Summer Transfer Rumours | Page 101 | Vital Football

Summer Transfer Rumours

Nixon confirmed fee agreed and negotiations on wages are ongoing, it's not done and not dead either.

Last season when Powell, Vaughan, Garner had a good game and won most things in the air and held the ball well the whole team functioned well and looked great going forward. More often than not when no one was effectively doing those target man type things the whole team looked a mess and we struggled to get up the pitch. I think we've long needed someone who is a big brick shit house who can physically compete with all the big centre halves and lead the line. It's not so much that we need a player like that to pump the ball and bypass midfield every time, more a case we need someone who can play with their back to goal and get the attacking midfielders buzzing around him to do all the damage and when we pump in the crosses like we do that there is a big aerial threat to aim for that we haven't had in years.

Wheather it was Gallagher, Eaves, Hugil, or anyone else I think if we can get an effective target man it is a big piece of the puzzle to an effective season. Having someone to do the physical side of things will bring the best out of the likes of Windass, Massey and the other attacking mids who are all never going to win the physical battles.
 
News from the Pompey end.

Nothing moved forward on Lowe. He wants out, Pompey not budging on price and we haven't met the valuation yet.

Come on Latics we are going to have to pay it in the end, lets not do what we did with Adamoah, Clucas and Jukewitz a few years ago and spends weeks negotiating over few hundred grand and then miss out on good players at the last second who would've been worth millions and millions in resale. If it was multi millions i'd say fair enough, but we've made 3 bids (first one being 1.5m) so i imagine we've offered something between 2 and 2.5 mill if we dont believe Lowe is good enough to justify that price we shouldnt be after him and if we do believe he's good enough then what is an extra 500k or so in the market these days? Clarke left Pompey for 5m, so 3m is good value by comparison. Why potentially give other clubs time to jump in and gazump us when we have already got so close, just pay the price and get it done.

The more we delay getting this done the more i worry the other clubs will jump in. It would be the most Wigan thing ever to not get him after all of this.
 
I'm conflicted by Hugill, he's never impressed me and the fee seems a lot for a player without too many good seasons behind him. At first blush his scoring rate is average 1 goal every 3.9 games, for comparison Garner 1:3.3, Madine 1:4.4, Jutkiewicz 1:4.6 and Gallagher 1:5.8 (for further comparison Grigg was 1:3.6 when we signed him, he improved to 1:2.9 by the end of his time here). As an aside Lang in League 2 has a 1:3.1 scoring record, which is pretty impressive.

Obviously Hugill may add other things to the team and does give physical presence but I don't know how mobile he is. I felt we lacked someone to buzz around the defence and get defenders on the back foot for much of last season. Preston fans at work think he's the bee's knee's, Boro and West Ham fan's think he's an affront to amatuer footballers everywhere.
 
gazlatic said:
No hunger in paradise, ey? I have a friend who teaches kids in the academy of a Prem club in the north west, when they reach 16 and get a pro contract or if they go on to do A-levels they can be earning more than most of their teachers.
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I taught a kid who went on to Ipswich after GCSEs, similar story, but this was about 9 years ago
 
So we’re actually willing to pay 4m for Hugill, but still playing silly beggars over Lowe. Just get it paid for christ sake or we will get gazumped!

By the way if all these signings actually happened it would mean we’d have spent 9 million in transfer fees and that’s not including wages. So unless we want trouble with FFP someone will have to be sold.
 
I still wish we'd jumped on Karlan Grant when his value wasn't as high, as he would have fit in brilliantly with what we have now.

Hugill might be a good signing for us, provided that we do not break the wage structure. What made Jewell's Division 2 to Premier league sides so good was that nobody was getting a ton of money more than anyone else and if Hugill doesn't do it, then you know the backlash will be inevitable. PNE did great business getting £10m for him, if he was a foreign player he'd only be worth a third of that at most.
 
Hugill isn't particulary fast but he isn't slow and is relatively mobile. Most big target men generally don't have as impressive 1 in 2 goal scoring records as they are more often foils for other players. Look at Heskey for us - absolutely vital to the team but he only got about 5 goals a season. He was a talisman for Preston and they loved him, they've tried to get him back a couple of times but can't afford the deal.

Found his highlights so anyone intersted can get an idea of him.


Nixon just put an article up on the Sun website were the fee is apparently 3m and it now sounds very much like it will go through from the way it is written and it's just a case of West Ham working out how to get it done as he's been left off their preseason tour and they are trying to trim the squad. Fingers crossed.
 
C_Latic said:
So we’re actually willing to pay 4m for Hugill, but still playing silly beggars over Lowe. Just get it paid for christ sake or we will get gazumped!

By the way if all these signings actually happened it would mean we’d have spent 9 million in transfer fees and that’s not including wages. So unless we want trouble with FFP someone will have to be sold.
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Less the £3m+ we got for Grigg, the bonus we got for Wildschut via Norwich's promotion and the bonus we got for Burn via Brighton staying up (not much I'm led to believe). That £9m expenditure on players quickly drops down to £5m.

We've also got vested interest in McCarthy joining Bruce at Newcastle as today's rumours suggest as we'd be due reasonable chunks as sell on.
 
gazlatic said:
Less the £3m+ we got for Grigg, the bonus we got for Wildschut via Norwich's promotion and the bonus we got for Burn via Brighton staying up (not much I'm led to believe). That £9m expenditure on players quickly drops down to £5m.

We've also got vested interest in McCarthy joining Bruce at Newcastle as today's rumours suggest as we'd be due reasonable chunks as sell on.
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Also a small fee from Pearce getting promoted with Charlton.

Pete O'Rourke has just said we hijacked Preston at last minute for Hugill and fee is 3.6m, apaprently West Ham are willing to give him part of that fee to offest his wage reduction.

If we get Hugill and follow it up with Lowe what a statement of intent from IEC!
 
gazlatic said:
Less the £3m+ we got for Grigg, the bonus we got for Wildschut via Norwich's promotion and the bonus we got for Burn via Brighton staying up (not much I'm led to believe). That £9m expenditure on players quickly drops down to £5m.

We've also got vested interest in McCarthy joining Bruce at Newcastle as today's rumours suggest as we'd be due reasonable chunks as sell on.
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Good points, but still a shortfall needs to be made up to be safe. Personally I’d have no problem with a single player being sold as long as we get a fair price, apart from Morsy. Windass and Dunkley were linked with bids away earlier in the window, either of them would make sense. Windass doesn’t get in the team if Lowe joins and Dunkley probably doesn’t get in the team if we sign a CB, which it sounds like Cook wants.
 
I think Jacob's will struggle for game time as well if we sign Lowe. He could go for a Mill or 2 and I would think he's one of our middle earners. So 10kish a week saved there.
Also if we sign Hugill were does that leave Callum Lang? Is he a Cook type striker? If Cook has him earmarked for a wide role then that pushes Jacob's further down the order.
 
Personally i'd like to see Jacobs tried as a striker in one of these upcoming pre-season games. He has similar attributes to Neal Maupay. If he's capable of half decent movement, combined with his ability to strike the ball very well from central area's he could do well.

I don't rate his delivery, or ability to run with the ball in wide positions. But he strikes the ball towards the goal better then anyone else at the club for me.
 
I personally think Jacobs is one of our best players and I wouldn't want to drop him. To be honest I could see him playing centrally in Powell's role if we were accomodating Lowe on the left
 
Yon Mon said:
I think Jacob's will struggle for game time as well if we sign Lowe. He could go for a Mill or 2 and I would think he's one of our middle earners. So 10kish a week saved there.
Also if we sign Hugill were does that leave Callum Lang? Is he a Cook type striker? If Cook has him earmarked for a wide role then that pushes Jacob's further down the order.
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Lang can play in a variety of positions, his versatility could be an asset for us and himself. Coming off the bench he can play wide, up front or behind the striker.

Jacobs for me is a good shout to fill the number 10 role as he did on more than a few occasions under Caldwell.
 
Personally for me Jacobs is in the same territory as Grigg - too good for L1 but falls short at Championship level. But unlike Grigg who just couldn't cut it i think on Jacobs day he can make the grade but his day just isn't enough to be a guarenteed starter. I think if we can get Lowe it could be an interchangeable attacking midfield trio of Windass, Massey and him. Pace to burn!

Regarding selling anyone i dont think we actually have many sellable assets that clubs at this level would want and no one below us in the football pyramid has much money to make it worth selling anyone. I can only really see Morsy and Massey attracting any interst and i doubt anyone would cough up a bid to make it worth considering as they are so important to us.
 
Yep I think Jacobs gets moved central if Lowe joins and Windass is the one who gets potted.
 
Comparing Jacobs last 4 season's against Hugill's. Played 144, scored 29, assisted 22. Hugill played 140, scored 29, 5 assists. 2 of 4 season's Jacobs played in league one, with his better return's from the 4. But if he was central he'd have a lot more opportunities to do what he's good at.

By the way Hugill's capable of scoring 10-15 goals from the way we play, so i wont be disappointed if sign him. Any player that's willing go after a cross without fear of being hurt is my type of forward. Too many avoid putting themselves anywhere those situations.

First season when Jacobs joined for us i was asking here if anyone knew if he used to be an attacking midfielder because of the way he showed much more ability when central. But then after watching him get a few opportunities in that position under Joyce i realized he wasn't capable of positioning himself correctly for that role. I like no 10's that can find spaces in between midfielder's and defensive lines, who can consistently find space's to cause problems going forward. We've not had that for a long time.

Evan's can find those spaces but often passes backwards with his first touch instead of turning and causing problems. Was hoping he'd get a run to see if he could improve on that.

Jacob's first season under Caldwell. Their's goals in him at this level if we decide to use his main strength.
 
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I'd agree with KDZ, Jacobs is very good in Lge1 but he doesn't quite have that little bit extra to be a success at this level - he doesn't disgrace himself but nor does he excel consistently. That's why every other club he's played for at this level who were looking to kick on have dropped him & ultimately moved him on
 
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