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What would YOUR priority signing be in the Jan transfer window?

Muttley said:
Yeah, I guess I was trying to come at it from the original point about why black people have swayed towards Arsenal. I still think if a player had origins from a tribe or town then it is quite natural that a player with heritage there would get a following. Of course, there are thousands of tribes right across the continent and obviously some are nomadic. I can't really think of another country that has so many talented footballers that qualify for Nigeria but play elsewhere. Names like Saka, Udogie, Olise, Musiala, Eze etc spring to mind. If you use the grandparents rule that is. I'm not sure whether their FA do use that.
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The football administration (NFF) has tried to do so. I mean Troost Ekong is currently playing for Nigeria after he was courted ditto Leon Balogun, Alex Iwobi, Ademola Lookman etc I feel sad for players like Tomori who were called up for England and their career appears to have finished early. I also understand why people choose not to. The NFF is in my opinion criminally incompetent.
 
Muttley said:
Yeah, I guess I was trying to come at it from the original point about why black people have swayed towards Arsenal. I still think if a player had origins from a tribe or town then it is quite natural that a player with heritage there would get a following. Of course, there are thousands of tribes right across the continent and obviously some are nomadic. I can't really think of another country that has so many talented footballers that qualify for Nigeria but play elsewhere. Names like Saka, Udogie, Olise, Musiala, Eze etc spring to mind. If you use the grandparents rule that is. I'm not sure whether their FA do use that.
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They do attempt it, but usually the players you mention were either born or grew up largely in the countries they've chosen to play for. Typically these are also larger, developed football nations with serious winning credentials.

So it makes sense, If I were born (or raised) in England, gained my football development in England, understand the vagaries of the English system and feel English that I would pick England as my most likely choice. Add to that, that the player himself may not have much of a connection to their ancestral origin or a familiarity with the football systems etc.

Usually you only see 1st or 2nd generation Internationals pick the secondary country if they can't get into their main nationalities side.
 
afsoc4life said:
Yes O!! Also the colour combination was very nice. That striking quartet of Adriano, Vieri, Cruz, and Martins was solid. In defence, Cordoba, Samuel, Cannavaro at some point, Lucio .. Inter has had ballers... Seedorf and Roberto Carlos were there at some point. Crespo, Stankovic, Sneijder, Emre, Zamarano, Toldo .. too many to remember. Always loved playing with them in Championship Manager and PES06
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Inter always signed big names and paid the biggest wages, but their chairman undermined every coach's teambuilding. He constantly meddled in team selections. I think it was Recoba who was his mate (but a bit brick), and he basically made the manager play him every game, however many better players they had than him.
 
Bishop said:
Whilst you're right about the 3 big tribes, there are actually hundreds of very distinct groups. It's a consequence of colonialism and Britain consolidating its holdings in the region versus the French rather than there being any real and natural affinity between the various ethnicities. Imagine Yugoslavia writ large.
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Going way off topic, but I don't understand why African countries don't realign more along ethnic lines? South Sudan recently has. But why not split Nigeria into 3 countries if that seems logical? It generally worked ok in post-Soviet Europe (Russia and Serbia obviously kicking off in a few places about losing their empires). Is it just the elites wanting to hold on to their biggest possible dominions?
 
Gutter Boy said:
Going way off topic, but I don't understand why African countries don't realign more along ethnic lines? South Sudan recently has. But why not split Nigeria into 3 countries if that seems logical? It generally worked ok in post-Soviet Europe (Russia and Serbia obviously kicking off in a few places about losing their empires). Is it just the elites wanting to hold on to their biggest possible dominions?
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Thats a really good question and I think the answer is likely what you suggest. Even if the current setup doesn't really work, it suits the elites to have access to the various resources that would inevitable be split if the countries were to realign under more logical and ethnic groupings.
 
Bishop said:
They do attempt it, but usually the players you mention were either born or grew up largely in the countries they've chosen to play for. Typically these are also larger, developed football nations with serious winning credentials.

So it makes sense, If I were born (or raised) in England, gained my football development in England, understand the vagaries of the English system and feel English that I would pick England as my most likely choice. Add to that, that the player himself may not have much of a connection to their ancestral origin or a familiarity with the football systems etc.

Usually you only see 1st or 2nd generation Internationals pick the secondary country if they can't get into their main nationalities side.
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Yeah, agree with that.

I do have a couple of 60 year old Sikh golf mates born in Ealing and Bedford. They do constantly remind me that they support India in the cricket even though they are English when it suits them :)
 
Muttley said:
Yeah, agree with that.

I do have a couple of 60 year old Sikh golf mates born in Ealing and Bedford. They do constantly remind me that they support India in the cricket even though they are English when it suits them :)
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Yep
And do you know what
I’m fine with that
I have the same here with Italians who pick the country by the sport
They support GB in the olympics but Italy in the football
 
Legohamster said:
Wolves are down - we should offer them Money for Gomes now to get ahead of the queue in the summer.
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Gomes confuses me. He has owned our midfield several times when we've played against them. However, he's not been snaffled up by a big club and wasn't even on anyone's radar this summer just gone. What do the big clubs see that we don't?
 
Muttley said:
Gomes confuses me. He has owned our midfield several times when we've played against them. However, he's not been snaffled up by a big club and wasn't even on anyone's radar this summer just gone. What do the big clubs see that we don't?
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Do many of the bigger clubs need a CM for the price Wolves would have been asking? He has just signed a new contract

United were sniffing around him at one point before being given encouragement by Balebas agent.
 
Legohamster said:
Do many of the bigger clubs need a CM for the price Wolves would have been asking? He has just signed a new contract

United were sniffing around him at one point before being given encouragement by Balebas agent.
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Yeah, could be that.

Arsenal bought Frank's old mainstay from Brentford and Zubimendi. They actually bought 2 of Gomes's stamp.

Liverpool bought Wirtz for their midfield. Slightly more attacking I guess.

Pep bought Reijnders and Cherki to bolster his midfield. Again, not quite the stamp of Gomes.

I guess there were a few targeted midfield purchases, but I never really saw Gomes linked. I would have swapped him for Bents and Biss in a heartbeat. He is way more of a leader than those guys and owns it more in the middle of the park. We should perhaps look again at him and Wharton in January. Pay the money.
 
My worry about Gomes is that he might not actually be that good and is only on our radar because he has bossed our midfield which has had its issues....when was the last time we bought from a relegated club and it worked it very well long-term?
 
glorygloryeze said:
My worry about Gomes is that he might not actually be that good and is only on our radar because he has bossed our midfield which has had its issues....when was the last time we bought from a relegated club and it worked it very well long-term?
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I think you nailed it. I guess you have to trust the process. Perhaps we see some intent from other camps like Wharton, Andersen, Rogers, MGW etc and are hedging our bets based on our budget. If Gomes is in that list then we get to find out eventually and see where he moves.

Obviously, when Wolves drop then Gomes will make a move.
 
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