Stefan Teitur Thordarsson - signed for Preston

[Ramslad1992]

33 minutes ago, Millenniumram said:

Doesn’t sound very competitive then, especially with the 3m we just received for Kellyman

Luton got promoted with a net spend of £1.7m. We’ve proven before it doesn’t matter how much we spend. You can be competitive with a smaller budget if you’re sensible with it. 
 

If we’ve set a price we are willing to pay for this bloke and someone is willing to pay more then I’m not worried we’ve missed out, if he’s gone somewhere else that has offered more money a week then good luck to him, I’d rather have players here who want to be part of it rather than the pay cheque.

We will have plan b,c,d etc 👍

[Millenniumram]

6 minutes ago, Ramslad1992 said:

Luton got promoted with a net spend of £1.7m. We’ve proven before it doesn’t matter how much we spend. You can be competitive with a smaller budget if you’re sensible with it. 
 

If we’ve set a price we are willing to pay for this bloke and someone is willing to pay more then I’m not worried we’ve missed out, if he’s gone somewhere else that has offered more money a week then good luck to him, I’d rather have players here who want to be part of it rather than the pay cheque.

We will have plan b,c,d etc 👍

Luton were a HUGE anomaly though, it’s very rare a team goes up without investing a significant amount these days. Brentford maybe the only other example. Common dominator between those two is exceptional managers in Edwards and Frank. Warne isn’t anywhere near that league, all due respect.

That said of course, our aim isn’t promotion so it’s not necessarily a valid comparison. I’m certainly not wanting to spend wildly like we did under Mel and end up in financial difficulties, no one wants that. But a competitive budget in this league has to be a few million you’d think, bolstered further by the Kellyman money. There’s no way this deal should be unaffordable for us, and in my view the fee is more than fair. I’m concerned we will regret this decision, like we did with Watkins.

FWIW, he may be absolutely crap, I know very little about him, so I hope you’re right that we have better options lined up. It’s just concerning to miss out on a player who was clearly a key target ahead of the window.
 

 

[DarkFruitsRam7]

10 hours ago, i-Ram said:

Nah. 25 year old pro, especially from overseas, will be more interested in pay/position, being near to friends, and where his family might best settle. Stadium and crowd very low down I would have thought. Nice ground Loftus Road by the way for atmosphere; proper old school sound, being close to fans.

The manager is supposed to be very good too. They absolutely love him, and I'd imagine they're expecting to do much better this season. Smart players will choose their clubs carefully.

Edited July 7 by DarkFruitsRam7

[jono]

10 minutes ago, Millenniumram said:

I think the actual fee is closer to that £500k from what I hear…

On your analogy, if all other quotes to get my drive done to a similar standard were £20k, I’d pay the 8 grand. I think that’s what we will see here, that similar quality players will cost us 7 figures.

I’m not sure what you mean, his quality is open to debate … From my pov I can see that the best / high ranked players may well run to 7 figures but if we’ve seen 500k player who represents an opportunity and fills a hole that’s ok .. but if that turns into 800k maybe, we just see that individual as over priced. .. In other words we want a can of beans but we won’t  be paying restaurant prices for them. I’d applaud that attitude. It isn’t about desire or ambition or even available funds. It’s just is this individual player worth that money .

[ramit]

8 hours ago, Ramslad1992 said:

Luton got promoted with a net spend of £1.7m. We’ve proven before it doesn’t matter how much we spend. You can be competitive with a smaller budget if you’re sensible with it. 
 

If we’ve set a price we are willing to pay for this bloke and someone is willing to pay more then I’m not worried we’ve missed out, if he’s gone somewhere else that has offered more money a week then good luck to him, I’d rather have players here who want to be part of it rather than the pay cheque.

We will have plan b,c,d etc 👍

Grudgingly I concur

[AmberRamber]

Here we go again.......

We signed two players who have been involved in promotion from the championship and by all accounts their signatures have been received with a lot of almost disappointment which is staggering.

Not to mention the fact that they have cost nothing!

It looks like we have missed out on a "key" target who ,until the news broke of our interest, NOT ONE Derby county fan had ever heard of .

Will say this until it's starts to register .....we have just achieved a promotion without spending a single fee .

Squad built with free transfers with a good smattering of academy players playing significant roles as well as loans.

If we are to be clever in our approach then the last thing we will do is get involved in bidding wars or ridiculous contracts.

Wildsmith and Sibley are testament to that.

Offered what the club felt were fair deals which they chose to turn down.

If this Norwegian lad becomes a superstar then all the nay sayers can point to yet "another Warne failure"

Until that happens, if it happens, let's have faith in the board and the strategy in place.

If we sign kenzo and he turns out to be a complete sack of fertiliser no doubt the axes will be out saying our recruitment is tosh.

Feels like the B stand wrist slashers are still alive and kicking.

There is a solid plan in place with new signings and it doesn't look as though we will not deviate from it.

The days of blowing vast sums of money are done thankfully.

The money coming from Kellyman will be spent wisely on top of whatever else we have in terms of budget and won't be thrown around like some kind of unforseen bonus that can be blown frivolously

As fans of our great historic club PLEASE sit tight and let this pre season play out in full.

Let the squad get built and the team tactics become more apparent before we condemned signings or , strangely, missing out on unheard of players.

Signed three....linked to lots more.......including what looks to be a skilful dutchman.......not a bad start 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 7 by AmberRamber
Grammar

[mwram1973]

28 minutes ago, Millenniumram said:

Luton were a HUGE anomaly though, it’s very rare a team goes up without investing a significant amount these days. Brentford maybe the only other example. Common dominator between those two is exceptional managers in Edwards and Frank. Warne isn’t anywhere near that league, all due respect.

That said of course, our aim isn’t promotion so it’s not necessarily a valid comparison. I’m certainly not wanting to spend wildly like we did under Mel and end up in financial difficulties, no one wants that. But a competitive budget in this league has to be a few million you’d think, bolstered further by the Kellyman money. There’s no way this deal should be unaffordable for us, and in my view the fee is more than fair. I’m concerned we will regret this decision, like we did with Watkins.

FWIW, he may be absolutely crap, I know very little about him, so I hope you’re right that we have better options lined up. It’s just concerning to miss out on a player who was clearly a key target ahead of the window.
 

 

Ipswich?

[Ambitious]

The cost of a signing isn’t the important part, most football club owners see them as an investment rather than depreciating assets. Wages are more of a consideration as it’s billed into the club’s running then you take into account that the cost of any player is obviously very subjective. When shopping within your desired price point, it doesn’t ultimately mean that every player that falls within it becomes an ideal investment, especially when signing players from overseas as you weigh up the risk/reward.

The biggest mistake that Mel Morris made was wasn’t projecting signings as assets, players were signed as proven Championship performers at peak ages. He then signed them to very much proven Championship money that even if they had been a success then there wasn’t much possibility of moving on because the Premier League clubs are interested in older, Championship performers - especially on good money. They would rather roll the dice with a younger player or shop abroad. 

The fee isn’t a great deal, if we’re being honest, but the club have obviously watched him and drawn their line in the sand. I have no problem with that, nor do I think it’s anything to do with limited budgets. It may have even been that the additional championship clubs coming in for him raised the requested wages beyond what we wanted to pay - I’m fairly sure that SECornerRams indicated a fee was agreed anyway (albeit not disclosed by the Danish Journalist) but who knows. 

Every player is a gamble, therefore the club have to work methodically and be sure the ones they’re taking leave the least amount of risk. 

[TomTom92]

Let’s face it the only reason why Derby fans are upset is because an Icelandic midfielder is exotic for our standards. That plus PNE aren’t bigger than us so Derby fans have taken it as a personal attack. 
 
They can offer more wages and that’s just the way it is. Hopefully we have a couple more foreign gems lined up.

[Ambitious]

1 minute ago, TomTom92 said:

Let’s face it the only reason why Derby fans are upset is because an Icelandic midfielder is exotic for our standards. That plus PNE aren’t bigger than us so Derby fans have taken it as a personal attack. 
 
They can offer more wages and that’s just the way it is. Hopefully we have a couple more foreign gems lined up.

I could be wrong, but when the 24/25 accounts are released in 2026 then I would be very surprised if their wage bill is higher than ours. 

The latest released accounts: 

Preston 22/23 - turnover: £15.5m & wages: £21.5m over 134 staff (85 football related). 
Derby 22/23 - turnover: £20.4m & wages: £17.2m over 177 staff (59 playing staff - presumably doesn't account for coaches, like Preston). 

It was our first season in League One, I would assume last season it would be close and going into this season that we will be fairly significantly higher once we're finished in the window. We will probably be close to double the turnover too (in fairness). 

[MackworthRamIsGod]

9 minutes ago, TomTom92 said:

Let’s face it the only reason why Derby fans are upset is because an Icelandic midfielder is exotic for our standards. That plus PNE aren’t bigger than us so Derby fans have taken it as a personal attack. 
 
They can offer more wages and that’s just the way it is. Hopefully we have a couple more foreign gems lined up.

There's also the fact he plays for Silkeborg and fans are wanting us to sign Lind, who also plays for Silkeborg, it would have been nice to get both.

Also there's nothing wrong with getting signings in nice and early.

[Abu Derby]

I expect now that we’ll turn to number two. 

[ramit]

9 hours ago, AmberRamber said:

If this Norwegian lad becomes a superstar then all the nay sayers can point to yet "another Warne failure"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ICELANDER

[Rich84]

2 hours ago, Millenniumram said:

Luton were a HUGE anomaly though, it’s very rare a team goes up without investing a significant amount these days. Brentford maybe the only other example. Common dominator between those two is exceptional managers in Edwards and Frank. Warne isn’t anywhere near that league, all due respect.

 

 

 

Agree with the assessment on Frank, but what basis do you rate Edwards as an exceptional manager?

Just over a half season at championship level with a team Nathan Jones built and had them on edge of PO positions when Southampton poached him, or his 1 full season getting Luton relegated, albeit with the smallest budget in the league (a defence which also applies to Warne).

Prior to getting the Luton gig he lasted 11 games at Watford......

[Ambitious]

6 minutes ago, Rich84 said:

Agree with the assessment on Frank, but what basis do you rate Edwards as an exceptional manager?

Just over a half season at championship level with a team Nathan Jones built and had them on edge of PO positions when Southampton poached him, or his 1 full season getting Luton relegated, albeit with the smallest budget in the league (a defence which also applies to Warne).

Prior to getting the Luton gig he lasted 11 games at Watford......

He did really well at Forest Green, but similar situation as it was Mark Cooper who seemed to get their best players through the door and he got the best out of them. 

[Millenniumram]

2 hours ago, mwram1973 said:

Ipswich?

Fair point, forgot about them - though they did spend a hell of a lot of money in League One. I’d peg them in the same bracket as the other two - Kieron McKenna is an Exceptional manager.

[Millenniumram]

2 hours ago, jono said:

I’m not sure what you mean, his quality is open to debate … From my pov I can see that the best / high ranked players may well run to 7 figures but if we’ve seen 500k player who represents an opportunity and fills a hole that’s ok .. but if that turns into 800k maybe, we just see that individual as over priced. .. In other words we want a can of beans but we won’t  be paying restaurant prices for them. I’d applaud that attitude. It isn’t about desire or ambition or even available funds. It’s just is this individual player worth that money .

Yeah I’m not pretending to know how good he is, none of us do. But you can normally make a fairly decent guess at how valuable a player is based on their pedigree. And like I say, he looks to have a strong pedigree based on his international caps and Danish top flight appearances - enough for any deal less than a million to look pretty cheap imo.

Im all for us not getting held to ransom over players - I said similar when there were rumours of Cardiff wanting over a million for Adams. Sometimes you have to move on. But in this case I think the fee is more than fair, and it’s worrying that we’re not willing to spend that much given the effort we put into scouting him. That’s my point, that in this case we aren’t being held to random and will regret not meeting their demands.

[rynny]

4 minutes ago, Millenniumram said:

Yeah I’m not pretending to know how good he is, none of us do. But you can normally make a fairly decent guess at how valuable a player is based on their pedigree. And like I say, he looks to have a strong pedigree based on his international caps and Danish top flight appearances - enough for any deal less than a million to look pretty cheap imo.

Im all for us not getting held to ransom over players - I said similar when there were rumours of Cardiff wanting over a million for Adams. Sometimes you have to move on. But in this case I think the fee is more than fair, and it’s worrying that we’re not willing to spend that much given the effort we put into scouting him. That’s my point, that in this case we aren’t being held to random and will regret not meeting their demands.

It could be that the wages he wants is more than we are willing to pay, maybe the contract wanted isn't what we want to give. It could a number of things, bit necessarily how much the transfer fee is. It could be something as simple as he wants to be close(ish) to Manchester/Liverpool.

[Millenniumram]

6 minutes ago, rynny said:

It could be that the wages he wants is more than we are willing to pay, maybe the contract wanted isn't what we want to give. It could a number of things, bit necessarily how much the transfer fee is. It could be something as simple as he wants to be close(ish) to Manchester/Liverpool.

Perhaps, but I’d be surprised if he’s on a huge amount currently. Couldn’t see him coming here and demanding £20k a week for 6 years, for example. But maybe I’m wrong.

The second point though… does he really love rain that much? 😂

[Ambitious]

I thought I would do a little dig and see what Silkeborg fans thought of Thordarsson and it's not exactly despair they're losing him - of their 'top' players he was the one they wanted to sell to raise funds. He's been played as a 10 and has struggled - they seem to like him more as an 8 who plays a bit deeper and he has good physicality. 

From the other players worth noting:

Klynge, Lund & Busch seem to get the majority of the positive comments, in terms of technical ability I would probably look there. The best player is Oliver Sonne, although he's become a bit of target as he's apparently dropped off last season. 

Interestingly enough, in the 22/23 season they had him rated as their worst player who had played more than half the games. 

Edited July 7 by Ambitious