Morpheus Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 How do you ignore someone Close your eyes and move onto the next post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLax Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 We signed Hutton, Jenas, N'Zogbia, Given, Dunne, Cuellar, Collins, where did we end up finishing. Luke Murphy is a very good footballer, didn't United sign Powell? Where did Chris Smalling come from before joining Fulham. I just sometimes wonder what you lot would think when we signed Platt. We finished in a pretty similar position when we signed Westwood, Bennett, Sylla etc. They haven't been bad sigings but they are a long way from being good enough for a top 6 team. There is a middle ground though, young up and coming prospects who are more highly rated than most of the players we have been signing, Benteke fits this as does Belhanda. This is the model Spurs adopted, signing players like Modric whilst they were still developing. We need to take that step and move into the next bracket of player if we are going to be a force at the top of the league again. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morpheus Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 I think you just described Joelyn Lescott. Ironically - No - I think that would be step to far. Shawcross - I would really like - but even that probably isn't feasible. TBH - I don't mind who it is - I just feel we need another bloke of the Vlaar calibre in there. I would hope that we don't sign another Vlaar. We actually need a CB who is more domineering in the air to balance what Vlaar is good at. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wes Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 Regarding Belhanda and the often mentioned impossibility of him coming to us compared to those other clubs. Gaston Ramirez was heavily linked to Manchester City, Juventus, Tottenham and Liverpool last summer. He eventually went to promoted Southampton. Whilst it remains an outside chance, in the world of Football stranger transfers have happened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeyAnty Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 With all these 60-80k a week players leaving the club we might have the ability to offer 1 player this wage coming in if they made a massive difference Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLax Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 With all these 60-80k a week players leaving the club we might have the ability to offer 1 player this wage coming in if they made a massive difference It can cause problems if you offer 1 player much bigger wages than the others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeyAnty Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 With all these 60-80k a week players leaving the club we might have the ability to offer 1 player this wage coming in if they made a massive difference It can cause problems if you offer 1 player much bigger wages than the others. It can but thats football. You get paid for your ability, unless of course MON is manager. All clubs have players on diiferent wages. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dont_do_it_doug. Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 Westwood, Lowton, Benteke, Vlaar, Sylla. All players who now have "experience", most of whom we would agree are "proven premier league quality", with the word "quality" being subjective and to varying degrees. So explain to me what is wrong with our transfer policy again? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dont_do_it_doug. Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 (edited) You may note I left Bennett off the list, didn't want to rile anyone. You could have Guzan too. I mean, you can count his previous experience on one hand. Edited June 4, 2013 by dont_do_it_doug. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLax Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 You can also count our position above the drop zone on one hand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CI Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 You can also count our position above the drop zone on one hand This is the thing. Some posters seem to have forgotten so soon how dreadful the season was. Defensively it's as bad as I can recall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SikhInTrinity Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 No we haven't forgotten, however you seem to forget that most supporters on here said we were going down, that no experience was going to cost us. We stayed up by improving our form from Feb onwards, if you can't see any positive signs CI. I am not saying we shouldn't sign experience, however along with experience you need quality which we failed to purchase in the past. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CI Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 I agree we made progress after Xmas when lambert changed the tactics. But we have been poor defensively ALL season long. What was it 25 games without a clean sheet ?? We need something to change or I can see us being in the brown stuff again all season. And nobody wants to go through that again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marley the Bognor Villan Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/12691/8756419/Transfer-News-Aston-Villa-in-for-Younes-Belhanda http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/12691/8755544/Transfer-news-Werder-Bremen-in-the-mix-for-Aleksandar-Tonev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodigan Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 actually, i don't think the club has ever had a problem with paying wages to the right people.... the issue that we have had to fix over the last three years was paying people massive wages who weren't even regular starters in the squad.... with the new contracts that will be revised this season, we will see some of our players go from very cheap to reasonable, and one, if he signs, go onto a big wage... with all (or substantially all) of the non-playing large wage earners off our books by the end of the summer, PL can then go about ensuring that the wage pool is spread properly, among the squad, with the emphasis on the first team regulars. i wonder what the three players we are after are all currently earning in terms of wages? i'm fairly sure none of them are on anywhere near 60 - 80k.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SikhInTrinity Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 I agree we made progress after Xmas when lambert changed the tactics. But we have been poor defensively ALL season long. What was it 25 games without a clean sheet ?? We need something to change or I can see us being in the brown stuff again all season. And nobody wants to go through that again. So it's June 4th and your questioning the club, the players are not even back for pre-season yet. Give it till start of the season before you start judging where we will be. As for the defence, you keep mentioning clean sheets as it suits your argument. The defence had improved from Feb onwards IMO. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KennyPowers Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 I'll try and sum up my thoughts on transfer policy: a) I'm generally in favour of having a young team but I think we went too young last year The thing that's disconcerting reading this thread is that most people don't seem to realise that young players generate a false optimism, i.e. because of their potential we can dream about the players they might become even though the vast majority will not fully realise their potential. This was a topic covered extensively in moneyball btw, you'd have to read it to fully appreciate this point although yes I fully accept it's not going to apply as well to football as it has to baseball. c) Every single club other than perhaps the top 3 in the premier league, barca, real, bayern, psg and some crazy russian clubs are all looking for resale value. They want players young enough that they can sell on when they near the end of their contract. I can't help but feel this has inflated the prices for promising young players and surely this has changed the market in a way that there are bargain experienced players out there available at relatively reasonable wages. d) I think Lambert's approach is about building a team spirit and it is easier to do that with young players that haven't earned big money yet and are willing to adapt and make sacrifices. That is the biggest problem we have had with our big signings recently, their attitude towards the team. I think that this perhaps more than financial constraints is the reason Lambert favours young players and it's a pretty good reason. I do think it would be extremely useful to find some experienced model professionals to add to the squad though. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hippo Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 I'll try and sum up my thoughts on transfer policy: a) I'm generally in favour of having a young team but I think we went too young last year The thing that's disconcerting reading this thread is that most people don't seem to realise that young players generate a false optimism, i.e. because of their potential we can dream about the players they might become even though the vast majority will not fully realise their potential. This was a topic covered extensively in moneyball btw, you'd have to read it to fully appreciate this point although yes I fully accept it's not going to apply as well to football as it has to baseball. c) Every single club other than perhaps the top 3 in the premier league, barca, real, bayern, psg and some crazy russian clubs are all looking for resale value. They want players young enough that they can sell on when they near the end of their contract. I can't help but feel this has inflated the prices for promising young players and surely this has changed the market in a way that there are bargain experienced players out there available at relatively reasonable wages. d) I think Lambert's approach is about building a team spirit and it is easier to do that with young players that haven't earned big money yet and are willing to adapt and make sacrifices. That is the biggest problem we have had with our big signings recently, their attitude towards the team. I think that this perhaps more than financial constraints is the reason Lambert favours young players and it's a pretty good reason. I do think it would be extremely useful to find some experienced model professionals to add to the squad though. Cracking Post ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vandaq Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/12691/8756419/Transfer-News-Aston-Villa-in-for-Younes-Belhanda http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/12691/8755544/Transfer-news-Werder-Bremen-in-the-mix-for-Aleksandar-Tonev this was a brilliant comment "No offence to any of the other clubs mentioned, but why would anyone want to move to a major metropolitan area like Milan or Istanbul and play in the Champions League when - if he plays his cards right - he could live in Birmingham and work with such luminaries as Stephen Ireland and Alan Hutton? Welcome to Villa, son." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon_c Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 In fairness, Istanbul looks great fun on the news this week. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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