I also look forward to seeing what Odjidja can do at AM this season. It really is like having a new player. As for Mbokani, I'm a bit concerned about the 'fitness questions' mentioned. He could be a revelation or another flop.
Well, joint top with Redmond at £4.4m. Could make all the difference if he lives up to his potential this year.
If Mings has gone for £8m I would respectfully suggest that Redmond is probably worth a shade more than £4.4m!. If we were to sell Redmond we should do it to Liverpool via Southampton and we'd probably end up with somewhere in the region of £25m as clearly someone at Saints has got some unbelievably good photos of Brendon Rogers doing something illicit to gain all the money they have from Liverpool over the past couple of years. What has the world come to with AFC Bournemouth shelling out £8m for a full-back from the Championship?
Those are a bit like the balance sheet "asset values". You have to multiply the transfermarkt values by 2.5-3.5 if you want to know how much a club is likely to be prepared to pay and the other club isn't desperate to sell.
I always think of Transfermarkt prices as what would be paid outside the UK for players. As soon as a PL club becomes involved, however, the 2.5-3.5 factor comes into play. Then there's the appearances clause and PL survival clause which means only about half is paid up front. It's still interesting though that Redmond and Odjidja-Ofoe are rated equal price-wise when the latter hardly played last season.
There are a number of different variables for prices paid, which boil down to the actual amount of money handed over for a player (unexpired time on the contract, etc). The asset valuations are slightly different - these are incredibly complicated and detailed reviews of each player which feature in practically every professional player purchase. Transfermarkt is one of the professional services firms (based in Germany I believe) so those figures are, roughly, the figure that Transfermarkt, if they were contracted by Norwich to value a player we were interested in, would hand over to a prospective purchaser for the asset valuation of a player (although it would be a much more precise figure and a lot more detail as to why). The asset valuations are not there to determine what price the club will pay, they are there to help them price risk for the transaction. Where a club is really desperate, or obliged, to sell, the purchase price ends up being almost exactly the asset value (look up, for example, RvW's transfer value and the amount we paid). Where a club is not desperate and plenty of time is left on the contract, the 2.5-3.5 multiple comes into play, subject to the many variations in negotiations. And that applies to foreign transfers too (take Sadio Mane for Southampton for example). Where it gets different (the multiple) is the higher the value goes - with, say, Roberto Firmino, the value isn't that much higher than his asset value, even though as I understand it there was not much desperate need to sell. But that's not just the case from Europe - check out Gareth Bale's value against the price paid - about a 30% premium so actually quite similar to Firmino. I think the reality is that European clubs tend to be a little more desperate to sell as a bit more hard up on cash, whereas English clubs are a bit more flush so end up being prepared to pay a bit more of a premium for home grown players. So you tend to have more forced transfers from Europe closer to their asset values and more sales in England at a premium. And that's why you get Tyrone Mings going for what seems like an extraordinary price of £8m, but actually is pretty much spot on 3x his rough asset valuation (we're never going to get to see the detailed one Bournemouth will have had commissioned). If you want to see why the player asset valuations are really important from a directors'/manager's responsibility and duty to their club point of view, there is quite a bit of publicly available information on the Jean Tigana case, which turned on the facts but the asset valuations even back then went into extraordinary detail.
Wow! I think I can safely say that your understanding of all of this is far more profound than my rather crude 'rule of thumb', Rob. Thanks for that.
One thing I do out of sheer curiosity at the start of every new season is try to fit our players into a 3-5-2 formation, simply to see if it looks in any way half-decent: Ruddy Martin - Bassong - R.Bennett Whittaker ------------------------------------------------- Olsson Mulumbu-------------- ---------------Johnson Howson- Jerome -------- Hooper I think the defenders actually kind of fit the system, and Mulumbu or Tettey (or both) could definitely be effectively deployed in order to cover the advanced wing-backs. The options further up the pitch are a bit more 'iffy'. Do we have two forwards who could play at the same time? Would it be better to utilise Wes and/or Redmond behind the striker/s? Purely an academic exercise, but I'm keen to hear what you bors think.
I would say that to utilise this formation you need speedy wing backs. With the best will in the world I cannot see Whits as that. E. Bennett surely comes into contention there. And if Jonno is not playing wide left it must be Tetty as holding CM.
I considered this, but given just how good Whittaker was at going forward in the second half of last season, I'd be tempted to give him a go. I take your point that he's not particularly quick though. Of course, you're probably right in that respect. I was just considering whether Mulumbu AND Tettey would be needed in that formation. Maybe, maybe not. EDIT: Hows this? Ruddy Martin - Bassong - R.Bennett Whittaker ------------------------------------------------- OlssonMulumbu------Tettey Hoolahan Jerome -------- Hooper
I'd have thought the values on transfermarkt would be worked out automatically en mass by computer reacting solely to data.
The values are often discussed by the Transfermarkt community, and suggestions are submitted to the admins/boffs. Therefore I doubt it's merely based on a computer reacting to hard data.
I wouldn't be surprised if (actually I'd expect) most of the variables are now computerised as you say. I don't know for sure but I would definitely have thought when they get commissioned to do the full assessments for a player subject to an actual transfer there'll be a real person double-checking everything
Ruddy Martin - Bassong - R.Bennett Mulumbu - Tettey Redmond --------- Hoolahan --------- Johnson Jerome - Hooper Madness?
If not madness, it'd be very brave. Much as I'd like to see Redmond in there, I'd agree with GE that Elliot Bennett's defensive capabilities would make him a safer bet. I'd also have Bassong on the left and R.Bennett in the centre of the defence and possibly Odjidja-Ofoe or Howson alongside either Mulumbu or Tettey in that formation. Also if they did play together, Mulumbu would be on the left of Tettey, I believe.
Fair enough. What about this? Ruddy Martin - Van Dijk - Bassong Yedlin -------------------------------------------- Olsson Tettey - Mulumbu Howson - Hoolahan Mbokani
