"The January Transfer Gossip Window"

[junior white]

If the Cahill story about salary is true, we'll be haggling over what, £1m? Say he's on £150k, Chelsea want us to pay 80% of that and we only want to pay 50%, a discrepancy over 6 months of about £1m. FFS just having him for the Burnley game is worth that. Or be creative and off him a £1.5m bonus if we stay up, conditional also on him signing in time for the Burnley fixture. Honestly this business aint hard

A bit late for Burnley but I can think of plenty of cases where simple incentivisation has more than paid itself back.

I can't believe the wage issue is a sticking point really.  We're not that bad at negotiating and recruiting players are we?

didnt we used to have a strict budget of 60k per week max under Big Mo? that may have changed now but I seem to remember him making an exception for Berba when he came in on 75k per week (having taking a huge cut from his Man U salary)

Just asking as I have no clue on what we pay people, just remember reading something along the lines of the above

[alfie]

If the Cahill story about salary is true, we'll be haggling over what, £1m? Say he's on £150k, Chelsea want us to pay 80% of that and we only want to pay 50%, a discrepancy over 6 months of about £1m. FFS just having him for the Burnley game is worth that. Or be creative and off him a £1.5m bonus if we stay up, conditional also on him signing in time for the Burnley fixture. Honestly this business aint hard

A bit late for Burnley but I can think of plenty of cases where simple incentivisation has more than paid itself back.

I can't believe the wage issue is a sticking point really.  We're not that bad at negotiating and recruiting players are we?

There has to come a point where enough is enough, it's ok to sit behind a keyboard basically saying pay him what he wants, but if there is a wage policy in place it has to and should be respected, and of course is he actually worth it.

[Milo]

Hes worth it! But only if we get in good full backs too.

[Matt10]

Sky Sports saying that Wesley Hoedt is free to leave Southampton. Proper centre-back with more than enough PL experience. He'd slot right into our starting lineup I imagine.

https://www.whoscored.com/Players/141172/Show/Wesley-Hoedt

[Bassey the warrior]

(Reply to Mitrovic the warriors last post) ... It makes Cairney no worse than Seri. TC was largely a championship player albeit an incredibly talented one who cost a fraction of what Seri and Anguissa did. IMO Seri hasn't shown he's a noticeable upgrade on Cairney and the business that did us the most harm in the summer was the 50 million spent on Anguissa and Seri plus the acquisition if Schurrle all on big wages and all carrying massive expectations to deliver at this level. On that count individually and collectively they have failed. I wish that massive slice of transfer & wage budget was used more wisely elsewhere.

I'd argue that Seri offers more to the team as he doesn't get the free role Cairney does. He does a lot more defensively.

Can't disagree we should get more from him but there's no better centre mid in our team.

[junior white]

Apparently the french media are saying Batshuyi about to sign for Monaco

[Denver Fulham]

It makes me wonder how the French came to win the World Cup with their league and players not being up to our standard. I expect Steed would know.

There is a difference between French Players in National team and players in the French league,
Pogba Kante and so on don't play in their  league.
Never mind Once Bitten or in our case how many times bitten,will we ever learn.

Kante signed for Leicester from Caen. He seems to have done pretty well since.

More recently, Bissouma (another young DM) signed this past summer with Brighton from Lille, and has looked pretty good from the glimpses I've seen.

Frankly, Le Marchand has been fine for us this season. He's definitely a "Premier League player," if not anything particularly special.

That we haven't gotten nearly enough from Seri and just about nothing from Anguissa isn't because they came from the French league.

[Mince n Tatties]

It makes me wonder how the French came to win the World Cup with their league and players not being up to our standard. I expect Steed would know.

There is a difference between French Players in National team and players in the French league,
Pogba Kante and so on don't play in their  league.
Never mind Once Bitten or in our case how many times bitten,will we ever learn.

Kante signed for Leicester from Caen. He seems to have done pretty well since.

More recently, Bissouma (another young DM) signed this past summer with Brighton from Lille, and has looked pretty good from the glimpses I've seen.

Frankly, Le Marchand has been fine for us this season. He's definitely a "Premier League player," if not anything particularly special.

That we haven't gotten nearly enough from Seri and just about nothing from Anguissa isn't because they came from the French league.

Point is our scouts can't seem to find the likes of Kante over there.

[Mince n Tatties]

French league is poor I'm afraid.

[FFC1987]

Came here to get excited about prospect buys, left bored of talk about the french league again....

[Mince n Tatties]

Came here to get excited about prospect buys, left bored of talk about the french league again....

Maybe that's because there's no news or likely to be I'm afraid... Poor show I thought we'd might have had at least one new player at Burnley.

[Riversider]

Came here to get excited about prospect buys, left bored of talk about the french league again....

Come back at 5pm tomorrow I've got a gut feeling it's going to be pretty lively on here then 😁

[FFC1987]

Came here to get excited about prospect buys, left bored of talk about the french league again....

Come back at 5pm tomorrow I've got a gut feeling it's going to be pretty lively on here then 😁

haha will do. Also, Wesley Hoedt, quote from STH'ers from Saints 'i'll drive him, hes an absolute liability!!!!!' and 'he's not an upgrade on your current roster.....and thats saying something!!!'

[Statto]

Do you really think that our recruitment team hasn't run these numbers and discussed different solutions? Do you think they are complete morons?

The team is led by Tony Khan, a relatively young man with absolutely no relevant experience prior to taking up his role at FFC a couple of years ago. I don't know whether he's a "moron" but I do believe, with a high degree of confidence, that as such a novice, he's not very good at his job and I, along with a few on this forum, could likely do it much better than him.

Alastair Mackintosh has a lot more experience but he's an accountant by trade. I have confidence in his ability to balance the books and manage the business side of things, but not to prioritise football matters. If we sign Cahill on 31 Jan for £500k less than Chelsea were asking on 1 January, I expect he sees that as a good cost saving, justifying his salary.

Too many on here seem to want to assume the people running our club are these omniscient, perfect, hyper-experts and therefore every failing we suffer must be due to incredibly bad luck that they couldn't possibly have predicted or prepared for. I'm afraid the reality is, FFC is (in terms of revenue and headcount) a relatively small business, in a field generally populated by below average intelligence people (footballers and ex-footballers) and the relatives of billionaires who know nothing about football. Im afraid for those it reasons it's going to be, at best, like any small business - some decent employees but none are perfect and some are just plain sh1te at the job. For example, watch the Sunderland documentary and then imagine what a sh1tshow ours would be for the same period given we had things happening like Kline making accusations to the police to a bench next to the training ground.

[Mince n Tatties]

Plymouth Argyle after Chris Martin.

[Sting of the North]

Statto, I'm sorry but this is what you wrote before and to which my reply was aimed:

If the Cahill story about salary is true, we'll be haggling over what, £1m? Say he's on £150k, Chelsea want us to pay 80% of that and we only want to pay 50%, a discrepancy over 6 months of about £1m. FFS just having him for the Burnley game is worth that. Or be creative and off him a £1.5m bonus if we stay up, conditional also on him signing in time for the Burnley fixture. Honestly this business aint hard

I refuse to believe that no one in our recruitment department can come up with the idea to offer Cahill a bonus in case we stay up, or consider whether or not the extra cost would be worth it in light of the important games coming up. I don't think anyone believes that such factors are what is complicated.

I have never claimed that TK or anyone else for that matter are great at their jobs. I haven't been particular happy with most transfer windows although I was fairly satisfied with the summer window (which was more due to me being happy that we managed to get a full squad together at all). Actually, I can't recall anyone saying that TK has done an overall great job, or that every failing has to be because of bad luck. Maybe someone has stated that, but that is definitely a minority opinion I believe if that is the case.

What I have done, and will continue to do is argue against those just complaining all the time without solid arguments. We have no idea what work has been done, what offers have been made and what potential amount of bad luck we have had. Maybe they all just sit on their hands all day, or haggle over who should pay for the coffee before agreeing anything. Then again, maybe not. Maybe TK is shite at his job, but I do not believe that it would be because he is lazy, or because he doesn't give a crap. You are free to think little of Fulham's recruitment team however much you want of course, but others are free to give them the benefit of doubt as well.

I also don't know why footballers and ex footballers would be "below average intelligence people". They often however lack sufficient business experience I believe.   

[ByTheRiver]

Do you really think that our recruitment team hasn't run these numbers and discussed different solutions? Do you think they are complete morons?

The team is led by Tony Khan, a relatively young man with absolutely no relevant experience prior to taking up his role at FFC a couple of years ago. I don't know whether he's a "moron" but I do believe, with a high degree of confidence, that as such a novice, he's not very good at his job and I, along with a few on this forum, could likely do it much better than him.

Alastair Mackintosh has a lot more experience but he's an accountant by trade. I have confidence in his ability to balance the books and manage the business side of things, but not to prioritise football matters. If we sign Cahill on 31 Jan for £500k less than Chelsea were asking on 1 January, I expect he sees that as a good cost saving, justifying his salary.

Too many on here seem to want to assume the people running our club are these omniscient, perfect, hyper-experts and therefore every failing we suffer must be due to incredibly bad luck that they couldn't possibly have predicted or prepared for. I'm afraid the reality is, FFC is (in terms of revenue and headcount) a relatively small business, in a field generally populated by below average intelligence people (footballers and ex-footballers) and the relatives of billionaires who know nothing about football. Im afraid for those it reasons it's going to be, at best, like any small business - some decent employees but none are perfect and some are just plain sh1te at the job. For example, watch the Sunderland documentary and then imagine what a sh1tshow ours would be for the same period given we had things happening like K making accusations to the police to a bench next to the training ground.

Fantastic post. I seem to find myself nodding along to a lot of your posts over the years to be honest.

I don't think they are 'bad owners' per se. In some ways they are very good owners - not afraid of spending money, no apparent ulterior motives outside that of any other business. However, I do think it's a bit of a vanity project/gift for Tony. The recent wrestling acquisition only serves to back this up to me. He gets to do what, lets face it, all of us would love to do. The trip to Vegas with all of the squad now looks like a vanity thing too (whereas before it seemed quite sweet/one of the boys, etc). I think he probably took a lot of the credit and believed a huge part of promotion was down to him and his role/work (potentially how he managed to get such numbers for transfer funds this year?) and took everyone away revelling in the glory.

Personally, I believe Slavisa played a massive part in making the team more than the sum of their parts and players look better than they are (an opinion backed up by the recent fairings of Aluko, Malone, Fredericks and so on). The same can be said of Klopp at Liverpool (despite his knockers) - a team containing Robertson (who looks wonderful!), Milner, Henderson, Gio W, Lovren, and so on should not be competing at the very pinnacle of European football. Front 3 aside, they are far from the best team (on paper) in the league.

Is Tony qualified for the role he/his dad have placed himself into? Ask yourself this; what other club would have put him in this position (ownership aside)? Answer none. Certainly in the professional tier.

I think, if they now acknowledged this now, took a step back from hands-on football dealings, and continued to back financially, we'd find ourselves (and their asset) in a far better position.

[SuffolkWhite]

Is it possible to have two threads for transfer windows eg Transfer Rumours and Transfer chat or something?

[jelmo]

Is it possible to have two threads for transfer windows eg Transfer Rumours and Transfer chat or something?

Great idea. The transfer chat is a bit dry.

[Barrett487]

Fulham table offer to sign January target, need to increase bid by €2m

http://sportwitness.co.uk/fulham-table-offer-sign-january-target-need-increase-bid-e2m/

Fotomac claim Fulham have made a €3m offer to sign Mauricio Isla but Fenerbahce have rejected the offer as the Turkish club are looking to get €5m from the sale of the Chilean defender.

Yesterday we covered reports from Turkey that Isla is a target for Fulham as Claudio Ranieri looks to bolster his defence in this transfer window.

The former Juventus player, who can also play in midfield, has again been linked with a move to Fulham. Fotomac say the English club have made their first move by contacting Fenerbahce via intermediaries.

It's claimed Fenerbahce are open to letting Isla leave this month but they will be looking for an extra €2m from the Premier League side.

The 30-year old is unlikely to get regular games with the Istanbul club during the second half of the season after reports Ersun Yanal is ready to use Nabil Dirar as his first choice right back.

Isla has played 13 Turkish Super Lig games for Fenerbahce this season and is his contract at the Ulker Stadium until June 2020.