The College Dropout

Without outgoings - what level of signing would you think we'll get? We will have until next June to deal with outgoings too tbf.

I don't think we have enough wiggle room to go on the type of shopping spree we've grown accustomed to. Enough to get Thiaw for like £30-35m and like £4m wages sure. But enough to get a £60m winger on a £5.5m wage? I don't think we do. We need to generate further headroom for that IMO. I think we needed 90% of those sales to be compliant - I don't think it's given us significant headroom.

Aye but that was the best the club could negotiate at the time. We were well under-prepared, so we have a useless player on the books for £20m.

These are the types of signings we should make to try and close the gap. I think we are in an awkward position. With what we have we are top 4 challengers. ATm cos of PSR we don't have the money and maybe the network to go out and get us the next Tonali, Isak, Bruno, Botman that we think can immediately get us to the next level. But we don't want to go too risky either on unproven/young talent. So we are looking at high-floor, lower-ceiling players like Thiaw. Players that we think can come in immediately and contribute but not a star signing or a young prospect.

Same with Gini.

My hunch is that PSR is really clipping our wings. And we don’t have the budget to get a lot of players we really like. Unless we move some players on. I think we’ll get the Thiaw deal done mind.

True - it's the most egregious which is what I was saying in the other thread about us having the dodgiest transfer because we were in such a last-minute panic. BUT - all those transfers between the 6 clubs are cooked-up figures too. It's such a house of cards.

Probably assign their own FMV. Then punish Forest?? Maybe us too? It's stupid as hell though. I think this one is most susceptible to a court challenge. It's not even illegal to buy clubs as a favour to another club to help that club.

If it's £20m its the mutually beneficial number for us and Forest considering the needs of PSR and the fee for Anderson. On paper - this is the dodgiest PSR transfer. Nearly everyone else involved in the fuckery got a young player with room for improvement. I think we tried to do deals for DCL & Elanga but couldn't make it mutually beneficial enough/the clubs wanted to keep those players.

His reported fee keeps changing. £7m, £12m, £20m. If we don't sign anyone else from Forest, I think it makes the larger fees more likely. I'm annoyed we didn't sign anyone useful. To me it screams - we ran out of time and options so we found a lad we were happy to take for his wages/fee to align both our PSR issues. The Anderson fee is inflated too but at least he's useful on the pitch and might be able to hold 50-100% of his new value if things go well. Ditto the likes of Maatsen.

Most people didn’t think Barnes would be the only Winger signed. Including me. Barnes was signed with plenty of time to bring in a RW. Lots of ppl pointed out they would rather a RW.

Aye. Did you think it would make sense for Gordon to play RW and Barnes LW?

Tbh I thought we were gonna sign a RW at some point that summer. It never happened.

Just bumping this to prove a lot of people questioned why we were signing a LW and some assumed the plan was to move Gordon to the right. A lot of people felt we had options at LW and wanted a RW.

Like…. It’s a massive statement of intent. I could be wrong but I don’t think we currently have the PSR headspace to go out and drop £100m on a CB and RW. When we had the headspace and the need was big enough we’ve gotten damn near the biggest stars we could reasonably attract. Maybe we neee to shift Tripps and a few others before we can go after the players we really want.

Tonali and Isak. Big in fee and reputation. Trippier was a massive coup at the time too. Botman and Bruno were highly rated too. Linked to some other big clubs. Maybe not mega but close. We’ve done really well in getting players top clubs were having a look at but had not pulled the trigger. And we got one from a big club and beat that same big club to another one.

We’ve made at least a couple mega signings and a few players for big money that are either proven or have high upside. Madueke was less productive than Minteh was in the Eredivisie. There must be better options than him for £40m.

Fully agreed.

Shopping in Milan and Chelsea is always an expensive endeavour. I don’t know why we would follow that route? Doesn’t seem like Mitchell signings.

Can do better than Madueke for £40m man.

Nah man - surely not.

There’s zero evidence that Howe intended to play Gordon RW. Barnes joined in July and only started a game in September due to the CL games kicking in. All evidence is that’s the role he was brought in for. Rotation and competition with Gordon. Thats a decision with some logic but not a wise one imo considering our limited budget and more pressing concerns. Signing Barnes would be like us signing a £30m left back in January last season because Hall had not settled in yet. We knew Gordon wasn’t the finished article when we signed him. He was a long term investment. We should’ve done what we’ve now done at LB. Get in a relatively cheap option on loan or permanently to provide competition. It was oppportunistic because the player was available.

Lad just gone to Bournemouth has a Lucius comp. Some great passing. Tall looks quick. Thiaw looks aggressive and wiick enough and tall enough. But doesn’t have that sexy passing range. Thiaw looks like the kind of lad you should be at 20 for like £12m. Hes still young tbf. Fee seems reasonable.

Nah he did all the transfer dealings. He may not have identified players. But he got deals done. Helped negotiate fee and wages. He went to Sociedad to get Isak. He was dealing with the Joelinton contract.

Aye so it’s not a disaster. It’s just not ideal. And we have one in.