What are peoples feeling on signing both Toivonen and Hooper? I see Toivonen as an attacking midfielder but I keep being told hes a striker. I know he plays as a stirker for Sweden but I got the impression his preference is as an attacking midfielder? I really want Hooper as I think its is safe money to spend in terms of the fee. I think Toivonen would give us extra strength for when holty isnt playing and he looks liek he can play a bit too! The Leroy Fer stuff must be incredibly unlikely but am I the only person who thinks his injury record is being blown out of proportion a bit? If we signed Toivonen, Hooper, Fer and ended up with a new LW and LB I would be ecstatic. Its probably not likely but I can dream!
As I've said I refuse to get involved with the pre-transfer window hysteria, I have opinions on certain things I'll keep them to myself for the time being, the only thing I will speak out about is the pressure being heaped on RVW, the local media and some our fans are worse then British Tennis fans. This summer I'm sure we will sign some players but for me it's more of a question of when.
Northants, I have no problem with you posting your thoughts which are as relevant as anybody else's! The only problem I had with your OP was the caveat "or else!" That didn't seem right to me!
Dave, I think you should re-start this thread on the 1st of July with the updated page of rumours at the beginning when the transfer window opens, so there is not a load of "afters" going on!
i really don't get the thing about 'when' we buy players being important. to me, that is pure impatience from fans - i know for a fact managers don't really care. of course they'd prefer to have everybody there on the first day of pre-season but i doubt it's ever happened that way with all signings - if it has its very rare. we signed bassong and garrido after the start of the season last year, and they both did well! we aren't signing aliens - these are very capable footballers. all players need a little time at the start of a season to adapt to new things and you often get a few iffy results early on, and that can happen even if you sign nobody! the only thing that matters is buying the right players. we can sign them at 10.59pm on the final second of the transfer window for all i care - as long as they improve our team
All I would say on that point Superman is just look at the opening fixture of last season when we were completely demolished by a mid-table side. We were clueless, dysfunctional, stretched all over the place and bloody shocking. Getting players in with sufficient time to get a decent pre-season under their belts, know their roles and jobs and operate as a back four rather than four rabbits caught in the headlights is surely extremely desirable. It worked - and seems to continue working, for Hughton's predecessor.
Not going to read into it too much but the end of the season is a very difficult run for any club in this league, I'd just like to get some points on the table early as the end of the season might be less forgiving, we're capable of beating the big teams but if they've got something to play for it might be a completely different story.
that's a terrible example though cromer, because the team hughton selected last year had hardly any new signings in it. if anything, it proves my point about it not mattering when they come in, so long as they are good enough. there was no need for the players who played the year before to 'bed in'. ok, we had a new manager and you could claim he was 'bedding in', but seriously, its almost impossible to get targets in early all the time. lambert does it because he targets a certain type of player. we aren't doing that anymore.
and you don't trust the players who beat the big boys last season to be capable of getting points on the board early? far, far, far too much is made of this 'bedding in' thing. it's basically a myth.
Wouldn't you agree though that helps new signings fit in the team if they know what the players beside them are like in a competitive environment? Even if it's a friendly? We know they work on the training pitch but in front of thousands of people with points on the board it's certainly less relaxed.
if you were striving for a perfect world you'd have all new signings sorted before the window even opens! it's not a perfect world. the only people involved in football who are ever concerned about their club not signing players really early are the fans.
If they come out the starting blocks then they are more then capable, this season that is of the uttermost importance. We set out and achieved what we wanted to do last season and Hughton had to work with an inherited team, but I'm not going to talk ****e and say it all went perfectly well because it didn't.
we didn't win any of our opening 7 games last season and were absolutely fine, despite having man city on the final day. in fact, if we'd lost ALL our final four games last season, we'd STILL have stayed up! irrelevant now, but we don't need to make a 'flying' start. obviously it would be very helpful, but we just need to try and start better than last year and hopefully carry the form through the season, being more consistent. i see no reason why we won't. we've already got our 'marquee' signing on board. i totally fail to see what the issue is and clearly i'm not alone.
We don't necessarily need to, but we should definitely do everything we can to increase the chances of it happening!
People also forget that there are sound financial reasons for signing players late: Signing a player on £30k pw on 1 July as opposed to, say, 11 August, is the difference of £180k paid by the buyer as opposed to wages and pre-season injury risk covered by the seller. For four or five players, you're talking about sums of close to £1m that could be saved... Yes, they have longer to familiarise themselves with the team and the style, but plenty of players get settled pretty quickly in January, so no reason why they can't do it in August (Bassong managed it...) Most modern players fit quite easily into systems - it's not like rugby where communication and organisation is 80% of the hard work, which is the reason why the barbars are often poor.
villa, as keep being pointed out, have made 6 signings i think, before the window has opened. what happens if they lose their first game at arsenal 5-0? it's quite possible! football is a funny old game (someone should make this a saying ) and anything could happen on the opening day because teams never really quite know where they are in the grand scheme of things. i'm sure hughton thought we were in a much better state than a 5-0 reverse at fulham! you just have to trust the manager to make the right signings - hughton has his faults but i don't think anyone can question his ability in the market - he's been pretty good overall. we are still 7 weeks away from the first game - that's a long time. no need for worry at all.
