Summer transfer thread | Page 25 | Vital Football

Summer transfer thread

jeffs right said:
Sunderland fans had no time at all for Gooch earlier in to last season. He was getting ripped chronically on their boards by many of their fans.
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To be fair Sunderland fans are one of the worst for being critical of their own players. Some of them were slating Wyke after he scored 30 odd goals for them.

I don't think there's any coincidence that they sign so many good players that fail there (Grigg in L1!) - I think it's the pressure from their fan base.

It's nice to have a big passionate crowd, and when things are going well it is a boost, but that passion can end up a detriment if things aren't going to plan and they get on the players backs.
 
walgarthjohn said:
Reading between the lines. Unless we unload a few players. There is not a lot of room to bring players in at all. That’s the problem. Brought these in last summer and gave them good contracts. Like Bennet. Must have thought it was Christmas. Giving him a contract over one year.
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I believe the squad cap is 25 (not counting keepers and U21s), if we sold no one i think we have 18 players. So we have space to recruit it's just down to the budget.

The biggest thing that always happens is that transfer activity trickles down as everything is part of a chain. Clubs are waiting on players to become available and players are hedging their bets trying to get the best deal. Unlike last season when signing players was easy as we were the top of the food chain in L1 in terms of ambition and finances, in the Championship we'll be towards the bottom so playing more of the waiting game unfortunately.

Players have been away on international duty and been on holiday, so it's not a shock a lot of business in general has happened yet. But it will start to pick up over the next couple of weeks when preseason starts and clubs want to get new recruits in for that.
 
king_dezeeuw06 said:
Issue with the foreign market is work permits though.

I've never liked the work permit system for football as the criteria is so high (something like you need to play 70% of games for your country) that it basically means big clubs who can afford big name full internationals can sign as many as they like, while smaller clubs looking for up and coming players or unknown gems can't get them in.

I think a much better rule would be a cap, like we have on loans say every team can have 5 foreign players in their squad and then it means the big clubs don't get access that the smaller clubs can't to the market.
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Foreign people taking the jobs of local folk.

Cuts both ways.

I know you were not making this point.
 
ZAKKY said:
Can I just ask why does everyone seem to assume we don't have much money or financial clout ?
Has the owners' wealth ever been made public ? Does anyone on here really know what the club's financial position is ? Let's just wait and see what transpires.
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We definitely have some clout, as shown by the signings last season. But that was when the squad needed building so the investment was necessitated. Now we are looking to strengthen, so the equation is viewed differently. Whether our financial clout is as big as others in the league is a different matter entirely. We certainly won't be outspending your Burnley or Norwich!

Last year we needed to get 18+ players together to complete a season. Now we're trying to get 4 or 5 players who will improve on what's already here, now or in the future, that means much different weighing up of player values, abilities and potential.

No-one should be surprised by the slow progress, players are taking their time and so are clubs across the leagues.
 
daleks.at.the.monaco said:
Foreign people taking the jobs of local folk.

Cuts both ways.

I know you were not making this point.
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I am fully in favour of a work permit system for foreign players, as we should look to protect young British players oportunities being impacted by allowing teams to bring in unlimited foreign talent. There is a happy medium between unlimited and none.

The issue is the current criteria / system doesn't do what it should. It just skews the system in favour of the big clubs and locks the smaller clubs out of any foreign recruitment. It doesn't even protect young players at big clubs as they can effectively afford to continue to bring in an unlimited amount of internationals.
 
ZAKKY said:
Can I just ask why does everyone seem to assume we don't have much money or financial clout ?
Has the owners' wealth ever been made public ? Does anyone on here really know what the club's financial position is ? Let's just wait and see what transpires.
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That is a fair point, but the ownership has talked about trying to run the club sensibly and sustainably so i think it's a safe bet to assume we're not going to spend too excessively even if the owners have the personal finances.

I think we might have a better budget than some think, but i don't think we'll be big spenders by Champ standards either.
 
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The chairman keeps banging on about how the plan is to be sustainable club. I'm afraid that's impossible in the Championship if you want to bring players in who are good enough to come straight into your starting line-up. Scott Twine joining Hull for over 3 million quid is proof of that. Three million quid makes up almost half of our TV income for next season and that's not including wages/sign on fee etc.

Whether folk like it not, we are at the very bottom of the totem pole when it comes to signings in this league next season, which is why we're being linked with players like Ritchie Smallwood. Unfortunately, these are the sort of players who fall into budget range if the club are intent on self-sustainability.

That's why the key this season is finishing 21st or above. We will then have loads of players out of contract and may built up a couple of sellable assets who will have hopefully proven themselves at Championship level such as Lang, Kerr etc. Only then, can we start searching for players of higher quality and moving ourselves up the totem pole.
 
walgarthjohn said:
Let’s be honest they payed 3 million pound for the lock stock and barrel. Not a bad investment. For now a championship club with a premier league stadium. Time will tell if they have any money. But we are not in league one now. We’re are in with some big boys. And we will have to spend some cash. Or we will be back we’re we come from.
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To be sustainable we need to be identifying and signing the july 2021 Scott Twine version.
 
Mendez Liang turned down new deal at Sheffield Wednesday, saw a suggestion we may be in for him.

We were allegedly interested in January and wanted him years ago before he went to Cardiff so could be a good shout.

I saw him a couple of times last season for Sheff Wed and he caused the opposition a lot of problems. Been a good Championship performer in the past.

Big, strong, electric pace and loves to run with the ball. He's the type of player who can make things happen. He can play right wing back, right wing or up front so could give us options - he's always good for an impact sub at least.

If this one is true I'd be quite pleased.
 
walgarthjohn said:
That sort of player won’t sell season tickets.
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John, we all need to be realistic as we don't want to be back in the same position as of 2 years ago.
Unless we hit the Premier league , season ticket sales are going to remain the same.
We exceeded expectations last season , we've now got a settled squad and don't really want to have any Windass type players causing disruption within the dressing room.
 
walgarthjohn said:
If it’s free transfers. And loans. Then let’s not grumble when we go back down.again.
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I won’t John ….if we go down due to results on the pitch (rather than the last fiasco) that’s how it is.
We’d all like to be signing genuinely exciting players but that means paying the fees and wages that go with it ….it doesn’t appear that we can afford them or necessarily want to go out on a limb and risk it…and given what happened two years ago I don’t blame the club.
We likely won’t increase home gates significantly regardless of who we sign so we have to live within our means. After a couple of seasons of surviving and consolidating, Luton made the play offs last season on gates and finances that wouldn’t be too much different to ours and didn’t achieve that with big money signings so whilst relegation is certainly a clear risk, it isn’t necessarily a given.
I don't want us to be relegated but I’d be far more fearful of us getting into the financial hole we disappeared into under the last regime.
 
I remember vividly Mendez-Laing being absolutely dogshite in the playoff semi final second leg against Sunderland. In fact I’m pretty he gave the ball away which led to the winning goal.

Sounds like a proper billy big bollocks as well which would worry me. But like I said above, I respect the fact that we are shopping in Poundland at this level rather than Harrods and our targets will reflect that. I’ve therefore got no choice but to trust the management to get the best out of him. We do need a couple of pacy wingers though and he ticks that box.
 
king_dezeeuw06 said:
Mendez Liang turned down new deal at Sheffield Wednesday, saw a suggestion we may be in for him.

We were allegedly interested in January and wanted him years ago before he went to Cardiff so could be a good shout.

I saw him a couple of times last season for Sheff Wed and he caused the opposition a lot of problems. Been a good Championship performer in the past.

Big, strong, electric pace and loves to run with the ball. He's the type of player who can make things happen. He can play right wing back, right wing or up front so could give us options - he's always good for an impact sub at least.

If this one is true I'd be quite pleased.
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Sounds the type we need. Hopefully if a player like that came he would be allowed to run at the opposition.
 
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