We have 5 + 1 loan, PL was making noises a while back about 7 coming in. Does that mean we are still in for 1 more or 2? Not sure if he is counting loans in his 7. Anyone know any possibilities heading our way? I know we are already heavy in midfield, but would love the Lansbury interest to come off preferably in a perm deal. Then somebody who can play CB/RB and some experienced competition for Ruddy would be my ideals.
I can certainly see more than 2 players coming in, looking at it we need a GK, 1 or 2 defenders and I have a feeling PL will pull a rabbit out the hat from either Pacheco or Lansbury again
Pacheco or Lansbury would be great. Both could either play with or be cover for Hoolahan should he be unavailable at any point. The question is do we need cover for Hoolahan? Hoolahan looks great in the diamond formation but we do now have what look to be good wingers at the club. This would suggest that the formation will be varied from time to time. Can Hoolahan play in a straight 442? I'm not sure. His form for us only got really good when PL arrived and built the team around him, giving him the freedon of playing at the diamond tip. I'm not even sure how well the diamond will work at PL level. It is dependent on the fullbacks getting forward to give us width, but I think they might have a little more work on defensively this year. I tell you one thing though, I am so looking forward to finding out.
KF, here's VitalNorwich take on the 25 man squad - not saying I agree, but it looks pretty close to how I'd imagine. http://www.norwich.vitalfootball.co.uk/sitepage.asp?a=247126 What happens to those players over 21 who are not part of the 25 man squad ? I mean if no club takes them off our hands, e.g. Steven Smith and OTJ ? Do Norwich pay their wages even though they are not elligible to play any part ?
In my humble opinion we cannot buy again until we sell - end of story. We cannot risk having 5 or 6 players surplus to the squad of 25 at the end of August.
It is likely to be 2 or 3. Also, I would rather we had players we actually want in the squad rather than include (for instance) OTJ or Smith even though we know they are not good enough and they don't really want to be here. I would rather these guys are simply left in the reserves until their contracts expire than include them in the squad at the expense of possible signings who could actually help the cause. I understand that there are financial implications here, but there are bigger ones in surviving and we need to do all we can (without risking the future of the club) to ensure we survive. If that means carrying a couple of players who can only be in the reserve set up then so be it. Also, what happens in January? If we were to bring in one or two new faces then, we would have to drop one or two from the 25 man squad to acomodate them then anyway. Also, the players that have been mentioned here (Lansbuey and Pachecco) are both U21 and so no impact in the 25 man squad.
We have 29 over 21's at the moment. This thread started talking about 2 more, the consensus being a GK and a defender making 31 as neither of the youngsters you mention cover those roles. All of these players are now on Premiership contracts which means good money which they can draw just for turning up for training. They won't even have to play in the reserves as those games are needed for those in the 25 who don't get a regular game. Lets not get carried away with the squad either. Of the 25 probably 5 of them will struggle to get on the bench let alone on the pitch unless there is an injury crisis so if those 5 places go to players like OTJ, Hughes, Smith etc it won't be the end of the world especially as we can use under 21's, including the 2 you mention, in addition to the 25. If Aberdeen could no longer afford to take Smith back on loan because of his new Premiership wages it is difficult to see players like him attracting lower league interest. If you include add ons such as pension, NI etc I think you would see that it would be financial suicide for a club of our size to pay 5 such players to sit in the stands alongside the other 5 who did not make the matchday squad.
It wont be 5. I know it is now, but there will be one or two who will leave. Out of the 5 (or 6 if we get the players I would like) 2 or 3 (if not 4 or 5) of them are likely to be the sort of player who would rather take a pay cut and play than simply turn up to training and collect their pay-check. I don't think their salary's are as high as you might think and It is certainly worth carrying them if it gives us a better chance of staying up. I can see you have posted this argument before and while it is reasoned and factually quite accurate, it does come accross as negativity at a time when the future is looking very bright for us. None of us know exactly what is in a players contract. One or two might even have clauses specifically designed for this situation and severence terms already agreed. I doubt anything I say will convert your opinion and so we will just have to agree to have different outlooks. Neither of us has any sway over what actually hapens so we will just wait and see. I would love to see the additions I have mentioned, but to be honest, if we start the season with the squad as is now I wouldn't be particularly disapointed. We have made some superb signings IMO.
As a retired Accountant I do perhaps get paranoid over any sign that our Club isn't taking all steps to keep on a very even keel financially bearing in mind where we were 2 or 3 years ago although I really should have no fears on that with the current Board and Chief Exec in place. In fairness I didn't say that we should not buy - only that we need to sell first. In the selling stakes I would probably be far more ruthless than most of my fellow correspondents as I think that there are now quite a lot of players at the Club surplus to requirements now that we are in the Premiership but moving them on is a different issue. We shall see.
another point is did the seven mean before the season starts, or include 1 or 2 to come in during January transfer window? or that is on top. if we can't sell some of these fringe players, try and loan them out instead until their contracts expire - i guess that we free up some players wages.
And if they are now on inflated salaries since promotion then we could even loan them out with the receiving club paying as much as possible of the wage and us making up the difference. Even if we are still paying something it would be preferable to paying all of it and having them here skulking around the place
