Ross Wilson (Sporting Director)

[Novocastrian]

1 hour ago, The College Dropout said:

In any case - we definitely invested (IMO) unneccessary time and effort in negotiating a fee when we could've activated the release clause at any point.

 

If we think this lad will be worth £70m that's an unneccessary risk and opens us up for gazumption.

 

Don't really understand the approach to that transfer. Why did we wait until Gordon was sold? Why didn't we activate the release clause? 

Should have been done before he left for the World Cup IMO. If Liverpool jump in at that stage, move on quickly and with some purpose.

[Novocastrian]

1 hour ago, Kid Icarus said:

If they are, I don't follow the line of reasoning that benefits Liverpool to report that Osasuna has said Newcastle didn't meet their valuation. It would be a much better look for Liverpool if it was a choice the player made regardless of any fee. 

 

 

 

Protects the player’s reputation for seemingly breaking an agreement and going back on his word?

 

Calls us out as being cheap bastards?

[Optimistic Nut]

We have to watch every £ to stay within PSR, Liverpool can just do what they want. Ultimately.

 

 

Edited 11 hours ago by Optimistic Nut

[Virtua Stiva]

Ross the Boss not greasing the wheels of some South American superstars to come in like? Where’s the new Sparrowhawk when we need him?

[The Prophet]

When does pre-season start?

[TK-421]

Just now, The Prophet said:

When does pre-season start?

Sure I saw it was the week after the WC finishes (W/c 20/07 ?), though obvs the lads involved will probably get extra time off for a holiday.

[Elliottman]

1 minute ago, The Prophet said:

When does pre-season start?

 

Players start coming back 13th July 

[The Prophet]

Just now, Elliottman said:

 

Players start coming back 13th July 

 

Fair, it'd be nice to get at least a couple more bodied in before then.

[The College Dropout]

8 minutes ago, Optimistic Nut said:

We have to watch every £ to stay within PSR, Liverpool can just do what they want. Ultimately.

 

 

 

We won’t land many players under the noses of bigger clubs doing that. Which is fine but we need to change approach and expectations.  
 

Our previous success was based on paying a premium to land top targets.  That didn’t always work either but it was a workable approach.  

[TK-421]

14 minutes ago, The Prophet said:

 

Fair, it'd be nice to get at least a couple more bodied in before then.

[Unbelievable]

5 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

We won’t land many players under the noses of bigger clubs doing that. Which is fine but we need to change approach and expectations.  
 

Our previous success was based on paying a premium to land top targets.  That didn’t always work either but it was a workable approach.  

Mike Ashley’s frugality gave us room for manoeuvre in the first few transfer periods after the takeover. Now we are operating under the “fair play” ceiling imposed upon us by the “big six” and their FA puppets. Put simply, we can ill afford to do bad deals (of which we did plenty last summer, sadly) and we also cannot afford to not try to optimise any individual deal as it simply will impact other deals. Meanwhile the likes of Liverpool and Man U can afford to buy any player we fancy from under our noses for the asking price with impunity. Until we have caught up commercially to be able to afford similar fees and wages it will be thus.

[TRon]

57 minutes ago, Optimistic Nut said:

We have to watch every £ to stay within PSR, Liverpool can just do what they want. Ultimately.

 

 

 

 

 

Isn't that why we sold Gordon for megabucks first?

 

 

[Viana]

15 hours ago, Astroblack said:

 

 

The team got worse last year and it's already gotten worse this year with the sale of Gordon and loss of Trippier. 

But mate it's June 19

 

Gordon, for all his potential to turn it on in the Champions League, did very little in the league last season. If come September we're in the same boat I'll be stood next to you with a pitchfork.

[The College Dropout]

1 hour ago, Unbelievable said:

Mike Ashley’s frugality gave us room for manoeuvre in the first few transfer periods after the takeover. Now we are operating under the “fair play” ceiling imposed upon us by the “big six” and their FA puppets. Put simply, we can ill afford to do bad deals (of which we did plenty last summer, sadly) and we also cannot afford to not try to optimise any individual deal as it simply will impact other deals. Meanwhile the likes of Liverpool and Man U can afford to buy any player we fancy from under our noses for the asking price with impunity. Until we have caught up commercially to be able to afford similar fees and wages it will be thus.

Ok.

Then something has to give. Swim in more pools with Bournemouth & Brighton and accept the results. Or swim with the big boys, try to optimise deals and let them gazump us for the better targets 80% of the time.

 

Something has to give though.

[Astroblack]

12 minutes ago, Viana said:

But mate it's June 19

 

Gordon, for all his potential to turn it on in the Champions League, did very little in the league last season. If come September we're in the same boat I'll be stood next to you with a pitchfork.

Yeah it’s June 19th and at this moment we have more players being talked about LEAVING our football club than coming in. It’s gonna be September 1st soon and nothing is guaranteed, we could lose big players. We’ve lost one who provided goals and assists and one that provided leadership and while on the older side, provided excellent cover. We haven’t replaced either and in fact, Tino is injured and linked with a move away. Tonali, linked away. We’re going to be biting our finger nails until the last day IMO and everyone can see an 11th hour departure and right now, our sporting director seems too naive to think something like that could even happen. We don’t seem ready whatsoever. And as the time goes by, the prices will rise. 

[Sidg]

It feels like the market we used to shop in is disappearing. Tonali was a level above Brighton but someone Arsenal would consider more of a risk than Rice - i.e. perfect for where we were at in 2023. Who's in that Tonali/Isak tier now - i.e. massive ceiling but not quite yet at the level of a cartel club? Where does someone like Fernandez-Pardo sit? He isn't an established international, but his rep puts him out of Brighton's sights.

 

Not sure what's caused it.  

[The College Dropout]

6 minutes ago, Sidg said:

It feels like the market we used to shop in is disappearing. Tonali was a level above Brighton but someone Arsenal would consider more of a risk than Rice - i.e. perfect for where we were at in 2023. Who's in that Tonali/Isak tier now - i.e. massive ceiling but not quite yet at the level of a cartel club? Where does someone like Fernandez-Pardo sit? He isn't an established international, but his rep puts him out of Brighton's sights.

 

Not sure what's caused it.  

Think Munoz was in that pool tbh - probably held in less regard than Isak & Tonali. Reflected in the fee

 

We bought Gordon for £45m in 2023 or so, sold him for £70m and tried to get his replacement for £33m when he had a release clause of £34.5-40m. It doesn't smell right.

[Astroblack]

31 minutes ago, Sidg said:

It feels like the market we used to shop in is disappearing. Tonali was a level above Brighton but someone Arsenal would consider more of a risk than Rice - i.e. perfect for where we were at in 2023. Who's in that Tonali/Isak tier now - i.e. massive ceiling but not quite yet at the level of a cartel club? Where does someone like Fernandez-Pardo sit? He isn't an established international, but his rep puts him out of Brighton's sights.

 

Not sure what's caused it.  

Was curious what Joao Gomes’ situation was and apparently Atleti are interested at £39 million(surprise surprise, they can sign players for much cheaper than we can). We can’t ignore all the rumors around Sandro, this is a player we should be looking at.   

[Weezertron]

Time to start developing youth at a rate greater than one per decade. 
 

That’s half the answer. 

 

 

Edited 9 hours ago by Weezertron

[toontownman]

10 minutes ago, Weezertron said:

Time to start developing youth at a rate greater than one per decade. 
 

That’s half the answer. 

 

 

 

Wild we didnt stock pile younger upcoming players from the start.  We could have made money and had squad depth. 

 

I know we have lots coming in 3 years but I am still surprised we didnt go for way more a couple of years older.

[LFEE]

4 hours ago, Optimistic Nut said:

We have to watch every £ to stay within PSR, Liverpool can just do what they want. Ultimately.

 

 

 

I agree with this and it needs to be noted amongst fan more than it does.

 

However…

 

If this is your No.1 guy and he’s replacing someone for €40m less and you are trying to set the right tone after last summer by getting your first upgrade in through the door which usually has a chain reaction and makes subsequent deals easier as players see what we are building then for the sake of €2-4m you just pay the release clause.

 

Thats not to say Liverpool still wouldn’t of stepped in of course but who knows…

 

Anyway on to the next one. Maybe it’s a Zenden/Robert moment and we end up with someone better!

 

 

Edited 7 hours ago by LFEE

[Unbelievable]

2 hours ago, The College Dropout said:

Ok.

Then something has to give. Swim in more pools with Bournemouth & Brighton and accept the results. Or swim with the big boys, try to optimise deals and let them gazump us for the better targets 80% of the time.

 

Something has to give though.

We are targeting players who we think can improve us, now or with some development, and often competing with other Premier League clubs for their signature as there simply aren’t hundreds of such players around that we can afford and who may be interested in joining us. We tried for three such players so far this summer, landed one, lost another to Brighton and were gazzumped by Liverpool for the third. This is what can and will happen in a competitive market when we are not the ones with the biggest wallet. We have two things we should be trying to do imo. The first is to keep trying to identify such targets and bring them in, the second is to develop better players in house through better academy facilities and recruitment. This is a process that will take time, effort, good decision making and investment. The moment FFP was brought in to stop us doing a Chelsea, City or PSG it was always going to be a long, uphill battle. It doesn’t help anyone to panic at every missed transfer target.

[TRon]

35 minutes ago, Unbelievable said:

We are targeting players who we think can improve us, now or with some development, and often competing with other Premier League clubs for their signature as there simply aren’t hundreds of such players around that we can afford and who may be interested in joining us. We tried for three such players so far this summer, landed one, lost another to Brighton and were gazzumped by Liverpool for the third. This is what can and will happen in a competitive market when we are not the ones with the biggest wallet. We have two things we should be trying to do imo. The first is to keep trying to identify such targets and bring them in, the second is to develop better players in house through better academy facilities and recruitment. This is a process that will take time, effort, good decision making and investment. The moment FFP was brought in to stop us doing a Chelsea, City or PSG it was always going to be a long, uphill battle. It doesn’t help anyone to panic at every missed transfer target.

 

 

If Wilson had tied up the signing of Munoz as expected, then I think everyone would be in a much better headspace. 

 

But the fact is, he didn't, and it's already starting to resemble last summer's clusterfuck of a transfer window. 

 

But it's early days, and hopefully this was just a blip and we won't make the same mistakes again. He can still turn this round, and let's hope his pedigree and reputation as a wheeler dealer are well earned. 

[TRC]

2 hours ago, toontownman said:

Wild we didnt stock pile younger upcoming players from the start.  We could have made money and had squad depth. 

 

I know we have lots coming in 3 years but I am still surprised we didnt go for way more a couple of years older.

Shahar and Fineran were big signings at the time and they should be looking to step up now