Caceido will go for twice what McAlister did and Rice will go for Bellingham money. That’s just not us.
4 Likes
And what some people could do well with remembering is that the transfer fee doesn’t dictate how good the player is.
Is Maguire twice as good as Konate?
Are Sancho and Antony twice as good as Salah and Mané
Caicedo, Rice and Bellingham are obviously all good players. But they probably aren’t 2 to 3 times better than Mac Allister.
7 Likes
Macallister would have gone for 60 to 80 as well if it wasn’t for the release clause.
1 Like
Also I think FSG realise they got their fingers burnt with the extortionate fee we paid for Nunez , which always looked to me more like a case of trying to keep up with the big boys after Haaland went to City. I don’t think they want to repeat that mistake in a hurry.
5 Likes
I’d agree with you if we don’t make any signings come the end of preseason.
But there are going to be some more signings. The release of Ox , Bobby , Naby and Milner (all of whom are in high wages) gives us a lot of money to spend wisely. And that is before whatever transfer budget is allocated by FSG and whatever we make due to sales.
2 Likes
Why is it delusional - the rumoured prices fit well within our spending patterns, they are young players with lots of potential who are willing to move to a club that is without CL for this season.
This isn’t strictly true. As has been pointed out on the forum FSG have on 1 or 2 occasions put their money into their pocket to help with a rebuild. But even then, the club can generate the sort of cash to make the sort of signings we are being linked to without much selling - so there is probably little need for them to do so. I wouldn’t be surprised if we had at least £60m cash in the starting kitty plus this season we have had several high earners leave the wage bill freeing up cash (+£30m?). We know it is likely Matip and Thiago are off next summer. There may be a few sales that chip in - it isn’t that far fetched to see us being in 2 or 3 mids and a defender for around £100-120m if the prices we are seeing rumoured in the media are anywhere near correct.
Our squad isn’t thin. Newcastle weren’t that good last season, and have much more catching up to do, particularly if we resolve what issues we do have.
Your always miserable 
We don’t have CL football and their prices are going to be relatively high. They may not even be that much better than the players we do go for (if they are at all?)
3 Likes
Man utd spent 80m each on Pogba , Maguire and Antony etc.
Is spending more money a guarantee that you’ll get a good player ?
4 Likes
Arsenal’s best players last season were probably Ramsdale, Saliba, Odegaard, Saka, Martinelli and Jesus. One of them cost more than £40m and even then not by a huge amount.
Meanwhile, the most expensive transfers last season were Fernandez, Antony, Fofana, Nunez (more than £40m, surely not!), Casemiro and Mudryk. Perhaps only Casemiro justified his fee so far from that lot. Meanwhile, Gakpo who cost about half as much as Antony and Mudryk out performed both of them comfortably.
Then there’s Cucurella, Richarlison, Sterling, Phillips, Gordon, Nunes, Koulibaly and Scamacca. All amongst the most expensive deals of the season and all pretty much failed to deliver what was expected.
And people would have been as certain as you are on Rice and Caceido that they would be a huge success and they were worth splashing the cash on.
It’s not how much you spend, it’s how well you spend it and there’s no more certainty in spending big than there is in spending at a lower level.
1 Like
It’s sounding like more than three times for Caicedo, I saw a mooted fee of over £100m yesterday!
1 Like
Ridiculous. That’s even more than Bellingham.
And Sancho.
Almost every big ticket manure transfer has been a failure. Verdict still out on Antony ofcourse.
You can say Casemiro did well , but to pay that much for someone at that age ?
2 Likes
No because whilst you can spend as much as you like on talent/ability there’s still a lot of work to do before you see the best of that player and he delivers that worth. No guarantee for success either but eventually they’re going to get it right and be the Utd of old, most Utd’s expensive flops came under an incompetent DOF in Woodward and an incompetent manager in Ole.
There’s a reason the top 4 clubs all finished above the likes of us and Spurs, they spend far more.
In the movie Moneyball there’s a scene where Brad Pitt’s character explains to his scouting team that if they try and think like the New York Yankees then they will lose everytime because the Yankees can just outspend them multiple times over.
That’s the boat we are in. Do you try and match Newcastle and Man City, who are literally backed by the financial might of Oil States, or do face facts and try to work differently? Man Utd, Chelsea and Arsenal have gone down the road of going toe-to-toe with Man City - those clubs have certain financial advantages we don’t of course but even so so far they’ve not come close to matching Man City.
We are a level lower in our financial strength, so we have to think differently. Yes Declan Rice is a fine player, Moises Caicedo is a fine player, Jude Bellingham a fine player… but they aren’t the only players either. Fast forward three years and when we think of the best midfielders in the world then likely at least a few of them will be guys that could be had today for relatively small fees.
It’s hard to get right but, especially with Man City as strong as they are now, then trying to compete with these national states financially is just throwing money away. Do things differently, scout the players they don’t look at and try to get a squad in place to compete when those oil clubs drop off a little - probably when Guardiola leaves in two years.
8 Likes
I’ve been saying this for years. Do we even have scouts anymore? And if we do, what exactly are they doing? There’s bound to be many players who play in lower leagues in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, who are good enough to play at Premier League standard. Scouts just need to put the work in and find them.
1 Like
Yeah but… we are not really “below fifty feet of crap” like Brad said in the movie. Let’s not act like we’re are skint on every level. This is not Sevilla.
This year we have what we have. The whole team and staff badly underperformed and it’s time to cut parts of a team/squad with too many players. And then add a few to help us solve our problems for hopefully a reaction next season.
If the timing was different, say the summer of 2022 with Jude leaving at that point, we would’ve possibly got that one over the line. I cannot be sure he’d pick us over Real in financially more or less an even race, but no doubt we would’ve gone for it.
I’m pretty sure there were also other options out there that were not Darwin Nunez for £85m, but sometimes we will go for such players at such prices.
This team has also made steps in general since Klopp took over, so it’s not easy to suddenly act like Brighton. It’s a different planet. Expectations, standards, prices we’ll have to pay.
1 Like
I didn’t and you know I didn’t.
2 Likes
That’s the news I’ve been waiting for.
2 Likes