Hughes would be an amazing signing but the asking price and likely good of top clubs being in the race makes it unlikely
Fair point Cookie. But I'd imagine he'd rot on the bench of most top clubs, whilst he'd slot straight into our starting eleven. Plus wages wouldn't be too bad as he's still young. We can only wait, hope and see!
Bobby I would be over the moon if it happened but I think one of the top six clubs will buy him and loan him back to Derby. All I want for Christmas is .... Will Hughes, Cresswell or Buttner, Solid Centre Half
The Daily Mirror say we are looking to sign Paolo Hurtado â a Peruvian winger compared to former Newcastle United star Nolberto Solano. Hurtado is apparently available for £3.34m because his current club Pacos de Ferreira are facing relegation from the Portuguese Primeira Liga.
I know the above comment is only gossip,but we seem to be assoiciated with wingers. Priority C/F and a couple of quality defenders.
Amid loads of media rumours about Alex Buttner, Rene is quoted as being circumspect of signing any new defenders: " Dutchman Meulensteen worked with his compatriot Buttner during his spell as first-team coach at Manchester United and has been tipped to reunite with the defender in west London. However, the new Craven Cottage chief says he knows nothing about any potential move for the 24-year-old. When asked about mooted interest in Buttner, he said: "Not that I know of. We're getting linked with more players everyday. Not sure [if we will sign defenders], we have Brede Hangeland coming back who is a big player for Fulham. We just need to cut out errors." Source: http://talksport.com/football/demps...s-fulham-boss-13122372963#uuSEZ64UqA9U1ltM.99 In many ways this re-inforces what he says in his latest video interview (posted on the 'Team v Norwich' thread).
I think we should test Vermaelen's resolve to stay at Arsenal, it might solve a problem if Hangeland doesn't recover from what could be a long term injury, and set us up for next season to get a new spine for the team. We could guarantee him more game play then he might get at Arsenal when Koscielny gets back, so he might go to the World Cup, plus we are a London club, if he doesn't want to move too far. We'd probably have to pay a big fee for him.
Rene is said by TalkSport to be interested in Ishak Belfodil. A towering 6'3' striker who has struggled to nail down a regular spot at Inter Milan and renowned for his powerful heading ability The Algerian international is desperate to nail down a spot in his country’s World Cup squad and several clubs are interested, with Real Betis (!!) keen as well to snap up the 21 year old on a short term loan.
It's never ending, is it not? We will both end up a division down next season. You can see it happening, can't you?
Having just watched MOTD I feel we should also be on the lookout for a keeper. Stek is very good by and large but if only plays in half the games as he is pretty injury prone then we need a better number 2 than Stockdale who, whilst quite acceptable at a lower level is not a Premiership level keeper and should be moved on for the sake of his career and reputation in January.
Stockdale has good reflexes but his clearances my god... None of then to the side. All in the 6 yard box...
Read a thing in the Sunday telegraph today detailing what each team needs, who might go and arrive and how much they had to spend. Worryingly they listed us as having no money to spend - none. Nothing. Nada. Loans only it said. The only other team in that position was WBA, who don't have a manager so that was probably the reason. Even Crystal Palace have £8 million. How can this be? We have the 3rd richest chairman in the league. How can they think we don't need to invest? Do they not watch the team at all? Loan players won't give two ****s about whether we stay up or not, they'll just collect he money and bugger off when their loan finishes at the end of the season. If this is true then it's very worrying because not only would we absolutely be relegated, it would also mean mean we have a chairman who probably doesn't want the club but quite fancies the real estate it sits on as he would be willing to let a large chunk of his initial investment be wiped away by relegation and could easily make the loss up by redevelopment of the land. Sad times.
It is sad if true. I would like to believe that is not the case. Probably doing his maths and looking at options. Personally I see two main options with each having more scenarios. Staying in PL at any coat. In order to stay in PL all options involve huge investment in January and during the summer. This squad is dead. Can he recoup this amount of money? Depends on the long term strategy. Second option is it re-build with self-sustained team. This is relegation, to Championship, and if the youngsters are not good enough even to lower league or staying there for more than one season. A few players will stay and provide the backbone. All dead wood again to be gone. Indeed sad times. If the second scenario is the case MAF might have saved us a few years ago but also slowly put us on the drip to die from starvation....
If anyone's interested, I saw Aaron Cresswell play for Ipswich against Bournemouth yesterday. He was having an off-day, I suspect. He was the defender that had the bulk of responsibility for playing the ball forward and took a lot of corners, but his distribution was patchy, and some of the corners were shockers. Bournmouth have some good wingers, and I wouldn't say that he won his individual battle with Matt Ritchie (who is good but possibly not ready to set the Premier League alight). He didn't look bad, but at the same time he wasn't great. If I was judging him purely on this match, he's not what we're looking for, but I suspect that's a bit harsh on him. Incidentally, Bournemouth's midfield was run by a 23 year old Irish lad called Eunan O'Kane. As above, it's silly to judge a player just on one match, but yesterday he was very very good. He's a slight figure - Modric-like, I thought - but he stood up to all the physical challenges of central midfield, he was dropping deep to collect the ball, surging forward, played astute long passes, well-judged short passes, spread the ball from flank to flank. On the evidence of that one game, he had the lot. I don't get to see Bournemouth all that often, but if I go again this season I'll let you know whether this was a one-off. He was Man of the Match on Boxing Day, so I've obviously caught him in a good run of form.
The latest rumour has a Rene and Man United connection with a twist: "Fulham are poised to make an audacious bid to try to sign Ravel Morrison – immediately after their relegation six-pointer against West Ham. They realise the likelihood of them landing the England Under-21 international is remote, but that will not stop them becoming the first club to attempt to take advantage of his contract situation. Morrison has only 18 months remaining on his West Ham deal, which is littered with clauses. There is a straight £18 million release clause and another that states West Ham would have to quadruple the midfielder’s wages to £60,000 a week if they receive a £10 million bid and want to keep him. While Fulham will not bid anywhere near those figures, it is understood West Ham may reluctantly let Morrison, 20, leave this month if they receive the right offer to raise money for new signings. But they would not be keen to sell to one of their relegation rivals." Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...d-for-West-Ham-midfielder-Ravel-Morrison.html If this story has even an inkling of truth (and the Telegraph are not known to float gossip) then it lays to bed suggestions that no money will be available. Moreover it would mean that Rene & Co are keen to fill one of our problem positions and thinking out of the box to boot.
Thing is, it's from the same paper that said we had no money to spend and could only take on loans - so on one hand they are saying we have nothing and on the other we have. Both scenario's (having no money and putting in any sort of bid for Morrison) seem a bit far fetched to me, frankly.
Good article below from TEAMtalk.com, well worth a read. Fanzoner Andy Lye discusses where Fulham should and could strengthen in the January transfer window, and assesses the festive fixture fallout. This is roughly the half-way point in the punishing Christmas/New Year schedule, so it seems like a sensible place to take stock. It's still about three weeks of action in one go though. So, deep breath, and don't tell the club we all noticed their attempt to sneak the appointment of Alan Curbishley as a technical director (read: adviser to Rene Meulensteen and future-proofing in the event of relegation) out late Christmas Eve evening. First there was Man City at The Cottage. We probably should have done more to expose the obvious weak link in their defence (Martin Demichelis), but otherwise we made a pretty decent fist of that game. However, the highlight for most people has me a little concerned. Adel Taarabt, playing as a lone forward in the absence of Dimitar Berbatov, was fabulous, especially having not had a great deal of first team football this season so far, but there were a couple of signs that the showing was more for his own purposes than ours. He didn't celebrate Kieran Richardson's goal, despite being the one who made it, he walked straight down the tunnel at the end of the game instead of joining the other players in applauding the crowd, and when Steve Sidwell stole a header from him only to miss the target, he found it merely amusing. There's no question he was our best player, and playing down the middle is clearly his preferred role, but if those signs are there when he's having a good day, is he still going to be the same strop Harry Redknapp doesn't want back at QPR when he has a bad day? We can't afford that if so. On to Norwich, with Taarabt starting up front again. He played well, but wasn't as effective. Fortunately, he didn't need to be. After we'd weathered the first 20 minutes or so of pressure from the home side, that game was all us. It did however highlight another shortcoming in the side that we have to address. We are carrying too many shot-shy players. It needed a moment of brilliance from man-of-the-match Scott Parker to settle the game, but before that there were countless times when our attacks broke down because our midfielders were all looking for a way to pass responsibility to someone else when in or near the Norwich box. We're getting into scoring positions, which is encouraging, but to put it in all simplicity, if you don't shoot you don't score. The loan signing of Clint Dempsey will hopefully go some way towards that, as he was never shy in front of goal, but only in the short term. He'll be gone by the end of February, so maybe he can inspire a little more bravery in the box before he does. Last was the misery of Hull on Saturday. Somehow many fans were left confused by the number of changes Rene Meulensteen made to the starting line-up, missing entirely that winning the next two games at home is far more important than damage limitation in a game we were always going to lose anyway. It was obvious from the moment Giorgos Karagounis was dropped against Norwich that Rene's plan was to rest him so that he could play 90 minutes in Parker's stead against Hull, saving Scott from the risk of a fifth yellow card before the January amnesty, and in turn meaning he was suitably rested for the crunch West Ham game on New Year's Day. It was therefore equally obvious that he'd do the same in other positions, and after Hugo Rodallega made his return as a second-half substitute at Norwich, the chances of Taarabt being rested and Berbatov not being rushed back were just as high. Indeed all of the changes made at the KC could have been, for any thinking fan, predicted, except maybe Bryan Ruiz being handed a start when Alex Kacaniklic was more deserving of some game time. We will now see our strongest possible eleven against West Ham, sweeping changes against Norwich in the FA Cup, and the first choice men back again for Sunderland at home in two weeks. It's all part of the plan. A 6-0 scoreline probably wasn't, but losing should not come as a surprise or a disappointment to anyone. We'd forfeited the game anyway. The size of the defeat though has shown up just how lacking our back-up defensive players are. Fernando Amorebieta and Elsad Zverotic make me nervous just by being on the bench. They are not cut out for the Premier League and need to go back to a European league where more time on the ball and less physical forwards are normality. The number of times Zverotic (who was not alone) just stood still and watched Hull players pounce on second balls was disgraceful. Three of the six goals were because of this. So it's time to draw up a January shopping list, and at least one top-class centre back has got to be first priority. We're missing Brede Hangeland more than ever, particularly in the height department, and when it gets to the point where our most reliable central defender is Philippe Senderos, something is badly wrong. After that, it depends how ruthless we want to be and how much money we want to spend. On the conservative side, we probably need a genuinely creative number ten, a left-back and a reserve right-back. However, if we're brutally honest, we need better players all over the pitch. That might be unfair on some members of the current squad, who are sincerely giving their all, but if we want to progress then in some cases (Riise, Richardson, Rodellega, Ruiz) their all isn't good enough. That kind of cut-throat overhaul will have to wait though. The season needs saving first, and that means plugging the most serious gaps. If Berbatov does leave, a finisher is another one of those. Where we're going to struggle is the new loan signings rule. In an ideal world six-month loan signings would probably be our preferred territory at this time. Players would be more likely to accept because it gives them a guaranteed out if we go down, we won't have to find transfer funds, we won't be locked in to keeping stop-gap players, and so on and so forth. The league is full of players, especially strikers, who aren't getting much game time because everyone wants to play with one up front these days (either through fear of losing, or Barcelona-esque aspirations) and most of them could be tempted by a loan signing somewhere they're going to actually play, even if it's just to prove their worth to their parent club. Especially those looking to be part of their national squad in Brazil. Not that this tactic has worked with Darren Bent, but the logic is still sound. Since we already have Bent and Taarabt on loan from domestic clubs though, none of that is possible as only two are permitted at any one time. I'd send Bent back to free up a space, but that's unlikely too. We could start using the likes of Lasse Christensen, Chris David, and (when fit again) Moussa Dembele instead, but we can't let January pass in the hope they come good only to find they're not up to it. That leaves loans from foreign leagues (which count as regular transfers), and permanent signings. I can see us going for the loans from abroad, especially as the Premier League rejected the five-player starting-11 foreign loanee cap that the Football League adopted, because with purchases, the question is not only can we afford the quality of players we need, but can we convince them to come to a club which may not stay up?
We all know we need 2 or 3 signings in jan to help out with this relegation fight, but the mess we are in I hope we have these signings ready to go in early Jan. If we leave it til 31st Jan it could be far to late !
