Good morning.
I guess the start point here is when was there a time that weren’t concerned, borderline terrified even, about our transfer strategy?
The popular debate seems permanently to be about landing that ever elusive ‘Hollywood’ striker. As thrilling as that prospect is, the home truth that few wish to face is getting the whole team tactically set up to effectively support whoever the front man or men might be.
With Modric, Rafa, Bale and Azza across the middle there ought to be enough creativity to service anyone and everyone.
For the umpteenth time, you build a team from the back and it’s an area we’ve been mending and making do with for far too long. Injuries don’t help, but as mentioned in relation to the madness of us loaning out all our back up boys, it has to be understood that whilst no one can predict injuries; it’s fair to say they will be more likely to happen than not. This after all Association Football, not Tiddly Winks.
King ist kaput. Dawson and Eunice appear to be in some revolving door sketch where they seem only to bump into each other going in and out of the physio room. Gallas is martyr to gout.
Gary Cahill was a player we were, ‘linked’ with. I recall Arry issuing the old, ‘top top player’ spiel. Now Jan Vertonghen.
Vertonghen’s agent has spoken of ‘approaches’ by a number of clubs, us included. No offers and Arry’s comments back that up. With just a year left on the lad’s contract there’s bound to be more than a little light whoring going on. So why aren’t we more proactive?
Jan would probably cost anywhere up to €12m his wages would fall into our range. Let’s get stuck in and spend shrewdly.
Vertonghen would be a perfect signing. He’s a tough nut, very fast, great passer, scores quite often for AJAX, reads the game well and is still young. But, as was the case with Cahill we will not go the extra mile and will probably lose out to the Arse because he’s got a mate there in Vermalen. AND, if we miss out on a CL spot why the hell would he want to play for us. AJAX have just won the ere-divisie here in Holland so he’ll only move if he can play in a team that’s already qualified. He’s also stated that he considers the Arse a great club so his transfer there seems to be on the cards. Our management need to get their finger out and get in early if we want to be taken seriously in the transfer market. Too much cliffhanging and indecision at the crucial moment has cost us some good signings such as Suarez and Cahill.
Yeah, but who says we’re NOT being proactive? Harry often says “nothing doin'” then we end up with the player in question six hours later…
perhaps (or actually very likely) Levy is unwilling to spend until we know about CL qualification, whilst players coming in will also want to know the same…
Levy unwilling to spend until we know about CL qualification is exactly the reason why he should spend. If we dont get in this year we need players next season who can get us in
I agree with Spurlative, and so does Wenger and SAF and comrade Abro. The big boys are already preparing for next season however this one ends. And before the post EURO prices come into effect.
Chelsea will probably get 7 or 8 top of his game years out of Cahill. He was cheap in the end. No idea why we won’t spend on defenders. They are only ever home grown or bought for hen-feed. All the clubs at a level we aspire to be playing at don’t hang about and spend big on defenders. Remember everyone thinking Utd were insane for spending 4 mil (or whatever it was) on Pallister? They had the last laugh and have been laughing ever since. I fear Vertonghen will also be above our defender glass ceiling. Vexing, as it’s an attitude that’s holding us back.
Dean Richards?
We paid {initially} £10m for 17yo left-back Bale. I think more than that for Kaboul the 2nd time. We’ve paid good money for younger players like Walker, Naughton and Dawson, considering the unknowns they were at the time. £17m for a player with 6 months left on his contract? I’d rather pick up a Lennon, Hudds or Rose for a mil or two a time. Corluka, Woodgate, Bassong and Gomes – all £8 to £10m players. We’re by no means cheapskates, and in actual fact are under-performers if you look at our yearly and overall spending. Now England are sorted, the squad are focused again and our future more stable. The players should settle down and we will be more attractive for potential signings. Appreciate how difficult it is for us to sign world-class players. The easily-spellable Jan is clearly very good and his stock is rising. We’ll do well to land him. And King isn’t finished. Everyone has shockers. The fact he hasn’t for soooo long in his condition is just testament to his remarkable ability. And he has a couple when the whole squad is unsettled… Torres been shahit for 6 months or more. Anyone here thinks he’s finished should be booted off site. £17m for a Bolton defender with 150 days left on his contract. Only Cheatskea could.
Spot on, except Chelsea paid about 7m, it was his wages that neither we or les Arse could match and that on a PS3 we can sign both Messi and Ronaldo, because we’re absolutely loaded ;-)
Always funny these blogs and about as grounded in reality as another mute contestant on the X-factor.
We have no cash, all the spare change down the back of Levy’s sofa has been pulled together to pay for the new stadium plans and the new training centre at Bulls Cross. So we is skint, proper, proper skint. Oh Harry sits in is day-dream room sending Levy lists and list of players, Levy smirks, calls Harry and says ‘we’re on it Harry, but can you cut down the wage bill and lend a few out, or better still can we try and find some mugs to buy the likes of Bentley (Levy’s finest hour), JJ (his second finest hour) and Gio (well, you know what this was; a complete piss head).
Later, Levy says to Harry ‘almost got him’ but the fecker wanted to get paid more than a bunch of nuts and free fizz pop at Mcdonalds’.
‘alwight’ says Harry.
It’s why we’re the lowest spending PL club for the last 2 years.
We is skint, we have to sell before we buy, so we go hunting in the land of old men and come up with Saha and Nelson who are over the moon to be plucked from their zimmer frames for one last pay day. For us, that really is ‘as good as it gets’.
Although there are signs that Harry is beginning to wise up that Levy has been tugging his leg for the past two years, I think it has something to do with the board room now having Harry’s list plastered all over the walls and the hoots of derision that can be heard at every remuneration committee meeting.
Right, if you only what minimum wage are over 30 and can run about a bit, can you get your agent to send your details to Levy and Co, you’re sure to get a grand reception. But don’t apply unless you have a long term injury as well.
No, you’ve got it all wrong, just ask TMWNN, he’s got all the answers on our phenomenal finances, apparently we’re wedged to the max, money’s no object! You may have to wait though-it’s a secret that only he knows..apparently!
If only we were. Seriously, Bull Cross has sucked up £45 mill of cash and the old training ground isn’t worth an essexboys handshandy. The new stadium progress has been eating cash faster than the a weightwatchers wannabe. Before we went private our debt was climbing faster than it’s ever done in it’s history, as was strangely our ‘admnistrative overheads’. So to avoid too much scrutiny and before we tip the Wolrd off we’re skint, old smoke and mirrors himself takes us private with promises that it will make getting finance for the stadium easier. Well spend something this summer, because if we don’t they’re be a mini revolution with Levy as the evil president that we’ll all want to decapitate, and Levy’s a smart guy, he’ll chop Harry’s head off and sell players to fund the new manager before that happens. We is skint, that is unless good ol Joe and Daniel are finally reaching into their backpockets.
You may well be right, bringontheclowns, in which case it might be better if the club were honest about it, rather than allowing Harry to keep running his mouth off about nearly signing top top players, only for the purchases never to happen. Constantly raising supporters hopes falsely will soon piss us all off.
the only time Levy has said anything for years is at the agm, and now he doesn’t have to say that he’ll become the even more silent assassin. levy clearly likes the fact that the media all look to Harry for soundbites. Harry’s constant reminder to all and sundry that he has nothing to do with transfers though is a barbed reference to the increasing frustration at not getting any of the major deals done and is perhaps the only way that anyone can apply any pressure on Levy. Levy has never given two shakes for what the fans think and he isn’t about to start now, if anything now that it really is his own private dinning club, it’s going to be even more of the same. ENIC’s time will soon be up, I’ll lay money on it that Levy’s time will be taken up with floggin the clun sooner rather than later. We is skint, we really are.
I wouldn’t say we’re skint, but I would suggest that something s happening up top, possibly a sale. But then again we’ve spent a fortune on securing property and planning for the NDP and however it’s packaged, it’s money owned and distributed by the club. If we were in financial trouble, why would we hold onto Modders when 28m (forget the 40), was on the table? Levy did the right thing by clearing out in the summer, and the deadline, made those sales and loans possible as buying clubs were desperate by then. I’m hoping the gamble pay’s off, but we’re still lumbered with Jenas, Gomes, Bentley come June, and they’ve got to go-Offer Ledders a pay-as you play deal, same a Woody-take it or leave it and secure Modric with a better deal.
A good point…badly made, BOTCs.
If you had come on here and given your point of view without the references to the X Factor and the patronising storytelling then you would probably have made a valid argument.
When you make statements like “We is skint…” you need to back it up with some factual evidence.
Ok, we are building a new stadium – but that is being kept separate from club footballing finances. That is fact and is evident in the books.
Players leaving on loan were not all to do with money. The younger ones went out for development. The older ones like Bentley went out to maintain a healthy dressing room atmosphere and to try to kick start some stalling careers. The fact someone else was paying some or all of their wages helped…but was not the sole reason.
We have resources and these will be augmented by players leaving and coming to end of contract. We might even be forced to sell an unhappy “star” or two.
We’ll have Sky money and possibly ECL money to add to what we have. And the PL prize money.
We can afford Vertonghen. De Boer is talking him up for Barca. He wants an auction for a player with only one year left on his contract. Natural behaviour.
I do agree with others that we need to be pre-emptive. Go out and buy.
We’ve bought shrewdly in the past and I can see some of our lesser lights playing a big factor over the coming weeks.
If Everton think that they’ll get Peanut for toffee then I hope Levy tells them how much he is worth – to them, not us.
OK bruxie I don’t mind, the xfactor was a bit of banter, no offence intended. Your wrong about the stadium being kept seperate from the club footballing finances, reread the last set of accounts, look at the increasing debt and the balance sheet.
Cash is king in this business and we’re rapidly running out of it, crudely, we’ve traded cash for assets, so the balance sheet looks great, except when you look at the cash position and the massive increases in our overheads.
we won’t buy big name players because unless no one else is competing for them, as soon as we come up against any competition our bluff gets called and we fold (Cahill, prime example).
We is skint, the cash has gone, but we have a bright new shiny training centre and academy that opens in June which will keep everyone happy with enics ‘progress’ and our shadow dancing chairman and owners. Sorry, but this summer we’re get chucked a mackeral or two, but we won’t land any big fish.
We’re obviously reading two different sets of reports.
The financial press and your version are at odds.
Where is your info coming from?
I don’t want to see King play anymore. Not for us – not for anyone. It hurts too much to watch our once peerless captain made to look like an old punched out fool by younger and faster strikers. I want to remember him as the guy that no striker wanted to play against, one of the few players in the world who could be relied on to make a clean tackle at speed in the box and the man who was one of us and played for the shirt.
If we are going to build from the back – then we have to be able to train from the back. So goodbye Ledley and goodbye Gallas.
Vertonghen equals a good fit – let’s get him.