Summer transfer budget

[G STAR RAM]

49 minutes ago, Seth's left foot said:

The more players he moves on, the more money he will generate to sign his own players. That's obvious no?

Only if he's been told that is what he can do 

[DazzaRam]

Wages will be a massive problem moving players on. Simple as that. We can all say "he needs to go" but clubs have to be willing to pay wages. Whos gonna move for less money???

 

[JuanFloEvraTheCocu'sNesta]

16 hours ago, toddy said:

Selling Martin for 6 million minimum 

Selling Ince for 10 million

Possibly Hughes for 12 million 

Selling Weimann for 1.5 million

That should give GR a few quid to bring in a few younger hungry  players that he thinks will do a job for us.

Why would we sell both Hughes and Ince by choice? We should do whatever we can to keep at least one of the two of them given that they are our best players.

[Kennington Ram]

3 hours ago, sage said:

I think the budget available will be broadly neutral overall. 

He will want to reduce the wage bill but as we are within FFP this should be available for fees.

If we raise £5m in sales and reduce net wages by say £3m then he should have £8m available for fees. 

This may mean signing the best lower league young players. For instance signing Watkins to replace Weimann if he is sold to Wolves may need a similar or higher fee but should mean lower wages. 

Personally i would release Bent, Christie and Rawson and TRY to sell or loan Weimann, Camara, Blackman, Johnson, Vydra, Olsson and Pearce or Shackell.

To some extent who we manage to sell will dictate who we buy or loan.

The quality of any loan players we bring in may decide our season. Abraham and Fosu Mensah on one hand or Leon Best on the other. 

Why would we release Rawson and not look to get value? Even at worst he's going to worth a few £100,000, and as a youth player that would be accounted for as money for free. I doubt as a youth grad his salary is huge either. I expect he will go out on loan, hopefully to a club that's not in freefall this time.

[toddy]

1 hour ago, JuanFloEvraTheCocu'sNesta said:

Why would we sell both Hughes and Ince by choice? We should do whatever we can to keep at least one of the two of them given that they are our best players.

Ince for cash and rebuilding the team and Hughes because it would benefit his career - as good as he is, he will only get better with 1st class players around him.

Will Hughes deserves to be playing in the premiership.

[sage]

1 hour ago, Kennington Ram said:

Why would we release Rawson and not look to get value? Even at worst he's going to worth a few £100,000, and as a youth player that would be accounted for as money for free. I doubt as a youth grad his salary is huge either. I expect he will go out on loan, hopefully to a club that's not in freefall this time.

AS far as I am aware he is out of contract in the summer and doesn't wish to remain. 

[Leicester Ram]

This post got really long, so if you don't want to read it all, I'd summarise the point as:

The person who's third choice to play a position shouldn't be paid anywhere near as well as the person who's first choice to play the position. Don't have someone like Bent/Vydra as third choice ST when you can have Zanzala.

Disclaimer: I'm largely guessing what sort of wages players earn but it's not me at times he accurate. It's more assuming that someone like Camara is paid well rather than Camara earns 20K a week to Ince's 25K a week. Who cares anyway.

Keep the core of the squad together: Ince, Martin, Hughes, Vydra, Thorne, Johnson, Nugent, Keogh, Forsyth and Carson. Those are the genuinely tested, quality players on our books, the ones you can build around with loans, players from lower leagues and academy products. Your bench doesn't need to consist of entirely championship starters.

The money we could save from players leaving and building our squad differently could make us financially viable to compete each year without spunking cash up the wall.

For me, this summer is about shifting out the deadweight; why are we paying players like Olsson, Camara, Weimann, Blackman, Butterfield, Christie, Shackell and Bent wages that are most likely more appropriate for guaranteed starters in most championship teams when they only play bit parts in our team?

In each position group, I'd like to see us have a couple of A grade options, backed up by versatile players in the squad (Anya, Baird, Bryson) who can provide a B grade option in multiple positions and a young C grade option behind them.

When I refer to grades, it has more to do with their alleged wage packet than my own opinion of their skill, for example I suspect Nick Blackman's wages would make him an A grade.

I'll start off by assessing what I believe is our current least cost effective position group in recent years, our wingers. This is not want we should want our squad to look like.

Our wingers have looked like this for about two years

Ince- A

Russell- A

Anya- A

Weimann- A

Blackman- A

Camara- A

I can imagine all of these players are fairly well paid for a championship starter, let alone a bench player. I'd like to cut our three of those and go with something more streamlined. This seems even more ridiculous when you consider we've only really used 3 of those wingers regularly this year and it's an easy position to cover. Wouldn't be the end of the world if you stick Vydra on the wing in the same way it would be the end of the world if you stuck Anya up front.

The position I think is the best example of how our squad should be put together is ST.

Right now, the impression I get is that we will go into next season with two trustworthy, high end Championship ST's in Nugent and Martin. They are A graded players in that position. Then there's Vydra, who is another senior player who looks like he'll be playing as a 10 behind one of them, but can cover ST too. He is a B graded player in that position (but an A grade as a CAM).

Instead of adding another ST on a permanent contract, I'd like to see us use Zanzala/Bennett as depth, players I'd consider C grades in that position. For arguments sake, let's use Zanzala, who's less likely to move on than Bennett.

So our depth chart would look like this.

Striker:

Martin- A

Nugent- A

(Vydra- B)

Zanzala- C

I think that would turn out as fairly cost effective, particularly this season when you look at our depth which has been something like 4 A's in every position group. In fact, while we were playing 4-3-3 our ST's were basically 3 A's.

I'll have a quick look at CAM too

Let's say we keep Hughes and Vydra, I'd rate them both as A grade CAM's, but different types of players (similarly to Nugent and Martin).

You can then say they're backed up by Bryson (who I don't think we'll be able to shift on his wages but is worth keeping around as a positive character and versatile player) who is a B grade in the position.

I'd then be tempted to categorise Vernam as our C grade option in that position, so we'd look like

Vydra- A

Hughes- A

(Bryson- B)

Vernam- C

And that's ignoring that Martin/Ince/Nugent could all do a job there and that Hughes could equally be considered an A grade at DM too.

In conclusion, if we trim the squad effectively, I'm not worried about our budget in the slightest. I haven't really talked about incomings much, but I'd like to see us make one or two quality signings then pad out the rest of the squad wth loans and academy players. 

Also, **** changing your manager at least twice a season and recruiting like a schizophrenic.

 

[Kennington Ram]

57 minutes ago, sage said:

AS far as I am aware he is out of contract in the summer and doesn't wish to remain. 

Gotcha. Seems a shame, should have sold him last season if that was the case.

[sage]

45 minutes ago, Kennington Ram said:

Gotcha. Seems a shame, should have sold him last season if that was the case.

That would entail someone making a bid for him.

I've watched him play 6 or 7 times and IMO he is a way off championship standard. 

[metalsheep02]

5 minutes ago, sage said:

That would entail someone making a bid for him.

I've watched him play 6 or 7 times and IMO he is a way off championship standard. 

Coventry fans seem to think he is way off league 1 standard.

[TheresOnlyWanChope]

3 hours ago, JuanFloEvraTheCocu'sNesta said:

Why would we sell both Hughes and Ince by choice? We should do whatever we can to keep at least one of the two of them given that they are our best players.

I feel we Ince Hughes and Martin, it would be a massive backwards step

[Hathersage Ram]

3 hours ago, JuanFloEvraTheCocu'sNesta said:

Why would we sell both Hughes and Ince by choice? We should do whatever we can to keep at least one of the two of them given that they are our best players.

How anyone can be under the delusion that Hughes is one of our best players defies belief.

He is neither strong enough, scores enough, picks a pass enough, good enough in the air, yes he is tenacious but easily shrugged aside, prey tell me what he excels at.......................... if anyone offered above 6 million for him I would be astonished.................and snap their hand off. He has very occasional patches of good play, but honestly he is never consistent in a game never mind a season.

Just my observations of course

[Kennington Ram]

36 minutes ago, metalsheep02 said:

Coventry fans seem to think he is way off league 1 standard.

Their whole club is in freefall though. He played well for Rotherham when he was loaned there. I think he'll come reasonably good - maybe not Championship promotion good - at some point and I think plenty of clubs will fancy the gamble for free.

[EnigmaRam]

36 minutes ago, Hathersage Ram said:

How anyone can be under the delusion that Hughes is one of our best players defies belief.

He is neither strong enough, scores enough, picks a pass enough, good enough in the air, yes he is tenacious but easily shrugged aside, prey tell me what he excels at.......................... if anyone offered above 6 million for him I would be astonished.................and snap their hand off. He has very occasional patches of good play, but honestly he is never consistent in a game never mind a season.

Just my observations of course

You should go to spec savers and lay off the drugs. Just say no!

[TheresOnlyWanChope]

5 hours ago, Hathersage Ram said:

How anyone can be under the delusion that Hughes is one of our best players defies belief.

He is neither strong enough, scores enough, picks a pass enough, good enough in the air, yes he is tenacious but easily shrugged aside, prey tell me what he excels at.......................... if anyone offered above 6 million for him I would be astonished.................and snap their hand off. He has very occasional patches of good play, but honestly he is never consistent in a game never mind a season.

Just my observations of course

Wow , never heard this opinion and everyone is entitled to one but seriously?

how many times does Hughes get dispossessed ? He doesn't- they kick him or push him and it's a free kick or he just keeps the ball, opposition don't get near. He hasn't been as consistent this season but no player has. He has terrific vision, very intelligent on the ball and his ball retention is very good. I remember a match earlier this season he gave the ball away twice- it's unheard of for him to do that but players likeChristie and Johnson do it several times a match. 

Selling Hughes would be awful. We missed him last season and we have missed Thorne this season. 

 

[DEL]

6 hours ago, Hathersage Ram said:

How anyone can be under the delusion that Hughes is one of our best players defies belief.

He is neither strong enough, scores enough, picks a pass enough, good enough in the air, yes he is tenacious but easily shrugged aside, prey tell me what he excels at.......................... if anyone offered above 6 million for him I would be astonished.................and snap their hand off. He has very occasional patches of good play, but honestly he is never consistent in a game never mind a season.

Just my observations of course

Can't believe what I just read (your post) unbelievable. 

[ram1964]

As far as i am concerned no one player is too good to sell,if it brings cohesion and better unity on the pitch.No one particular player has had a good season and the hardest player to replace for quality and consistency would be Carson. Good riddance to who ever GR decides to get rid of in my opinion and lets hope if GR gets shown the door its due to his own failings,rather than the sloppy gross inadequacy of the players. Hope they read this,as this has been the most disapointing season for a very long time. I know weve had bad times but never have expectations been so high and inconsistencies so high.

[Hathersage Ram]

It really is quite amusing how many supporters have in my opinion a blinkered perception of Will Hughes.

To become a premiership footballer he needs to mature physically, his range of passing needs to improve, and more importantly he needs to become a threat going forward, some heading ability wouldn't go amiss too.

I am not saying he is a bad player, I am just saying he is at the level he is playing at, he shows promise, but we have been saying that for years.

I would love to know if we have received any serious offers over the past 3 years

Again, football is based on opinions, and the above is mine

 

[Papahet]

I think we'll get around ten million if Hughes was to be sold, about the same price Bournemouth brought Lewis Cook for. 6 million fee with massive addons.

Cook was a decent player at this level but has hardly set the Prem alight. I don't think him and Hughes are that far apart in terms of quality, Cook is a few years younger too.

Anything over ten million and i'd be surprised

[EnigmaRam]

27 minutes ago, Hathersage Ram said:

It really is quite amusing how many supporters have in my opinion a blinkered perception of Will Hughes.

To become a premiership footballer he needs to mature physically, his range of passing needs to improve, and more importantly he needs to become a threat going forward, some heading ability wouldn't go amiss too.

I am not saying he is a bad player, I am just saying he is at the level he is playing at, he shows promise, but we have been saying that for years.

I would love to know if we have received any serious offers over the past 3 years

Again, football is based on opinions, and the above is mine

 

And your entitled to it. In my opinion it's ridiculous, after all that Messi fella needs to grow anoth 12 inches, can't head for toffee. Kante too, a right little urchin, can't score in a million years, too small, not a hulking mass

like you say all opinions