ALL Transfer talk - merged thread

[Limerick Gooner]

I reckon we will get someone in. Arteta is clearly pressuring the Board in the press. Something will happen late on. Not ideal but I reckon we will buy someone. Otherwise our season is over.

[xgtdec]

I reckon we will get someone in. Arteta is clearly pressuring the Board in the press. Something will happen late on. Not ideal but I reckon we will buy someone. Otherwise our season is over.

Isnt our season over anyway, i mean realistically if i gave you a magic wand to bring in a player and you went and got a Barbie or Mbappe as the striker we so desperately need.

What would that actually do?? would legohead know how to use them or would he include them in the starting 11 because he has to but play the same shit sterile 10 touch tortoise pace football we all know and love?

Clamoring for a striker is all well and good and badly needed...but you need the fuckwit in charge to have the appetite to use the player and play to his strengths, not sulk because he was told what to do and play the same shit system regardless.

Obviously thats an over simplification of the scenario but a genuine concern regardless.

[augie]

The comical thing is that the later you leave it to do your business, the less time it would leave the selling club to find a replacement for the player you are buying, therefore making it more unlikely that they will agree to sell - basically we are giving clubs another reason to refuse to sell to us People keep mooaning and saying the same old bu!!shit about how hard it is to do business in January - yes I know it is tougher than in the summer, but if you do your business early then at least you are giving clubs ample time to bring in replacements and they might be more agreeable to sell - dragging it out until the last few days just pisses clubs off imo

[General]

We need at least 3 attacking players this window. A striker and 2wide players. 1 player isn’t going to be enough.

We need a fcuking good manager that has a fcuking clue what he is doing - this incompetent fool is talking about bringing back the portugese pussy who isnt strong enough for a schoolboys league much less the most physical league in europe

Have a day off augie, paperweight Vieira is not coming back. Once again, Arteta was simply asked a question and he answered.

[General]

Every transfer window shines a brighter light on how clueless most fans are about transfer business and the challenges involved. Most have never read a simple contract in their lives. It’s not about how quickly you can buy a player but whether said player is the correct profile. You can either do a lot of business and end up with a load of bang average players like Villa and United, or show a bit more restraint and hold out for quality. Great if you can strike a balance between the two but it needs all moving parts to align and this includes the player, selling club, agent, budget v fee, add ons, payment terms, interest etc.
Not every transfer business is going to be a hit so that’s always a risk. Think about your own lives. Not every single purchase you’ve made has brought you the value you expected.

[xgtdec]

Every transfer window shines a brighter light on how clueless most fans are about transfer business and the challenges involved. Most have never read a simple contract in their lives. It’s not about how quickly you can buy a player but whether said player is the correct profile. You can either do a lot of business and end up with a load of bang average players like Villa and United, or show a bit more restraint and hold out for quality. Great if you can strike a balance between the two but it needs all moving parts to align and this includes the player, selling club, agent, budget v fee, add ons, payment terms, interest etc.
Not every transfer business is going to be a hit so that’s always a risk. Think about your own lives. Not every single purchase you’ve made has brought you the value you expected.

you can include Arsenal in there too, our transfer business is the laughing stock of the premier league........sure just add one pound extra..that'll do the job. When was the last time Arsenal beat other clubs to a superstar player?? Was anyone else even in for Rice before we spaffed 100 million on him?? We are a big enough club to attract reasonable players, some of whom turn out to be much better and they leave to go win trophies. We're quite possibly the most high profile selling club in England.

[Retro Gunner]

I'm assuming that is aimed at posters on here and it's not only harsh, but wrong. There are very few fools on here and everyone understands the complexities of getting deals done. In addition, we've all learned to temper expectations by watching 20 years of mostly car crash transfer windows, which you might have noticed have lead to a cracking line in gallows humour and the comical referencing of the Old Fraud's cretinous transfer window pearls of wisdom.

The current frustration is borne of the on-going failure to add the key missing components to the side....components that the whole world recognises we lack and which we've lacked for at least 3 years. The main piece, of course, is a top level striker. All people are asking for is that we operate in the manner in which other clubs of our size and prestige operate. Set your targets early, move fast and get the deal done. Instead, we prevaricate, have a complete scattergun approach to targets, make low ball offers, haggle over price as though we're in a Moroccan souk, piss off other clubs and most importantly, piss of the player, who must wonder how badly he's really wanted. Not unusually, another club steps in at the eleventh hour and makes the signing....typically Chelsea.

I'd offer Liverpool as a club who handle transfers well. They move early and get the deal finalised quickly. They rarely seem to get involved in to-ing and fro-ing over price and rarely get gazumped by other clubs, because the deal is wrapped up speedily.

No one on here expects us to be successful in landing all targets and no one fails to understand that things go wrong, or that a player may turn out to be a failure....we've had plenty of examples to get us used to that outcome. What supporters are entitled to expect is a professional, joined up, coherent approach to transfers and as radical as it sounds, that we address the longstanding, yawning gaps in the team. If we make a signing, it will be a wide player, like Cunha, or maybe an attacking midfielder. I'm not expecting the much needed central striker, because that means dropping Havertz and that ain't happening anytime soon. In which case, expect the frustration on here to grow.

[rodders999]

Give it Ya Ya Sanogo till the end of the season.

[augie]

Every transfer window shines a brighter light on how clueless most fans are about transfer business and the challenges involved. Most have never read a simple contract in their lives. It’s not about how quickly you can buy a player but whether said player is the correct profile. You can either do a lot of business and end up with a load of bang average players like Villa and United, or show a bit more restraint and hold out for quality. Great if you can strike a balance between the two but it needs all moving parts to align and this includes the player, selling club, agent, budget v fee, add ons, payment terms, interest etc.
Not every transfer business is going to be a hit so that’s always a risk. Think about your own lives. Not every single purchase you’ve made has brought you the value you expected.

You should include the water boy and edu in that cos their transfer business is mostly clueless too - they have bought FAR too many average players, and overpaid on players like rice, white and havertz. I said it at the time, if you spend £100m on a player then he better be either very prolific in front of goal (rice isnt) or a creative genius midfielder (again rice isnt) - rice is an energetic box to box midfielder but he never had a special skill set that would justify the £100m+ price tag. Was any other club in for white when we bought him ? Lets be very clear about this too, but the water boy bought him as a centre back and he was undersized as a centre back too - as a full back does he have a skill set that screams world class at you ? Not for me he doesnt and I would say that he is a good player but not outstanding and not as good as Timber, but we spent £55m on him Havertz is a £35m-£40m tops - and I mean at the very most he is that price. He is one paced, shies away from challenging centre backs in the air, and even nketieh is a much better finisher than him
I picked out 3 players who get regular game time when really I could have just as easy picked out a dozen other players (like the portugese pussy) who we pissed away money on when they are not at our level

[augie]

Btw apparently sky sports are running with a rumour that napoli are "close" to signing garnacho for £15m plus osimhen - not being funny here but surely that would value osimhen at no more than £40m and surely to fcuk we can afford that ?? To me garnacho is a cocky but hugely over-rated kid who I wouldnt want AFC to sign, and I reckon that he surely cant be valued at anymore than £50m-£60m can he ?? Osimhen at £40m would be a steal for any big ambitious club

[Perryashburtongroves]

I'm assuming that is aimed at posters on here and it's not only harsh, but wrong. There are very few fools on here and everyone understands the complexities of getting deals done. In addition, we've all learned to temper expectations by watching 20 years of mostly car crash transfer windows, which you might have noticed have lead to a cracking line in gallows humour and the comical referencing of the Old Fraud's cretinous transfer window pearls of wisdom.

The current frustration is borne of the on-going failure to add the key missing components to the side....components that the whole world recognises we lack and which we've lacked for at least 3 years. The main piece, of course, is a top level striker. All people are asking for is that we operate in the manner in which other clubs of our size and prestige operate. Set your targets early, move fast and get the deal done. Instead, we prevaricate, have a complete scattergun approach to targets, make low ball offers, haggle over price as though we're in a Moroccan souk, piss off other clubs and most importantly, piss of the player, who must wonder how badly he's really wanted. Not unusually, another club steps in at the eleventh hour and makes the signing....typically Chelsea.

I'd offer Liverpool as a club who handle transfers well. They move early and get the deal finalised quickly. They rarely seem to get involved in to-ing and fro-ing over price and rarely get gazumped by other clubs, because the deal is wrapped up speedily.

No one on here expects us to be successful in landing all targets and no one fails to understand that things go wrong, or that a player may turn out to be a failure....we've had plenty of examples to get us used to that outcome. What supporters are entitled to expect is a professional, joined up, coherent approach to transfers and as radical as it sounds, that we address the longstanding, yawning gaps in the team. If we make a signing, it will be a wide player, like Cunha, or maybe an attacking midfielder. I'm not expecting the much needed central striker, because that means dropping Havertz and that ain't happening anytime soon. In which case, expect the frustration on here to grow.

Very well put, Retro. An excellent summary of where we all are with our thinking, feelings and frustrations. We aren't an aggressive, overly-entitled supporter base unlike some other clubs and it does take a lot for people to start venting their frustrations. What's worrying a lot of supporters is that we appear to be repeating far too many of the poor decisions which we endured for a decade or more under Wanker. We thought we'd slowly moved away from that and were better positioned to show ambition and at least address gaps in the squad. The last couple of years have shown that we haven't and that's led to a growing sense of concern, frustration and now, almost resignation. Nobody expects us to be out buying 100m+ players ever window but we shouldn't be entering transfer windows with either no idea or targeting average players in positions we don't need. It's poor management, poor decision making and poor future visioning
That's what we are these days and have been for the best part of 20 years.

[Retro Gunner]

Agreed Perry. As hard as this is to say and as difficult as it is to hear, are we genuinely a “big club”? We don’t behave like one in my opinion and haven’t done so for a very long time.

If football supporters and pundits listed English and European big clubs, there’s no doubt that we’d be on the list, but apart from the 1930s, we survive very much on very short periods of past glory. Europe’s top table would include R Madrid, Barca, Juve, AC Milan, Bayern, Liverpool, Utd and now, sadly, Chelsea and City. Before anyone leaps to remind me of the current positions of Utd and Chelsea, I’m taking an adult overview of teams that have competed for the top prizes on a consistent basis. Utd are obviously in danger of losing their place at the table.

We have never seriously been in that elite group and our European record makes that clear. We also don’t behave in the appropriate way in the transfer market. As someone else asked either yesterday or today, when was the last time we bought a star player at the peak of his powers? I genuinely can’t remember. Dennis was the last established world class star we bought and we got him because he was experiencing a trough at Inter. Our transfer policy has been buying prospects, some of whom proved to be fabulous….Anelka, Paddy, Cesc, Van Persie, while others have flopped, or buying experienced journeymen, too many of whom have been bang average at best and have hung around draining resources on over paying contracts. In addition to this, Arteta has taken us down the route of massively overpaying for duds, or in the case of Rice, an above average grafter.

We’re as far away from that top table as we’ve been in the last 30 years and these owners and this manager won’t alter that.

[Red Army 2]

Agreed Perry. As hard as this is to say and as difficult as it is to hear, are we genuinely a “big club”? We don’t behave like one in my opinion and haven’t done so for a very long time.

If football supporters and pundits listed English and European big clubs, there’s no doubt that we’d be on the list, but apart from the 1930s, we survive very much on very short periods of past glory. Europe’s top table would include R Madrid, Barca, Juve, AC Milan, Bayern, Liverpool, Utd and now, sadly, Chelsea and City. Before anyone leaps to remind me of the current positions of Utd and Chelsea, I’m taking an adult overview of teams that have competed for the top prizes on a consistent basis. Utd are obviously in danger of losing their place at the table.

We have never seriously been in that elite group and our European record makes that clear. We also don’t behave in the appropriate way in the transfer market. As someone else asked either yesterday or today, when was the last time we bought a star player at the peak of his powers? I genuinely can’t remember. Dennis was the last established world class star we bought and we got him because he was experiencing a trough at Inter. Our transfer policy has been buying prospects, some of whom proved to be fabulous….Anelka, Paddy, Cesc, Van Persie, while others have flopped, or buying experienced journeymen, too many of whom have been bang average at best and have hung around draining resources on over paying contracts. In addition to this, Arteta has taken us down the route of massively overpaying for duds, or in the case of Rice, an above average grafter.

We’re as far away from that top table as we’ve been in the last 30 years and these owners and this manager won’t alter that.

Always agree with most of your posts Retro mate, and again spot on....its just the Rice comment dont agree with....TBF hes got that lump partey or old man jorginho alongside him...that surely would worry anyone....i believe Rice is top class...a very very good player.....but yes the rest depressingly 100%

[mcdowell42]

If anyone is interested in seeing a bit of Sesko Leipzig v sporting Lisbon is on now ,Sesko with the only goal of the game at HT ,Leipzig 1-0 sporting

[TeeCee]

I think we actually need 4 players as a minimum.... 2 strikers, a winger and an attacking midfielder/playmaker. I think we may sign a striker and that will be it. Probably do his hamstring after 2 games and we're back to being fucked!!