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The General Transfer Rumours and Speculation Thread

Where's the Joey Barton levels of outrage at being linked with scumbag jailbird Deeney?

It's a flimflam story regardless. Why would we be interested in the link man in two man strikeforce? He wouldn't fit in anywhere in Pochs 4231
 
DubaiSpur said:
There aren't a 'lot of signings elsewhere', at least not yet. I don't think anyone's suggested that yet. My own suggestion is that it's possible to do good business before tournaments like the Euros begin, and clubs have conducted such business already this close season, even with their great number and their shared, unfortunate handicap of not being Tottenham.

However, I don't particularly think waiting until after the Euros when the mad scramble begins anyway is a particularly well thought-out strategy if that's what we're doing by choice; seems somewhat backwards to me. If we're forced into it by top targets refusing to negotiate till after the Euros, fine, no problems with waiting (even if, as I mentioned, these tournaments should be factored into common transfer strategies by now; perhaps by adopting different approaches to players in off-seasons with international tournaments?). But doing it by choice? Nah, although fwiw, I don't think that's what we're aiming to do this summer, thankfully.

I don't really agree that doing your business early is overestimated as something that brings significant bonuses. Hits and misses aside, early transfers can be bedded into summer training, can get up to speed quicker, can sort out the off-the-pitch aspects of moving (perhaps to another country if they're coming from abroad) and settling in prior to the season beginning, and can be more fruitfully employed in terms of fitting into a team's overall plan as opposed to either being thrown in to real matches see where they fit or benched for the early part of the season while the manager decides where and how to deploy the player on the training field. To me, those are enormous advantages, especially given the emphasis on training and tactical understanding inherent in Bielsa-esque tactics like the ones Poch uses.
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I don't have any reason to doubt that we have always tried to do our business early. As I have said in another post, it's just not in any buying club's interests to let a transfer drag out and wait till the end of the transfer window. Not only does it run the risk of losing out on a target and not having enough time to negotiate another deal, but also for the very reasons that you point out, it works better to have a player in for a full pre-season with your own tactics.

However, the selling club (especially if they have a potential gold mine player) has every interest in letting the transfer drag out as there is more chance that another club will come in. Just one broken leg, ACL injury or the like and desperation could mean that the selling club get the extra couple of million, better payment terms or sell-on clause. The player himself, unless the original club is the only club that he wants to go to, also has an incentive to drag out a transfer so that they can get their first choice. Remember their agents will be talking to them all of the time telling them that the mega-rich clubs with higher wage structures are after them, and I wouldn't put it past those same mega rich clubs to whisper in agents' ears and say that they they are interested and for the player to just bide their time.

However, all of what I have said and what others have said is supposition. I just don't see why some fans choose to believe that our club is hell bent on doing things the most difficult way. Fact is that even now, we are only ever going to be the sixth highest spenders on wages in this country, perhaps even seventh with the way West Ham seem to be paying their players. Liverpool don't have a much bigger squad yet pay around 150% of our wages and it just goes up further from there. That is a huge difference and probably the reason why that unless a player absolutely has his heart set on playing for us, we will not get a deal sorted as early as we would like.
 
Gazzasrightboot said:
I don't have any reason to doubt that we have always tried to do our business early. As I have said in another post, it's just not in any buying club's interests to let a transfer drag out and wait till the end of the transfer window. Not only does it run the risk of losing out on a target and not having enough time to negotiate another deal, but also for the very reasons that you point out, it works better to have a player in for a full pre-season with your own tactics.

However, the selling club (especially if they have a potential gold mine player) has every interest in letting the transfer drag out as there is more chance that another club will come in. Just one broken leg, ACL injury or the like and desperation could mean that the selling club get the extra couple of million, better payment terms or sell-on clause. The player himself, unless the original club is the only club that he wants to go to, also has an incentive to drag out a transfer so that they can get their first choice. Remember their agents will be talking to them all of the time telling them that the mega-rich clubs with higher wage structures are after them, and I wouldn't put it past those same mega rich clubs to whisper in agents' ears and say that they they are interested and for the player to just bide their time.

However, all of what I have said and what others have said is supposition. I just don't see why some fans choose to believe that our club is hell bent on doing things the most difficult way. Fact is that even now, we are only ever going to be the sixth highest spenders on wages in this country, perhaps even seventh with the way West Ham seem to be paying their players. Liverpool don't have a much bigger squad yet pay around 150% of our wages and it just goes up further from there. That is a huge difference and probably the reason why that unless a player absolutely has his heart set on playing for us, we will not get a deal sorted as early as we would like.
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There are incentives to drag out the sale of a player, no doubt. But there are also incentives not to let it drag too far - the longer a player is unsold, the greater the risk of a medical complication that could drive away suitors (a broken leg, an ACL injury or the like), the less time to spend the money you receive, the likelier it is that interested suitors give up and move to other targets. I dislike haggling as a rule, but generally we've all been in situations, professionally or otherwise, where we have to make the call on cashing out or holding on. I don't think there are any fewer risks involved with the second option in the market than there are with day-to-day decisions, or those on a lower level professionally.

I don't think the club is hell-bent on doing things in the most difficult way. In previous years, I was strongly of the mind that the chairman's....peculiarities and reluctance to back his man led to us doing things in the most difficult way possible (and failing quite often in those endeavours), but I think after last summer that we genuinely have a fairly happy situation where the chairman will act if the manager requests it. However, I'm merely pointing out that a deliberate strategy of waiting is largely imbecilic as a transfer tactic; by all means, our circumstances, the preferences of our top targets, the situation in the window...these things could force us to wait, and that's fine if we get the manager's man (or as close to what he wants as humanly possible, which excludes the Nelsons, Sahas, Stamboulis and Fazios of this world in most instances) at the end of it. But if we choose to wait it out of our own accord...well, I just struggle to see the logic in that hypothetical scenario, is all.
 
We have been linked with Mkhitaryan already so why not Reus too. Personally I think Reus would be great. He's 27 now, hitting his prime and would be perfect as the player who could exploit the spaces that Kane, Alli and Eriksen create.
 
DubaiSpur said:
There are incentives to drag out the sale of a player, no doubt. But there are also incentives not to let it drag too far - the longer a player is unsold, the greater the risk of a medical complication that could drive away suitors (a broken leg, an ACL injury or the like), the less time to spend the money you receive, the likelier it is that interested suitors give up and move to other targets. I dislike haggling as a rule, but generally we've all been in situations, professionally or otherwise, where we have to make the call on cashing out or holding on. I don't think there are any fewer risks involved with the second option in the market than there are with day-to-day decisions, or those on a lower level professionally.

I don't think the club is hell-bent on doing things in the most difficult way. In previous years, I was strongly of the mind that the chairman's....peculiarities and reluctance to back his man led to us doing things in the most difficult way possible (and failing quite often in those endeavours), but I think after last summer that we genuinely have a fairly happy situation where the chairman will act if the manager requests it. However, I'm merely pointing out that a deliberate strategy of waiting is largely imbecilic as a transfer tactic; by all means, our circumstances, the preferences of our top targets, the situation in the window...these things could force us to wait, and that's fine if we get the manager's man (or as close to what he wants as humanly possible, which excludes the Nelsons, Sahas, Stamboulis and Fazios of this world in most instances) at the end of it. But if we choose to wait it out of our own accord...well, I just struggle to see the logic in that hypothetical scenario, is all.
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I get it, but there is no deliberate strategy to wait. I could equally say that a deliberate strategy of overpaying to secure a target that may not even be your first choice just to get transfer business done early is an equally imbecilic transfer tactic. I don't think that we have ever had a deliberate strategy to wait because it is as nonsensical then as it would be now. The club have nothing to gain from it either from a financial perspective (unless there is some sort of release clause that comes into play for waiting) or from a playing perspective or from a harmony perspective.

I think if we are all agreed that the club is not deliberately delaying transfers, then there's not much of a discussion to be had. I was just responding to the posts (not just by you) that were made asking why we couldn't just get our transfer dealings done early. If only life were that simple.
 
Most transfers tend to occur later in the window because the players (or probably more pertinently their agents) are busy using the time to try to milk alternative/better offers. The truly massive clubs are able to make early transfers because they are the most prestigious destinations and also pay the most money. Unless a player is moving to one of those real top level clubs then their agent will tend to hold off of a transfer while trying to generate an offer from one of those clubs.

Previously our club has probably been in the third tier of destinations..... The top tier have been Real, Barca, Juve, Emirates Marketing Project, Bayern Munich, Man Utd, Chelsea and PSG..... The second tier were then traditionally clubs such as Arsenal, Dortmund, Atletico Madrid, AC/Inter Milan, Liverpool. We came in that next tier of clubs alongside the likes of Seville, Valencia, Roma, Napoli, Schalke, Wolfsburg, etc.

The new TV money washing around in the Premier League and our CL group stage qualification have probably now elevated us into the second tier of clubs. We should be an extremely desirable destination for any player who isn't wanted at the very top table, but we'll have to wait until the top table have finished their main course before we can start dining.
 
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