Tyrique George

[Angus Telford]

Really disappointed at this one not coming off.

Would have been only the second genuine youngster/prospect we've signed (after Muniz) since the Magath season, at a time when we've an exceptionally old squad and a dearth of players in the 17-21 age bracket.

Would also have been someone who could play both on the wing and up front, which most agreed we should go for this window as a high priority.

Deal was there for the taking, and it sounds like the only reason we didn't go for it is we couldn't offload the ageing Wilson, and the club wanted to persist with its shoestring budget with no new investment from the owners.

[Lighthouse]

Again one of those that really was mentioned if the other two wide players didn't come off. Very expensive for a player not likely to have a first team spot.

[Bal_13]

Really disappointed at this one not coming off.

Would have been only the second genuine youngster/prospect we've signed (after Muniz) since the Magath season, at a time when we've an exceptionally old squad and a dearth of players in the 17-21 age bracket.

Would also have been someone who could play both on the wing and up front, which most agreed we should go for this window as a high priority.

Deal was there for the taking, and it sounds like the only reason we didn't go for it is we couldn't offload the ageing Wilson, and the club wanted to persist with its shoestring budget with no new investment from the owners.

I'd say Kevin counts as a huge prospect, the fact he's 22 rather than 21 is pretty arbitrary.

George also is pure prospect, no numbers or experience to back it up meaningfully.

Kevin is young and has a POTS award and a stack of goals / assists in Europe under his belt.

Also hearing 28 described as "ageing" is depressing

[Deeping_white]

It seems the general consensus is that people are happy that it got pulled because we're keeping Wilson, but tbh I think I'd rather have gone with the wildcard of George over Wilson. With Wilson, we know what we've got; a PL winger who is really good maybe 3-5 games a season, and then bang average for the rest. He's probably hit his peak and he's closing in on 30; we either give him a new contract (and a payrise makes PSR worse), or he leaves on a free next summer. At least George would've been locked in for 5 seasons, and at worst would've been a rotation player for Chuku with the upside of him turning into a really good PL level winger and we sell him for a tidy profit. As it stands we're stuffed with boht Wilson and Adama walking away for free next summer and then we've got to spend something like £40m to replace them which is just shite business sense once again.

[LC]

£20m for a third choice forward is pretty expensive. Then again I presume this might be Raul's last season so maybe that was in the thought process somewhere

[jayffc]

Selling wilson would be selling one of our biggest goal threats TBF. I would have been ok with making profit there but can also see why Silva might want to keep him.

I agree I like the idea of young prospects and George looks decent, but in Kevin we have a brilliant one and chuk is hardly old either....might yet get this loanee from Bayern too although not getting too attached there 🤞

[hopper]

Agree that citing 21 as a cut off when we've signed someone who is 22 is a bit arbitrary.

I'm conflicted on the George / Wilson thing. Wilson has shown he's a good goal threat for us, George is more a punt for the long term who seems a good player. But integrating three new wingers is quite a big turnover.

Hopefully we can revisit the deal.

Not seen much of him at all.

[Angus Telford]

I'd say Kevin counts as a huge prospect, the fact he's 22 rather than 21 is pretty arbitrary.

Agree that citing 21 as a cut off when we've signed someone who is 22 is a bit arbitrary.

I mean, we've an exceptionally old squad, that's the point. You could make the cut-off 25 - only three players below that age in the squad is extraordinarily low. Only two below 24, only one below 22. No one below 20 signed in a decade. George at 19 is 1, 3, 5 or 6 years below those benchmarks depending which one you use to make the point. So it's not an arbitrary distinction between 21 and 22. It's about us having a massive lack of young players, irrespective of perhaps adding one in Kevin, and George actually being a young player, younger than we've recruited for a long, long time now. And we're as much a radical outlier in this way as we are for the lateness of our business.

[Bal_13]

I'd say Kevin counts as a huge prospect, the fact he's 22 rather than 21 is pretty arbitrary.

Agree that citing 21 as a cut off when we've signed someone who is 22 is a bit arbitrary.

I mean, we've an exceptionally old squad, that's the point. You could make the cut-off 25 - only three players below that age in the squad is extraordinarily low. Only two below 24, only one below 22. No one below 20 signed in a decade. George at 19 is 1, 3, 5 or 6 years below those benchmarks depending which one you use to make the point. So it's not an arbitrary distinction between 21 and 22. It's about us having a massive lack of young players, irrespective of perhaps adding one in Kevin, and George actually being a young player, younger than we've recruited for a long, long time now. And we're as much a radical outlier in this way as we are for the lateness of our business.

Well, argued another way, over the first 3 games of the season our starting CAM has the second highest number of minutes of any teenager in the premier league (212 mins, after Leny Yoro at Man U with 260) and has started every game for the club in the league. 

That's more minutes than such exciting names as Dowman, Estevao, Bergvall, Gray and Guiu.

Names like Rico Lewis, Morgan Rogers, Lewis-Skelly, Oscar Bobb and Harvey Elliott are not only not teenagers they're not even 18-21 and so are rattling along towards being ageing players.

We've also had x2 Academy players in our starting 11 for 2 of 3 games (with injury being the only reason that isn't 3 from 3).

We all know stats can be used and abused to suit an agenda. So yes, I'll double down and call your 18-21 cut off and disregard of Kevin as something arbitrary to suit your point.

We've debated the age of the squad endlessly on this forum and I agree the age should come down. The signings we've made / the emergence of King as a proper starter have done that to a degree.

Were it not for some undeniably average-looking last minute dealing we may have had another two teenagers added to the squad. We don't but we do have some serious talent in that first team who are very young and very exciting in King and Kevin.

It's a start and I agree with others that £22 million for a kid who has 10 senior starts to his name doesn't exactly represent value.

[SimonDaviesEnjoyer]

Wilson is a better player. Good business by the club to keep our existing player and save 20m.

[Hugh Janus]

With Asarei now confirmed by Peter Rutzler as having gone through it is a really strong window by the club. The Khan's again putting their hands in their pockets for my enjoyment. Given the quality of what we have brought in, what odds on Europe?

[SimonDaviesEnjoyer]

With Asari now confirmed by Peter Rutzler as having gone through it is a really strong window by the club. The Khan's again putting their hands in their pockets for my enjoyment. Given the quality of what we have brought in, what odds on Europe?

I'm not sure they've changed much because many of our rivals strengthened as well. But I agree that we've signed some exciting players, and I can't wait to see how they slot in.

[Jamie88]

I'd say Kevin counts as a huge prospect, the fact he's 22 rather than 21 is pretty arbitrary.

Agree that citing 21 as a cut off when we've signed someone who is 22 is a bit arbitrary.

I mean, we've an exceptionally old squad, that's the point. You could make the cut-off 25 - only three players below that age in the squad is extraordinarily low. Only two below 24, only one below 22. No one below 20 signed in a decade. George at 19 is 1, 3, 5 or 6 years below those benchmarks depending which one you use to make the point. So it's not an arbitrary distinction between 21 and 22. It's about us having a massive lack of young players, irrespective of perhaps adding one in Kevin, and George actually being a young player, younger than we've recruited for a long, long time now. And we're as much a radical outlier in this way as we are for the lateness of our business.

I assume you mean players that are signed specifically to slot straight into the first team? Because I'm not sure that's as common amongst other teams as you are making out.

We do of course sign players under 21 nearly every year but most do not make the grade - Sekularac, McFarlane, Donnell, Larkeche. Godo we've managed to make a bit of money on, he was signed under 21 also.

[Angus Telford]

We all know stats can be used and abused to suit an agenda. So yes, I'll double down and call your 18-21 cut off and disregard of Kevin as something arbitrary to suit your point.

I'm not being arbitrary or selective with stats. You are, when the bigger picture we both know is we've still the oldest squad in the league. Kevin, in my own words a "great signing", lowers the average age by about 0.2, but doesn't change that. We remain about 2 years above the division average and 4 years above the younger squads we should aspire to emulate.

So your position is somewhat like a 27 stone man claiming he's not obese because he lost 2 lbs in the last year and the 16st threshold for obesity at his height is "arbitrary" anyway.

If we've signed JKA with an option that mitigates things a lot so let's see what happens there. But ultimately I'd like us to have about 5-10 first team players in that bracket so George still would have been nice, not to mention IMO a quality player.

[ffcthereligion]

Normally I tend to agree with Angus on things. But for me, Wilson is too proven and George too unproven to be worth the risk on the price. If it was Traore they were after, I would have taken a net 10m or so gamble. But Wilson is one of our greatest goal threats and goals are ultimately what win you points, not vice versa

[KJS]

My question to all Fulham fans is simply:
Would you rather have Josh King playing in the 10 position regularly of see him benched for someone like George?
I know where I stand so happy the deal didn't get done at this time

[FFC1987]

I don't really agree with the ageist alarm so much but I do think George was potentially a missed opportunity leaving us exposed up top but since we're now bringing seemingly bringing in an 18 year old from Bayern with an option to buy, I'm more delighted with that deal than evil Saka.

[jayffc]

My question to all Fulham fans is simply:
Would you rather have Josh King playing in the 10 position regularly of see him benched for someone like George?
I know where I stand so happy the deal didn't get done at this time

George is more of a winger predominantly who can play across other positions, so it's more would you have preferred to see him play or sign over - Iwobi, wilson, Adama getting sold

The answer is for me. Maybe it would have been worth cashing in on Adama or Wilson if we got the right bid, but Marco will have had the option you'd think as we had both situations in hand. Wilson is a proven scorer and we already brought in 2 new wing options + managed a young striker so it wasn't deemed necessary or worth the risk it seems.

[bill taylors apprentice]

If George was coming through our system we would be very happy but £20 million to replace Wilson was bonkers.

IMO considering what we paid for him and his salary, (unlike say Raul or Adama) Wilson is the type of player you keep because of his goal threat throughout the season even if you get nothing for him at the end of his contract.

[I Ronic]

Really disappointed at this one not coming off.

Would have been only the second genuine youngster/prospect we've signed (after Muniz) since the Magath season, at a time when we've an exceptionally old squad and a dearth of players in the 17-21 age bracket.

Would also have been someone who could play both on the wing and up front, which most agreed we should go for this window as a high priority.

Deal was there for the taking, and it sounds like the only reason we didn't go for it is we couldn't offload the ageing Wilson, and the club wanted to persist with its shoestring budget with no new investment from the owners.

We and particularly the owners, would love to see a younger vibrant squad. However Managers are assessed on results. Roy kept us in the Premiership and got us to a European final with an old squad. We know the Chairman wants the club to be sustainable. Marco wants success, his future relies on it. The two wants don't sit easily together. We also have the problem of Marco not committing to a longer contract (so why should the players?).
All of this is my take on things. I could be well wide of the mark. For what it's worth I think Shahid Khan's team have managed a pretty good balance in this window of satisfying Marco's immediate wants whilst bringing in players whose future value brings his long term plans closer to reality.