hertfordyellow

To add to your points, my impression of the Germany camp is it was a success. Brought players together and drew a line under last season. Cantwell seemed embedded in the squad, thought even Tzolis looked happier. People like Springett seemed to put pressure on the more established players with his effort and desire. Smith and Shakespeare have their doubters, but they seemed to have known exactly what the squad needed to heal.

Yes, they regularly had 4 in their team.

Or gloss over the fact that 3 of their best players last season (and they wouldn't have been promoted without them) were loans that they had to replace before thinking of improving the squad.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/62134860 Nathan Collins to Wolves. The squad is looking pretty small now. I'm expecting Maxwell Cornet to go (has a relegation release) too.

Yeah it started off as relevant to why we were fishing in Brazilian markets and some have hijacked it to have a lip wobble unfortunately.

I’m not whinging at all. I’m relatively agnostic about the whole thing. I understand you have got emotional about this subject, but I’m purely pointing out the general misunderstanding on the situation. I can see reasons why the rigid system was implemented. Probably too rigid but I get the point of it.

A lot of people don’t like how football was / is. Not sure it was high up on peoples minds tbh.

Ok. Who sets the above quoted criteria that you put in red? Who set the points system criteria based on international representation? I think you are looking through the wrong end of the lens on this one.

Thought he would get a higher level than that tbh.

There is no evidence he is better than Djed Spence, who was on loan last season. As I've said before, they are going to have to spend 50 million just to replace the loan signings from last year.

He was signed for 19 million to keep them in the Premiership though. While it's not been a disaster, I think its been far from a success.

It's not about soft Brexit or hard Brexit, i'm talking about changes to football specific visa rules. Most players in the German second division would qualify for current work permit if they weren't footballers. It's mostly based around skill (high), wage (relatively high) and job offer (contract agreed). The extra legislation is for Football in particular to promote academy participation. A Labour government could remove those added barriers and keep the current general visa parameters exactly the same and it would mean those previous markets are opened up again. You don't need FOM to buy from the German second division. Football could be added occupation code. https://www.gov.uk/skilled-worker-visa/your-job or you could even tweak this. https://www.gov.uk/sportsperson-visa

Do you agree that another Government in the future could reverse these requirements and make if feasible to buy players from say German second tier again? It's in their control.

Only seen him for Wales and he looked 'nervy'. 16 million pounds for someone who has made a dozen or so starts ever. It really is a bonkers market now. I can see why we took so many risks in the past. Maybe this is why we are trawling South America now.

So saying, 'but... this player was British and he wasn't any good' doesn't address the main point that it is riskier to sign from Brazilian League than the domestic league. Just because one player works out from Brazil or one player doesn't from Domestic league doesn't add anything to the overall conversation about RISK.

Not sure what Boris has to do with it. I’m talking about risk level. Citing individual players who didn’t make it does really add anything to risk. It is clearly riskier to buy from Brazilian league than say the Dutch.

I see what you are saying. Point is that these rules aren't forced on us by leaving the SM, they were designed. However as you say the scenario for this change was because of Brexit.

And I clearly said closer to home rather than this country. As for Brexit, you are conflating leaving the single market with the set of requirements we currently face. This isn’t correct, the requirements were proposed by the EFL, FA and EPL. These requirements are much harsher than the general visa criteria to dissuade buying from foreign lower leagues and promote academy football. Another government could easily remove nearly all these restrictions (some are imposed by FIFA) if they wanted.

How much of this player have you watched to determine he is a 22 million player if European?

I’m probably in the minority here but I feel this seems like an unnecessarily risky transfer. Have we not learnt our lesson with Tzolis? Can’t we find someone closer to home who already understands the country / culture for 9 million pounds?

At this level, can’t see anyone other than Watford with a similar level of options. The money being flung around in the Premiership doesn’t particularly make me want to get back up quickly though.

Totally agree. Look at the mistakes made at Chelsea. They have every resource at their disposal and have still made some really bad decisions. Based on our resources, we have done well.

Well let’s face it, they didn’t exactly hide the Americans. They had them at a game and then booked them into a hotel as ‘Norwich city fc guests’ 😬. If Webber is in charge of budget and he is keeping it close then I see this as speculation.

What if Davitt is wrong? He is a journalist who currently is isolated away from the club.

He may have indicated he won’t be signing another contract, with a year left as it stands. That coupled with the emergence of Rowe and Springett makes the decision straight forward. it is a shame though, the talent is obvious.