Are we in danger of missing our main transfer targets?

[mancboy123]

Right the plain and simple facts are these, none of the top clubs have signed anyone yet there is alot of speculation but no signings yet.

If we sign one maybe two players ill be happy wiuth that as im more concerned with us playing as a team which is what won the rags the title, they have 1 maybe 2 players that you would want in the city team but still won the title not because they are brilliant but because they have had time to gel together as a team.

I know its been fun all the new faces over the past few windows and its been good us being the only source of news on ssn and in the papers but i think we are at a position now where we sign cos we needs to not cos we can. Lets let the team that finished joint 2nd on points get a good pre season and push on.

 

[bluemoondays]

Right the plain and simple facts are these, none of the top clubs have signed anyone yet there is alot of speculation but no signings yet.

If we sign one maybe two players ill be happy wiuth that as im more concerned with us playing as a team which is what won the rags the title, they have 1 maybe 2 players that you would want in the city team but still won the title not because they are brilliant but because they have had time to gel together as a team.

I know its been fun all the new faces over the past few windows and its been good us being the only source of news on ssn and in the papers but i think we are at a position now where we sign cos we needs to not cos we can. Lets let the team that finished joint 2nd on points get a good pre season and push on.

I sort of agree with this but I think we need squad cover as we need to get rid of a lot of players and our bench looked worryingly thin at times last season. I'm not expecting 5-6 "star" players to come in but maybe 1-2 with 3-5 decent squad players. Mainly because we finished joint 2nd last season and how many positions REALLY need a star player to be added.

Assuming Tevez stays we are sorted 1st team for CF (Tevez), AMC (Silva), DM (NDJ), RB (Richards/Zabs), CB (VK), GK (Joe). You can make an argument for DM (Barry/Milner), AML (Balo), CB (Lescott) AMR (AJ) being good enough. Thats 10 positions covered in total plus I'm still hopeful for Kola (LB).

The positions I see, and get constantly repeated, are CB, LB, AM & L/R wing. Something like the list below would have us sorted without major spending with an option to splash the cash on any of these positions (eg Chiellini or Sneijder etc). Only a couple of these would be 1st team starters and the others (hopefully) provide decent squad cover and/or allow us to mix it up in tactics.

Vertonghen - £10m
Gervinho - £9m
Mata - £16m?
Enrique - £10m?
Honda - £12m?
Backup GK - £3m?
Lukaku - £18m

Total £78m

Sell RSC (4), Bridge (2), Given (3), Adebayor (15), Bellamy (2), Logan (1), SWP (5), Jo (3), Boateng (12), Onuoha (7) (still not happy about this) and we could reasonably expect to raise circa £50m. Bit worried about home-grown rules but we should be OK still if cutting it close.

7 players in, 10 players out (most of which were on long loans, injured or almost permanently benched).

Overall spend about 30m.

 

[SamTheGuru]

Right the plain and simple facts are these, none of the top clubs have signed anyone yet there is alot of speculation but no signings yet.

If we sign one maybe two players ill be happy wiuth that as im more concerned with us playing as a team which is what won the rags the title, they have 1 maybe 2 players that you would want in the city team but still won the title not because they are brilliant but because they have had time to gel together as a team.

I know its been fun all the new faces over the past few windows and its been good us being the only source of news on ssn and in the papers but i think we are at a position now where we sign cos we needs to not cos we can. Lets let the team that finished joint 2nd on points get a good pre season and push on.

I sort of agree with this but I think we need squad cover as we need to get rid of a lot of players and our bench looked worryingly thin at times last season. I'm not expecting 5-6 "star" players to come in but maybe 1-2 with 3-5 decent squad players. Mainly because we finished joint 2nd last season and how many positions REALLY need a star player to be added.

Assuming Tevez stays we are sorted 1st team for CF (Tevez), AMC (Silva), DM (NDJ), RB (Richards/Zabs), CB (VK), GK (Joe). You can make an argument for DM (Barry/Milner), AML (Balo), CB (Lescott) AMR (AJ) being good enough. Thats 10 positions covered in total plus I'm still hopeful for Kola (LB).

The positions I see, and get constantly repeated, are CB, LB, AM & L/R wing. Something like the list below would have us sorted without major spending with an option to splash the cash on any of these positions (eg Chiellini or Sneijder etc). Only a couple of these would be 1st team starters and the others (hopefully) provide decent squad cover and/or allow us to mix it up in tactics.

Vertonghen - £10m
Gervinho - £9m
Mata - £16m?
Enrique - £10m?
Honda - £12m?
Backup GK - £3m?
Lukaku - £18m

Total £78m

Sell RSC (4), Bridge (2), Given (3), Adebayor (15), Bellamy (2), Logan (1), SWP (5), Jo (3), Boateng (12), Onuoha (7) (still not happy about this) and we could reasonably expect to raise circa £50m. Bit worried about home-grown rules but we should be OK still if cutting it close.

7 players in, 10 players out (most of which were on long loans, injured or almost permanently benched).

Overall spend about 30m.

We won't raise circa £50m for the above, but the issue isn't the transfer fees, it is the wages.

 

[richards30]

the rumours have definately stopped regarding us recently??! i would imagine things are going on behind the scenes but had hoped if we managed to get yaya,silva etc in last summer then targets this year would be of the same if not higher class! first trophy won for 35years and guaranteed champions league surely shows top players we are heading in the right direction?!?!?!

 

[mancboy123]

realistically how much higher can you go than yaya and silva

 

[Tricky_Trev]

the rumours have definately stopped regarding us recently??! i would imagine things are going on behind the scenes but had hoped if we managed to get yaya,silva etc in last summer then targets this year would be of the same if not higher class! first trophy won for 35years and guaranteed champions league surely shows top players we are heading in the right direction?!?!?!

Have you never heard of FFP? It's very difficult for the top players to move now. Nobody can shell out the big money any more. In the wake of the new rules, effectively every players' value has decreased. However, no club wants to be the first to sell a top player for what appears to be a low fee by previous standards, hence everyone is still demanding pre-FFP prices and creating stalemates.

 

[Tez Tosterone]

the rumours have definately stopped regarding us recently??! i would imagine things are going on behind the scenes but had hoped if we managed to get yaya,silva etc in last summer then targets this year would be of the same if not higher class! first trophy won for 35years and guaranteed champions league surely shows top players we are heading in the right direction?!?!?!

That is the way it should be.

Real professional.

 

[EalingBlue2]

If we were to go and sign 7 players we would go backwards it would be as daft as changing manager!

 

[alera]

At the end of the day if sides like barca rags real go in for a player we are after it's obvious where they would rather go.

Why can't people accept this ?

What we do have is the ability to offer higher wages and transfer fees in some cases this will make us the winner but it's never easy signing the best players.

 

[grunge]

I think we'll sign some squad players, maybe 1 marquee signing. enough to keep us in the top 4 and CL for a few years.. then once the stadium improvements and area regeneration start to bring in more money we'll be able to start really splashing the cash again.

Either that, or we'll watch Chelsea/Liverpool/Real/Barca all hammer the market and watch the FFP rules get ditched and we'll splash the cash again.