Transfer Rumour Discussion Thread

[Spursalot]

Accies to land millions if McCarthy moves on

HAMILTON could be in line to earn a bumper seven figure pay-off if former Accies' ace James McCarthy's dream move to Tottenham Hotspur goes through.




Andre Villas-Boas is said to be a big admirer of the 22-year-old Republic of Ireland international, with McCarthy seen as a natural replacement for veteran midfielder Scott Parker, who could be on his way out at White Hart Lane this summer.

Everton and Fulham are also believed to be interested in the former New Douglas Park star, with Everton now being bossed by Roberto Martinez, the man who lured McCarthy south to the DW Stadium.

McCarthy was in the top 10 Premier League players in terms of passes completed and created 36 assists despite playing for a side that were relegated last term.

Accies' secretary Scott Struthers admitted that Hamilton are anticipating a bumper pay-out if their former star makes a multi-million pound move.

He said: "We have a private agreement in place with Wigan Athletic concerning a sell-on clause which would insure that Hamilton are rewarded for all the time and investment we put into James' development.

"It would not be appropriate to divulge that figure, but it will be a significant one if James does indeed move for anything like the figures being quoted."

But with relegation to the Championship and the arrival of Owen Coyle as new Wigan boss, chairman Dave Whelan will have his work cut out keeping the nucleus of his FA Cup-winning side together.

Coyle may view any multi million fee for the midfielder as a massive plus as he looks to get the Latics back up to the Premier League at the first time of asking.
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Although Tottenham are unlikely to meet the £20million fee that Whelan is demanding for his prized asset, it is believed that any offer in excess of half that valuation could be accepted, especially if McCarthy was to hand in a transfer request.

McCarthy came on AVB's radar after a superb performance against Gareth Bale in April in a 2-2 draw between Wigan and Spurs.

Villas-Boas is a manager well known for backing youth and White Hart Lane would seem the perfect destination for McCarthy.

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/sport...illions-if-mccarthy-moves-on-127570n.21359933


36 assists?

Really? :-k

 

[Dicko]

Gotta be a typo... I'm not even sure Wigan scored 36 goals last year!?

 

[Gutter Boy]

If he's good enough then he's good enough, doesn't matter where he's from.

I don't think a statement can be made about an entire market as big as the British having no value or quality. We've done really well with players like Bale and Walker, no reason to think that we'll stop buying young British players all of a sudden.

Value is highly situational, according to the internet [source needed] Tom Ince only has a year left on his contract and he seems eager to get into the Premier League so he's unlikely to sign a new contract.

In terms of value - English clubs hugely overprice. The new tv money will make it even worse as prices will balloon again. £15m could get us Bernard, or Adam Johnson. Hmmm. Dalglish/Comolli at Liverpool was the death knell of that approach.

In terms of quality - England and England U21s are the worst group of players we've had in living memory (probably even exceeding 1991-4). The failure to overhaul the grass roots game, root out high tempo at the expense of technique has really caught up with us. The likes of Carroll, Pritchard and Coulthirst are fairly unique at the moment.

 

[Gutter Boy]

Like I said, the two aren't mutually exclusive.

I hope we sign a couple of players that can slot in and strengthen the starting 11 and a couple of younger players with a lot of promise that can strengthen the squad this season and hopefully step it up a couple of years down the line.

It's not like signing Tom Ince will hurt our chances of signing Villa/Soldado/Damiao/some striker.

Any chairman or manager that has been in charge of a club as long as Levy has will have some real duds in their transfer record. If we sign Baldini and he stays around for a decade I imagine it will be the case with him too.

There are 10 million reasons why it will it will harm our chances of signing significant first team players. We just don't need Ince when we already have Townsend, who is similar and better.

 

[Pandy]

There are 10 million reasons why it will it will harm our chances of signing significant first team players. We just don't need Ince when we already have Townsend, who is similar and better.

I'm not so sure... atm we have Bale, Lennon and Townsend as proper wide players. If we keep Bale we are going to have to keep him happy. If we do move to 4-3-3 and he has no joy at RW we may well end up using him behind the striker a fair bit. That would mean we have Townsend, Lennon, and anyone else we buy in the summer. Ditto can be said if we sell Bale.

Realistically, we aren't going to buy two big time wide men (like Lamela) unless we sell Bale (let's assume we won't). Buying Ince for his potential and someone a bit more effective in the present would give us 4/5 wide players with Sig a decent option as well. That isn't too many.

Admittedly, if we could get someone like Bernard who would still take time to adapt but arguably is a more promising talent than Ince and also someone like Lamela who could make a quicker impact (not sure why I keep using his name, very doubtful we could get him - just Baldini-related speculation and he doesn't even officially work for us yet!) then Ince would be a frivolous addition.

But he should not be written off completely, because he is the sort of player we need. He may not have the pedigree that Brazil caps or Serie A goals bring but ultimately we are unlikely to be able to attract or keep happy two more quality wide players - we are not Man U/Man C/Chelsea. We could do with at least one, if not two. An added benefit of signing Lamela would be he can play up front, meaning we could easily sign another wide player.

 

[braineclipse]

In terms of value - English clubs hugely overprice. The new tv money will make it even worse as prices will balloon again. £15m could get us Bernard, or Adam Johnson. Hmmm. Dalglish/Comolli at Liverpool was the death knell of that approach.

In terms of quality - England and England U21s are the worst group of players we've had in living memory (probably even exceeding 1991-4). The failure to overhaul the grass roots game, root out high tempo at the expense of technique has really caught up with us. The likes of Carroll, Pritchard and Coulthirst are fairly unique at the moment.

Once again, value is very situational. Yes English players tend to be overpriced, but that's not a universal truth valid for all English players. Similarly the lack of technique isn't universal either, there are exceptions.

Players should be evaluated based on their abilities, not where they're from.

There are 10 million reasons why it will it will harm our chances of signing significant first team players. We just don't need Ince when we already have Townsend, who is similar and better.

Exactly how much he would cost is difficult to say at this point. There have been a lot of different prices floating around in the press.

Of course if Townsend is better than him and a similar player then we probably shouldn't sign Ince. I haven't seen enough of Ince to have an opinion on that, all I'm saying is that if he's good enough or not is the important bit, not where he's from. And that we can't write off the entire British market.

 

[Pandy]

If we signed Ince I am certain Levy would not pay anywhere near £10m for him. He is a Championship-proven player, 8 figures would be ludicrous. Of course at that price he would be a poor signing but with Levy as our chairman talking about him at that price is academic, Levy would never pay it and rightly so. Adel Taarabt was a king in the Championship and we all know how toss he is, there's nothing to say Ince will be able to cut it in the Premiership (unless someone is a closet Blackpool fan?).

 

[braineclipse]

If we signed Ince I am certain Levy would not pay anywhere near £10m for him. He is a Championship-proven player, 8 figures would be ludicrous. Of course at that price he would be a poor signing but with Levy as our chairman talking about him at that price is academic, Levy would never pay it and rightly so. Adel Taarabt was a king in the Championship and we all know how toss he is, there's nothing to say Ince will be able to cut it in the Premiership (unless someone is a closet Blackpool fan?).

Agreed.

This might be one that goes down to the wire as Levy (and possibly other clubs) will look to put pressure on Blackpool. If we end up signing him or not might end up being more down to if some other (smaller) club really wants him and is willing to pay what Blackpool want for him early on.

 

[braineclipse]

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/sport...illions-if-mccarthy-moves-on-127570n.21359933


36 assists?

Really? :-k

I'm guessing they mean chances, not assists. Whoscored has him down for 2 assists in total, but 0.9 key passes per game over 38 games - that might add up to 36 chances created...?

If he had 36 assists that would be absolutely mental and £20m would be a steal

 

[thfcsteff]

There are 10 million reasons why it will it will harm our chances of signing significant first team players. We just don't need Ince when we already have Townsend, who is similar and better.

Problem is, Townshend appears to have a touch of the Etheringtons and as you know mate, the devil at this level in the details. If his details have already led him to a gambling issue (however minor in our eyes) you would have to wonder about his decision making process in general. Not saying he's always on the take, just that perhaps his actual decision making on any level is not the best?

 

[Pandy]

Problem is, Townshend appears to have a touch of the Etheringtons and as you know mate, the devil at this level in the details. If his details have already led him to a gambling issue (however minor in our eyes) you would have to wonder about his decision making process in general. Not saying he's always on the take, just that perhaps his actual decision making on any level is not the best?

It's very different, decision making depends on the options available to you, your knowledge about the situation, etc. Thousands upon thousands of players have shown poor judgement off the pitch, most in far worse ways than Townsend. Maradona was a giant cokehead, yet he knew exactly what to do on the field. Suarez bit Ivanovic but his instincts provide him with the correct decisions. Giggs slept with his step-brother's wife, yet he still transformed himself from pacey winger into a slick central midfielder.

Or maybe he just didn't realise, ignorance is not poor decision making, its poor information upon which the decision making process is based.

If we are to sign Ince it should be in addition to Townsend not instead of him...

 

[Pandy]

Agreed.

This might be one that goes down to the wire as Levy (and possibly other clubs) will look to put pressure on Blackpool. If we end up signing him or not might end up being more down to if some other (smaller) club really wants him and is willing to pay what Blackpool want for him early on.

To be honest I can't really see anyone paying £10m for him (Liverpool might be that departed but I don't see it). Maybe £8m. £10m might be what they're asking though... "He's at least 2/3s as good as Zaha" and all that.

 

[RunTMC]

I'm guessing they mean chances, not assists. Whoscored has him down for 2 assists in total, but 0.9 key passes per game over 38 games - that might add up to 36 chances created...?

If he had 36 assists that would be absolutely mental and £20m would be a steal

I didn't read that as saying he had 36 assists. Rather he 'created' 36 assists. In other words he assisted the assister!

It's the old Modric argument in that he didn't directly assist but he would pass the ball to the guy that eventually had the assist

 

[metalgear]

I didn't read that as saying he had 36 assists. Rather he 'created' 36 assists. In other words he assisted the assister!

It's the old Modric argument in that he didn't directly assist but he would pass the ball to the guy that eventually had the assist

that would make him playmaker.

 

[Rossi22]

It's 36 chances created, not 36 assists or "pre-assists". For comparison, Dembele has 55 in 8 fewer games.

 

[braineclipse]

I didn't read that as saying he had 36 assists. Rather he 'created' 36 assists. In other words he assisted the assister!

It's the old Modric argument in that he didn't directly assist but he would pass the ball to the guy that eventually had the assist

I won't say that it's impossible, but for a team that scored 47 league goals I think that seems very unlikely. Even if you include all competitions that would mean that he assisted the assister for over half their goals I think. I really struggle to see how that could be the case.

 

[braineclipse]

Problem is, Townshend appears to have a touch of the Etheringtons and as you know mate, the devil at this level in the details. If his details have already led him to a gambling issue (however minor in our eyes) you would have to wonder about his decision making process in general. Not saying he's always on the take, just that perhaps his actual decision making on any level is not the best?

Young man with too much time and money on his hands makes a mistake. World in shock.

He seems willing to learn from his mistake, repent and move on. I think we should do the same and forgive (without forgetting) unless he gets himself into trouble again.

 

[billyiddo]

Key pass doesn't translate to goals scored or assisted but chances created or assists to a chances created.

Quite feesible one player racks up that amount - id imagine the stat for players in more attacking sides are a lot higher - anyone fancy digging out some other players to compare with??

 

[Rossi22]

I posted this a while back:

Assists aren't a great stat as it relies on two players rather than just the one you're looking at. Bale has created 73 chances this season which is the highest of any Spurs player. For comparison RVP has 70, Rooney 49, Mata 91, Hazard 65, Cazorla 94, Walcott 35, Silva 101, Tevez 61, Nasri 51, Suarez 89.

 

[rosenthal]

Not saying it's what i hope for,
but if we're changing into a 433 unit with a right forward cutting inside on his left.
Then it would make sense to sell Lennon and sign Ince as Bale's backup (and heir?).