Where do you get this from? Transfermarkt? it's WAY off. Look at the numbers - it claims we spent £16m on Jonjo Shelvey, £20m on Wijnaldum and £12m on Mbemba. It's way off. In addition, net spend is really the only test of ambition as we've said a million times. It's pretty simple to understand, as net spend amounts to trading players - as in, is Diame an upgrade on Wijnaldum - whereas pure spend is just players in. You're a Mitro fan, not a Jorgensen fan. If the club wants Jorgensen, it must sell Mitrovic to get him. Is that strengthening, in your eyes? Don't say "It is in Rafa's, Jorg would play and Mitro would not, so that's all that counts", we all get that. I'm talking about your opinion, which without putting words in your post would be that we have weakened our CF position forward further, yet had no choice. We can't just buy to strengthen. We might as well have Arry Redknapp in charge.
With the Spain job up for grabs I can see Mike telling Rafa ‘sign or you won’t get the funds’. I ducking hate the ****s running our club.
I genuinely think that is the right thing to do. Everyone knows I'm not a Rafa fan girl but I'd not pay out £40m on transfers for him to **** off at the end of the WC/season. Don't trust his transfers either to be honest and while he did well last season with what he had, don't forget he took us through one of the worse runs of form in our EPL history - that is worse than Pardew, Kinear, McClaren, Carver with a majority of the squad being his signings. (Yedlin, Manquillo, Lejuene, Clark, Diame, Merino, Ritchie, Atsu, Murphy, Gayle, Joselu). Granted things improved once Dubruvka and Kenedy arrived which were his signings and he replace Dire Diame with Donny Diame but still the worst run is under him.
I think you have to accept this is the nature of all football clubs outside of the top 6. Nobody buys for buying sake - the great myth amongst our fanbase is that all the clubs are outspending us and spunking loads of money. Net spends are extravagant. Its just simply not true. Look at the net spends since 2014, only two clubs have a net spend of more than 42m a season on average. Out of 14 clubs, half were averaging a net spend of 22m or less a season. 5 were below 17m or less a season. Two were in profit. Its an uncomfortable reality check for our fans. Our net spend over the last 4 years has been roughly 24.75m a season and we've been in the championship for one of those seasons. I made it 4 years in case we are thought to be cherry picking. The last time we made a profit on transfers was 5 years ago. Even if we want to stretch it out that far back which would be ridiculous, our net spend would still be 15.4m a season. i.e. perfectly in line with bottom 5 clubs of the 14 who have lasted a long time in the PL. We spend money perfectly in line with our counterparts, that is the only conclusion which can be drawn. We probably spend less on executive positions than many, but then we don't generate what many do like Spurs and Liverpool for example who featured in that bottom 5 spenders. Everybody has to manipulate their squads to best suit their managers needs. Spend outside the top 6 is not what everyone thinks it is. So taking that net spend is the true test of ambition line and ignoring the exec wages etc, I think we all now have to accept we spend in line with our counterparts. We just haven't spent very well and haven't employed the right people to manage it at times. Though it must be said Pardew was never relegated on these budgets, delivered European football. Rafa has been promoted on these budgets and secured a mid table finish. So some managers have done ok. Player trading at the below top 6 level is about increasing quality and usefulness to the manager without sending yourself into financial peril. Otherwise you end up like Sunderland, Norwich etc. It can be a very long road back.
I think you need to take a holiday over the close season and come back refreshed after the World Cup, you're showing signs of wear and tear after a hard season of wummery.
Don't see how people are moaning about £40m, its a reasonable budget considering the position we are in, what did people really expect? £60m? £80m? £100million? Rafa needs to: A) Pull his finger out, find some decent talent like Dubruvka (£6-7mil inc loan fees) on the cheap. B) Get rid of the deadwood (not good young players) Sels, Darlow/Elliot, Colback, Saviet, Lazaar, Manquillo, Joselu, Clark, Hayden etc to boost his funds. Should be able to generate an extra £20m or so right there. C) Scour the loan market and free transfers (Zouma, Kenedy, Loftus Cheek etc off Chelsea where he has a good reputation, Liverpool have some good youngsters as do Madrid - all clubs he can go back to) Loads of decent free's out there as well.
I agree about the figures. £40m is the correct sort of ballpark, obviously we'd hope for more but if sales can be added to that then you'd have to imagine it's more like £60m. That is a good amount of money (and almost certainly more than we will actually spend). Deadwood will be hard to shift, I suspect we will need to bite the bullet and cover some portion of wages. Many of those players you list would do good jobs in lesser leagues where they would warrant £10k-20k per week, if we end needing to subsidize the rest then so be it, for some it wouldn't be huge amounts of money but the combined savings to us would be. What I would add though is that I don't agree with moving on players like Hayden, Clark, Saivet, etc if we are just going to replace them with squad players - they currently serve a purpose and spending money on that aspect isn't high priority.
I wouldn’t wipe my backside with the chronicle. Click baiting amateurs the lot of them. People are mad if they think Ashley will spend any kind of decent money. It’s embarrassing that we are being outspent by Brighton and Huddersfield.
£20m rumour for Andros Townsend. Where the **** do the media get this crap from? Like Mike's going to say "yeah, sold for £12m, I'd be delighted to pay £8m more when he's even less effective now". Jesus.
I could see us being interested. I think he’d be 2nd on list of three for the winger. He’s a player who suits Rafa. 20m? Nah. Inflation says we’d pay more than we got (you have to consider it was a clause), maybe 16m. If he was to join and it was because Kenedy got too rich or we can’t persuade him, then I have admit I’d be fairly happy. I’d be confident Rafa would get a tune out if him. He’s no Kenedy though. These links with keepers suggest we could be about to offload Elliot and Darlow. Plus Sels. I’d like some cover on right now Mbemba is going. To be honest our list is pretty obvious. Right back, centre back, left back, holding midfielder, winger, number 10, striker. Just the 8 then...
If Rafa recent record is anything to go by, the priorities are 1. Winger 2. Winger 3. Winger. Anything else is a bonus.
I would say looking at our squad the priority is: Winger Striker Back Right back Centre half Left back No 10 Def mid I think we will sign winger, def mid, centre back, right back, striker I think we will skirt by on left back and no 10
I reckon we'll get an LB like. A young nobody, all full of promise and bluster, someone to really pin our hopes on. He'll be called Hassadio Maidara. Striker's pivotal, we can at a push use Gayle and will ultimately fail to shift Aarons. Anyway I expect more from Murphy and I loved Kenedy, but this team created chances before him. The issue was the lack of finishing. We won't get to have both so I'd plump for striker and so will Mike, Lee and eventually Rafa. Finish that off with either an RB or CB (not both, weren't you listening!?) and that's about all we'll probably be getting bar any unexpected outgoings.
If we bought that and didn't sell Merino/Gayle (or anyone unexpected) then I'd call it a good window. Don't see it mind.
