We're getting careless. We only need to look back 3 years to te position we were in until Allam bailed us out to see how **** can go pear shaped. I trust Bruce to do the right things but I'd be a lot happier going for just one of Long or Jelavic, preferably long. If these deals (assuming they go through) don't pay off, there's a chance we could go down. If we go down they obviously haven't come off, we'll be stuck with Danny Graham's on big wages and still owing the lions portion on huge fees that we won't get back. People will know we're desperate to slice the wage bill and will hold the cards as we'll need to get rid. If we can't..... The light will be shining on us if we come back from that twice in such a short space of time. We're not prolific but we're steady and doing well with what we have. I'd genuinely rather take a cheap punt on someone who's in form and doing it now like Nahki Wells then spend big on someone who did it once and might not do it again; at least not within the short period of time to help us. There's a player called Prince Murphy who's supposed to be better than Aluko available on a free, why not play it safe and give him a punt instead of going **** or bust? With the silly money we're spending on these pair we could afford a genuine young prospect like Rhodes or Ings who will keep a very good value and plenty of suitors regardless of whether city (and they) have a **** half a season and end up going down. I would by far rather go down this route.
I hadn't looked at it until just now but **** me she's like a teenage girl. Stereotypical wag or what. She really needs to just leave it and stay out of the spotlight. She'll look a right silly **** if he comes.
Dear Mrs Long, Those tweets were spot on. The cheque's in the mail. See you soon, A.A. bcc: S.B., S.L.
Er, why would we be stuck with Graham if we got relegated? He's on loan mate. Plenty of PL clubs would snap up Jela in a heart beat if we went down, similar with Long if we didn't want to keep him. Remember that spending, what, 30m this season, is only half of what we get at the end of the season, even if we get relegated. Can easily afford these transfers, but I agree, no more.
Cheers pal. Not what Tobes is saying, he reckons he's a donkey but a sense of perspective is needed. Strikers cost the earth and anyone banging them in regularly in the PL costs well in excess of the five or so million we are looking at paying. We do create chances but Graham has been a major disappointment in the finishing department. Jelavic could prove to be a blinding signing.
As Lewis said, I said "Danny Graham's" as a phrase to coin strikers who aren't scoring. If we go down, Jelavic and Long certainly wouldn't have justified their transfer fee's and done much for us, else we'd have stayed up. In Jelavic's case, I can't see there being a long line of clubs to take a striker on high wages who's goals in a year and a half you could probably count on one hand (1 in his last 30 league games so far, if we go down he can't be finding the net much for us either). In Long's case, there's not a long line of clubs queuing to take him now, never mind if he comes and has a poor half a season. I don't think any clubs would want either unless the deal represented good enough value (transfer & wages combined) that even if they carried on being **** it wouldn't be much of a loss to them. The only way we'd have a chance at recovering our money would be if there was a club desperate and mental enough to pay it, like us under Brown/Duffen.... With regards the finances, you're totally wrong. We're already looking at an £11m deficit this season without these signings. The only way we could break even is if we vastly overachieved and gained a lot more prize money from an unexpectedly high league position. If that happens, obviously it isn't really a problem, as we'd still be in the premier league. But not if we go down..... Besides, taking the transfer fee outlay then wages and agent fees on top for both of these players into account, I bet signing Jordan Rhodes would be a far cheaper deal. I'd take Jordan Rhodes over Long & Jelavic together any day, and he's prolific now. We're still waiting for Danny Graham to come good again, how long might we have to wait for Jelavic? It might be too little too late...
------------- Mr Hat. Are you related to Glenda Slagg the Fleet Street columnist who can always come up with an opinion?
Think people are missing the bit where we don't pay the extra mil if we go down, so Long and Jela would only cost 12m which we could probably recoup a chunk of if we went down.
I agree with a lot of this but not the Graham bit. He's hardly ever missed a chance for us. People seem to mistake not scoring with goals with not being able to finish. Statistically we create less than most teams. We're something like 17th in the league for chances created. Graham and Sagbo don't miss much but their problem is they don't get in the positions to miss or score either way.
Phil Buckingham reckons we want both. Normally I'd doubt how he'd know that, but since our entire January transfer window plans are being tweeted it seems likely enough that he'd know.
I'm fairly sure Graham has missed a fair few decent chances. He doesn't get any half chances away either, always wants another touch . Back on Jelavic, he appears to be the opposite of Fryatt who always takes too many touches. This bloke likes to hit it first time whenever he can.
That's not confirmed. In the middle of August the budget for the season had an £11M deficit. That deficit will have included a transfer budget for the season. We don't know what that transfer budget was, so we don't know how much (if any) of this £14M was already accounted for. For all we know there was a £25M transfer kitty in the original budget that we planned to spend as £17M in the summer building the squad, and £8M now adding a couple of players. Because the Long deal collapsed we only spent about £11M in the summer, and that would leave all this £14M as part of the original plan without increasing the deficit at all. It's also not confirmed what position we were budgeting on finishing. On £1.3M per place in the table sitting in 10th place puts us around £9M up on prize money compared to a budget where we planned to finish 17th.
