tylerreznik

Yeah agree, doesn't surprise me this deal has floundered just many variables that aren't in our favour. Spurs want to make money out of any deal or at least ensure we cover his entire wages, he clearly doesn't fancy playing for us all that much, and by he sounds of it would rather stay in London. It really enrages me when I hear a player say they would rather live / play in London, for me that's an immediate no thanks then...

In 'defender' years he is still young and has scope / room to improve, worse case we find out this season he has peaked and isn't going to get any better, at least he is under contract now and we should be able to get 2m or so for him next summer or year after. He's fine as a squad player to plug gaps and play early round cup games etc, and as others note, he certainly has the right attitude and actually wants to be here, must be showing the right attitude in training too. Assuming this means Senderos is definitely out now.

Haha, but kind of says a lot about the quality of the players that do play week in week out for us

N'Zogbia started against Fulham & played the 2nd half against Braga, he appears to have done enough in those two games to convince Sherwood he has no future here, so they must pay some attention to the pre-season performances. Plus a striker scoring goals is never a bad thing..

Geez that is very high if true, so basically the 3m to Spurs means we are essentially paying his entire wages (indirectly) and a little extra. Seems overly generous if Spurs are really that desperate to be rid of him, and from what I can see there doesn't appear to be a queue of clubs behind us looking to take him on...

I really hope that's not true, be a real shame to let him go after he's worked so hard to get back to match level fitness and has been scoring in the pre season matches. Have to hope his goals and performances in pre season sway Sherwood's opinion of him. Reckon we'd struggle to get our money back on him after such a long injury layoff, surely be in a better position to sell after he's played a few games and hopefully scored a few league goals, could be difference between 2/3m and 5/6+m... If we sold now it would really just be to clear a spot in the squad.

He removed the 'midfielder playing for Aston Villa FC' text, hopefully says it all.. His recent cryptic tweets are concerning, I hope his bags have been packed and access cards revoked etc, defo don't want him around the rest of squad spreading unrest...

Not officially, but he has removed most Villa references from his twitter a/c and posted some cryptic messages, so appears to be something in the works or at the very least he's been told he has absolutely no future with us and to start looking for fresh pastures asap..

Marlon gets a pass for Liverpool away, Newcastle at home, and having an entertaining skull. Heskey worse than him for me. Davis and NRC had patches of ok form, agree Heskey and Harewood just plain shocking signings that were doomed from the get go, but then they didn't cost 9m.... Nzogbia has added absolutely nothing at no point, and for mine optimises the 'loser' tag that Sherwood mentioned. Just sickens me to see him wear the jersey, total waste of space who has never come close to replicating his Newcastle or Wigan form. Given his transfer fee (both in size, and relative to our spending at that time), the fact that he arrived with a decent reputation and had proven form in the prem league, he is far and away the worse and most disappointing signing we've made. Fantastic business to get rid of him this summer, absolutely fantastic.

I have feeling we might sign a keep too, Begovic was one of the first player we were linked too / bid for, seems strange that we haven't been linked to any other keepers since, but I sense a decent money bid for Begovic clearly had some careful consideration and thought behind it

Great news, and even better to see how hard Sherwood and co are working to clear out the dross / losers / nobodies / weak links / non performers from the squad. I really didn't expect we'd get rid of him this summer, almost feels like a new signing.... Great news for Gill as well.

Be a shame to sell him now just as he is just starting to mature. Season long loan however would work really well, he either comes back a more complete defender and can realistically challenge for a 1st XI spot, or fails to improve and then it's an easy decision to let him go. I'm inclined to give both Baker & Clark more time, can't be easy developing in a struggling team and what was probably our worse defence in the Prem era, just heaps more pressure on young players when do get a run in the 1st team. Both showed real improvement last season, Clark esp, and have surely got more improvement in them. Injury proneness is another thing though, has it just been bad luck or is he really made of glass...

Certainly hope so, while I don't hate him, I really do believe if we are to move forward he needs to leave the club. Been around for too long, been part of too many poor sides, just too comfortable here. When Sherwood made his 'loser' comment, first person that came to my mind is Gabby, he is used to losing.... He knows he's on a great wicket with us, he'll never earn the same sort of money elsewhere and if he did move he'd have work harder to make an impression, and would be judged on performances on the pitch, at this stage of his career I can see why he would't want to move. He's not clinical enough to play centrally, lacks the technical ability and control to be an effective winger, so he needs somebody to play off and then the only real asset he brings is his pace, i.e. running at a defence to cause a distraction or make a nuisance on himself.

Totally agree, he improved out of sight last season and looks to have further upside as he matures, a week ago many people had him down as our new captain... 2m is an utterly derisory offer, wouldn't come close to buying a similar level cb for that kind of cash, and even though he is in the final year of his contract he seems happy at the club and hopefully resigns soon, not as if he need to cash in before he walks for free.. Best case he improves further this year and really stakes his claim as a starting cb, worse case he doesn't and we upgrade next summer but keep him around as a solid deputy / squad player. If they came back offering 6m, maybe you'd think about it, but 2m geez what a joke.... We should go back to them and offer Nzogbia for 2m instead...

To actually sign him on a 2/3yr contract, and paying Spurs a real cash money transfer fee would pure madness, I really don't think the club are that stupid.... On a season long loan with Spurs chipping in with his wages, that would be good business with almost no downside. Gives him a platform to perform so can get his last payday, he'd obviously bring some class / quality to our side, and he'd likely very motivated as he's playing for a contract. We'd be getting the best out of him. Signing him full time though, completely different set of circumstances and I'd imagine he'd start well, full of enthusiasm and visor etc, then around new year lose interest and drop off, by the end of season we'd all be thinking what did we do.. how do we get rid of this nightmare (kind of like what happened to him at Spurs). This is one deal where we hold a strong hand, by all accounts Spurs are desperate to get rid of him, he only has a year left on his contract so can either sit on the bench / reserves there and collect his cash, but drastically reduce his marketability and earning potential in regards to his free transfer next year. By all accounts there doesn't appear to be a huge list of buyers lining up to take him (that's a warning in itself, but..). A season long loan would suit everybody. Spurs free up a slot in the squad and get some / most of his wages off the bill, he gets a chance to show the world he still has what it takes, we get a quality striker who does have an excellent goal scoring record, and who could go a long way to filling the gulf left by Benteke, all while we either blood a younger longer term option or spend more time scoring the market. The more I think about the more I like the idea of a loan, but deadset buying him, NO. Goes against the gain of everything we are trying to do, and really puts us back in dark dark days of MON type buying (Proven Prem Players, Wrong Age, High Wages, Little to No Resale value).

I tend to agree with all of the above to some degree of another... He is definitely a better player than most give him credit for, fairly gifted technically and uses the ball pretty well. I think he'll improve by default with better players around him, i.e. his job is really just to get the ball to other people quickly and let them do something with it in the attacking third, and he already does that pretty well. But he does have a bad tendency to go missing in games, when you really need him to fire up and drive the midfield forward. Replacing him with somebody 'better' but serving the same role will achieve almost nothing because that new player will still be feeding the likes of Nzogbia, etc... Replace the dross around him with people who can do things in the attacking area's and I'm pretty he'll improve overnight without doing anything... I'd like to think he's still got some upside in him that can be realised with decent coaching, and if he doesn't improve this season working with Sherwood & Wilkins then he'll probably be the first to admit he has reached his ceiling and we would defo need to replace in order to progress. I also reckon along with being locked in relegation battles (which must knock the confidence of players) all the midfielders were poorly coached under Lambert and seemed to be under a spell of abject negativity most of the time, going to take a while to get that negative mindset changed. I'm quite looking forward to seeing him improve this season.

Yeah same here, was an exciting signing and I wanted him to do well. Think we just caught him too late, seems like he has already entered his decline phase and is just playing turning up for his wages each week. Might have been different had we got him before he moved to Wigan he he still had something to prove.

Yep disgraceful, apart from Gabby who's seemingly unmovable, Nzog is looking like the last bastion of our troubled past... I don't care about he can add when he actually tries, I've seen him do nothing for way too long, he is utterly dead in my eyes. We could replace him with quite literally anyone, we'd be no worse off football wise, but we'd be much better off financially. Sadly I can't see any prem clubs stupid enough to make a move for him, and he'd never forgo $$ to move overseas on less money. Sad state of affairs.

One thing people are missing is whether Adebayor would even be remotely interested in joining us... Option 1. Take on season loan with Spurs subsidising his wages, this is actually quite plausible Option 2. Out right purchase either on free or nominal fee, highly unlikely he'd want to take a drop in wages, highly unlikely we'd be stupid enough to offer him parity (100k by all accounts), incredibly stupid for us to offer him a 2 or 3 year contract on 100k with $0 resale value Option 3. He stays at Spurs earning his $$, moves to China / Russia / Turkey / Middle East next summer on similar or even bigger wages + signing on bonus - highly likely The older footballers get, the money driven by money they become as time is running out to cash in. He has one good move left in him, i can assure you he won't moving to us on lower wages just to 'work' with Sherwood again.... He'll be moving for the absolute maximum he can glean, whereever that may take him.

Honestly I'm quite happy he is gone, he has shown what sort of man he is and I don't think we need or want people like that at our club. Had he kept his mouth shut last week instead of making that disgusting statement, maybe I'd wish him well but he is really dead to me now, just another plastic fantastic. I hope he does about as well as Richards or Sinclair did there, I find it somewhat amusing that no other clubs made a bid for him..... Really he should have left for free, so to get 8m is a bonus and should go a good way to replacing him, the club has a huge list of targets lined up already, I'm sure we'll be good. He was an above average player in an absolutely dreadful team, certainly not irreplaceable.

Exactly, in reality we are very lucky to have got 8m for him which should go a good way to replacing him. Looking at Bentake's clause, you'd have to think that was an excellent move to. Liverpool seem the only seriously interested party, so on the open market with no clause I doubt we'd get more than 25m for him, plus it would a drawn out drama in the press. We are a million miles away from being in a state where we can realistically retain that calibre of player when bigger clubs come knocking (i.e. offer regular european football, solid top 8 side etc), let's be honest. But... a year ago we were a billion miles away and going backwards.... Fox might not be perfect, he might not make the right decision every time, but by god he's already had a huge impact and is starting to clean up the mess left behind from Faulkner and MON.

Yeah I'm of the same mind, we definitely appear to be in far better shape off the pitch and thankfully have managed to move a good chunk of the dead weight / high earners out already, Shay especially was a good piece of work given his wages and relative value to the squad. If we can find somebody to take Nzogbia that really would be the icing on the cake! Be interesting to see if Lerner does step back and appoint a chairman. Chairman role seems to be abused within football. Normally a Chairman is very much a non executive position and simply sets a high level strategy, makes senior exec hires, governs the business, and definitely does't get involved day to day in a operational sense, whereas most football chairman are really ceo's taking a very very hands on approach and heavily involved in decision making. I think for us to have a true chairman who is simply looking at the bigger picture, while letting Fox and co run the business and Sherwood and co the football side could work out really well. The reality is people looking to buy the club are almost certainly looking to buy a business and to make money in the long run, or use the club as a vehicle (i.e. Abu Dhabi / Etihad with Man City, Thai owners / Leicester), I really doubt there is another Roman Abramovich out there who is willing to throw cash away on a vanity project. So I'd imagine BoAML, Fox, and Lerner have been looking at a plan B option for him to retain ownership under very different circumstances, i.e. a passive investment. Revenue should increase this / next year by default thanks to the extra tv money, and if we can grow the non tv revenue 10-20% and invest that all into the team, that would't be a bad future to look forward to. When you look at the teams around and below us that have done well recently, none have really needed massive external investment, Stoke, Saints, Everton, even West Brom, they've just had well defined plans and been disciplined, made more good than bad signings, while targeting the 'right' types of players / right deals. The one club that spent fairly heavily but in an ill disciplined manner and with a clowns in charge, QPR are looking forward to Championship football next season.... If Benteke does leave for 32m, and Lerner / the club invests another 20-25m on players, that's enough to start building a really strong squad, and not really a massive number that Lerner would baulk at, esp. if Fox, Reilly and Sherwood have made a compelling pitch.

Not at all, but they would have to join the queue so to speak before any real discussion could take place. Lerner hired BoA Merrill Lynch to handle the M&A aspect, and you can bet your bottom dollar they will have been working overtime to find any other parties remotely interested in buying the club, they wouldn't just be sitting there waiting the phone to ring. Not sure if they are also providing other non M&A advice (i.e. re-structure the business, prepare for future sale, retain as a passive investment etc), if they are then it would add an entirely different dimension. In any case likely they have been retained a small fee and will collect a % of the sale value, so any deal is worth a good few mill to them to see the club sold to somebody..

Yep, Balotelli is absolutely dead to Liverpool, and that is before they sign Benteke. I imagine they will be prepared to pay him to leave or subsidise his wages to get him out somewhere on loan before the window closes, so no way on gods earth would or should we look to take him as part of any deal below the 32.5m release fee. We hold the upper hand in this transaction, pay the full 32.5m or go away and waste somebody else's time... Same goes for Lambert, he is dead to them and a just filling a squad position and eating up wage budget, wouldn't be surprised if they subsidised his wages and he went to a club like Bournemouth on a season loan, he literally has zero resale value.

If there is, the chances of it being discussed with players is pretty slim Yep agreed, in fact I'd say non existent, more likely he would have given been reassurances that the club will invest in the squad over the summer. Anything takeover related would be commercially sensitive, certainly not something you'd discuss with playing staff.. In any case if / when a takeover does happen, who knows what the new owner has planned. One thing is sure, anything the current owner / management have to say about a prospective new owner is speculative at best.