Transfer News 2022/23 Season Incoming Transfers and a few other things

[RgYellows]

Difficult questions? The only time that would be a difficult question to answer would be if I was deemed clinically blind. As a football fan, you tend to watch football matches. Funny that…

It was a joke mate

 

[Paul Moody's Left Boot]

Did I miss that we’d had an offer accepted? Apologies if so.

Oops- I thought Plymouth had accepted our bid of a milllion plus pounds, but it looks like they haven't (yet).

 

[oufc1991]

Oops- I thought Plymouth had accepted our bid of a milllion plus pounds, but it looks like they haven't (yet).

Million plus pounds when can we afford to.pay money like that

 

[Chippy]

I've nothing more than a gut feeling that we'll get this deal done. But this is based on the fact that we have already offered an exceptional fee and (I would imagine) a better financial package for the player. He only has a year left on his contract and I think Plymouth would give serious consideration to cash in and get a longer term replacement. Nothing that I can prove (sorry @Chippy )!

Hey no worries, I was only half being serious and half joking anyway!

To be fair if we could get Hardie it would be a real statement of intent. I’ve been impressed when I’ve seen him play, but to be fair that is only a few times, so I’m sure there are many others better qualified to say whether he’d be worth a big fee and whether or not he’s a consistently top player in this league to justify the complete financial outlay his signing would command.

Wonder if we currently have other irons in the fire re a physical striker?

 

[Swaby39]

Oops- I thought Plymouth had accepted our bid of a milllion plus pounds, but it looks like they haven't (yet).

£1m is a lot to any club at this level. Particularly for a player they are likely to lose for free next year without a big offer themselves or a very strong season. Fair play to them for sitting tight. Hopefully we only pursue it on the grounds we know he’s open to the move if we can persuade Plymouth to sell. Exactly what we need, mind.

 

[androidyellow2]

Etete confirmed at Cardiff

 

[RyanioBirdio]

Million plus pounds when can we afford to.pay money like that

Now.

We bid a similar amount for Szmodics in January, who has since gone to Blackburn for double that.

 

[tonyw]

£1m is a lot to any club at this level. Particularly for a player they are likely to lose for free next year without a big offer themselves or a very strong season. Fair play to them for sitting tight. Hopefully we only pursue it on the grounds we know he’s open to the move if we can persuade Plymouth to sell. Exactly what we need, mind.

Call me unambitious, but I would be kind of terrified if we are actually offering seven figure fees for players.
Unless our owners are starting to donate money to the club - but to this point, I don't think they are, are they? Everything is still going onto our balance sheet as debt, I think?

We make an operating loss of about £5m a year now, I think? Which we then offset by player sales (sometimes partially, sometimes - like 2019/20 - so much so that we make a profit). If we start spending on transfers so that we're breaking even in that market, or losing rather than making money, then our debt's going to start to soar by £5m+ a year.

Not terminal as long as our investors are still on board. But what if Stratfield Brake falls through? Will they still want to stick around then? And who the hell would want to buy a business that loses £5m+ a season, and has almost no assets outside of its playing squad??

It all kind of feels like we're pushing all our chips into the middle......and that is making me uncomfortable, because I'm looking around at our competitors, and I'm not 100% we've got the winning hand......

 

[IsleofWightYellow]

I think his ball carrying abilities are better suited to a deep-lying role, because there's literally more distance to cover. Once he reaches 2/3rds of the pitch, it gets more compact and he has to lay it off anyway, but taking it as a DM and breaking a high press does most of the damage.

Yes, 100% this. Being able to beat a man deep in the pitch actually can open up the game massively. Gorrin passing it sideways or backwards won’t do this.

Also, people saying we need power and strength in the team - I can’t see many players in L1 being stronger than him. He outmuscled a few against Derby.

 

[brassmonkey]

Call me unambitious, but I would be kind of terrified if we are actually offering seven figure fees for players.
Unless our owners are starting to donate money to the club - but to this point, I don't think they are, are they? Everything is still going onto our balance sheet as debt, I think?

We make an operating loss of about £5m a year now, I think? Which we then offset by player sales (sometimes partially, sometimes - like 2019/20 - so much so that we make a profit). If we start spending on transfers so that we're breaking even in that market, or losing rather than making money, then our debt's going to start to soar by £5m+ a year.

Not terminal as long as our investors are still on board. But what if Stratfield Brake falls through? Will they still want to stick around then? And who the hell would want to buy a business that loses £5m+ a season, and has almost no assets outside of its playing squad??

It all kind of feels like we're pushing all our chips into the middle......and that is making me uncomfortable, because I'm looking around at our competitors, and I'm not 100% we've got the winning hand......

Guess it depends on who we buy for these kind of prices. Take szmodics or hardy as an example. Both are likely to be worth a lot more in the future. Its a bit like the peterborough model a few years back. Buy the cream of the lower leagues (and some young prem players) and sell for 5 x what they bought them for.

 

[Teacher]

Call me unambitious, but I would be kind of terrified if we are actually offering seven figure fees for players.
Unless our owners are starting to donate money to the club - but to this point, I don't think they are, are they? Everything is still going onto our balance sheet as debt, I think?

We make an operating loss of about £5m a year now, I think? Which we then offset by player sales (sometimes partially, sometimes - like 2019/20 - so much so that we make a profit). If we start spending on transfers so that we're breaking even in that market, or losing rather than making money, then our debt's going to start to soar by £5m+ a year.

Not terminal as long as our investors are still on board. But what if Stratfield Brake falls through? Will they still want to stick around then? And who the hell would want to buy a business that loses £5m+ a season, and has almost no assets outside of its playing squad??

It all kind of feels like we're pushing all our chips into the middle......and that is making me uncomfortable, because I'm looking around at our competitors, and I'm not 100% we've got the winning hand......

I’m glad someone else has said it.

 

[unification]

Call me unambitious, but I would be kind of terrified if we are actually offering seven figure fees for players.
Unless our owners are starting to donate money to the club - but to this point, I don't think they are, are they? Everything is still going onto our balance sheet as debt, I think?

We make an operating loss of about £5m a year now, I think? Which we then offset by player sales (sometimes partially, sometimes - like 2019/20 - so much so that we make a profit). If we start spending on transfers so that we're breaking even in that market, or losing rather than making money, then our debt's going to start to soar by £5m+ a year.

Not terminal as long as our investors are still on board. But what if Stratfield Brake falls through? Will they still want to stick around then? And who the hell would want to buy a business that loses £5m+ a season, and has almost no assets outside of its playing squad??

It all kind of feels like we're pushing all our chips into the middle......and that is making me uncomfortable, because I'm looking around at our competitors, and I'm not 100% we've got the winning hand......

Not the right player pushing the chips in.

As pre-season rolled on and with the season underway now, my thoughts on KR being a bridesmaid but never a bride are reinforced. Too much focus on the flashy elements and not enough on the boring stuff that makes successful sides successful.

It’ll be a fun season as usual. Plenty of goals and memorable games and that’s pretty cool with me. Promotion though? No chance. The defence is still flawed, the back ups not like for like, the forward line ageing and doubts hanging over goalkeepers. Too many questions to ask of the squad that are having to be answered too late in the day.

 

[tonyw]

Guess it depends on who we buy for these kind of prices. Take szmodics or hardy as an example. Both are likely to be worth a lot more in the future. Its a bit like the peterborough model a few years back. Buy the cream of the lower leagues (and some young prem players) and sell for 5 x what they bought them for.

We've been playing in the 'Buy for a few hundred thousand, sell for a couple of mill' pool for a while now - and doing it really well.

The 'Buy for a couple of mill, and sell for 5-10m' game is much more lucrative, but also much more risky if you get it wrong. And probably relies on being at least a Championship/League One Yo-Yo team as we never seem to have been able to sell players for those kinds of fees, no matter how good we think they are.......

 

[Swaby39]

Call me unambitious, but I would be kind of terrified if we are actually offering seven figure fees for players.
Unless our owners are starting to donate money to the club - but to this point, I don't think they are, are they? Everything is still going onto our balance sheet as debt, I think?

We make an operating loss of about £5m a year now, I think? Which we then offset by player sales (sometimes partially, sometimes - like 2019/20 - so much so that we make a profit). If we start spending on transfers so that we're breaking even in that market, or losing rather than making money, then our debt's going to start to soar by £5m+ a year.

Not terminal as long as our investors are still on board. But what if Stratfield Brake falls through? Will they still want to stick around then? And who the hell would want to buy a business that loses £5m+ a season, and has almost no assets outside of its playing squad??

It all kind of feels like we're pushing all our chips into the middle......and that is making me uncomfortable, because I'm looking around at our competitors, and I'm not 100% we've got the winning hand......

Suspect the board saw this window as a good time for a focused investment in the squad. We had a strong core of players we genuinely wanted and the rest was a blank canvas - I.e. no ties to players who bring nothing to the table. We needed this investment to transform us from nearly men/underdog challengers to genuine contenders with the tools to have genuine belief it’s a realistic ambition - I.e. there can be no excuses. I don’t think it’ll be like this every window since this is all about building a squad that’s predominantly ours for the future and unequivocally capable of promotion within the next 2 seasons.

 

[beyondthefourth]

Etete went for 500k from what I've heard, I'm not sure Hardie at twice that is great value

 

[Oufccraig45]

McGuane is a big, strong lad, absolutely no reason he can’t become a defensive midfielder and has the plus side of being technically good as well.

MOM against Derby

 

[oufc1991]

Now.

We bid a similar amount for Szmodics in January, who has since gone to Blackburn for double that.

Wow i.knew we had money but not that kinda money

 

[Gregortheox]

If we can get Hardie this season I will be very very impressed. Have been critical of some things so far but will equally admit I’m wrong if we do end up signing that calibre of player. I hope we can get Hardie. He’s a player I’ve admired for about 2 seasons.

Yes, we need to invest in this sort of quality and not rest on our Laurels.

 

[tonyw]

Suspect the board saw this window as a good time for a focused investment in the squad. We had a strong core of players we genuinely wanted and the rest was a blank canvas - I.e. no ties to players who bring nothing to the table. We needed this investment to transform us from nearly men/underdog challengers to genuine contenders with the tools to have genuine belief it’s a realistic ambition - I.e. there can be no excuses. I don’t think it’ll be like this every window since this is all about building a squad that’s predominantly ours for the future and unequivocally capable of promotion within the next 2 seasons.

Sure, but it's not like the Championship is a financial promised land that's going to magically wipe away all our debt (it's not the Premier League!). Teams there lose more money than anywhere else in the pyramid. I believe we would make about £7m more a season there from TV rights and PL payments - but even if we increased our spending by about that same amount, we would still have a well below average budget for the Championship.

If the Board believes that having a Championship team will have a massive benefit in getting approval for Stratfield Brake, then I can just about understand it.

So I'm not saying that paying out seven figure fees is absolutely wrong. Just that it seems a really high risk strategy whilst SB is still up in the air, and it makes me anxious.

 

[Teacher]

Now.

We bid a similar amount for Szmodics in January, who has since gone to Blackburn for double that.

Why did this deal not go through? Was it simply Posh valued him at more than we were willing to offer?