What next.....are we lacking a european scout?

[Budgie895]

How long was Huddlestone in the Premiership to have played over 200 games? Is that 200 games? Or more? Please be exact

[LazloW]

I do find this constant harping (from some) that we haven't replaced Hughes and Ince a bit tiring.  Firstly, I loved Will Hughes and hope that he goes on to be an absolute superstar, but if people don't think that Tom Huddlestone is 'the replacement' for Hughes then heads need to be examined.  He may not play in the same way, but that might mean we are going to play differently. TH is a former England international with class oozing from every pore.  He is older (wiser?) than Hughes but as repacements go, I don't think we can complain about getting somebody with his CV.

Ince is slightly different. I accept that we haven't bought in the player with a little bit of excitement and spark we might like to see (which might also be different to what we might 'need'... perhaps Gary isn't going for that... perhaps we are looking for something different to Ince in the same way as Tom is different to Will).  But there is still plenty of time to sort this out and I don't necessarily think we're going to be languishing at the bottom of the league because we haven't gone out and blown our wad on anybody who has been mentioned just for the sale of it .... or bought in a panic signing from abroad just to keep the numbers up (and evem if we are, it's unlikely that its because we sold Hughes or Ince).  

 

[Angry Ram]

Heard we have someone in Calais. Does a cheap secondhand car as well.

[rammieib]

9 hours ago, G STAR RAM said:

Are we looking to pay more than £10m for Lawrence?

I thought we did not want to go higher than  £7m?

3.5 to 6 are the figures I have read for the Dutch player.

[rammieib]

4 hours ago, ramblur said:

I'm sure I've also heard him say those markets aren't as productive now,and that you're possibly only giving one half of the story?

Actually,I think he possibly said those markets were more difficult now,and it wasn't as easy to find bargains.

I've not seen that comment anywhere? He bought a couple of players in for Birmingham only two years ago as well from Europe?

I would agree he needs a team around him capable of finding those players. I'm not sure who that is these days.

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, rammieib said:

3.5 to 6 are the figures I have read for the Dutch player.

Their previous transfer record was £5.2m and their own website confirms transfer record broken. 

BBC saying £6m, their local paper saying record obliterated and it's  £10m.

[rammieib]

2 minutes ago, G STAR RAM said:

Their previous transfer record was £5.2m and their own website confirms transfer record broken. 

BBC saying £6m, their local paper saying record obliterated and it's  £10m.

£6m on BBC website but I hate undisclosed fees. Every transfer fee should be disclosed.

If we have a sell on clause for Hughes and he leaves Watford for an undisclosed fee, how do Derby ever know what they should get?

[Guest]

1 minute ago, rammieib said:

£6m on BBC website but I hate undisclosed fees. Every transfer fee should be disclosed.

If we have a sell on clause for Hughes and he leaves Watford for an undisclosed fee, how do Derby ever know what they should get?

Whatever the fee it does seem good for a full Dutch International. 

That being said Chalobah was available for a low fee (although personally don't rate him very highly).

Will be surprised if anyone pays anything like £10m for Lawrence.

[rammieib]

6 minutes ago, G STAR RAM said:

Whatever the fee it does seem good for a full Dutch International. 

That being said Chalobah was available for a low fee (although personally don't rate him very highly).

Will be surprised if anyone pays anything like £10m for Lawrence.

I look at signings such as Bristol City taking Angers top striker for £5m (and yes I know we took Camara from them and that didn't work out) but there must be players in the French, Dutch, Belgium leagues who we could take for £4-£6m and would make a huge difference to us? I am confident we'd be paying the same if not more than them so it's just a case of attracting them to the Championship.

[europia]

Maybe it's actually the realisation that we haven't been able to offload some of the garbage currently in the squad. 

[Waffle]

Can he not just use Fifa career mode if football manager? It worked for Wolves ?

[ramblur]

6 hours ago, rammieib said:

I've not seen that comment anywhere? He bought a couple of players in for Birmingham only two years ago as well from Europe?

I would agree he needs a team around him capable of finding those players. I'm not sure who that is these days.

I'm pretty sure he was alluding to the fact that he'd managed it in the past,but that it was far more difficult to find those sort of players since.Either DET or RD interview some time ago.

[Bris Vegas]

You can definitely find talent abroad, though it helps if you've actually seen the player.

We signed Camara based on his reputation for being a starter in a newly-promoted club doing well, being the fastest player (allegedly) in France and being available for £2mill. 

That was enough info for a naive boss, chief exec or owner to give it the go ahead.

All they had to do was watch a few youtube clips of him to notice his decision-making was terrible, he had poor control and the pace of the French Ligue 1 was nowhere near as physical as the Championship.

Brentford do a decent job when scouting abroad. They use statistics which can be misleading, but more often than not they've come up trumps considering their smaller budget.

I've just noticed Bristol City have brought in a new winger from Scandinavia, with their boss Lee Johnson admiting that he came on their radar via stats first before they decided to watch him. This isn't a bad idea at all.

Surely Derby could do something similar? There are databases which exist with all the relevant information. 

Somebody like Sam Larsson for instance from Heerenveen. He's 24, plays left wing, scored 9 goals and grabbed 11 assists for a midtable Eredivisie side last season. He averaged 2.2 key passes per game (5th best in the league).

Now Brighton have just signed Davy Propper (aged 25) from a more established club in PSV. He averaged 2.3 key passes per game (4th best in the league). If they could get him for £6m, how much do you think Larsson would cost?

Obviously chances are Larsson wouldn't want to move to the Championship. Then again, the Championship these days is probably a better standard than the Eredivisie (minus the top clubs like Ajax, Feyenoord, PSV, Vitesse, Alkmaar). Derby could probably offer him more money too.

I know it sounds daft, but it's not too dissimilar to the way Brentford operate and they've had some success at it. If I was a manager and read such stats from a player in a position we need to strengthen, I'd certainly want to take a closer look at him.

 

[RamNut]

4 hours ago, ramblur said:

I'm pretty sure he was alluding to the fact that he'd managed it in the past,but that it was far more difficult to find those sort of players since.Either DET or RD interview some time ago.

Is it that the players are more difficult to find or that there is more competition for them?

brighton and huddersfield have both recruited well from abroad, newcastle were less successful - possibly because they bought alot of french players (language issues + Generally overrated domestic league?)