Bruno Fernandes

[DannyNZ]

The issue is the quality of player.

We are obviously targeting players who are very highly rated and have a solid tally in their favour, even if the league is weak. Their respective clubs then see average/inferior players move for 40m and think "Our player is worth twice that, so this is the going rate" and because we don't want to lower our standards we have to wrestle with them on their valuation.

Also, we need to be looking at targets and thinking "Is this player better than Erisken" and honestly speaking there isn't many out there who are. Therefore we are left with a small pool of players to select from.

Fair enough, but it looks like Van de Beek could head to Real for 55m similar to the numbers being floated as our ‘top’ bids for our targets. Personal opinion but VDB looks right up their in terms of quality, might not be what we’re looking for but there is quality out there if you’re not myopic.

 

[RichieS]

I'd be pretty annoyed if we spent 70m on Fernandes and not someone like Lo Celso.

Why? I imagine an awful lot goes into deciding how much we'd be willing to pay for any given player. Fernandes is arguably more "proven" than Lo Celso for a start.

 

[dannythomas]

The issue is the quality of player.

We are obviously targeting players who are very highly rated and have a solid tally in their favour, even if the league is weak. Their respective clubs then see average/inferior players move for 40m and think "Our player is worth twice that, so this is the going rate" and because we don't want to lower our standards we have to wrestle with them on their valuation.

Also, we need to be looking at targets and thinking "Is this player better than Erisken" and honestly speaking there isn't many out there who are. Therefore we are left with a small pool of players to select from.

Well the counter argument to that is , because we can’t afford , or won’t pay ,the fees necessary to replace Eriksen with someone better then we don’t bring in anyone else in at all. Poch clearly wanted GLC who is not a like for like replacement but would help fill the gap . But Levy would rather get nobody than pay up what was necessary to bring him in. So Eriksen leaves or runs down his contract and we are screwed.

Imagine if Kane insisted on leaving. Would we be able to sign someone better ? No. So would we sign nobody ? Using your argument yes. The smart thing would be to bring in players who offer something different , though in Kane’s case maybe 2 players like that.

It’s amazing that over the course of 3 transfer windows we can only find 1 player that Poch wants and that Levy is willing to pay for.

 

[McArchibald]

Why? I imagine an awful lot goes into deciding how much we'd be willing to pay for any given player. Fernandes is arguably more "proven" than Lo Celso for a start.

It would seem this alleged internal process results in maximum fees that are unrealistically low, hence our struggles to sign our targets.
Shouldn't the process of supply and demand be key to determining the price a player is worth?

 

[RichieS]

It would seem this alleged internal process results in maximum fees that are unrealistically low, hence our struggles to sign our targets.
Shouldn't the process of supply and demand be key to determining the price a player is worth?

Isn't that a different point to the one I was responding to? @rossdapep said he'd be annoyed if we were willing to spend €70m on Fernandes but not Lo Celso, I think if this turns out to be the case then there will be some reasoning behind it.

Input into how we determine how high we're willing to go will come from various places I would've thought; e.g. Betis tell us they want the release clause for Lo Celso (obvious bluff even without any other information) but his agent says he reckons it can be done for €50-60m because of x, y and z. Maybe scouts have some input as well, as would the market (is Lo Celso's profile similar to that of de Jong, for example)?

Does anyone honestly believe that this is all a sham from the club, that we found out right at the start of the summer that we couldn't afford Lo Celso but have kept the story running to try and "please" or trick the fans?

 

[luRRka]

What I don’t get is we have x amount to spend and want Lo Celso and/Fernandes. We won’t pay the asking price for either of them, yet our offers aren’t that far off. Instead of ending up with no one, why aren’t we paying that bit extra to get at least one of them? We desperately need another attacking midfielder. Look at our available players for Villa, the bench is going to be even worse than last season. If the game doesn’t go our way we’ve no options on the bench.

I would imagine if we arent that far off on valuation we will get one or both on deadline day when there is more chance one or both clubs start to become twitchy about having a multi million pound asset who no longer wants to play for them.

Not much difference between getting them today and getting them in 3 days time.

 

[Dean]

Trying doesn't matter if you always fail...

Do or do not. There is no try.

 

[carpediem1906]

If anything highlights the need for two more midfielders coming in, it’s the hamstring injury to Dele before the season even starts. That’s four in two years, with one of them keeping him out for three months. Factor in Lamela’s extensive injury record and we are suddenly looking very thin on the ground in the attacking midfield area. And that’s not even considering what the hell happens to Eriksen.

Less than four days for us to not stand still. Going to be intense

Where I see these last few days panning out

1. We sign one of GLC / BF + Sess
2. We sell or loan out out Wanyama and try damn hard to sell GKN
3. If Eriksen doesn’t renew contract, we try to sell him

We play a variation of 4-4-2 diamond or 4-3-3 this season

GK Hugo Gaza
RB Aurier Foyth Kwp
CB Toby Jan Sanchez Dier
LB Rose Davies
CM Winks Ndombele Sissoko Skipp
AM Eriksen Coco Dele GLC/BF
WF Sonny Lucas GKN Sessegnon
ST Kane Troy

That’s already 25/25 players in the squad

If Eriksen n GKN leaves, we might go for a too good to pass up deal that comes up like Dybala or Bale or some backup striker / re-sign Llorente

But if we sign both GLC & GF, then we aren’t confident about Lamela n Dele for the long term

 

[rossdapep]

Well the counter argument to that is , because we can’t afford , or won’t pay ,the fees necessary to replace Eriksen with someone better then we don’t bring in anyone else in at all. Poch clearly wanted GLC who is not a like for like replacement but would help fill the gap . But Levy would rather get nobody than pay up what was necessary to bring him in. So Eriksen leaves or runs down his contract and we are screwed.

Imagine if Kane insisted on leaving. Would we be able to sign someone better ? No. So would we sign nobody ? Using your argument yes. The smart thing would be to bring in players who offer something different , though in Kane’s case maybe 2 players like that.

It’s amazing that over the course of 3 transfer windows we can only find 1 player that Poch wants and that Levy is willing to pay for.

I agree with that. I guess Poch is in a mindset of "if they aren't as good as what I have, I don't want" after the Nkoudou, N'Jie windows. I agree in some instances you can bring in a player who is more 'potential' rather than 'already-proven' however we've left it so late we can't afford to lose Eriksen and replace with 'potential' we certainly need more 'already-proven'. It's a policy that is hurting us.

 

[rossdapep]

Record are saying United had their people in Algarve to watch him last night.
Whereas O Jogo are saying we have hit a stalemate on proceedings due to Lo Celso and the 70m asking price for Fernandes. They are also reporting the Mail story on United.

Other than that .....nothing.

 

[FibreOpticJesus]

Where I see these last few days panning out

1. We sign one of GLC / BF + Sess
2. We sell or loan out out Wanyama and try damn hard to sell GKN
3. If Eriksen doesn’t renew contract, we try to sell him



That’s already 25/25 players in the squad

If Eriksen n GKN leaves, we might go for a too good to pass up deal that comes up like Dybala or Bale or some backup striker / re-sign Llorente

But if we sign both GLC & GF, then we aren’t confident about Lamela n Dele for the long term

If we buy any overseas players will we not have to sell or drop overseas players from our Champs league squad.

We currently have 17 overseas players (Dier & Davies are os players in Europe) So to buy GLC/BF we need to lose two being GKN & Wanyama. For Dybala and an overseas rightback we have to get rid of two more. So Eriksen and ???

Problem is we cannot offload any as their salaries are too high.

 

[SpartanSpur]

If we buy any overseas players will we not have to sell or drop overseas players from our Champs league squad.

We currently have 17 overseas players (Dier & Davies are os players in Europe) So to buy GLC/BF we need to lose two being GKN & Wanyama. For Dybala and an overseas rightback we have to get rid of two more. So Eriksen and ???

Problem is we cannot offload any as their salaries are too high.

We'd not be getting GLC, BF AND Dybala! Even 2 of those would feel like a huge achievement at this point, and in that case CE is long gone. Depending on Foyth's injury he could be out for the CL run anyway if we needed an extra space.

 

[FibreOpticJesus]

We'd not be getting GLC, BF AND Dybala! Even 2 of those would feel like a huge achievement at this point, and in that case CE is long gone. Depending on Foyth's injury he could be out for the CL run anyway if we needed an extra space.

Yep my point was exactly that. Based on the wish lists of others for a number of overseas players we have to shift others out first or have to cover the wages of them until January if not offloaded to europe. Not for this thread but a number of our fans do not seem to have grasped what has to be done to achieve their desires. Its not just about buying.

 

[SpartanSpur]

Yep my point was exactly that. Based on the wish lists of others for a number of overseas players we have to shift others out first or have to cover the wages of them until January if not offloaded to europe. Not for this thread but a number of our fans do not seem to have grasped what has to be done to achieve their desires. Its not just about buying.

If people are still thinking that at this stage I want some of what they are smoking. I think we'll be fine. I'm sure we'll be able to sort something for Wanyama and GKN and sadly it looks like Eriksen is off.

 

[smallsnc]

3 in (Sess, GLC and BF) with 3 out (GKN, VW and CE). Just remember that we do not have to sell CE during our transfer window so he may still be here over the weekend even if we get the 3 in. Think teams in Europe are waiting to go after CE until after the PL transfer deadline as they know they can put the squeeze on Levy if we have signed our targets.

 

[pablo73]

You must be smoking crack if you think Levy will buy GLC & BF while CE is still at the club. It's one or the other at best and quite likely neither.

 

[philll]

Absolutely. It seems hard enough to get Levy to prise open his stupid little leather folding coin purse (you know the sort I mean) at the best of times, there's no way he's going to spend over a hundred million without getting the selling bit done first.

 

[dtxspurs]

3 in (Sess, GLC and BF) with 3 out (GKN, VW and CE). Just remember that we do not have to sell CE during our transfer window so he may still be here over the weekend even if we get the 3 in. Think teams in Europe are waiting to go after CE until after the PL transfer deadline as they know they can put the squeeze on Levy if we have signed our targets.

Levys gonna spend 150mil in 4 days?

 

[Ron Burgundy]

You must be smoking crack if you think Levy will buy GLC & BF while CE is still at the club. It's one or the other at best and quite likely neither.

I am smoking hard core crack and I still don't think it's going to happen

 

[robertgoulet]

Levys gonna spend 150mil in 4 days?

I mean, there's no chance at all that Levy hasn't game planned possible scenarios over the last few weeks.

No chance that all of the deals that I was working on were going to all close on the same day and I was going to have to close all 7mil worth on Jul 26 after not closing anything for the prior 45 days. It happened and I did, because I was ready and had everything lined up in the case that they were ready to pull the trigger.