I think we should let Forster go, for sure. He’s sat on his contract rather than leaving for regular first team football, we don’t want that kind of player.
I mentioned starting because of the pay increase thing that would usually require him to be a starter So I guess the more accurate thing for him and Johnstone is “number 2 / active competition at a Big 6” OR number 1 at one of the other 14
Our main problem is our owners. They just won't put enough money into the club so that we can compete in the market with most other premier league teams. You are never going to make your mark with average or less than average players. The manager is paying the price, the players are paying the price (the decent ones that is) Also the fans to a degree. If the owner wants to be in the top six he's got to invest no other way is possible............
Going on form, we'll probably give him a £100k, 6 year contract, drop him and then send him out on loan!
I get the appeal of spending big on a single player, but I'm more interested in our scouting returning to the level it was 5/6 years ago. I have no problem with going for diamond in the rough players at £10 million. I actually prefer it. But the scouting has to be good regardless of money spent.
Agree. The problem with spending big on a single player is that our expectation increases disproportionately to the cost - to the point where it's almost impossible for them to meet that expectation. Whereas young/cheap players come in with opinion divided/reserved and they therefore have much greater scope to exceed expectations. The latter is more rewarding for fans.
He was a good PL keeper, I refuse to believe that he couldn’t have got a move to secure first team football if he wanted to.
Last summer we signed players in the £10-12m bracket, so I imagine that's where we'll be again. That's not a bad thing though, there is good value in certain leagues as proven by Diallo and Salisu. I also think the Championship would be a good recruiting ground. As someone said above, it's better to sign cheaper players who do okay than 'big' signings that do the same as it's more rewarding.
Yeah there's some really talented players in the Championship. Norwich and Watford are up so no reason for them to sell their best players. Personally, I hope Brentford don't go up because they've got a couple of players I would really like at Saints - Toney and Rico Henry.
I'd love to sign Toney, too. I'm just not sure we could afford him (depending on what we may or may not get for Ings). They only signed him last year so he's got another four years on his contract. Brentford were in a similar position with Watkins and got £32m out of Villa for him, so the fee would probably be similar. Adam Armstrong is up there too with about 25 goals. He's 24, contract is up next summer and may be the cheaper option.
Trouble is spending big on one player will not necessary do it you would probably need two or three minimum.
Richer clubs will be after Toney. I guess it might down to first choice opportunities If he is sensible he will look at Watkins and see how vital it has been for him that he was undisputed number 1 even when he was struggling for goals He would get that here but as noted if the fee pushes 30m we probably won’t get him. Even if we do get over 20m for Ings I am not sure he would get the same at other mentioned suitors like Everton or West Ham. Perhaps Leicester as they have started playing 2 strikers?
Nope. We might instead be able to afford Tony, who did the tiling in Toney's renovated bathroom, but only if we don't spring for the mosaic.
Whether he was actually the first or simply the first to have the contract details made public, we'll never know, but Sol Campbell's "free" transfer to Arsenal was of course not a free transfer at all. His agent arranged for Campbell to be paid the transfer fee, instead of Spurs, as a signing on bonus on top of his wage. That figure IIRC was £12m. This was added to his agreed salary and at the time, made him the highest paid player in the league. There is no doubt that this practise has continued so with that in mind, Alex potentially aiming for £100kpw is not at all as deluded as it sounds.
I always knew free transfers benefit from higher wages, but I hadn't thought of clubs adding the player's transfer value to the overall contract value. However this is part of the problem with football. Free transfers like Aaron Ramsey end up getting £300k per week (or whatever ridiculous wage he's on) because he didn't command a fee. And then players who are better and signed for a big fee end up wanting to be the high earner, so the bigger clubs just pour money out of every orifice they can, making it more difficult for the small fry.
We are who we are. A mid table club who can occasionally punch above their weight and get into Europe through league or cup. I'm more than happy with that as long as we play entertaining football. No matter who the owner is, we will never be able to compete financially with the likes of Citeh, Utd, Liverpool or Chelsea. Probably not even Spurs or Arsenal. We've shown that we can compete by developing stars and selling for a profit. Keeping it up season after season has not always proved possible hence we dip up and down the league a bit.
Hey big spenders! https://www.transferleague.co.uk/pr...tables/premier-league-table-last-five-seasons Our position last 5 years 6, 8, 17, 16, 11 for a net spend of -0.6 million. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performance_record_of_clubs_in_the_Premier_League Net Spend last 5 Years Purchased, Gross, Sold, Nett Per Season 1 Manchester City £818.5 M £312.9 M £505.6 M £101.1 M 2 Manchester United £611.1 M £232.2 M £378.9 M £75.8 M 4 Chelsea £656.9 M £523.6 M £133.2 M £26.6 M 3 Everton £536.5 M £261.5 M £275.0 M £55.0 M 5 Arsenal £443.1 M £194.2 M £249.0 M £49.8 M 6 Brighton & Hove Albion £212.0 M £14.6 M £197.4 M £39.5 M 7 Liverpool £470.9 M £378.5 M £92.4 M £18.5 M 8 AFC Bournemouth £204.1 M £70.7 M £133.4 M £26.7 M 9 West Ham £308.1 M £152.4 M £155.7 M £31.1 M 14 Wolverhampton Wanderers £269.4 M £84.7 M £184.8 M £37.0 M 10 Leicester £381.4 M £268.8 M £112.6 M £22.5 M 11 Crystal Palace £161.5 M £105.3 M £56.2 M £11.2 M 15 Watford £204.0 M £108.8 M £95.2 M £19.0 M 12 Newcastle United £273.6 M £166.2 M £107.5 M £21.5 M 15 Aston Villa £276.2 M £78.1 M £198.1 M £39.6 M 16 Burnley £126.6 M £74.1 M £52.5 M £10.5 M 17 Tottenham £322.3 M £227.7 M £94.6 M £18.9 M 18 Sheffield United £55.0 M £14.7 M £40.3 M £08.1 M 19 Southampton £240.4 M £243.2 M -£02.8 M -£00.6 M 20 Norwich City £65.2 M £112.0 M -£46.8 M -£09.4 M