Transfer Strategy

[ToodlesMcToot]

Beginning to believe that TK's and CR's strategy of signing highly experienced, high level players on short term deals is not going to work out. Time is running out on them.

I'm also beginning to believe that a more sensible strategy might be cherry picking talent from the Championship from teams which don't appear to have a hope of promotion or are iffy for it. Target players who have a trajectory for the PL or upper tier Championship, try unsettling them by offering an opportunity at PL playing time and, at worst, an opportunity to bounce back up with us. Same could be said with 2nd Division teams in all the major continental leagues.

I won't pretend that I know enough about the Championship this season to put forth targets but, our scouting department should have that information already, since it would be needed if the worst occurs.

We could be certain of getting players who are motivated to perform, rather than those who may perform, knowing they can ride out 6 months on high wages and have another payday coming at the end of the season - no matter.

How many Babels will there be out there in needed positions that we can convince to help us on short term deals? There's plenty that could go wrong with signings like these.

[The Swan]

Lewis Dunk a very good centre half plays for Brighton. He would do good for us. I know he is not playing in the Championship but would suit our style of play.

[ToodlesMcToot]

I only looked around briefly at "Top Performers in Championship" lists and found John Egan at Sheff U., Maupay at Brentford, Barnes at West Brom, Gayle, Harvey Barnes. I'm not even saying those players, except maybe Egan, fit positions of need currently. But certainly players of that ilk would be more motivated than Cahill would appear to be.

[Sting of the North]

Lewis Dunk a very good centre half plays for Brighton. He would do good for us. I know he is not playing in the Championship but would suit our style of play.

But isn't he a regular for Brighton? So, Brighton would of course not sell unless absolutely ridiculous money, and Dunk would surely not sign for us in our current state unless he got equally ridiculous money. I agree though that he would be a good acquisition.

[Buffalo76]

Lewis Dunk a very good centre half plays for Brighton. He would do good for us. I know he is not playing in the Championship but would suit our style of play.

There's no chance of Dunk coming to us. He's Brighton captain, one of their leading players, recently been called into the England team, signed a new long term contract last year.  Why would he leave them for us in the current climate?

[Bassey the warrior]

Hear good things about Mepham. Tomori looks good too, if we can offload TFM we should ask Chelsea if we can loan him.

[Spirit of 2000]

A few players we should now be considering whilst looking to offload the high earners. Adam Reach, Bradley Dack, Neal Maupay, Jarrod Bowen, Emiliano Buendia, Joe Rodon, Che Adams and keep those in our squad who have proved their worth at that level and are keen to take the challenge again. Also there are  one or two players definitely worth a punt in Leagues 1 down.

At least players of that ilk would play their hearts out and if we didn't beat the drop then they will have gelled ahead of next season and have had a taste of the premier.

[Statto]

But at this point, we don't have a discernible transfer "strategy" do we - unless the strategy was to find some reason to offload Kamara and replace him.

The closest thing I can produce to a compliment about TK is to say I suspect he has something at least resembling a strategy in his mind, and actually Mackintosh is partly to blame for our failure to implement that so far.

My reasoning is that in summer windows we've generally done our business very late, and in winter windows we've generally done hardly any business at all (usually just a couple of cheap signings) and the obvious explanation for both is, you don't get value for money in the winter windows, or until the latter part of the summer windows. TK, in his defence, has shown absolutely no reluctance to spend money. Yes he has spent it absolutely terribly every year, but you can't say he's been reluctant to spend it.

Therefore I suspect the thing holding us back this month is penny-pinching, coming from Mackintosh, the accountant.

[ToodlesMcToot]

A few players we should now be considering whilst looking to offload the high earners. Adam Reach, Bradley Dack, Neal Maupay, Jarrod Bowen, Emiliano Buendia, Joe Rodon, Che Adams and keep those in our squad who have proved their worth at that level and are keen to take the challenge again. Also there are  one or two players definitely worth a punt in Leagues 1 down.

At least players of that ilk would play their hearts out and if we didn't beat the drop then they will have gelled ahead of next season and have had a taste of the premier.

This is what I'm getting at. Most of these players dream of the PL. Use that opportunity to try and push them toward us. If we fail to survive, they are more motivated to return to something they've now experienced. I hope we've at least considered this option.

[Sting of the North]

Though I agree that standout performers from the Championship may be good signings if we go down, I don't believe that they would generally be the right players to give us a chance of survival. I mean, players like McDonald, Johansen, Ream, Odoi, Bryan, Cairney, Sessegnon and more have had difficulties adapting, even though some more than others. Or at least that seem to be the general view around here. I don't see why any other Championship players would be any different. It is not as if they are going to come into a well functioning team where they can have a few months of getting into things. On the flip side, they would at least be match fit.

So, while I understand the reasoning as regards next season, I still hold out hope that we will actually try to survive instead. In such a case, I don't think that Championship players will help us much, generally speaking. I still hope that we will sign a couple of players that are proven at a higher level, although it is difficult to come up with good candidates that would even consider joining us now.

[Bill2]

Whoever we get need to hit the ground running. No time for them to get used to the Premier. That is why we need experienced players.

[ByTheRiver]

Remember that these 'top' championship players, if they are currently playing for a club in, or withing touching distance of the play-off spots, will be highly unlikely to come. At least until the summer. As we are going down and their club may be in with a decent chance of swapping places.

[RaySmith]

Get Prem quality in  to save us, or what's the point?

IF we go down, then we should  still try to keep Prem quality players, because look what happened last time we went don and got rid of them.
WE will need our so called  Prem quality players to get back up.

getting out of the Champoship isn't as easy as people seem to think.