Summer Silly Season Transfer Thread 2024

[IloveFFC]

https://twitter.com/AdamLeventhal/status/1828917640791802263

[Roberty]

Very annoying I think we need 3 players in by Friday
LW
CM
CF
And as a luxury a goalkeeper .
We are these positions away from a good season

Why a goal keeper - how many do we need ?

At least 8

Who ate our goalkeepers

[jayffc]

So confirmation had we opted to wait till the end of the window hed have been cheaper than what we allegedly offered earlier (25m) and 10-13m euros cheaper than what fluminese allegedly led with in their counter offer (35m)

We opted in this case to go after a different target silva wanted and that weve equally been linked to before as we have andre.

Fairly reliable Brazilian sources reported in July that our rejected package was EUR 25m inclusive of add-ons and that got us close to an agreement. If the price has dropped, it's by a marginal amount, and no more than the small premium you'd expect to pay to secure a signing before other clubs start sniffing around in the late stages of the window. If we were still in this negotiation, Wolves now coming in and competing with our terms to the player would be a major spanner in the works. Not only that, but it's also way less than the premium we've paid for Berge being an established PL player. Keep banging that drum though - I thought we agreed to let it go, but guess someone has to try to retrospectively justify TK's last-minute approach to transfer negotiations circa 2018 to 2022. 

As it happens, and as I've said before, I'm inclined to agree with your alternative explanation that "We opted in this case to go after a different target silva wanted" and simply made a footballing judgment that Berge offered more quality or a better fit.

IF (big IF) Andre was our first choice, then of course I'd agree with others that letting the deal fall through for the sake of a few million, only to then spend the same on Berge, would be terrible business.

Wasn't intended to drum beat but draw a line, as It's pretty conclusive and over the 10% premium line you yourself drew in another thread.  But if you still wish to wiggle a way to see it differently go ahead that's fine. "reading between the lines a deal was always doable around €25m" ...this is personal opinion and fabrication based not in what was actually laid out to us at the time, but what came.... later in the window. We offered 25m they said 35m. Even if we'd spent weeks negotiating and met halfway (which would be more reasonable to argue likely at the time, than conveniently assuming *at that time* a deal was "always possible" at just above 25m- just because it materialised that way a month or more later once no one bid for him.)... that 30m would still make it 5m more expensive than what got settled on with total addons.

I too am glad this time we've got most of the business done before the last week - (although early in the window before the signings landed this was still deemed too late by many.) Good position to be in that theres just 1 more absolute necessity to go before DD in the eyes of the manager and hopefully we pull out a cracking wing option to end the window... the point was the point though, and never just about Andre (not sure how it ended up being presented that way as that didn't come from my end) but that said it turns out its been another example of how holding out can be risky if you chose to do it, but can* save multiple millions if you wanted to wait it out... and such savings can* be useful to a clubs overall transfer balancing at clubs where every few million counts.

Waiting till the end of window in this instance would have worked out as 30%  cheaper on the fee they asked for earlier on if you include all add-ons (closer to 40% cheaper if he doesn't hit those)...and at the fictional price of us meeting them halfway in a negotiation for the sake of argument- (30m) 17% cheaper still than that end of window. below the yardstick mentioned regarding premiums elsewhere.

Anyway. Regardless as you say, and as we agree, it seems for whatever reason we opted for Berge anyway in the end, still later in the day when we actually tied it up, but given we still had the choice to return for Andre, we didn't for whatever reason and have had another overall seemingly successful window on paper which hopefully we're all feeling pretty positive about which is the main thing in the end.

Still waiting for the final move to tie it up and then hope we're all ready to get behind this current crop. Hopefully between Marco and the board they've backed the right player anyway at DM for us.

[jayffc]

Very annoying I think we need 3 players in by Friday
LW
CM
CF
And as a luxury a goalkeeper .
We are these positions away from a good season

Why a goal keeper - how many do we need ?

At least 8

Who ate our goalkeepers

Chelsea!

[Roberty]

Very annoying I think we need 3 players in by Friday
LW
CM
CF
And as a luxury a goalkeeper .
We are these positions away from a good season

Why a goal keeper - how many do we need ?

At least 8

Who ate our goalkeepers

Chelsea!

Nah - it's Chelsea BUNS

[MickTheBeard]

I still think Tony had too much say if that's the case silva should have walked he didn't why we definitely needed better scouting it's poor to think they came over for the finally money is tight needed a professional in charge we got a  wrestling failure.

[itombomb]

I honestly have no idea if Andre is that good. Will be very interesting to see if he is - Gomes was a brilliant signing and cost Wolves less. 

Though one thing that does frustrate me from a business perspective is that we're potentially paying £25m for Berge, when last Summer we could have got him for £12m and probably successfully offloaded Reed to Wolves for £5-7m. So for virtually the same price as we're paying for Berge this Summer, we could have brought in both him and Andre (factoring in the netting off of a Reed fee).

In any case, I'd separately see if Wolves are still interested in Reed and try and do a swap deal for Lemina now that he's out of their starting XI.

[Bassey the warrior]

I honestly have no idea if Andre is that good. Will be very interesting to see if he is - Gomes was a brilliant signing and cost Wolves less. 

Though one thing that does frustrate me from a business perspective is that we're potentially paying £25m for Berge, when last Summer we could have got him for £12m and probably successfully offloaded Reed to Wolves for £5-7m. So for virtually the same price as we're paying for Berge this Summer, we could have brought in both him and Andre (factoring in the netting off of a Reed fee).

In any case, I'd separately see if Wolves are still interested in Reed and try and do a swap deal for Lemina now that he's out of their starting XI.

Isn't Lemina their captain?

[demeant0r]

I honestly have no idea if Andre is that good. Will be very interesting to see if he is - Gomes was a brilliant signing and cost Wolves less. 

Though one thing that does frustrate me from a business perspective is that we're potentially paying £25m for Berge, when last Summer we could have got him for £12m and probably successfully offloaded Reed to Wolves for £5-7m. So for virtually the same price as we're paying for Berge this Summer, we could have brought in both him and Andre (factoring in the netting off of a Reed fee).

In any case, I'd separately see if Wolves are still interested in Reed and try and do a swap deal for Lemina now that he's out of their starting XI.

What I can see is that when Andre was injured, Fluminense lost so many points they dropped to the bottom. Since he came back from injury, they've won five league matches, drawn two, lost one and only conceded three goals in those eight matches to bring them to 16th as well as going through to the next round of Libertadores. Coincidence or proof that Andre is as good as people is saying he is?

[jayffc]

I honestly have no idea if Andre is that good. Will be very interesting to see if he is - Gomes was a brilliant signing and cost Wolves less. 

Though one thing that does frustrate me from a business perspective is that we're potentially paying £25m for Berge, when last Summer we could have got him for £12m and probably successfully offloaded Reed to Wolves for £5-7m. So for virtually the same price as we're paying for Berge this Summer, we could have brought in both him and Andre (factoring in the netting off of a Reed fee).

In any case, I'd separately see if Wolves are still interested in Reed and try and do a swap deal for Lemina now that he's out of their starting XI.

Easy to say with hindsight but we didn't really need berge last summer (if we look at him as a 6 which we seem to) as we ended up keeping Palhinha and had Lukic ( for 6 or 7 million) who did well in Joaos absence last year and has continued that into this year in fairness. Saving that money at the time may have helped facilitate other signings last year that are doing well for us, so its hard to make a 1 for 1 conclusion exactly when its a wider balacing act.

Nice as it would have been to work out perfectly every time its easy to pick it apart later with hindsight. Reed had also contributed really well at the time in midfield in our first season back so theres that too.

Ah well. Hes here now and our books seem to look very healthy, so suspect well be able to build again next window on this. In a good position to keep improving this team bit by bit.

[hopper]

One gripe I have with our recruitment is that we don't bring in players as an understudy who could succeed a player like Joao while they're still here, or even before selling.

Apparently Wolves see André as a long term successor to Gomes who is expected to move to a bigger club. No waiting for him to go, and they already have good depth in CM with Lemina.

[Arthur]

He is good at dribbling, passing and crossing.

Is that all?

I mean only by watching one video I'm not going to criticise much, but from what I have seen I am not overly impressed that's all. The guy can dribble and has skills, but doesn't look like he can score much, a BDR/Willian substitute is needed.

My response was tongue-in-cheek. If we're scouting a winger whose strengths are his dribbling, passing and crossing, the chances are he'd be a good signing. I watched a bit of the You Tube video. I'd say he's streets ahead of BDR. Bobby was the winger who couldn't dribble. This guy looks lightning quick. He's clearly capable of taking on a defender from a standing start - an attribute to be valued very highly in my opinion (and something BDR rarely attempted, let alone managed). If there's more to it than just paper talk, we might be picking up a prospect.

[Drewry66]

One gripe I have with our recruitment is that we don't bring in players as an understudy who could succeed a player like Joao while they're still here, or even before selling.

Apparently Wolves see André as a long term successor to Gomes who is expected to move to a bigger club. No waiting for him to go, and they already have good depth in CM with Lemina.

It would be great in an ideal world.

I had a quick check on Wolves forum earlier for reaction. Many of them complaining that they were spending on a position they are already well stacked when they have gaping holes elsewhere! Guess you just can't win as a club. Lol

The prob for clubs at our level is budget us so tight cos of FFP. I would have loved to have signed Andre as well as Berge with a view to Reed going in a year but either the club don't see André as the long term answer or we just didn't have the funds with 5 or 6 positions to fill.

[jayffc]

One gripe I have with our recruitment is that we don't bring in players as an understudy who could succeed a player like Joao while they're still here, or even before selling.

Apparently Wolves see André as a long term successor to Gomes who is expected to move to a bigger club. No waiting for him to go, and they already have good depth in CM with Lemina.

It would be great in an ideal world.

I had a quick check on Wolves forum earlier for reaction. Many of them complaining that they were spending on a position they are already well stacked when they have gaping holes elsewhere! Guess you just can't win as a club. Lol

The prob for clubs at our level is budget us so tight cos of FFP. I would have loved to have signed Andre as well as Berge with a view to Reed going in a year but either the club don't see André as the long term answer or we just didn't have the funds with 5 or 6 positions to fill.

haha that's hilarious!
From looking through a few club forums this summer I gotta say you do see mostly the same stuff in one way or another, bickering, then people complaining about the bickering, etc etc time and time over 😂 It's not just us

[jayffc]

He is good at dribbling, passing and crossing.

Is that all?

I mean only by watching one video I'm not going to criticise much, but from what I have seen I am not overly impressed that's all. The guy can dribble and has skills, but doesn't look like he can score much, a BDR/Willian substitute is needed.

My response was tongue-in-cheek. If we're scouting a winger whose strengths are his dribbling, passing and crossing, the chances are he'd be a good signing. I watched a bit of the You Tube video. I'd say he's streets ahead of BDR. Bobby was the winger who couldn't dribble. This guy looks lightning quick. He's clearly capable of taking on a defender from a standing start - an attribute to be valued very highly in my opinion (and something BDR rarely attempted, let alone managed). If there's more to it than just paper talk, we might be picking up a prospect.

Yeh I love how direct he looks, whilst he could well be a capable starter, I feel like he'd be another great option off the bench too ...Similarly to Adama he looks like he'd be a nightmare to deal with for tired legs. Imagine playing Adama for 70 minutes and he finally goes off and this guy comes on 😂

https://twitter.com/Arsenal4lover/status/1828860223127204121
The Lyon kid or Reiss for me both would be good options and both look an upgrade on BDR - Average by Arsenals standards still seems a level up on Bobby much as I love the professional he is he wouldn't have even been an option on their bench...if we could get Nelson playing regular game time we could potentially pull the best from him and get his career on track. Fun countdown now as we await the last piece of the puzzle

[LRCN]

One gripe I have with our recruitment is that we don't bring in players as an understudy who could succeed a player like Joao while they're still here, or even before selling.

Apparently Wolves see André as a long term successor to Gomes who is expected to move to a bigger club. No waiting for him to go, and they already have good depth in CM with Lemina.

This is a really good point and highlights serious flaws in our recruitment ever since the khans came in. Silva also has a challenge in that he doesn't seem to give mins to young players really

[Arthur]

Yeh I love how direct he looks, whilst he could well be a capable starter, I feel like he'd be another great option off the bench too ...Similarly to Adama he looks like he'd be a nightmare to deal with for tired legs. Imagine playing Adama for 70 minutes and he finally goes off and this guy comes on 😂

Just from the video, I would say Nuamah's footwork is niftier than Adama's. Yes, he's one-footed, but when defenders close in on him, the ease with which he can manoeuvre the ball in tight spaces made it look as if it were tied to his left boot on the proverbial short piece of string. He was also featured playing on both flanks. If he's effective on either wing, this would be another bonus.

[karldutton97]

🚨 BREAKING: Fulham are interested in signing Miguel Almiron from Newcastle.⚪ #FFC #NUFC

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/fulham-show-miguel-almiron-interest-173217580.html

[jayffc]

🚨 BREAKING: Fulham are interested in signing Miguel Almiron from Newcastle.⚪ #FFC #NUFC

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/fulham-show-miguel-almiron-interest-173217580.html

Seems rehashed from earlier story without any further info other than being "interested."
Played tonight in their Carabao game so would also be cup tied.  As mentioned earlier - seems we're gonna be linked all over the gaff with a wide net, lets see what sticks

[Drewry66]

We certainly do need to bring in more youth in the coming years. Our average age (of players used so far) has only dropped by 0.6 years since last season and we still have the second oldest team in the division.

We still need that DOF figure who can implement (A) a genuine international scouting framework and (B) a strategy that looks further into the future than the 1-2 years Silva will be with us

It's a balance and I think we are doing okay with it. First priority was prem survival and buying experience is a great way to do that as proven with a 10th and 13th place finish. We have then built on that signing players still with a tonne of experience but a slightly lower age profile. Bear in mind we had to replace 4 first team players as silva keeps saying not reserves and for that he wants experience. Although we played pretty poorly the other night our entire reserve 11 has real quality in it with a mixture of ages and still a tonne of experience.

Guessing you are looking at Transfermarkt. To note Mbabu and Vinicius are two of the older players at 29 still listed in the average and both are about to go. I also can't see King at 17 on there and looks like he may be in the squad? Make those amends and add in a 20 year old winger and I make the average age circa 26 around mid table in the prem. Raul and Cairney may be replaced next year dropping it even further.

The biggest key to success for clubs outside the top 6 is to buy low and sell high or buy low to become first team players cheap so I do agree this is important. We have actually managed that with older players in JP and Mitro but clearly younger with potential is more likely to pay off more often. I thought with Chalobah and Andre on top of ESR we were going that way this year but Berge and Andersen a higher age profile. For me Andersen was just by far the best option for what we need and time will tell with Andre/Berge and both Andersen and Berge have at least 5 years at the top level.

Most of the wingers we have been linked with are being brought in more as a back up to current and almost all are early 20's.

Next year we should only have a few positions to fill and I think that provides a better opportunity to buy younger with huge potential to back fill what we have.

But also to note we already have a tonne of players that either still have 5 good years rather than 1 or 2 left (Andersen) and loads with huge upsale or young with ability to come through potential already. Robinson, Cuenca, Bassey, Smith-Rowe, Muniz, Stansfield, Harris, Godo and King. Even Berge could play brilliantly in a better team and go for more.

All in all I think our recruitment and planning has been pretty incredible. We have done the hardest thing there is to do and have survived into a 3rd year in the prem (whilst losing our talisman). Think cos by some miracle Forrest and Bournemouth have done this as well it is forgotten a bit. Most teams either go straight back down or get second year syndrome. We have two incredibly strong players for pretty much every position. We have significantly lowered average age but still have a tonne of experience in the team. We have young players coming through and many with significant potential profit now and others with potential for such profit in the future.