João Pedro

[Vaj]

1 hour ago, J7 said:

It’s not overpaying. It’s the going rate. Value is only what people are prepared to pay. There’s not a catalogue with prices in. 
 

It’s becoming a bit frustrating this. There’s now a decent length list of targets that are going elsewhere and a couple of low ball bids for Trafford and Elanga to clubs who don’t need to sell. I’d be far more confident if we hadn’t had the Guehi shambles last summer (another on our target list this summer going elsewhere). From the outside, there doesn’t seem to be much homework done and it doesn’t inspire much confidence if we end up scrambling around for players who know they’re well down our list of targets.

 

 

 

Is it the going rate? £60m+ is a huge fee and that is what it looks like it is going to. Yes there is no catalogue with prices in it, there is a price the selling club want which can be inflated and a price that a buying club is bidding which might be too low. Without Chelsea getting involved I think the deal would get done for less than it now will with their being two bidding teams. We have correctly gambled on that because if we just gave them the £60m they want we would then not be able to do other deals that want to do. There are a lot of holes in this squad to fill and we can't blow massive amounts on one position.

 

If we bended over to Burnley, Brighton and Forest for what they "want" we would end up paying an extra £25m to our initial offers and then we would have to potentially wave goodbye to signing a centre back as a result. Therefore, we have to negotiate or move on to get everything we need. 

[Haz]

I’m curious? What happened to his desire to sign for a London team? Have we been advised otherwise?

[Optimistic Nut]

2 hours ago, Keegans Export said:

From the outside looking in, the problem is that our "small pool" of targets is putting us in direct competition with teams who can spend considerably more than us. 

 

Hopefully we haven't limited our targets to the established, 'perfect' players because this sort of thing will happen more often than not. Either we get quoted an extortionate price by the selling club or we get blown out of the water by Chelsea, Man Utd etc. 

 

There's nothing wrong with that, though? I'm pretty confident we're going to sign some excellent players, if we're going for players the other top clubs want them we know we're doing something right. 

[Ikon]

2 hours ago, Broadsword said:

 

Do you really believe this?  It's not like bargain polaroid TV's on black Friday in Asda. Christ.

Don’t fucking christ me. Yes I do believe this. It’s as simple as if the PSR stuff wasn’t so tight and we’d be able to spend more freely then yes, we wouldn’t have to haggle as much and could have spent slightly more to get the deal done quicker. 

[J7]

16 minutes ago, Vaj said:

Is it the going rate? £60m+ is a huge fee and that is what it looks like it is going to. Yes there is no catalogue with prices in it, there is a price the selling club want which can be inflated and a price that a buying club is bidding which might be too low. Without Chelsea getting involved I think the deal would get done for less than it now will with their being two bidding teams. We have correctly gambled on that because if we just gave them the £60m they want we would then not be able to do other deals that want to do. There are a lot of holes in this squad to fill and we can't blow massive amounts on one position.

 

If we bended over to Burnley, Brighton and Forest for what they "want" we would end up paying an extra £25m to our initial offers and then we would have to potentially wave goodbye to signing a centre back as a result. Therefore, we have to negotiate or move on to get everything we need. 

We should have some idea that a club like Chelsea will go in for him though. Again, his value is the price someone is prepared to pay. We can’t just bid for a player at the value we decide, then just shrug and say ‘oh well’. If we aren’t getting players at the value we decide, then we need to change our approach. Nobody is forcing us to shop for established PL players from clubs who don’t need to sell.

[The Prophet]

3 hours ago, Ikon said:

Can’t really blame us but we’ve been too slow. 

 

Don't think speed has been the issue.

[Ikon]

Just now, The Prophet said:

 

Don't think speed has been the issue.

I think so. Because if we would have been able to agree a fee earlier then I doubt he’d turn us down and wait for Chelsea. Every penny counts in this PSR era unfortunately. 

[The Prophet]

5 minutes ago, Ikon said:

I think so. Because if we would have been able to agree a fee earlier then I doubt he’d turn us down and wait for Chelsea. Every penny counts in this PSR era unfortunately. 

 

You don't think Chelsea would have muscled in regardless? They've allegedly been talking to him since early June.

 

We've just targeted another player where the competition has far deeper pockets and more clout than us. 

[Ketsbaia]

You won, Chelsea. Enjoy Joao Pedro, I hope he makes you very happy.

 

Dear Lord, what a sad little life you have. You ruined our summer completely, so you could buy everyone, but I hope now you spend it on getting some lessons in grace and decorum because you have all the grace of a reversing dump truck without any tyres on.

[TRon]

1 hour ago, McCormick said:

Thought Xavi Simmons would have been a cool alternative but (depending on what reports you believe) the lad’s on between 120-200k a week. We won’t go anywhere near that imo.

 

 

 

 

 

Then we need to come to terms with competing with clubs who aren't CL material for players. Our competition for signings should be Villa, Brighton, Brentford etc. 

[Sima]

2 hours ago, TRon said:

 

I mean the problem is PSR, nothing else. PIF will spend money on NUFC if they are allowed to. Or at least we can only really find out if PSR is got rid of. 

I’ve seen little proof of that considering the glacial pace the two main infrastructure projects are moving at.

[black_n_white]

16 minutes ago, The Prophet said:

 

Don't think speed has been the issue.

Yes and no. The selling club would naturally slow down the deal to invite the big six, and it’s working.

[Ikon]

3 minutes ago, The Prophet said:

 

You don't think Chelsea would have muscled in regardless? They've allegedly been talking to him since early June.

 

We've just targeted another player where the competition has far deeper pockets and more clout than us. 

He has never been a high priority for them even though they’ve been interested in him and every other player available more or less. 
 

Have no idea why you mention “deeper pockets” as that’s exactly what I’ve said and that’s my point why we haven’t moved quicker which I think we would have done if we weren’t quite as restricted because of PSR. You seem to defend more or less everything, but in this case there’s nothing to defend. If it wasn’t for PSR I think we would have had this deal signed and sealed already, absolutely certain of it! 

[TRon]

6 minutes ago, Sima said:

I’ve seen little proof of that considering the glacial pace the two main infrastructure projects are moving at.

 

I don't know if those are glacial pace or not so can't really comment. What I do know is that those projects wouldn't even be considered under different ownership. 

[Minhosa]

2 hours ago, The Prophet said:

Said similar in another thread, but...

 

...while I completely understand the appeal of Premier League proven players, we're trying to drive a hard bargain in a market where the fees and wages on offer are inflated.

 

Our talent ID is spot on. Our best work in the transfer market has come from "buying the dip" abroad and/or picking up young, unproven players with high ceilings.

 

I appreciate we're trying to move up the ladder and buy a more complete, finished article, but given how restricted we are under PSR we may need to reconsider until the commercial revenue and academy are in a place to ease that burden.

You see I think Eddie wants 'PL proven' or possibly 'CL proven from abroad' this summer purely as a consequence of the learnings from the last CL campaign.

 

Him and the coaches simply won't get the time on the grass with the new signings this year due to the congested scheduling caused by the CL demands.

 

He's not going to be able to bed them in nor develop them as he usually does hence why he needs proven pro's at the top level (preferably PL I assume due to that being where the majority of our games will be played) but, even if they've played at CL level, at least he can use them with confidence in that competition whilst they learn to cope with the demands of the PL.

 

If we weren't in Europe, I think it would be a summer of high level players with upside we've seen before.

 

As it stands, I think he'd happily play a Murphy over an Elanga in the CL because Elanga can cope with the PL every week, as an example. It gives him a chance to rotate his squad with players 'competition ready' across the range we'll have to play.

 

Presumably he might have to change course on this policy if we can't land Pedro, Guehi, Elanga etc but I think this is the reason we've massively geared the summer towards PL experienced players.

 

I think it's purely a time thing rather than a massive change in policy or him preferring to buy PL players which often gets bandied about. He's such an intelligent bloke, just like he learned what to change after the Carabao Cup Final defeat to Man U, he'll have learned loads from our first stint in CL imho.

[Sima]

2 minutes ago, TRon said:

 

I don't know if those are glacial pace or not so can't really comment. What I do know is that those projects wouldn't even be considered under different ownership. 

Under Ashley, definitely.

 

Under a different owner, I don’t see why not.  Just look at Everton for proof.

[STM]

26 minutes ago, Ikon said:

I think so. Because if we would have been able to agree a fee earlier then I doubt he’d turn us down and wait for Chelsea. Every penny counts in this PSR era unfortunately. 

 

Of course he could. He could say he hasn't made his decision yet.

 

Time hasn't been an issue. It's the money and pull of the cartel.

[TRon]

1 minute ago, Sima said:

Under Ashley, definitely.

 

Under a different owner, I don’t see why not.  Just look at Everton for proof.

 

Maybe you are right. I don't really know the details behind Everton's new stadium project or how quickly that developed, would have to do some research for a comparison. 

[The Prophet]

12 minutes ago, Ikon said:

He has never been a high priority for them even though they’ve been interested in him and every other player available more or less. 
 

Have no idea why you mention “deeper pockets” as that’s exactly what I’ve said and that’s my point why we haven’t moved quicker which I think we would have done if we weren’t quite as restricted because of PSR. You seem to defend more or less everything, but in this case there’s nothing to defend. If it wasn’t for PSR I think we would have had this deal signed and sealed already, absolutely certain of it! 

 

I'm not defending, if anything I think we should be more flexible with our pool of targets. I just don't think speed is the issue in this instance.

[STM]

12 minutes ago, Ikon said:

He has never been a high priority for them even though they’ve been interested in him and every other player available more or less. 
 

Have no idea why you mention “deeper pockets” as that’s exactly what I’ve said and that’s my point why we haven’t moved quicker which I think we would have done if we weren’t quite as restricted because of PSR. You seem to defend more or less everything, but in this case there’s nothing to defend. If it wasn’t for PSR I think we would have had this deal signed and sealed already, absolutely certain of it! 

 

Hes a high enough priority for them to pay 50m+.

 

It's very easy for Chelsea to tell his agent that they are interested and that if he waits for them they will offer him a better contract. Meanwhile his agent is also negotiating with us. It happens all the time.

[Ikon]

Just now, STM said:

 

Of course he could. He could say he hasn't made his decision yet.

 

Time hasn't been an issue. It's the money and pull of the cartel.

I didn’t say that he couldn’t turn us down. I said that I doubt he’d would have. 
 

Yet again, I’ve already said that I think PSR restrictions is the main reason why we haven’t been able to agree a fee already and probably have got this deal signed and sealed already. Because if it was possible to agree a fee earlier then I think he would have come. 

[STM]

Just now, The Prophet said:

 

I'm not defending, if anything I think we should be more flexible with our pool of targets. I just don't think speed is the issue in this instance.

 

Its not an issue whatsoever. It again comes back to our lack of activity in the 3 previous windows leading some to the false idea that we will immediately sign players early in the window without any issues.

[The College Dropout]

1 hour ago, janpawel said:

 

I'm bothered like, unless anyone is aware of another player who can cover Joelinton/LCM and also up front 

 

Fucking Chelsea man

It’s not our job to come up with alternatives. 
He wouldn’t cover LCM anyway.  He would change the shape of the team. 

[STM]

Just now, Ikon said:

I didn’t say that he couldn’t turn us down. I said that I doubt he’d would have. 
 

Yet again, I’ve already said that I think PSR restrictions is the main reason why we haven’t been able to agree a fee already and probably have got this deal signed and sealed already. Because if it was possible to agree a fee earlier then I think he would have come. 

 

Even without PSR, with Chelsea at the table he'd have waited for them because even without PSR we want to be a club that run correctly, that means have a sensible wage structure.

 

If you really want to criticise the club, ask why they are pursuing someone who has been hinting at wanting a move to London. That would be a more fair arguement in my mind... but we dont know what hes said to us in private.

[STM]

Just now, The College Dropout said:

It’s not our job to come up with alternatives. 
He wouldn’t cover LCM anyway.  He would change the shape of the team. 

 

It's also not our job to criticise the club because of bullshit theories and opinions but its happening all the time.