stozo Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 Stozo, to be fair the reactions to the striker "news" aren't based purely on this latest development. We sold Carroll for 35m last January and didn't buy a striker. We then didn't buy a striker in the summer and now have said we're not going to buy a striker in January either. Don't you think the fans have a right to be fucked off? The club can only play this card for so long. If there's no intention for progression at all and simply staying in the league is the aim year after year supplemented by selling top assets, fans will lose interest and attendances will drop. It's not asking for Man City esque signings, simply a solid recruitment policy to push the club forward. We sold Carroll for £35m which I think looks like one of the best deals the club has ever made. We bought Ba who is the second highest scorer in the league this season. Despite this I was annoyed we didn't get another striker in the summer, we should have got our man. I'm not saying the club does everything right, it clearly should have got another striker in the summer, but in this case I think the club is pursuing the right strategy. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueStar Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 Frankly I think it is a thoroughly sensible approach being taken by the club. We're not in any danger of relegation and we have Ba, Ben Arfa, Best, Amoebi, Lovenkrands who can all play upfront. Better to save our money and get someone who we really want in the summer than panic buy in January. If the club can get 50,000 people sharing your view, Ashley has got himself a nifty business model. Staying up is enough, and a professional footballer is a professional footballer, no matter what their actual level of quality may be. What is there to gain by buying now? We look on course to finish higher than last season, even if things don't go as well in the second half of the season we will be OK. If our plan is Europe in the next three years then it is better to make steady progress in developing the squad than betting the house on a player to get us there in 6 months. Because it's quite possible that the 7th position we currently find ourselves in could make this our most attractive period in terms of appealing to players for some time if we now slide down the league? Let's be honest unless we have European football to offer there isn't much difference between finishing 8th and 14th. Also the point I'm trying to make is that whoever the new 'panic buy' striker in January was they would have been a massive gamble. High transfer fee, high wages, long contract and not enough reearch done to ensure they are right for the team. For a club that currently has Alan Smith and Xisco on its books and had Albert Luque on its books for many years surely we should have learnt the problem with this strategy. So presumably if we now buy Cissokho you'll condemn Ashley for making a mistake in not waiting until the summer? Or is there doublethink going on here where if he doesn't buy a striker now his only target has "fallen through" it's because to do otherwise would be foolishness, but if he does then that's just fab? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stozo Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 Also the point I'm trying to make is that whoever the new 'panic buy' striker in January was they would have been a massive gamble. High transfer fee, high wages, long contract and not enough reearch done to ensure they are right for the team. For a club that currently has Alan Smith and Xisco on its books and had Albert Luque on its books for many years surely we should have learnt the problem with this strategy. There is nothing to say it would have been a massive gamble as surely we have scouted other strikers than Maiga and I find it hard to believe that he is the only player ni Europe who could have improved our squad and was in our price range. Again, no reason to say the fee or wages would be 'high' (however you define that) but may well have been higher than in the summer. Perhaps we should have thought about that last summer, rather than looking forward to the next one. You seem to think people moaning about this are advocating a mad panic buy. The no reason to say the fee or wages would be high comment is just ridiculous. It is a fact that clubs have to pay higher fees for players in January because clubs are reluctant to sell in the middle of a season. Just look at Carroll, there is no way we'd have got £35m in the middle of a summer transfer window. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 Also the point I'm trying to make is that whoever the new 'panic buy' striker in January was they would have been a massive gamble. High transfer fee, high wages, long contract and not enough reearch done to ensure they are right for the team. For a club that currently has Alan Smith and Xisco on its books and had Albert Luque on its books for many years surely we should have learnt the problem with this strategy. There is nothing to say it would have been a massive gamble as surely we have scouted other strikers than Maiga and I find it hard to believe that he is the only player ni Europe who could have improved our squad and was in our price range. Again, no reason to say the fee or wages would be 'high' (however you define that) but may well have been higher than in the summer. Perhaps we should have thought about that last summer, rather than looking forward to the next one. You seem to think people moaning about this are advocating a mad panic buy. The no reason to say the fee or wages would be high comment is just ridiculous. It is a fact that clubs have to pay higher fees for players in January because clubs are reluctant to sell in the middle of a season. Just look at Carroll, there is no way we'd have got £35m in the middle of a summer transfer window. Please read my post again. High. Higher. Not the same thing. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueStar Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 Maiga wasn't betting the house because all the work had been put in. Betting the house would be a new target who I think it is pretty safe to say would be costing considerably more than £6m. Isn't needing a striker and putting all your eggs in one basket by only following one target who, if it doesn't come off, leaves you not even attempting to buy a striker in about the 5th transfer window you've needed one "betting the house"? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stozo Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 Frankly I think it is a thoroughly sensible approach being taken by the club. We're not in any danger of relegation and we have Ba, Ben Arfa, Best, Amoebi, Lovenkrands who can all play upfront. Better to save our money and get someone who we really want in the summer than panic buy in January. If the club can get 50,000 people sharing your view, Ashley has got himself a nifty business model. Staying up is enough, and a professional footballer is a professional footballer, no matter what their actual level of quality may be. What is there to gain by buying now? We look on course to finish higher than last season, even if things don't go as well in the second half of the season we will be OK. If our plan is Europe in the next three years then it is better to make steady progress in developing the squad than betting the house on a player to get us there in 6 months. Because it's quite possible that the 7th position we currently find ourselves in could make this our most attractive period in terms of appealing to players for some time if we now slide down the league? Let's be honest unless we have European football to offer there isn't much difference between finishing 8th and 14th. Also the point I'm trying to make is that whoever the new 'panic buy' striker in January was they would have been a massive gamble. High transfer fee, high wages, long contract and not enough reearch done to ensure they are right for the team. For a club that currently has Alan Smith and Xisco on its books and had Albert Luque on its books for many years surely we should have learnt the problem with this strategy. So presumably if we now buy Cissokho you'll condemn Ashley for making a mistake in not waiting until the summer? Or is there doublethink going on here where if he doesn't buy a striker now his only target has "fallen through" it's because to do otherwise would be foolishness, but if he does then that's just fab? Cissokho is clearly a long-term target who have done our research on and who appears to be available at a price that suits us. It is a little pointless as its a hypothetical scenario but say the club was called tomorrow and offered Gameiro, Gervinho or Erdinc at the right price. I honestly believe the club would move for those players as they are targets who the club had done there research on. What I don't think we will do anymore is buy players who we are not certain about and for me that's the right policy. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JH Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 There it goes again - "panic buying". Should we really be in such a situation when we've had 11 months to find and buy a striker? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Interpolic Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 Maiga wasn't betting the house because all the work had been put in. Betting the house would be a new target who I think it is pretty safe to say would be costing considerably more than £6m. Isn't needing a striker and putting all your eggs in one basket by only following one target who, if it doesn't come off, leaves you not even attempting to buy a striker in about the 5th transfer window you've needed one "betting the house"? Exactly. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stozo Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 Maiga wasn't betting the house because all the work had been put in. Betting the house would be a new target who I think it is pretty safe to say would be costing considerably more than £6m. Isn't needing a striker and putting all your eggs in one basket by only following one target who, if it doesn't come off, leaves you not even attempting to buy a striker in about the 5th transfer window you've needed one "betting the house"? In real life I don't think things work like this. You can't actively pursue a player as a back-up just in case the deal falls through. There may well be players who we like and have researched but who simply aren't available in this window because the club won't sell or the fee is too high. In this scenario why would we sign player Y in January just because he is available when player X who the club knows is better will be available in the summer? I will say however if it is simply the club haven't done the work (which is a possibility) then they have fucked up and deserve to be criticised. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Interpolic Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 If I'm going to buy into what stozo's saying for a minute: We need more scouts and/or more people working on deals if the current setup won't allow us to pursue more than a couple of players then as it's causing real issues which will lead to stagnation and countless missed opportunities to improve the squad and repeatedly "go with what we have" as Pardew said today. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueStar Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 I don't see how Ashley, rather than the fans, is the one supposedly averse to gambling in this policy of never paying market price, even if that means buying players you don't really need or missing out on ones you do because of who comes up on the "spares or repairs" list in the classifieds that month. Is giving Marveaux a five year contract because he was available on a free less of a gamble than paying for a player who didn't come buyer-beware? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wallace Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 Frankly I think it is a thoroughly sensible approach being taken by the club. We're not in any danger of relegation and we have Ba, Ben Arfa, Best, Amoebi, Lovenkrands who can all play upfront. Better to save our money and get someone who we really want in the summer than panic buy in January. If the club can get 50,000 people sharing your view, Ashley has got himself a nifty business model. Staying up is enough, and a professional footballer is a professional footballer, no matter what their actual level of quality may be. What is there to gain by buying now? We look on course to finish higher than last season, even if things don't go as well in the second half of the season we will be OK. If our plan is Europe in the next three years then it is better to make steady progress in developing the squad than betting the house on a player to get us there in 6 months. Because it's quite possible that the 7th position we currently find ourselves in could make this our most attractive period in terms of appealing to players for some time if we now slide down the league? Let's be honest unless we have European football to offer there isn't much difference between finishing 8th and 14th. Also the point I'm trying to make is that whoever the new 'panic buy' striker in January was they would have been a massive gamble. High transfer fee, high wages, long contract and not enough reearch done to ensure they are right for the team. For a club that currently has Alan Smith and Xisco on its books and had Albert Luque on its books for many years surely we should have learnt the problem with this strategy. There is about £4.5m difference in prize money which surely would be of concern to the board. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wallace Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 I would be interested to know how they "sold" the club to players like Cabaye. If they continue to show a lack of ambition, then it will not be long before the word is out that the only reason to join NUFC is move to a bigger club ASAP. Surely we want to sign players who would hope to achieve success with us rather than just briefly pass through otherwise at best we will stagnate or worst just drop down the table. Enrique lost belief in the club's ambitions. Is Colo about to do the same? If that happens, how long before the rest follow? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomas Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 "Ashley fancies a gamble therefore ... " = whatever theory using that as justification is rancid turd. ASHLEY FANCIES A GAMBLE and is buying the entire Croatia U-17 squad for £5m to replace our current reserves + youth system. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
John P Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 Jesus christ, just seen this news. It's becoming more and more apparent that we will get absolutely nowhere with this board in charge (if it wasn't blatantly obvious before). They will always be happy with comfortably staying in this division whilst breaking even or making a small profit. As others have said, we have the spine of an excellent team, but this board will never ever spend the money required to push us on to the next level. The frustrating thing is that we're not even talking massive amounts of money, but it seems that spending £6m on a striker AND a defender is too much for us. It's also obvious from Pardew's recent comments that as soon as a decent bid comes in for one of our players he'll be gone, leading to more wheeling and dealing to replace him and a constant cycle that results in us going nowhere. Do they really want us to believe that we've had 18months to identify strikers, and all they came up with was Maiga or no-one? So during the African Nations we'll be left with Best, Shola or Lovenkrands up top? Fuck me. Oh well, better to wait until the summer then when we'll no doubt be fed other excuses. It also makes me wonder about Maiga failing his medical. The reason - I have numerous reasons to distrust the board, and no reason whatsoever to believe a single fucking word they tell us. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 There is about £4.5m difference in prize money which surely would be of concern to the board. If you can spend £5m less on transfers and wages in the process, that's a result. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Interpolic Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 The timing sticks in the throat for me as well, it's becoming a bit annoying how these messages are clearly carefully timed and delivered. The Maiga deal fell through weeks ago and they'll have most likely known that meant we'd not be signing a striker for at least six months as a result. But we were in the middle of a crap run of form so it's as if they've waited until we picked up a win, not to mention that we've 2 very tough games coming up and Ba can't stop scoring. Don't think I'll ever trust the people running the club as long as they're here tbh, and that still includes Pardew. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest sicko2ndbest Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 I am happy to wait until the summer Lovens contract is up so we will need to go back in. Ba New striker Ben arfa Best Shola Is progression on this season Look at Chelsea! They will lose Drogba and be left with Torres as the main striker as Anelka wants out! As long as we finish top 10 to me that's progress! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrmojorisin75 Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 Jesus christ, just seen this news. It's becoming more and more apparent that we will get absolutely nowhere with this board in charge (if it wasn't blatantly obvious before). They will always be happy with comfortably staying in this division whilst breaking even or making a small profit. As others have said, we have the spine of an excellent team, but this board will never ever spend the money required to push us on to the next level. The frustrating thing is that we're not even talking massive amounts of money, but it seems that spending £6m on a striker AND a defender is too much for us. It's also obvious from Pardew's recent comments that as soon as a decent bid comes in for one of our players he'll be gone, leading to more wheeling and dealing to replace him and a constant cycle that results in us going nowhere. Do they really want us to believe that we've had 18months to identify strikers, and all they came up with was Maiga or no-one? So during the African Nations we'll be left with Best, Shola or Lovenkrands up top? Fuck me. Oh well, better to wait until the summer then when we'll no doubt be fed other excuses. It also makes me wonder about Maiga failing his medical. The reason - I have numerous reasons to distrust the board, and no reason whatsoever to believe a single fucking word they tell us. funny, this came in just as i was about to post the following: why can't people get their heads around the fact that we'll never get the right balance with any board? we never did with hall/shepherd (there was always a position that needed strengthening), ashley is just unpalatable and under much more scrutiny than they were back then imo 'cause he's clearly an utter cunt, and southern no-one else outside the current top six or whatever is spending shitloads of money and we have no right to either tbh, except for a couple of big sales that raked in some cash...in spite of those sales we're having our best season for ages if we sign a striker we expect a CB, and vice versa, if we get both we start asking where the RB is and then the RW we need...and so on...it's a natural fan thing, everything is a game of FM to some biggest criticism i have at the moment with any of this is loven, shola, smith etc. are still on the books...extended contract for shola no less...that's where it the shit is clogging up the fan for me Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sifu Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 Tbh, whilst I'm very disappointed and frustrated, I'm not surprised that we've called off the striker hunt. As soon as the Maiga deal collapsed, I had a little feeling that we weren't going to pursue anyone else (despite what Douglas/Ryder's tweets said otherwise). Our alleged other targets would cost about £10 million + and we all know very well that such a price is no go with Ashley. Someone said it before, guess we put all our eggs in one basket with Maiga. "We tried." Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest palnese Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 I bet we'll miss out on 7th if we don't sign a striker in january. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest sicko2ndbest Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 I bet we'll miss out on 7th if we don't sign a striker in january. What's 7th worth though An extra couple of mill in prize money? A fixture list in Europe that will see our prem league position plummet I would rather us have a good crack at the domestic cups Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smal Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 aye, fuck it. Let's just finish mid-table every season Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrmojorisin75 Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 aye, fuck it. Let's just finish mid-table every season what's the realistic alternative man? there isn't-fucking-one, not even selling everything we own would be able to propel us back into europe (CL) man never mind winning the fucker Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tooj Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 aye, fuck it. Let's just finish mid-table every season what's the realistic alternative man? there isn't-fucking-one, not even selling everything we own would be able to propel us back into europe (CL) man Spurs have done it over time, so why can't we? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts