Birmingham and Cardiff apparently linked with David McGoldrick today. A player in relatively good form, technically competent, and a loyal servant to the club. However, despite all that, age is creeping up on him and his injury record means that we never get a lot of games out of him over the course of a season. His contract is up in the summer and I get the feeling he'll look elsewhere for a deal, so I think now is the only time we'll actually get some money for him. It has also been noted that while he is comfortable on the ball, he does slow the tempo of our play. The contrast to when he was attacking central midfielder to the more agile Huws was a case in point. I would not be surprised if we sell. How much we can get for him in this market with his injury record and six months left on his contract is probably not an awful lot. I highly doubt we'll get anything over £1m for him. We would of course be freeing up a portion of the wage budget, as he is apparently one of our highest earners.
Excellent piece, almost out with the hanky time! God, what a state we are in, methinks time for some campaign planning!
Apparently we've signed a youngster from Waterford,destined to be loaned out and abandoned?? Aaron Drinan: Ipswich Town sign teenage Waterford striker http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/42572579
He already has the nickname 'Murph' as he is apparently very similar to Daryl Murphy, but I won't hold my breath.. We'll probably loan him out and then sell him for a healthy profit in a years time, though Mick has been speaking of him as someone ready to make an impact this season so who knows? Moore apparently going to Barnsley for an initial £750k seems an odd one given their new found wealth and the fact that he'll be staying in the Championship. May come back to bite us. The Bart to Palace deal is supposedly all but done with us still negotiating some of the finer details such as up front payment and installment plans.. £4m+ supposedly and hopefully we'll have another keeper through the door before we let him sign on the dotted line.
I get the horrible feeling Drinan is going to be the third striker at Town behind Garner and Waghorn (if / when Moore and McGoldrick get sold off). Drinan was signed on the cheap, another five figure sum I believe, and despite the positive noises coming out of Portman Road, it's hardly the signing required to set pulses racing, put bums back on seats, and initiate a charge up the table. Interestingly, Barnsley have been acquired by Billy Beane of Moneyball fame. His analytical, statistics-based approach to transforming the unfancied, small baseball team Oakland Athletics to famous success. I'm not sure if that system can work at Barnsley, as a majority of Championship clubs are effectively adopting the same model (ala Huddersfield) to achieve promotion. I agree with Scowey that Moore's transfer could potentially come back to haunt us, but for £750,000 that is good money for a striker who had a successful half season in League One and struggled to impress when he did play Championship football as well as a big profit for the club. I'm resigned to losing Bart, which is a shame as he is one of our key players. Replacing him quickly will be difficult. I was hoping Wayne Hennessey would be part of a deal but I'm aware his wages may be a stumbling block, so a loan deal is probably our best bet.
Another keeper signed before Bart goes!!! That's far too sensible and logical for the muppets that supposedly run our club to understand! Just two words spring to mind regarding this "Daryl Murphy" We should be strengthening our squad not selling our key assets at fire sale prices! You can bet your bottom dollar that all the money made from player sales during this window will go straight into ME back pocket! So much for the much vaunted £5 Million a year he puts into the club to keep us going. The club has paid him back handsomely with the £30 Million plus he has reaped from player sales over the years and yet he still charges us interest on the overall debt that we owe the Evans Group! The man is a charlatan and I don't believe any of the mind numbing spin that comes out of the club.
I'm not too fussed about Bart going, as long as a half decent keeper comes in (obviously he won't go until/unless a replacement is in line). 750k is good "business", but still would've liked to see him given a decent run out this season, but hey ho, i can't see him being too prolific at any champ club. I have a feeling that 750k will go towards the loan of a couple of players, maybe a keeper and a midfielder (Colback would be a very good signing. even if we do pay 20-25k a week for the next 5 months). There's no way in a million years we will get someone in permanently, other than a keeper if Bart goes. IF we did, then it would seem likely that Mick will stay beyond this season.
Hit the nail bang on the head. This is precisely why I think, realistically, we're only going to see loans or short term deals this window. Apparently we've enquired about loaning the centre back Connor Goldson at Brighton, who we came close to getting on loan back in the summer. I can see a central midfielder coming in, either on loan or on a short term six month contract. A keeper to replace Bart, should he depart (and I think it's looking likelier he'll depart by the day) is certainly priority, but nothing a loan cannot solve for now. If we start splashing cash, then I suspect McCarthy will be offered a contract extension. Either way, this season seems to have been written off.
I don't understand how you can have a manager who every seems to think will go in the summer even he seems to be hinting towards it, so why not just go now? Unless there is an agreement with another manager to take over, there were rumours last summer about a Dutch coach is seem to remember
Have to agree, I said we should've sold him when Leicester bid what was it £10 million a few years ago bet he wishes he would've gone also. Must be on decent wages. Good technical player but often makes the wrong decision and takes up the wrong positions, to me he makes the team looked unbalanced. We've got enough strikers and attacking midfielders to play in the hole as it were, although they're all injured atm!!
It amazes me how many fans are still bothered by how much money we receive for players.....it makes no difference to the fans as it will never be put into the transfer kitty. Wow we paid 20k and sold him for 750k that’s good business.......I don’t give a **** I support a football team not and businessman.......the sooner Evans gets bored the better it will be for the club.
Agree that Evans doesn't put enough money into the playing squad but completely disagree about the importance of transfer fees. Regardless of how much gets reinvested in the playing squad, it is absolutely vital for clubs at our level, and particularly with our low gates, to kept financially stable and competitive. Unfortunately in this day and age, keeping financially secure is the sign of a well run club, and maximising profit from player sales is part of that. Doesn't sound romantic, but it's important in modern day football. The issue is the debt keeps rising under Evans because while it's under his name, he charges interest on it which, if he was an ambitious and passionate owner, he wouldn't do out of love of the club. So yes, selling players for big profit margins benefits Evans but it also benefits us because without those sales, that debt figure would be much higher and the possibility of a new owner buying the club would be further diminished.
