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Gingerpele

Big name signing?

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I''ve seen various figures mentioned in relation to what our transfer budget might be, not sure if any of them were actually based on anything McNally/Bowkett have said, or just guesses. But say we have £15 million to spend on players (transfer fees, roughly what we spent last season) or even just £5 million more. And Hughton has decided that most of the squad are more than adequate, maybe gets a couple of loan players in, and one or two cheap/freebies.

Then decides to spend a large chunk, £10 million or so, on one player. Would you be happy? And if this were to happen, who would you want to be that ''big name'' signing?

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Yeah, he''s probably bored at Barcelona... All those goals, can''t be good for him. And I''ve heard he loves yellow.

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[quote user="Gingerpele"]I''ve seen various figures mentioned in relation to what our transfer budget might be, not sure if any of them were actually based on anything McNally/Bowkett have said, or just guesses. But say we have £15 million to spend on players (transfer fees, roughly what we spent last season) or even just £5 million more. And Hughton has decided that most of the squad are more than adequate, maybe gets a couple of loan players in, and one or two cheap/freebies. Then decides to spend a large chunk, £10 million or so, on one player. Would you be happy? And if this were to happen, who would you want to be that ''big name'' signing?[/quote]

 

I think that this is a question I''d rather address at the end of next season should we stay up.

 

For now, I see dangers in "upsetting the applecart," as it were. A big name might have both a big wages demand and a big ego. A  lot of our  recent recent success has been achieved by avoiding these pitfalls.

 

 "On the ball England."

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Obviously we don''t know the wages and this is very approximate. If we take as the absolute the worst case scenario that we will receive no compensation for Lambert. That effectively swallows our prize money from last year getting Hughton in as a replacement But surely we have at least the same amount to spend as last year. That included:

  1. Naughton: Loan fee
  2. De Laet: Loan fee
  3. Vaughan: £1 million (approx)
  4. E. Bennett: £2 million
  5. Howson: £2 million
  6. R. Bennett: £3 million
  7. Morison: £2.7 million
  8. Pilkingon: £2 million
  9. Ayala: £800,000

Thats all very approximate but I make that about £13.5 million spent on transfer fees last season. That estimate is quite conservative because I am not including how much the loanees cost or the inveitable signing on fee for Bradley Johnson. I am not sure how comfortable I would be blowing half our budget on a marquee signing like Rhodes. When defensively there are so many issues we need to sort.

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I wouldn''t be happy if we spent over £5 million on a player like Rhodes or Snodgrass. I''m thinking more someone like Croatias goalscorer last night (not Jelavic, the other one) obviously a bit unrealistic (Signed by Wolfsberg a couple of years ago for 8 million Euro), but someone who''s already established in a top league.

Wages would be an issue, not because we couldn''t afford them, but because if other players are performing as well, they''d want the same. And while I expect our wage bill to keep increasing every time a player signs a new contract (were going to have to pay more, or lose all our players. If they perform in the premiership, whats to stop the likes of Fulham, Sunderland, QPR, WBA etc, who are more willing to spend big(ger) on wages snapping them up?). It could cause a sharper increase.

I would like to think, and this could just be unrealistic dreaming, we could sign a talented player for a decent price, and he''d fit into the squad. Not be big headed, by slot into the squad, respected the same by the players as they would any other player, and the same by the manager.

I''m not necessarily saying this is the best time to even start thinking about spending big, really next season we need to focus on finishing in the same kind of position, getting rid of any players who aren''t up to the job, and replacing them with more decent squad players. But then, either next summer, or the one after, if the club has any real ambition, we need to start thinking about how to push into at least contention for a European place, if not actually achieving one. And I think a couple of proven top league quality players would really help the already successful previously unproven lower league players we have.

But it may all just be a dream. (especially expecting a ''big name signing'' to just fit in as if he had come from the Championship for a modest fee).

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[quote user="Gingerpele"]I wouldn''t be happy if we spent over £5 million on a player like Rhodes or Snodgrass. I''m thinking more someone like Croatias goalscorer last night (not Jelavic, the other one) obviously a bit unrealistic (Signed by Wolfsberg a couple of years ago for 8 million Euro), but someone who''s already established in a top league. [/quote]
The guy you talking about was released by Wolfsburg before the Euro''s started. He is now a free agent.

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[quote user="Stretcharm"][quote user="Gingerpele"]I wouldn''t be happy if we spent over £5 million on a player like Rhodes or Snodgrass. I''m thinking more someone like Croatias goalscorer last night (not Jelavic, the other one) obviously a bit unrealistic (Signed by Wolfsberg a couple of years ago for 8 million Euro), but someone who''s already established in a top league. [/quote]
The guy you talking about was released by Wolfsburg before the Euro''s started. He is now a free agent.
[/quote]
Scrap that, Wikipedia was up to its old tricks. Still has two years left on his contract (apparently)

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Was he?

Wow, i''d love if we signed him. Looks like a pretty decent player, his record for Wolfsburg and his previous club (can''t remember who it was now, sounded like one of those ones who are normally in the CL group stage, but always go out, was probably Dynamo Zagreb, Zagreb is capital of Croatia isn''t it?).

He might not be up for English football, and if he is, perhaps a ''big club'' like Villa would want him :P

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Just searched his name in Google, and one of the first few links was to a story linking him to Spurs in January... May be a bit out of our league then.

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Whilst we could afford the fee for a £10m striker, we''d never be able to afford his wages.

Not to mention putting all your eggs in one basket is a somewhat foolish idea.

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Not all eggs in one basket. Its assuming Hughton is happy with the squad.

If he decides to spend £20 million on 5/6 different players (maybe including a loan or two, or free transfer), who makes way for those players? We finished 12th last season, how many more £1-3 million players can we sign who are going to improve the team? For a start, i''d think a few clubs around us will be keeping tabs on who we are trying to buy after 5/6 successful cheap buys this season.

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