesn’t matter if we fall short as we are building gradually and will be that bit better next season.

This has got to be the best way surely, there's no way this team is going into any match with the idea of 'it doesn't matter if we lose', they want to win. If that means we get promoted, why not? The long term building of the club continues, the ethos stays the same, build something sustainable, attractive to watch and a joy to play for, and I personally think, beautiful!
 
People seem to be falling into two camps:

We’ve got a shot at promotion so why not spend some extra cash to have a better go at it. The PL money, even for one season, would be a game-changer.

We’re doing well, and have a shot at promotion as it is. It doesn’t matter if we fall short as we are building gradually and will be that bit better next season.

Both are well-reasoned arguments. I fall in the latter category. If we spend big(ish) and have a good go at promotion this season, the chances of going up are still not that high. That big spend is exactly what the new people in charge don’t want to do, I think, because failure would leave us in a poorer position next year (financially and player development-wise).

The latter is the only option realistically. If we were in with a shot of automatic promotion then a calculated gamble might be justified. But gambling to get into the playoffs which in itself is a bit of a lottery and requires a huge slice of luck would be reckless.
 
We have been very creative and on the ball with our recruitment and transfers. Picking off young talent from PL squads who are inflated and spending far too much on players.

Good money has been spent on the right player. Just not wasted.
That's where we went wrong in the past, spending good money on the wrong targets. Gone are the days of splashing cash on the likes of Rodwell, Grigg etc. It's amazing the transformation that's gone on at our club in such a short space of time.
 
Makes me chuckle when folk think the only way to recruit is to throw money at it.

Ballard, Alese and Cirkin cost about 3 million combined man. Smart, efficient and calculated recruitment.

Or would people prefer us to go back to throwing money at the likes of Will Grigg, and Didier Ndong? Supplemented by some dead-beat free agents on big money like Callum McFadzean and Joel Lynch? Maybe pay fees for washed up players like Marc Wilson and James Vaughan?

Honestly, man.
 
Makes me chuckle when folk think the only way to recruit is to throw money at it.

Ballard, Alese and Cirkin cost about 3 million combined man. Smart, efficient and calculated recruitment.

Or would people prefer us to go back to throwing money at the likes of Will Grigg, and Didier Ndong? Supplemented by some dead-beat free agents on big money like Callum McFadzean and Joel Lynch? Maybe pay fees for washed up players like Marc Wilson and James Vaughan?

Honestly, man.
I don’t get the fascination of wanting us to break the bank to sign players who could be wrong for us. We pissed money up the wall and ended up in league one, almost went bust doing so!

The model is working so far, let’s see where we end up come May.