Tyrique George

[C Block]

I agree with others on this, Chelsea letting an emerging talent leave for £22 million was an incredible opportunity I'm my opinion,
He's already been added to their Champions League squad, if he plays 10 times this season his price will double,
Regardless of Wilson and Leeds I would have continued with George and worried about Wilson and Traore further down the line,
King, Kevin and George could have led us forward for the next 4 or 5 years, real shame I think.

[Jim©]

a PL winger who is really good maybe 3-5 games a season, and then bang average for the rest.

Pretty disparaging summary of a player that has won us plenty of games (63 goal contributions in 150 games which was 90 odd ninety minutes).

[Bal_13]

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.

Agreed, I was absolutely being selective with my stats - that was the point I was making! However, I do agree with you that the squad age is an ongoing thing to be managed (even if my position isn't nearly so strong)

I maintain 5-10 18-21 year olds is youth for youth's sake - we're a professional team (even if we do our best to look otherwise at times) not a crèche.

We've had this discussion before, but last time we had that many youth players was 2014-15 and that was our lowest league position this millennium.

[itombomb]

a PL winger who is really good maybe 3-5 games a season, and then bang average for the rest.

Pretty disparaging summary of a player that has won us plenty of games (63 goal contributions in 150 games which was 90 odd ninety minutes).

Almost half of which came in the Championship. He's a very average Premier League player.

I don't know if George is a better player yet, but selling Wilson for 10 and buying George for 22 is almost certainly better business than keeping Wilson.

[hopper]

I think direction of travel is encouraging with securing Ridgeon, King, Kevin and Asare seemingly. George being targeted as replacement for Wilson shows focus is on bringing younger players in.

Definitely signs of looking towards the future now, so feel this is alarmist. I feel people get worried with age to an extent that obscures the reality of the numbers. 'Old' seems to be getting younger all the time to an almost comical extent that people worry about signing 26 year olds rather than someone who is 24.

Think we have a good balance of ages in the squad which should give Kevin and King a license to play with freedom amongst a settled squad.

I'm definitely quite concerned about the middle of the park with Reed and TC being backups to Lukic and Berge. We all wanted a goalscoring midfielder or enforcer to give us some more options there. Feels we're still kicking the can down the road a bit with that area of the pitch, and it becomes even more important in upcoming windows.

[Deeping_white]

a PL winger who is really good maybe 3-5 games a season, and then bang average for the rest.

Pretty disparaging summary of a player that has won us plenty of games (63 goal contributions in 150 games which was 90 odd ninety minutes).

But your comment doesn't rebuke what I say? You can pick out his match winning performances which are the good ones, and then the next 4-5 games he'll start and won't do very much. It's not an insult but it's a statement of fact of his ability and the fact that he's probably reached his ceiling; over half his goal contributions came in his first season  in the championship (32)

[Lordedmundo]

Personally - I'm thrilled we didn't sign George for the following reasons:

1. We won't be handing Chelsea £22m
2. He is a totally unproven player
3. We've purchased 2 starting wingers in Kevin and Chuk - don't need another winger coming to sit on the bench
4. I prefer to keep Wilson (and hope he extends his contract). He is at his peak and still has at least three years left a the top level
5. The money saved can be spent next season on a position that needs filling (probably a midfielder or two with Cairney and Reed leaving)

[alfie]

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 🤞

It's interesting that it appears Wilson wanted to go and the deal sheet was signed by him and Leeds, so will we now have a disgruntled player on our hands ?

[Snibbo]

"They note that Roma spoke with Chelsea this week about signing the player and decided demands from the Blues were unreasonable. According to Gazzetta, Chelsea were asking for a 30% sell-on fee.

This prompted the Roma ownership to inform Chelsea that 'nothing will happen', handing Fulham a chance to sign the 19-year-old winger.

It is unclear whether there were similar doubts at Craven Cottage about the 30% resale fee demand but reports in England claimed that the Blues were keen on inserting a clause in the deal."

[hovewhite]

Centre midfield is the only spot that needs attention.

[Trusty Steed]

I'm sure Wilson just wants to play, at Leeds he'd probably be starting each week. I don't blame him if he wanted to go elsewhere for game time.
He comes across professional so i doubt he'd cause a fuss....

[copthornemike]

Food for thought.
Roma also enquired about George & pulled out when Chelsea insisted on a 30% cut on future sales.
I assume the same applied to FFC.
Is a player with I believe only 10 EPL appearances, not a regular starter worth £22 million?
Undoubtedly a good player, but that good?

[v]

Heard from an MU friend that Chelsea were keen to palm off George to MU as makeweight in Garnacho deal.

As been said, came very close to sign for Roma.

£22m huge gamble for 18 year old. Yes I know he was used as leverage to force Kevin's camp to sign (and backup if he didn't), but I'm mightily relieved we eventually got our original target - Kevin 😌

[btffc]

The fact that Chelsea were extremely willing to ship out a 19 year old when they were desperately short on the LW for only £22 million which in normal money is like a £10 million valuation since they overvalue everyone is a HUGE red flag.

The kid isn't that good and he isn't a superior athlete.

That said, selling Wilson was definitely the correct decision. Giving him a new contract would be dumb. Wingers peak and decline earlier. It would be another Reed situation where everyone was overjoyed at him signing an extension only to see him play about 1500 minutes in the last 2 seasons since that signing and now he is complete and utter deadweight. Marco was openly calling for his replacement because he is just not at the level. Not to mention Wilson is certainly going to want big wages on any new deal.

TLDR Wilson should have been sold but George was a bad replacement

[akf]

The fact that Chelsea were extremely willing to ship out a 19 year old when they were desperately short on the LW for only £22 million which in normal money is like a £10 million valuation since they overvalue everyone is a HUGE red flag.

The kid isn't that good and he isn't a superior athlete.

That said, selling Wilson was definitely the correct decision. Giving him a new contract would be dumb. Wingers peak and decline earlier. It would be another Reed situation where everyone was overjoyed at him signing an extension only to see him play about 1500 minutes in the last 2 seasons since that signing and now he is complete and utter deadweight. Marco was openly calling for his replacement because he is just not at the level. Not to mention Wilson is certainly going to want big wages on any new deal.

TLDR Wilson should have been sold but George was a bad replacement

Two observations not additive to the conversion:

Why put TLDR at the end? If it was too long to put off finishing, the summary at the end would be missed...

On the George/Wilson topic, has it gone unnoticed that they both have first names as last names?

[btffc]

The fact that Chelsea were extremely willing to ship out a 19 year old when they were desperately short on the LW for only £22 million which in normal money is like a £10 million valuation since they overvalue everyone is a HUGE red flag.

The kid isn't that good and he isn't a superior athlete.

That said, selling Wilson was definitely the correct decision. Giving him a new contract would be dumb. Wingers peak and decline earlier. It would be another Reed situation where everyone was overjoyed at him signing an extension only to see him play about 1500 minutes in the last 2 seasons since that signing and now he is complete and utter deadweight. Marco was openly calling for his replacement because he is just not at the level. Not to mention Wilson is certainly going to want big wages on any new deal.

TLDR Wilson should have been sold but George was a bad replacement

Two observations not additive to the conversion:

Why put TLDR at the end? If it was too long to put off finishing, the summary at the end would be missed...

On the George/Wilson topic, has it gone unnoticed that they both have first names as last names?

Wilson is definitively a last name as it is derived from Will's son.

[Roberty]

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.

You are so salty
You can't resist a cheap shot

There is zero evidence that SK is not investing in our club. Have you sampled the Riverside?

Not off loading Wilson was said to be the cause and was widely reported.

[Woolly Mammoth]

The fact that Chelsea were extremely willing to ship out a 19 year old when they were desperately short on the LW for only £22 million which in normal money is like a £10 million valuation since they overvalue everyone is a HUGE red flag.

The kid isn't that good and he isn't a superior athlete.

That said, selling Wilson was definitely the correct decision. Giving him a new contract would be dumb. Wingers peak and decline earlier. It would be another Reed situation where everyone was overjoyed at him signing an extension only to see him play about 1500 minutes in the last 2 seasons since that signing and now he is complete and utter deadweight. Marco was openly calling for his replacement because he is just not at the level. Not to mention Wilson is certainly going to want big wages on any new deal.

TLDR Wilson should have been sold but George was a bad replacement

Two observations not additive to the conversion:

Why put TLDR at the end? If it was too long to put off finishing, the summary at the end would be missed...

On the George/Wilson topic, has it gone unnoticed that they both have first names as last names?

Who's George Wilson and what position does he play. ?

[Snibbo]

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.

You are so salty
You can't resist a cheap shot

There is zero evidence that SK is not investing in our club. Have you sampled the Riverside?

Not off loading Wilson was said to be the cause and was widely reported.

I really do wonder about the motivation or mindset of posters who continually take pot-shots at the Khans. They've invested £863 million in the club. To call this a "shoestring budget" is either wilful ignorance or deliberate mischief making.

[Angus Telford]

I really do wonder about the motivation or mindset of posters who continually take pot-shots at the Khans. They've invested £863 million in the club. To call this a "shoestring budget" is either wilful ignorance or deliberate mischief making.

They deserve the utmost gratitude for funding a huge infrastructure project around 2019.

But in the context of the present day and transfer spending, the reality is we've consistently seen, for several years now, below-average spending, at a level that matches the club's own revenue surplus after the payment of wages.

So they're not, nowadays, investing in the team. This is empirical data, not a mindset.