Winter Transfer Missed Opportunities and Regrets

[21_GOONER_SALUTE]

The funniest thing is that with the way we've been thinking in future tense for the past 20 years, you would think supporters of this should have evidence to show the benefits it has provided to the club..... I mean did it deliver us trophies or have we really had the best young players in the world grace these parts??

Let me ask, what about transfer fees, have we really made top dollar from all the great future tense signings we've made. Who remembers how much we sold Gnarby for?

Maybe after flogging Pepe they'll have more ammo for their argument

***Update just checked, a future tense is actually our top sale, RVP going to United in 2012 for 27.6m remains our record sale. Fergie paid top dollar for a 29 year old player who only helped him steal the league back from City and end up highest goal scorer (BTW he left because we wouldn't offer him more years on a new contract). You just gotta love our transfer policy!!

[HCZ_Reborn]

You use Barcelona as a yard stick? And yet the reason we are enquiring about Raphinia after being there only six months is because they’ve learned nothing from their last debacle over having a ridiculously high wage bill.

I wouldn’t accuse City of having small club mentality, but when’s the last time you’ve known them to go out and make a panic signing?. They operated with only Jesus as their out and out centre forward for over a year because they don’t want to compromise on quality.

Chelsea aren’t acting like a big club, they are acting like a club that has no regard towards its own future sustainability. They could end up with 30 players in their squad by the end of this transfer window and they are going to have experienced players not being registered to play premier league games which is going to create all kinds of friction.

It’s not just about the value of the transfer it’s about the knock on effect it has in terms of squad harmony (it doesn’t fill me with confidence that Trossard’s current manager has spoken out against his attitude) and the sell on value of a player is a consideration when we look to the summer and the need to strengthen the squad going forward.

In my view to be absolutely sure we can keep going right to the end of the season, we would need three players…a central midfielder, a winger and a striker (and I felt this even before Jesus got injured). That isn’t going to happen in this transfer window even the worlds most richest clubs would struggle to bring three players like that in.

So my consideration is between signing players that I don’t especially rate and don’t think would have any great impact on a title chase and waiting till the summer. Let me be clear on this, we will either win the title or we won’t…I simply don’t believe there’s anyone we can bring in now that will significantly push the odds in our favour.

If I thought that player was out there and available to buy now, my attitude would be different but this is half way through the season.

[HCZ_Reborn]

Couldn't disagree more with this post even if I wanted to....has small club mentality written all over it ( signed and approved by Kronke AFC), pretty sad TBH.

Big clubs do what they need to do to win or get to their objectives (i.e. Chelsea spending whatever it takes to try and save their season in January...same way Man U did earlier this summer).

Great additions to the squad are not determined by age, it's medium sized clubs looking to sell of players that think in such a way.

Last January when Barca wanted to save their season, despite their financial turmoil they took an aging Auba from us, besides recruiting a lot of other experienced talent and turned their season around. They still managed flog Auba and not make a loss....thats what big clubs do, they reorganise efficiently.

Man U did the same when they brought in Ibrahimovic to save their season years ago.

Barca did the same with Larson years further, if you can't remember just go and watch our CL final to have a good cry again... In fact Fergie (who clearly knows more about wining than anyone here) still brought Larson to Man U at 35 (from semi-retirement in Sweden) and ended up winning the league and achieving what he wanted from the signing. If you don't believe me read Fergie's words.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/pundita...son-new/%3famp

Big clubs sign players because you need the quality they can bring to you....on and off the pitch. The more immediate they can bring that quality the better. Most successful managers know this, it's only people who know very little about wining that keep thinking only in the future tense and get managers sacked....and here I'm talking specifically about what our "winners" in the club did to Emery that he feels one of the main reasons he got sacked (Pepe signing of course).

https://www.goal.com/en-ng/amp/news/...l1v52f58rn9jzs



So are you saying if you had the option to sign Benzema on your terms this January you wouldn't take him because he wouldn't represent value to this squad??

As fans, we should be able to think independently on some things and not act like we are being paid salaries by the club to keep making excuses for their obvious lapses.

On my terms would be a six month contract that takes us up to the end of the season. If you can prove to me that Benzema would be willing to make that kind of arrangement without being paid significantly higher than he is at Real Madrid I’d go for it.

[HCZ_Reborn]

The funniest thing is that with the way we've been thinking in future tense for the past 20 years, you would think supporters of this should have evidence to show the benfits it has provided to the club..... I mean did it deliver us trophies or have we really had the best young players in the world grace these parts??

Let me ask, what about transfer fees, have really made top dollar from all the great future tense signings we've made. Who remembers how much we sold Gnarby for?

Maybe after flogging Pepe they'll have more ammo for their argument

You do operate in a strange binary world don’t you ?

I think you’ll find me as one of the people who was highly critical of the fact that we were getting peanuts for players we sold

But on top of that we signed so many players on big contracts that stuck to us like barnacles and it clearly dented our ability to bring players in, yet you seem to want to make that same mistake again

[Mac76]

I agree with 21 Gooner to an extent, future planning is all well and good but RIGHT NOW we have a huge chance to win the PL that might well not be there next year or who knows how many years to come - and the players we can get next summer will be influenced by how successful the club has been this season

Without reinforcement we're headed for a possible meltdown in the spring which could see us be overtaken by an increasing large chasing pack

[HCZ_Reborn]

I agree with 21 Gooner to an extent, future planning is all well and good but RIGHT NOW we have a huge chance to win the PL that might well not be there next year or who knows how many years to come - and the players we can get next summer will be influenced by how successful the club has been this season

Without reinforcement we're headed for a possible meltdown in the spring which could see us be overtaken by an increasing large chasing pack

If it happens it happens


I simply don’t believe there’s anyone out there who we can afford (and even if we could afford it would be hard to get the deal over the line) that would provide the comprehensive insurance we are looking for.


If Saka gets injured we are fucked

If Partey gets injured we are fucked

If Nketiah doesn’t consistently score we are fucked


And it wouldn’t need all three of these things to happen, it would just need one


The fact is we are 18 games into the season, it’s ridiculous to be thinking about the title as it’s too early. The World Cup seems to have given us a perspective that we are further into the season than we actually are.


The problem is too many people here seem to inhabit the world of what should, in that world we would have had these players we need in place from last summer. But we did’nt.

[21_GOONER_SALUTE]

You do operate in a strange binary world don’t you ?

I think you’ll find me as one of the people who was highly critical of the fact that we were getting peanuts for players we sold

But on top of that we signed so many players on big contracts that stuck to us like barnacles and it clearly dented our ability to bring players in, yet you seem to want to make that same mistake again

HCZ it's simple, we've had an extremely poor transfer strategy in this club for ages and that was because of our obsession with youth and all manner of cheapness started by AW.

When he became desperate towards the end of his reign thats when things changed and we started getting class like Laca and Auba (both paying top dollar for in the same year).

You buy who you need, can afford and will add value to your squad.

To make it crystal clear, IMO the only position we have that gives me sleepless nights is Partey's. If he gets injured today and the club don't sign cover before January, IMO they are not serious.

If he gets injured later (after January) and its clear that we went downhill because of his absence, I will still blame the club because it was obvious to all that his position is pivotal.

All I am saying, is if you identify a proper potential target that will add value, sign him and stop coming up with silly excuses of age or any other crap.

Go the extra mile, leave your comfort zone, do what it takes to win.

This is the most difficult league in the world, you can't just fill a checklist and expect you'll win by being ordinary.

And stop being silly, we're obviously going to finish in the top 4.

[HCZ_Reborn]

HCZ it's simple, we've had an extremely poor transfer strategy in this club for ages and that was because of our obsession with youth started by AW.

When he became desperate towards the end of his reign thats when things changed and we started getting class like Laca and Auba (both paying top dollar for in the same year).

You buy who you need, can afford and will add value to your squad.

To make it crystal clear, IMO the only position we have that gives me sleepless nights is Partey's. If he gets injured today and the club don't sign cover before January, IMO they are not serious.

If he gets injured later (after January) and its clear that we went downhill because of his absence, I will still blame the club because it was obvious to all that his position is pivotal.

All I am saying, is if you identify a proper potential target that will add value, sign him and stop coming up with silly excuses of age or any other crap.

Go the extra mile, leave your comfort zone, do what it takes to win.

This is the most difficult league in the world, you can't just fill a checklist and expect you'll win by being ordinary.

And stop being silly, we're obviously going to finish in the top 4.

It was Wenger’s youth policy that kept us in the top four for so long when it was abundantly clear that we were sticking to the self sustainability model. The main mistake he made was to stick these players on ridiculous contracts

Then when we were able to bring players in we brought in average dross, we went down the table and couldn’t get rid of them

The problem is you’re presenting it like it’s a choice between being like Chelsea and being unambitious and I utterly reject that notion.

In fact I think the idea of the desire to spend now when the players are not available is small club mentality, because it supposes that we will never have a chance like this season again. My preference is to build a team that will compete for the title each and every single year which clearly wasn’t the ambition of the club between 2006 and 2014…it was to keep us on a sound financial footing whilst we paid down the stadium debt. So your comparison is Apples and Bowling balls. Whatever shit we might have been led to believe at the time, that was the reality of the situation

Man City’s team a lot of their players are the wrong side of thirty and they know they have FFP breathing down their neck. Chelsea may not give a shit, but I don’t consider they are going to be contending for anything any time soon.

If we needed to recruit in January to give us any chance of the title, the fact is we never stood a chance. January is for sticking plaster solutions….I’d love to have the complete squad that we need to win the title, but the fact is that’s not going to happen in this window. And that would be true if we were City or Chelsea


If we’d signed someone like Douglas Luiz, if Jesus hadn’t got injured at the World Cup I would say we were well in contention for the title regardless of Mudryk (he’s a prospect…well so is Marquinhos and so is Vieira).

The fact is you say the only injury that gives you sleepless nights is Partey, well no offence but if that’s the case why are you throwing your Teddy out of the pram that we didn’t sign Mudryk??…did you think we would have spent the amount Chelsea did on him AND bring in cover for Partey !??

[Mac76]

Marquinos needs to get more game time, I keep forgetting the guy exists, also we should consider getting Balogun back from loan so we aren't just relying on Eddie.

[21_GOONER_SALUTE]

It was Wenger’s youth policy that kept us in the top four for so long when it was abundantly clear that we were sticking to the self sustainability model. The main mistake he made was to stick these players on ridiculous contracts

No, the problem was we prioritised youth over everything including merit. We had players that were clearly not good enough and we refused to sign better more experienced players because it would kill youth. Even the good experienced players, we refused to hold on to them because of our youth obsession. The funny thing is when we did have young players that were good, they would still bugger off to another team because our ambition was a mismatch for them. To a fair extent, in Arteta's Arsenal, this issue is no longer a worry. Balogun and Wilock (who I love BTW) are perfect examples to show he has remedied this.

The problem is you’re presenting it like it’s a choice between being like Chelsea and being unambitious and I utterly reject that notion.

Not once have I said we should be like Chelsea or whatever that means. My emphasis has been compete with all thats available to you and not sit on your arse filling a checklist and being ordinary.

In fact I think the idea of the desire to spend now when the players are not available is small club mentality, because it supposes that we will never have a chance like this season again. My preference is to build a team that will compete for the title each and every single year which clearly wasn’t the ambition of the club between 2006 and 2014…it was to keep us on a sound financial footing whilst we paid down the stadium debt. So your comparison is Apples and Bowling balls

Rubbish, rubbish, rubbish....we were never told and there is absolutely no evidence to show that the ambition of the club was to pay stadium debt or that the stadium debt was the main reason why we did what we did. It was the excuse but never the reason. Other poorer teams have built far more expensive stadiums and remained competitive on and off the pitch. So stop with the government propaganda.

Man City’s team a lot of their players are the wrong side of thirty and they know they have FFP breathing down their neck. Chelsea may not give a shit, but I don’t consider they are going to be contending for anything any time soon.

Its been 20years of hearing this same drivel that these teams will fall on their sword... won't you guys ever get tired?

If we needed to recruit in January to give us any chance of the title, the fact is we never stood a chance. January is for sticking plaster solutions….I’d love to have the complete squad that we need to win the title, but the fact is that’s not going to happen in this window. And that would be true if we were City or Chelsea

If we’d signed someone like Douglas Luiz, if Jesus hadn’t got injured at the World Cup I would say we were well in contention for the title regardless of Mudryk (he’s a prospect…well so is Marquinhos and so is Vieira).

Dude we are favourites for the title whether you like it or not. Betting odds have been slashed and for the first time we are now FIRM favourites. I get it that's its a bit scary, but thats how competition works. The league is ours to lose and now it is confirmed independently, so no amount of excuses or pretending will hide that fact that its all in our hands. Just like it was the year Leicester won the league.