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Summer 2018 transfer thread

And no one wanted them with their wages don’t forget

It’s the same now

Why sell cheap if we don’t need to sell?

To get their wages off the books, at 40 grand a week that is 2m a year. If the players are not going to play and block a youth team players route to the first team then I think it best they move on even if it is for half their value. I dont care what someone else value is for a player I think it best to place our own values on them, if we dont intend to use them or think an academy player is going to be better then the player is almost worthless. The best financial decision then is to get rid and get money back and save wages. Levy has a history of hanging on to players to long.
 
Liverpool are spraying money around like the local Tom marking its territory. While we arent poor, but we arent able to do that.

The "excuse" is simple. We need Harrods players while having a Sainsburys budget.

Players to improve this team are in the £70m+ budget for the most part, with much bigger fish circling them.

If we wanted to get players we "can" (afford, easily) then we would be done already, but the squad would most likely be no better off.

If we want to get players who will actually improve us, well - its a tightrope walk, isnt it?

Its frustrating things are going late, AGAIN, but I dont think its a genuine ploy or failing in the club, I think its just the reality.

This where my point regarding scouting/transfer department comes in - there most definitley are players out there who can and will improve us, where was Ndombele a year ago? Where was Mahrez before he joined Leicester? Etc a lot of these top players we say are the only ones able to improve us were relatively cheap buys at one stage, but in order to find them we need the scouting department in place to do so - all the reasons we list for why we can't throw money around like Liverpool (and West Ham and Everton it seems) are also the reasons as to why we have to try and maximise our ability to unearth gems and i don't feel as though we have that in place atm
 
For the record I am not bothered if we dont sign anyone.

I would love it if Poch's comments about being brave meant not worrying if we finish outside the top 4 or even top 6 if we take a season to bring through some academy players and build a team to have a real crack at the title in 2019/2020 season.

I would love that sort of out of the box thinking. But I doubt that is what he meant, it is me putting my own desires onto what he said.

Transfers is the part of the club we seem to be most unprofessional at, I have read several articles over the years from agents, presidents of other clubs saying Leevy loves a deal and leaves it to the end of the window deliberately. It seems a clear fault in him. Some on this site seem to want to back or hate on someone without clearly evaluating a person. If you evaluate Levy he has problems with transfers, he has done so much good for the club in so many areas.

From a few years ago I never thought I would be in this position but I really think we need a director of football personally.
 
This where my point regarding scouting/transfer department comes in - there most definitley are players out there who can and will improve us, where was Ndombele a year ago? Where was Mahrez before he joined Leicester? Etc a lot of these top players we say are the only ones able to improve us were relatively cheap buys at one stage, but in order to find them we need the scouting department in place to do so - all the reasons we list for why we can't throw money around like Liverpool (and West Ham and Everton it seems) are also the reasons as to why we have to try and maximise our ability to unearth gems and i don't feel as though we have that in place atm

We have pulled in plenty of young/potential/quality players.

Its been our MO for years, its how we have got where we have. Its not like we are incapable.

Though, it seems, that "team" has been re-jigged a few times so I completely accept there could be gaps in our network, and am not against improving it at all.

I just dont think its a bad as you seem to think.
 
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To get their wages off the books, at 40 grand a week that is 2m a year. If the players are not going to play and block a youth team players route to the first team then I think it best they move on even if it is for half their value. I dont care what someone else value is for a player I think it best to place our own values on them, if we dont intend to use them or think an academy player is going to be better then the player is almost worthless. The best financial decision then is to get rid and get money back and save wages. Levy has a history of hanging on to players to long.

But they will play

Of our current squad I can’t think of any player that didn’t get games last season

Even the 3rd choice keeper did

So their not wastes of a space so to speak or money

If someone wants to buy Dembele for example they should be asked to pay a fair and reasonable amount for him - not get him on the cheap as we will use him plenty of times I’m sure

Yeah we will take losses on players like Jansen and Nkodu but that’s because their value has deteriorated. But that only works if someone actually wants that player and is willing to buy them
 
We have pulled in plenty of young/potential/quality players.

Its been our MO for years, its how we have got where we have. Its not like we are incapable.

Though, it seems, that "team" has been re-jogged a few times so I completely accept there could be gaps in our network, and am not against improving it at all.

I just dont think its a bad as you seem to think.

The arguments for us taking so long on transfers are based around us going for established players at high cost - this is a departure from our usual approach.

Our transfer record since we abandonned the DoF set up is quite patchy and our record on players from abroad is quite poor, with Son being the only real success and he was a target from the DoF days -

Edit: Sanchez obviously a good signing from abroad too tbf
 
For the record I am not bothered if we dont sign anyone.

I would love it if Poch's comments about being brave meant not worrying if we finish outside the top 4 or even top 6 if we take a season to bring through some academy players and build a team to have a real crack at the title in 2019/2020 season.

I would love that sort of out of the box thinking. But I doubt that is what he meant, it is me putting my own desires onto what he said.

Transfers is the part of the club we seem to be most unprofessional at, I have read several articles over the years from agents, presidents of other clubs saying Leevy loves a deal and leaves it to the end of the window deliberately. It seems a clear fault in him. Some on this site seem to want to back or hate on someone without clearly evaluating a person. If you evaluate Levy he has problems with transfers, he has done so much good for the club in so many areas.

From a few years ago I never thought I would be in this position but I really think we need a director of football personally.

We have a midtable mentality to transfers. Levy who I rate will do it for the right reasons I have no doubt.
We actually know absolutely nothing of the details and financial workings of the clubs transfers.
We then tend to fill in this information gap with our understandable frustrations with a hope or ambition of achieving something.
 
The arguments for us taking so long on transfers are based around us going for established players at high cost - this is a departure from our usual approach.

Our transfer record since we abandonned the DoF set up is quite patchy and our record on players from abroad is quite poor, with Son being the only real success and he was a target from the DoF days

Yes and no.

The argument currently revolves more around players of sufficient quality to improve us being expensive, established or not. Particularly in the current market.

Its easier to find "A Mahrez" when you are Leicester than when you have half an eye on the title. And remember - Mahrez's improvement came as a surprise to everyone, he wasnt anywhere near as good as now when they signed him.

We are in competition with Liverpool, Man Utd etc for players - but are no competition when it comes to finances.

While I would absolutely love to grab another Mahrez out of nowhere, I have to ask - what are the chances?

When was the last time top teams even managed that?

It goes to Pochs comments on youth, as the team improves the chances of youth coming in diminish, they have to be much better to break through. Id suggest a similar line of thought to taking punts on the like of NDombele.

Think about him - even now, from Lyon - he is something of a gamble. Clearly talented, but clearly raw - I dont know we can expect an immediate impact from him. Would there have been value in us looking at him a year ago, when he would have had less chance to play and develop? And been even more raw and inexperienced?

And theres the connundrum. Im all for bringing in and developing talent, but Im also of the opinion its needle-in-haystack stuff to find players that can come in and make immediate contributions, or even in the short-mid term, out of nowhere.

Im beginning to understand why the like of Utd would happily let talent move to mid table to play at a higher level and develop before picking them up, even if it does cost more.

To be clear - Im not arguing we shouldnt look at improving our scouting - it would be great to know we are not missing out on players. I just dont know that it will have the impact you seem to think. I think the team is such that the whole developing youth angle will take less precedence.
 
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