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Another very poor transfer window


Ramdoc

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15 minutes ago, RamNut said:

which deals would we agree with?

carson  june 2015 free - i wasn't excited by the signing even though i thought Grant was rubbish. I would probably have gone for bentley but carson has done very well. 

Weale - august 2016 nil - stupid blockhead deal. Its a no from me.

Christie - july 2914 £250k - yes. Spotted him playing for coventry and thought this was a good value deal at the time.

Shackell- july 2015 - £3m - not a good fee for a 32 yr old but i would have done the deal as he seemed certain to solve our defensive frailties, and for one season he did exactly that. Not looking such a great deal now.

Baird - june 2015 free - another player who was a short term 32 yr old - i wouldn't have signed him but i can understand why we did.

Pearce - june 2015 free - why Shackell and Pearce? - i'm sure we thought we were going to be selling keogh. Strange one. If we were keeping keogh and signing shackell, then i wouldn't have signed Pearce, but he was clearly good value for a freebie and shows that there were always better options out there than Albentosa. He's done well so comes into the same catagory as Carson.

Olsson - Jan 2016 £500k - not a player i had ever really noticed. Ok signing but not one i'd have thought of. Ambivalent.

Anya - august 2016 £4m - at 29 years of age? Another stupid blockhead signing. Old players who rely on speed have dodgy hamstrings. 17 starts for watford the previous season? Bad one.

Ince - july 2015 £4.75m - 23 years old - the right age but  i wouldn't have paid that fee at that time. with hindsight transfer fees were rocketting. Still would be a no from me. Maybe he is proving his value now. Hope so.

Johnson - august 2015 £6m - 28 year old at the time. No. Too expensive. Despite reinventing himself as a good holding midfielder i think we signed a dud.

Butterfield - august 2015 £4m - this is another Olsson category signing for me - not a player i knew much about. 25year old at the time. Due to the injuries to hughes and bryson, i might ultimately have been persuaded to pay a million over the odds to sign him. He looked great when he first came. Looks duff now. Hopefully he can come good again and remember we play towards the goal. Journeyman for a reason?

Thorne - july 2014 - £3m - yes yes yes yes yes. Was just a name before the loan. After the loan our entire existence seemed to depend on signing George. Tragic series of severe injuries but its still a yes.

Bent - june 2016 nil - 31 years old at the time. Its a no from me. Huge wages. Doesn't really suit the system. Was never going to be happy as a reserve. No.

Camara - jan 2016 - £1.5m. I can understand our brief foray into europe looking for value, however as i said at the time, this has Mo camara's mits all over it and he has a dreadful track record as a scout. Also the french league isn't really that great. For every payet and mahrez there are a dozen camara's. Its a no from me simply because i wouldn't back mo camara as a scout but i understand why we did.

Blackman - jan 2016 - £3m? - no simply because he hadn't done enough and surely we weren't that desperate. Now he is here i would like him to be given a chance otherwise what was the point?

Vydra - august 2016 - £8m - no. I never rated him previously and that is a huge fee. He doesn't suit our 433 but at the time we were going to scrap that system and that team. Its still a no but actually i like him as a player more than i did. Just not for us in a 433. Another blackman, having signed him he should be given a fair chance.

Nugent - jan 2017 - £2.5m for a 31 year old. No no no. How many times do we make the same mistake. Too old. Isn't likely to suit the system. We already got three strikers in the same catagory. When he played for Preston YES - but not now.

Weimann - july 2015 £2m - same as vydra. Second striker when we don't play 442. Not a bad price. Good age. Obviously someone thought it was worth a gamble and maybe it was. 

 

 

 

How can you categorise Anya as being a bad signing for his injury record yet classify Thorne as a hit when he has an equally if not worse injury record. Thorne may be a better footballer when he plays but given his abysmal availability record that isn't very often. Thorne will be the next Shaun Barker.

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1 hour ago, Ramdoc said:

McClaren has been quoted as saying that further transfer activity is unlikely in this window. We have signed an aging striker who I believe is 32 next birthday and who is injured already and a midfielder who looks like Peter Crouch's small weedy younger brother who Leeds ate for dinner last week.What is going on.Nugent was a super championship striker 3 or 4 years ago but I fear that once again we have signed a player past his best for too much money and given him too long a contract. I am praying De Sart will be good but I fear Reading will gobble him up. We need an overhaul of our scouting network and recruiting.We need to find our own younger gems and  not lazily sign whatever over-priced player is flavour of the month.Does anyone agree with this premise? 

Oh, piss off.

Translation - I seldom agree with hysterical posts, and now is no exception.

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6 minutes ago, Inglorius said:

How can you categorise Anya as being a bad signing for his injury record yet classify Thorne as a hit when he has an equally if not worse injury record. Thorne may be a better footballer when he plays but given his abysmal availability record that isn't very often. Thorne will be the next Shaun Barker.

I mean i would definately have signed thorne at the time and i definately wouldn't have signed anya for that fee.

no-one could predict the injuries to george. Its still a yes because he's still young enough to come back from them and still be a great player for us. Fingers crossed.

i agree we need to find a second player for that position. 

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8 minutes ago, eddie said:

Oh, piss off.

Translation - I seldom agree with hysterical posts, and now is no exception.

 

Just settle back into the warm bath of mid-table respectability. It's a nice place.

I have. I am just glad we aren't in the same place as when SM took over.

Still think we will make the play offs, but am being very glass-half-full (of Cameron Diaz's sweat).

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12 minutes ago, 86 points said:

January window is always tough. Because of the timing, lots of clubs with a chance of making the play offs are vying for the same limited pool of players, prices tend to be inflated in what is a seller's market and teams succumb to fan pressure on occasion and buy players they might not have in the off-season. 

It's a shame Nugent is injured but I think he may prove good business. People keep talking about his age but Brighton's Murray is 33 and he seems to be doing OK. 

As for De Sart, I'm amazed people are writing him off after a only two games. He was excellent against Premiership opposition and as for the Leeds game, did any of ours really perform with the possible exception of Ince?

As for Mac's comments, let's wait until the end of the window before making judgement. If we are in for an extra player or too it would be daft for us to braodcast the fact to all and sundry right now as the OP seems to suggest the club ought to.

I presume it's just the t.v fans writing him off because anyone who went to WBA could clearly see he looks a class act in the making . 

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De Sart is worth a look.

he's the right age. He was highly rated in belgium, and he could be available for the right fee. It was a strange move for him to go to boro.

Looking forward to seeing him play. Based on tv evidence i'm not sure that he was the problem at Leeds.

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5 minutes ago, RamNut said:

I mean i would definately have signed thorne at the time and i definately wouldn't have signed anya for that fee.

no-one could predict the injuries to george. Its still a yes because he's still young enough to come back from them and still be a great player for us. Fingers crossed.

i agree we need to find a second player for that position. 

I hope so too my gut feel is that he's damaged goods but would love to be proved wrong.

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1 minute ago, Inglorius said:

I hope so too my gut feel is that he's damaged goods but would love to be proved wrong.

I have that same fear. But we absolutely had to sign him and i would have paid more if necessary.

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18 minutes ago, eddie said:

Oh, piss off.

Translation - I seldom agree with hysterical posts, and now is no exception.

Nicely encapsulates my own feelings on this and many other posts.

Not sure if I'm imagining it, but there seems to have been a recent influx of new posters with, shall we say, extreme(ly negative) views.

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A good window. We don't need to keep signing average players. We need to wait til good ones come along. If we can ship a few out in summer and sign one or two quality players I think we'll do well. Add to this lowe, rawson, guy, vernam and Hanson that Might make decent back up players. 

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3 hours ago, Ramdoc said:

McClaren has been quoted as saying that further transfer activity is unlikely in this window. We have signed an aging striker who I believe is 32 next birthday and who is injured already and a midfielder who looks like Peter Crouch's small weedy younger brother who Leeds ate for dinner last week.What is going on.Nugent was a super championship striker 3 or 4 years ago but I fear that once again we have signed a player past his best for too much money and given him too long a contract. I am praying De Sart will be good but I fear Reading will gobble him up. We need an overhaul of our scouting network and recruiting.We need to find our own younger gems and  not lazily sign whatever over-priced player is flavour of the month.Does anyone agree with this premise? 

Despite other comments. Welcome mate 

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The club can't win.

Spend big, fans complain. Spend nothing, fans complain.

For what my opinion's worth, I get the feeling we are keeping our powder dry for the summer. Players always have an inflated value in the winter window as clubs panic, making it very much a sellers' market.

Our recruitment has been poor, but I pin this down to the revolving door we've had just recently. It's not right to judge the recruitment team based on what we have currently when they've been buying what the manager wants, when the incumbents have lasted about 8 months on average.

As a result, we have about 3 managers' worth of systems to cater for. Small blessing is that one of those is also the current manager.

That sort of thing doesn't sort itself in one window. What needs to happen is that Mac stays and builds a team over 2 or 3 windows, with a spine of Carson, Keogh, Pearce, Hughes, Ince (Thorne and Martin, if they ever return from their respective situations). The core is there.

Give it time. 

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which deals would we agree with?

carson  june 2015 free - best goalkeeper we've had since Poom. Easily one of our best signings of recent years. Fantastic he's signed a new deal this window. 

Weale - august 2016 nil - Pearson needed a familiar face, good goalkeeper for Yeovil. Minimal risk. No need to be critical of this one. 

Christie - july 2914 £250k - yes. He's arguably worth more than ten times than that now. Excruciating at times, doesn't combine well with Ince, but how many games has he been our main outlet? Like Carson, one of McClaren's best signings. Will be great to have him back. 

Shackell- july 2015 - £3m - massive statement of intent at the time. Was one of our best players last season, but smacks of promotion at any cost type of signing. His wages and transfer fee will only be justified if he helps us get promoted.  


Baird - june 2015 free - Looks a steal at the moment. He's proving himself to be invaluable. Great that he's turned his career here around. 

Pearce - june 2015 free - looks fantastic now. He's easily the success story of the season. And again, another free! 


Olsson - Jan 2016 £500k - hasn't peaked to the same levels he did at Blackburn, where he won the player of the year. But his winner against Forest was worth the transfer fee alone. Still could prove to be a very astute signing. 

Anya - august 2016 £4m - looked like our biggest threat under Pearce. Started well. Has since proved his versatility by filling in at leftback. But the injuries are a concern. The price tag's a bit hefty, but has the ability to make that left wing slot his own. 

Ince - july 2015 £4.75m - I thought Hull had out pants down at first, but how much is Ince worth now? 8 million wouldn't sign his right foot. Each time he's attacking a fullback he's making something happen. 4.75 million looks a snip. 

Johnson - august 2015 £6m - has been really hit and miss. But has done well to reinvent himself as a defensive midfielder. Has been immense at times, and he needs to keep it up. But for a 15 goal championship midfielder, we paid the going rate. Mixed. 


Butterfield - august 2015 £4m - has stacks of potential, but needs to be a lot more positive with the ball. Doesn't really look like he's enjoying his football. He needs to step it up a lot to justify that he's a good signing. We really need him to be more of a goal threat. A player of his talents should be on five goals by now. Summat doesn't look quite right. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but hasn't looked the same since the ridiculous stories that came up about him in the tabloids a few months back. 


Thorne - july 2014 - £3m - not just undoubted Premiership class, but higher echelon Premiership class. But his value as a signing will only prove to be a success if he can overcome yet another injury setback. 

Bent - june 2016 nil - massive luxury signing, in which we haven't made the most of. But his goal against Wolves was the best scored by any Ram since Wanchope. Really suffering from a lack of service from wide areas at the minute. The fact that we have a member of the PL 100 club in our team on such a small amount of goals tell you everything about our season. 

Camara - jan 2016 - £1.5m. Looks a real threat at times and really flatters to device the next. Would be interesting to see how he gets on with a run of games. But should we decide to sell, we should easily break even. 


Blackman - jan 2016 - £3m? - Has looked hapless when given the chance so far. But saying that, it's clear to see that with his pace, athleticism, first touch that he could bring something to the table. We'll never know until he's given a run of games. So far, he's definitely Nathan Tyson mk II. 

Vydra - august 2016 - £8m. An infuriating situation so far. Has undoubted talents but just looks woefully low on confidence. Was signed to play as part of a front two, and that isn't how he's deployed. Class players should adapt, but so far it's not happening. Would love to see how he'd play with Martin. But at the moment the Vydra signing looks like a costly mistake. But alas, all could change with a goal or two. We can only hope. 

Nugent - jan 2017 - £2.5m. I actually really like this signing. When the likes of Hogan and Kodjia are going for 15 million, then this is the market we're in. If you read any of the Boro comments on his time there, then this signing could be prove to be very shrewd. 

Weimann - july 2015 £2m - was really excited about this signing at the time. Think he'll really find his feet at Wolves under Lambert. If his loan goes well then we can hopefully not just recoup the fee but even make a bit of a profit. 

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