Hughes Transfer Strategy ?

[Fuzzmaster101]

I really don't like the way we seem to be limiting our options by only buying prem proven players. I also think it's a bit of a cop out as other managers have taken gambles on the players and we're just buying them off them for much higher fees and ridiculous wages. Anyone can pay way over the odds and simply buy the better players in the league, the biggest problemn I have is that the players we seem to be looking at now aren't even the best players in the league. Is Kolo Toure really that good? Can we afford to have a centre half who's so poor in the air when our team has struggled so badly with our physical presence problem?

I can tell you know that he ain't worth the £100-120k a week we're paying him, Bellamy ain't worth the 90-100k a week we're paying him and neither is Bridge. Bad decisions are being made IMO and only highly impressive results excessive funds from the arabs will see us through and the arabs aren't just gonna throw hundreds of millions year after year at it if we ain't getting results. Don't give me that 'it ain't our money' bullshit. The fact of the matter is that with their current contracts we are going to be paying certain players wages for the next 4 years even though they will be playing for other teams, as they probably won't be good enough for the long run and no other club in the world will be willing to pay anything near what we are curtrently paying them

I'm with this guy.

Really? I'm fairly sure there was a very public effort to try to sign Eto'o! I'd say that was a player who's not Prem proven. Who would be better than Barry for 12 million from abroad? How many players who've scored over 20 goals in a tough league abroad can you get for 25 million or 15-18 million for that matter?

 

[The Fat el Hombre]

The big thing that Hughes looks for in a player is workrate, all his signings show us this (Adebayor being an exception but he must have his reasons)
Maybe he thinks buying abroad he might not be guaranteed that?

My answer to that question would simply be - Kompany and Zabaleta. The whole prem proven thing is flawed by the fact that 2 of our 3 players voted players of the season last year weren't prem proven, and that ain't even including Robinho! I could see an argument for getting prem proven players in but we've got plenty of players who know the score now but are fast running out of decent targets in the prem, we've got to look abroad and I don't know why Hughes is so reluctant to do this. Well I ahve a theory that his bottle's gone a bit (I think it went in january) but with a bit of luck he's got a pleasant surprise in store sooner or later.

Hughes is good at picking the right players from abroad and he needs to take advantage of this and the funds at his disposal

 

[Fuzzmaster101]

Barry was a fantastic signing and a snip at £12 million no doubt about it. If we can get the best out of Adebayor he will also be a snip at £22 million. It's just when we get into the stage what we're in now after paying £16 million for Toure and bidding around £20 million for Lescott where the plan starts to get a bit iffy for me

Saying that, I'm still behind buying Lescott for £20 million cos I think he'd be a very important player for us next season and he ticks a lot of boxes

Now this is sensible. Lescott might also get us important goals from corners in tight games which last year we would have drawn or lost. Once we have a goal and the other team need to push forward to equalise we have the players to tear them apart and push further ahead. I think Toure may supprise a few ;)

 

[citizens_1976]

I think he is going for prem experience for the balance of the team. if you ask me who i'd rather have out of Addy and Eto'o, i'd say Eto'o every time, but that wasn't to be and we got a prem proven goalscorer in Addy. Taylor, undecided. Barry, Decent signing. Tevez, Our best signing by far. Adebayor, strange signing but should be good. Santa Cruz, Undecided but prem proven goalscorer. Soo far we haven't done brilliant, but we have done very well and better than i expected. Hopefully next summer we can just add 1 or 2 players which is a truly world class player.

 

[Danamy]

The big thing that Hughes looks for in a player is workrate, all his signings show us this (Adebayor being an exception but he must have his reasons)
Maybe he thinks buying abroad he might not be guaranteed that?

My answer to that question would simply be - Kompany and Zabaleta. The whole prem proven thing is flawed by the fact that 2 of our 3 players voted players of the season last year weren't prem proven, and that ain't even including Robinho! I could see an argument for getting prem proven players in but we've got plenty of players who know the score now but are fast running out of decent targets in the prem, we've got to look abroad and I don't know why Hughes is so reluctant to do this. Well I ahve a theory that his bottle's gone a bit (I think it went in january) but with a bit of luck he's got a pleasant surprise in store sooner or later.

Hughes is good at picking the right players from abroad and he needs to take advantage of this and the funds at his disposal

He knows he's got till xmas to prove he's the man to take us foward.
I'm sure if we're in a good position in Jan and he gets the thumbs up from the owners he'll spread his wings abroad for talent.

 

[The Fat el Hombre]

Barry was a fantastic signing and a snip at £12 million no doubt about it. If we can get the best out of Adebayor he will also be a snip at £22 million. It's just when we get into the stage what we're in now after paying £16 million for Toure and bidding around £20 million for Lescott where the plan starts to get a bit iffy for me

Saying that, I'm still behind buying Lescott for £20 million cos I think he'd be a very important player for us next season and he ticks a lot of boxes

Now this is sensible. Lescott might also get us important goals from corners in tight games which last year we would have drawn or lost. Once we have a goal and the other team need to push forward to equalise we have the players to tear them apart and push further ahead. I think Toure may supprise a few ;)

I hope so mate. I'm not denying he's a decent player but is he decent enough?

As for Eto vs Ade. Well personally I think missing out on Eto'o might have been another blessing in disguise and Adebayor will prove to be a better signing. Eto'o is the better player but there are more things to take into consideration than that. We desperately needed a big target man to hold the ball up as we didn't have that at times last season (Bellamy up front) and had to resort to Caicedo who wasn't good enough. For the system we play Adebayor is absolutely perfect and at 25 is the perfect age. If we can consistently get the best out of him he could be one hell of a signing and will without doubt be one of our most important players

 

[The Fat el Hombre]

My answer to that question would simply be - Kompany and Zabaleta. The whole prem proven thing is flawed by the fact that 2 of our 3 players voted players of the season last year weren't prem proven, and that ain't even including Robinho! I could see an argument for getting prem proven players in but we've got plenty of players who know the score now but are fast running out of decent targets in the prem, we've got to look abroad and I don't know why Hughes is so reluctant to do this. Well I ahve a theory that his bottle's gone a bit (I think it went in january) but with a bit of luck he's got a pleasant surprise in store sooner or later.

Hughes is good at picking the right players from abroad and he needs to take advantage of this and the funds at his disposal

He knows he's got till xmas to prove he's the man to take us foward.
I'm sure if we're in a good position in Jan and he gets the thumbs up from the owners he'll spread his wings abroad for talent.

I hope so but I'd like to see him do it now while we've got a chance to do it. I suspect that the long term plan might consist of getting prem proven players in this summer and some top foreign players the next, although I could well be wrong

 

[Danamy]

He knows he's got till xmas to prove he's the man to take us foward.
I'm sure if we're in a good position in Jan and he gets the thumbs up from the owners he'll spread his wings abroad for talent.

I hope so but I'd like to see him do it now while we've got a chance to do it. I suspect that the long term plan might consist of getting prem proven players in this summer and some top foreign players the next, although I could well be wrong

Maybe the one's he's got in mind aren't available yet?

 

[GStar]

The big thing that Hughes looks for in a player is workrate, all his signings show us this (Adebayor being an exception but he must have his reasons)
Maybe he thinks buying abroad he might not be guaranteed that?

My answer to that question would simply be - Kompany and Zabaleta. The whole prem proven thing is flawed by the fact that 2 of our 3 players voted players of the season last year weren't prem proven, and that ain't even including Robinho! I could see an argument for getting prem proven players in but we've got plenty of players who know the score now but are fast running out of decent targets in the prem, we've got to look abroad and I don't know why Hughes is so reluctant to do this. Well I ahve a theory that his bottle's gone a bit (I think it went in january) but with a bit of luck he's got a pleasant surprise in store sooner or later.

Hughes is good at picking the right players from abroad and he needs to take advantage of this and the funds at his disposal

You've answered your previous post there i'd say. Hughes can by abroad and he can buy domestic. I haven't a single qualm with our transfer activity this summer; (OK, were hanging on too long with Lescott and i was originally dubious with Toure) i can see what each player we have brings to our squad. I think it's been a great strategy and coincidence that our league rivals have had the players we've needed (Barry: hard working midfielder, Adebayor/RSC: Strikers with presence, Tevez: hard working forward, Toure: Experienced leader and "big 4" Centre back).

We have a minimum goal of top 5, with most probably hoping/expecting top4. It makes sense to take playersfrom in and around that bracket, players with have been the top players at thier club with a mentality go either start winning or keep winning.

I can see the sense in lescott; wildly overpriced yet a strong ariel presence, who can perform in the premier league and give us an attacking threat at set pieces. The Premier League is so much faster than other leagues i think defenders have to adapt quickly, one mistake from a striker it stys 0-0, one mistake from a defender and were 0-1 down, its much more of a risk.

 

[Neil McNab's Tash]

He knows he's got till xmas to prove he's the man to take us foward.
I'm sure if we're in a good position in Jan and he gets the thumbs up from the owners he'll spread his wings abroad for talent.

I hope so but I'd like to see him do it now while we've got a chance to do it. I suspect that the long term plan might consist of getting prem proven players in this summer and some top foreign players the next, although I could well be wrong

I think you're being a little harsh my friend

He has to build a squad he knows can compete, his job is on the line and won't currently gamble on unproven players.

You think his bottle has gone a bit, I don't think so, i feel this is the best way to build the squad, quality players and proven at this level, spreading our net in the future might be the thing to do, there is a big list of players and they are working to it.

Here's waiting

NMT