NUFC Transfer Rumours

[Jagten]

52 minutes ago, ponsaelius said:

I don't agree that the domestic market is bad value. In a world where every signing is ultimately a gamble that can leave you hamstrung by FFP, signing a player for £30-35 million from England can be much less of a risk than a punt for £15-20m from Europe.

 

More likely the player adapts to the area/team/culture/physicality and it is easier to do due diligence on player's background through existing agent/player networks (Tonali cough cough). But perhaps more crucially there is a safety net in terms of resale value to the host of other wealthy PL clubs - both if they flop and if they excel.

 

Foreign players (Europe/South America) there is undoubtedly better value to be found - but it's also just as likely you get a flop that you may end up giving away for nowt.

 

It's about being open to all markets, but including a significant amount of domestic players in your recruitment is not a bad thing. Certainly not anymore considering the quality of English players and the overall talent level in PL/Championship.

 

Given our ambition and FFP constraints we want to buy elite upside optionality. The perceived lower variance outcomes of buying domestic make people feel like we're not getting that (even if they have no opinion of X foreign player). Once a player has been a success to the level we now require domestically, buying the elite upside cheaply is incredibly difficult to do. We need a unique catalyst for PL value, which is rare at the level we're looking for - age, contract, financial trouble, etc. 

[r0cafella]

If we must sell one of Crown Jewels which is obviously ridiculous but the order I would do it in is Botman, Bruno Isak. Botman should be the easiest to replace. Selling Bruno means a change in system as he is the glue which holds it together. Isak shouldn’t be sold unless he wants to leave. Strikers are very difficult to replace and a shortage exists given the daft money Manchester red spent on someone totally unproven and the fact both Arsenal and Chelsea are in desperate need. 

[Nobody]

12 hours ago, r0cafella said:

https://fotbolltransfers.com/nyheter/bergvall-till-barcelona-inter-frankfurt-eller-newcastle/180619
 

@Nobodytell iz 

I don't watch a lot of Swedish football not involving my team, AIK. Only time I watch that lot is when we play them, and I'm usually not sober enough to pay attention to their players and we usually batteri then as well. I know he's highly rated, and their DOF is talking him up as a huge sale, but tbh I rather we didn't give them cunts any money. 

[r0cafella]

3 minutes ago, Nobody said:

I don't watch a lot of Swedish football not involving my team, AIK. Only time I watch that lot is when we play them, and I'm usually not sober enough to pay attention to their players and we usually batteri then as well. I know he's highly rated, and their DOF is talking him up as a huge sale, but tbh I rather we didn't give them cunts any money. 

Reckon it’s credible? The source that is?

[Nobody]

28 minutes ago, r0cafella said:

Reckon it’s credible? The source that is?

The source is solid, Expressen wouldn't mention us if they didn't know we were in for him. The wording in the article is incredibly vague though, basically just saying we're one of the four clubs that has put a concrete bid in with the club and player. 

@AlanSkÃrare is a writer for that paper, and arguably one of our best football journalists in Sweden (that's not just coming from me mate btw), so maybe he knows more.

I would say it's not even worth getting excited about at this stage though. 

[Guest reefatoon]

The one good thing about the Ashley era was that we didn’t have to hear about FFP every fucking day of the transfer window.

 

Its turned transfer windows into absolute borefests where all you hear is FFP this and FFP that. Hurry the fuck up February, so we can stop hearing about it.

[maze]

Please remember, FFP works just as intended. If it didn’t they would reinforce it - which they will as soon as the ‘Elite’ feels threatened again. 

[SUPERTOON]

56 minutes ago, reefatoon said:

The one good thing about the Ashley era was that we didn’t have to hear about FFP every fucking day of the transfer window.

 

Its turned transfer windows into absolute borefests where all you hear is FFP this and FFP that. Hurry the fuck up February, so we can stop hearing about it.

It’s completely taken the excitement out of transfer windows for me.

[Nucasol]

57 minutes ago, maze said:

Please remember, FFP works just as intended. If it didn’t they would reinforce it - which they will as soon as the ‘Elite’ feels threatened again. 

[macphisto]

I see Isak, Botman and Bruno being mentioned. I think it's more likely to be one of Longstaff, Joelinton or Willock together with Almiron. Possibly Wilson to Saudi too. 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 12 by macphisto

[KDT]

19 minutes ago, SUPERTOON said:

It’s completely taken the excitement out of transfer windows for me.

 

Yeah signing multiple £40m players in the past year has been a real bore.

[Andy84]

It’s the constant droning on in the media about it. Plus we all probably digest so much NUFC content there is no way avoiding hearing about FFP 

[Cronky]

22 hours ago, Miggys First Goal said:

Downie mentioning Mitro on loan. 

 

We do need a third striker. If he's the best we can get at the moment , then so be it.

[TRon]

33 minutes ago, KDT said:

 

Yeah signing multiple £40m players in the past year has been a real bore.

 

It would be nice to sign a £20m 30 year old who is already an established star in a position we need, just because we can afford it without worrying about the sell on fee. That's how Man City became perennial CL stalwarts within a couple of years.

[KDT]

11 minutes ago, TRon said:

 

It would be nice to sign a £20m 30 year old who is already an established star in a position we need, just because we can afford it without worrying about the sell on fee. That's how Man City became perennial CL stalwarts within a couple of years.

 

It took them 3 years to qualify for the Champion League after their takeover without any FFP restrictions. Off the top of my head I can't really think of these 30 year old they were signing for that amount of money, we spent it on Chris Wood 3 months after a takeover.

 

 

Edited January 12 by KDT

[The Prophet]

We still haven't won a game without Bruno, since he first broke into the team. 

 

He isn't irreplaceable, but we'd either need a direct replacement or to alter our tactics. He's the only player who shows for the ball and is capable of progressing it up field.

[Stottie]

6 minutes ago, TRon said:

 

It would be nice to sign a £20m 30 year old who is already an established star in a position we need, just because we can afford it without worrying about the sell on fee. That's how Man City became perennial CL stalwarts within a couple of years.

 

I read this and thought "Yaya Toure" but looking it up says he was 27 and much more than 20M. From Transfermarkt, it doesn't look like City bought many impactful players over thirty. That was only in the Mark Hughes era and I think we have already surpassed that. We need to buy David Silva, not an ageing Gareth Barry. If we do want the latter, cough cough Jordan Henderson sounds like he's available.

 

[TRon]

3 minutes ago, Stottie said:

 

I read this and thought "Yaya Toure" but looking it up says he was 27 and much more than 20M. From Transfermarkt, it doesn't look like City bought many impactful players over thirty. That was only in the Mark Hughes era and I think we have already surpassed that. We need to buy David Silva, not an ageing Gareth Barry. If we do want the latter, cough cough Jordan Henderson sounds like he's available.

 

 

It's the principle rather than the exact £ amount  or the exact age. I don't particularly want to buy 30 year olds for £20m but being able to do it if it would make the difference just because we don't give a shit about the money would be nice. At the moment we are restricted to buying promising full backs for £40m in the hope they will go on to increase in value and it's impacting what we can do in the present. Again, I am very happy with the signings we made, but we clearly lost out on other targets like Diaby for example, because we couldn't afford to sign all the players we needed to address our weaknesses.

[Erikse]

The problem about 30+ players is that you often have to sign another one 2-3 years later to replace them.. Not allways, but you never know.

[TRon]

2 minutes ago, Erikse said:

The problem about 30+ players is that you often have to sign another one 2-3 years later to replace them.. Not allways, but you never know.

 

So what? It's not our money, and the Saudis don't seem to have any problem doing it for their own league.

 

Again, I'd rather sign a 25 year old, the real point here is we aren't allowed to buy the players we need to right now because of restrictions put on us from outside.

[Izakaya]

Surely FFP isn't restricting us so badly we can't spend ~£20m on a backup striker?

[Elliottman]

9 hours ago, r0cafella said:

He’s irreplaceable, selling him would be such a mistake. 

 

No one is irreplaceable. 

[mighty__mag]

10 hours ago, HaydnNUFC said:

The club can't keep complaining about FFP/PSR when we consistently seem to shop in the most expensive market there is here in this country and the PL. We have a £120m outlay on Gordon, Livramento and Barnes. The first of which has indeed come good this season, the second of which has excelled yet makes for bleemin' Dan Burn at the first opportunity and the latter of which has only played 185 minutes thus far this season. The outlay could become ~£155m if Hall's deal is made permanent even though Matt Ritchie gets on the pitch ahead of him.

 

I imagine what is a reasonable amount of wages is going on de facto cheerleaders in Ritchie, Dummett, Gillespie and dead wood such as Manquillo and Targett plus players who could be sold for a reasonableish fee whom we could afford moving on due to availability or ability such as Wilson or Almirón.

 

Bruno we can't win a football match without even against dross opposition, this season and last. Isak is by far and away one of the best strikers we've had in the last 15 years and Botman is a top centre half and only going to improve given his age. We still need a RW and a CB, two positions we neglected to improve in the summer. If any of those 3 players leave then we'll go 2 steps back and given the links we consistently seem to get, many of which are based on nowt, granted, I can't see us going 3 steps forward.

 

This seems like a rant about the club's transfer dealings and/or owners and maybe it is (I don't like Eales, think he's in front of the cameras far too much for a PL CEO, that 'mackem in Milan' thing at the CL draw ) but I guess its more of a 'fuck FFP/PSR' rant. Just venting.

 

 

 

 

You've nailed it here, especially the latter, I couldn't agree more.

 

I'd also add, I think the outlay you mention on the English or PL players could have been done a whole lot cheaper, I have learned to like Gordon and we've obviously not seen enough of Barnes to judge, but, I think 80m on those two wingers could have been done much cheaper, with possibly the same effect or better.

[arnonel]

I think the club are smashing it. 
The only tweak I would have liked to make, would have been to follow more of a Brighton/Dortmund type model
I would have been happy to be patient, mopping up all the wonderkids, building to winning the league in 5-7 years.

 

The disadvantage with going after elites is that the expectations increase, and we run into problems with FFP.

After getting 4th, the perception is that anything else is failure. We are always playing catch up. 

 

[The Prophet]

I'm not sure you'd get a winger of Gordon's potential too much cheaper than the price we paid.