Summer transfers rumours, speculation, news | Page 79 | Vital Football

Summer transfers rumours, speculation, news

Scottish Sun reporting we have had a £300,000 bid rejected for St Mirren midfielder Jamie McGrath.

Never previously heard of him so just had a look into him.

Highly regarded, Irish, 24 year old central attacking midfielder / play maker who can play accross midfielder. He was at Dundalk in Ireland during the time Mal Brannigan was there. Apparently has quick feet and good vision.

St Mirren player of the weason with 17 goals and 6 assists in 46 appearances last season in Scotland. Just become a full international for Ireland.

Takes free kicks, corners and penalties.

In the final year if his contract. They claim they have rejected 2 or 3 bids which seems to include our 300k bid and one from Aberdeen, they want 500k and we are expected to go back with another bid. Another English club is waiting in the wings - Peterborough were linked but their chairman denied it. Their manager has said he won't stand in his way if the value is met but any English clubs want him they need to do the deal soon as they will reject any offers in the last couple of weeks of the window as they won't be able to replace him.

On WhoScoredIt.com ranked as one of the best attacking mids in the divisionlast season. Think he was 2nd or 3rd best outside the old firm.

It's always tricky to know how players doing well in Scotland will do in England but on paper he sounds very promising.

Basically looks like we are trying to get an alternative to Fraser.
 
True, but I'd actually say the SPL has deteriorated since then.
For every McCarthy, MacArthur and Kipre there's a Mckay, Cowie and Walker...

There are loads of bargains in the SPL it's just a case of working out which players are genuinely good and which just look good in that league. Hopefully our recruitment team have found the next Scott Fraser and not the next Fraser Fyvie.
 
There are loads of bargains in the SPL it's just a case of working out which players are genuinely good and which just look good in that league. Hopefully our recruitment team have found the next Scott Fraser and not the next Fraser Fyvie.
True, it wasn't long ago that Celtic & Rangers, with their promise of European Football every season, hoovered up the best players in Scotland for peanuts, but there seems to be a genuine pushback happening these days, with other Scottish clubs either telling the Old Firm to pay top dollar, or point blank refusing to sell to them.
There is good players in the SPL, but the gulf in quality is that big these days that buying any player from North of the Border comes with a massive risk.

If the signing comes off, I hope and pray to be proved wrong...
 
McGrath was left out of the squad for a cup game a couple of days ago and I've not seen any suggestion he was injured. So it suggests they are expecting to sell him imminently.
 
True, it wasn't long ago that Celtic & Rangers, with their promise of European Football every season, hoovered up the best players in Scotland for peanuts, but there seems to be a genuine pushback happening these days, with other Scottish clubs either telling the Old Firm to pay top dollar, or point blank refusing to sell to them.
There is good players in the SPL, but the gulf in quality is that big these days that buying any player from North of the Border comes with a massive risk.

If the signing comes off, I hope and pray to be proved wrong...

There is of course a risk if they flop but there is also a potential huge upside if the lad can continue that form down in England you've got a quality player for a fraction of their real value and the chance to sell on at a large profit.

If you've scouted them extensively hopefully you can work out the one's who have shown enough to be worth the gamble. But you never know for certain until you see it play out - I guess that's the art of scouting being able to pick the right ones.
 
Looks like Talal will be in the crowd for one of the home friendlies,he is in Geneva doing his 10 day isolation before flying in next week!Be interesting to see the actual person!
 
While there's comparisons between the Chairman's comments and the noises from those other people, I think these are aims, they believe can be achieved, but are aware they will be very difficult. Get the feeling they know what they're doing and while promotion (or even challenging) next season would be great, it's not the be-all and end-all with them. Think with the previous lot, they had ambitions, but not a scooby about how hard they would be achieve
 
Admire his ambition, but If we're in the Premier League within the next five years, I'll get a Wigan Warriors badge tattoo'd on my arse and you can hold me to that.

A stable self sustainable Championship club in the next five years will do me just fine.

Same here to be fair, the comments don't worry me too much though, as I honestly believe there's a realism among the people involved, they know what they're working with. Don't believe the previous charlatans had a scooby
 
Bold statements of ambition from @Talalalhammad32 in his latest interview #wafc https://t.co/yXFVMI6fPa

They aren't signing the likes of Wyke to sit in mid table in L1, so no surprise whatsoever and you love the ambition.

But obviously that ambition needs to based in realism and while 5 years to the Prem is certainly not impossible; if they want to achieve that they hopefully understand the level of investment that will require. Unlike Choi who seemed to massively underestimate the money required to meet the 3 year target he set.

The other thing they hopefully have in mind is while it's great to have bold goals - in football it's easier said than done - even if you are willing to invest. So they have to be willing to adapt their goals if things don't go to plan.

I can imagine these quotes are understandably going to make some people nervous after what we just went through with Choi. But the flip side is no great achievement comes without big ambition so I guess we'll see how it plays out.

I think the big difference this time is while Choi never showed any interest Talal seems like he's super into it so hopefully it will become a labour of love like it was for Whelan and Sharpe rather than a faceless business transaction for IEC.
 
They aren't signing the likes of Wyke to sit in mid table in L1, so no surprise whatsoever and you love the ambition.

But obviously that ambition needs to based in realism and while 5 years to the Prem is certainly not impossible; if they want to achieve that they hopefully understand the level of investment that will require. Unlike Choi who seemed to massively underestimate the money required to meet the 3 year target he set.

The other thing they hopefully have in mind is while it's great to have bold goals - in football it's easier said than done - even if you are willing to invest. So they have to be willing to adapt their goals if things don't go to plan.

I can imagine these quotes are understandably going to make some people nervous after what we just went through with Choi. But the flip side is no great achievement comes without big ambition so I guess we'll see how it plays out.

I think the big difference this time is while Choi never showed any interest Talal seems like he's super into it so hopefully it will become a labour of love like it was for Whelan and Sharpe rather than a faceless business transaction for IEC.

That's a difference I sense with these people, they have certain goals, but believe they're aware of the difficulties and not achieving any of them at some stage, in their ideal timescales, wouldn't be a worry to them....get the feeling it was an all, or nothing thing with that lot before
 
They aren't signing the likes of Wyke to sit in mid table in L1, so no surprise whatsoever and you love the ambition.

But obviously that ambition needs to based in realism and while 5 years to the Prem is certainly not impossible; if they want to achieve that they hopefully understand the level of investment that will require. Unlike Choi who seemed to massively underestimate the money required to meet the 3 year target he set.

The other thing they hopefully have in mind is while it's great to have bold goals - in football it's easier said than done - even if you are willing to invest. So they have to be willing to adapt their goals if things don't go to plan.

I can imagine these quotes are understandably going to make some people nervous after what we just went through with Choi. But the flip side is no great achievement comes without big ambition so I guess we'll see how it plays out.

I think the big difference this time is while Choi never showed any interest Talal seems like he's super into it so hopefully it will become a labour of love like it was for Whelan and Sharpe rather than a faceless business transaction for IEC.

I have seen a list of facts about Talal on some sort of info aggregation page (you used to see this type of thing on the Internet 30 years ago) that appear to state he was a footy player, a defender
 
Last edited:
As I said previously, League One was poor last year and it shouldn't be too tough to get out of with a little investment. I think we could be contenders this year.

The Championship is a different matter and while it would be great to get back there, I wouldn't like to see us come tumbling straight back down again. So we need people who know football to be at the helm and to bring the right players in.

I liked the initial idea that we would get into the Championship in a year or so, but maybe they have looked at the situation and realised they can have bigger and better targets. Is this the first time Talal has officially mentioned the Prem??

My expectations have gone up with the signings we have made. We are obviously still an attractive proposition, even after everything that has gone on. So why not have a little ambition or two.

I remember dreaming when Whelan took over and look where that got us!!
 
Last edited:
They aren't signing the likes of Wyke to sit in mid table in L1, so no surprise whatsoever and you love the ambition.

But obviously that ambition needs to based in realism and while 5 years to the Prem is certainly not impossible; if they want to achieve that they hopefully understand the level of investment that will require. Unlike Choi who seemed to massively underestimate the money required to meet the 3 year target he set.

The other thing they hopefully have in mind is while it's great to have bold goals - in football it's easier said than done - even if you are willing to invest. So they have to be willing to adapt their goals if things don't go to plan.

I can imagine these quotes are understandably going to make some people nervous after what we just went through with Choi. But the flip side is no great achievement comes without big ambition so I guess we'll see how it plays out.

I think the big difference this time is while Choi never showed any interest Talal seems like he's super into it so hopefully it will become a labour of love like it was for Whelan and Sharpe rather than a faceless business transaction for IEC.

My issue with the statement is that I want Wigan Athletic around till I'm no more (& beyond) & I don't want to run the risk of going through what we've just been through ever again
Whilst I think undoubtedly there were things that could have been done differently under Whelan to increase our income streams, to go on that fantastic journey we had meant the club lost millions upon millions of £'s over that period & Whelan covered it
IEC continued to cover losses & the appeal over the points deduction was right in saying that this is what you run the risk of when a club is reliant on 1 person (or a company) to fund it's spending levels (regardless of how they screwed us over in the end)
We all know how much investment is required (unless you strike it very lucky) to get from Lge1 to the top flight in 5 years & whilst club's are always reliant on some extent to certain revenue streams I don't ever want to see us reliant again on 1 person or company to fund losses just to push us up the leagues - I want us to maximise income & only spend what we generate. If that means Latics spend the rest of eternity in Lge1 or has the odd promotion & relegation and cup runs I'm fine with that just as I'd be fine if a sensible & self financing plan gets us back in the top flight

That said, this interview is tempered by more realistic comments that I've seen both from the chairman & the likes of Brannigan so I'm hoping that he was just getting a bit giddy with it all
 
My issue with the statement is that I want Wigan Athletic around till I'm no more (& beyond) & I don't want to run the risk of going through what we've just been through ever again
Whilst I think undoubtedly there were things that could have been done differently under Whelan to increase our income streams, to go on that fantastic journey we had meant the club lost millions upon millions of £'s over that period & Whelan covered it
IEC continued to cover losses & the appeal over the points deduction was right in saying that this is what you run the risk of when a club is reliant on 1 person (or a company) to fund it's spending levels (regardless of how they screwed us over in the end)
We all know how much investment is required (unless you strike it very lucky) to get from Lge1 to the top flight in 5 years & whilst club's are always reliant on some extent to certain revenue streams I don't ever want to see us reliant again on 1 person or company to fund losses just to push us up the leagues - I want us to maximise income & only spend what we generate. If that means Latics spend the rest of eternity in Lge1 or has the odd promotion & relegation and cup runs I'm fine with that just as I'd be fine if a sensible & self financing plan gets us back in the top flight

That said, this interview is tempered by more realistic comments that I've seen both from the chairman & the likes of Brannigan so I'm hoping that he was just getting a bit giddy with it all


If that is all the ambition you have for a football club then maybe you would be better supporting a Walsall Crewe or Scunthorpe type of club. No offence