The College Dropout

You can’t say ‘wages aside’. Wages are more important to success than transfer fees. Wages is what attracts players with proven track records of performing at the highest level. Real Madrid’s spend on transfers is not astronomical and behind a number of teams in Europe. But they are #1 in wages. Brentford are spending by PL standards, lowly sums and can only offer bottom level PL wages so the players they sign cannot be of massive repute or have proven track records. That should make them relegation candidates year in, year out. As are the other teams paying such low wages. I use this same metric to judge us. Our squad cost and wages has us 7th/8th. Anything more is an overachievement. Anything less is an underachievement.

Brentford have the third lowest wage bill in the division. Lower than Leicester and only above the other 2 promoted teams. Their squad cost in fees is 15th. They should be fighting relegation every season. But through transfers and great management they don’t. A lot of those are good players imo. The terrible GK aside most of them are 24 or under with room to improve. But look at the macro cost of the squad in fees and wages it’s unarguable that Brentford spend their money wisely.

No.. DCL is bad. He gets chances and misses them. His general play isn't even impressive. Lad is not good.

I don’t think people realise how bad DCL is. They think he’s super injury prone - he’s not. He’s just shit. 43 PL appearances since the start of last Season. 9 goals. Brentford are too smart to sign DCL. Signed Wissa, Toney and Mbeumo for a combined £20m. Wissa and Mbeumo have 7 and 8 goals this season already. We need to be more like Brentford but with a bigger budget.

Just not a big fan of the lad.

It’s only a year. Wasn’t his contract due to end this season? Could just have signed it to minimise speculation. If it was a long term deal I think it would be more consequential.

It wouldn’t like. This is the PSR trap. You need recurring revenue. 90m profit on Isak pays the PSR cost of 3 £50m players for 2 years. Years 3-5 we need to find another £45m of revenue growth just to pay for them. If we have a model of buy low and sell high potentially we can keep doing this until our revenue is consistently higher. But that would mean selling our best players and still regularly qualifying for big European competitions. We need to double our revenue to consistently compete with the cartel clubs. here’s to the rules changing.

The red tops will be against it. These rules mean they will forever have a financial advantage of the likes of us and Villa for players and managers. Their owners are in it to make money. Not spend it. On some level this is a vanity project for PIF. The ends will justify the means. If our club becomes a global brand like Man City or Chelsea, it will be worth more than money to PIF.

Think all the clubs involved in FFP shenanigans with maybe Everton as an exception have owners that would pump money into clubs via inflated sponsorships if possible - no? Forest Chelsea Us Villa Leicester That would leave us 2 short of preventing crappy rules. We’ll find out soon enough.

Someone a few pages back suggested £80m would be a decent fee. It was only one person mind.

Knew it would happen. He’s a baller. I said it last season - he was probably 4-6 weeks too late getting into the team from making the England squad for the Euros.

I mean…. He did only get game time towards the end due to having zero first team options. I found people thinking we were playing contractual games funny. From the outset of the transfer it was widely reported his loan conditions were minimal. It was clear Howe just thought he wasn’t ready or didn’t rate him. His appearances early in the season was evidence he wasn’t ready.

I think he could be a CF. Hes got the ability to score scruffy goals. Movement and desire is more important than ball striking. When he’s confident he’s a composed finisher. But I wouldn’t expect him to score the types of goals Barnes scores with the sams level of efficiency. At least not now.

Yeh his fee is just about correct. But Isak is a level better and the fee should reflect that. Kolo Muani went for £80m last year too. Off the back of a single 15 goal season in the Bundesliga and a good World Cup. These are al good players in my book. But if Isak puts another 20-goal season up, any selling fee next summer needs to reflect he’s a level above and a surer-bet.

Thought he was decent against Forest personally. I have different expectations of him and Barnes. I don’t expect Gordon to be as ruthless in the final third as Barnes. He’s not consistently shown that ability in his career. I do think he could be sharper in that area this season. And I expect him to be in position to score more scruffy goals than he has so far. Barnes is a finisher. He’s ball striking is considerably cleaner. But I don’t expect the same level of work rate, tracking back, being a constant menace on the ball as Gordon. That’s not his game.