General Transfer Talk

[esquire8 43,691]

9 minutes ago, Amokachi said:

Is it still John Brown & Neil Murray who we dispatch all over the UK &  Europe re scouting ? 

Brown yes but only domestic for him. Murray no.

Our scouting network is probably the biggest it's ever been.

[The Specky Forum Organiser 66,658]

1 minute ago, 6superbarry6 said:

Do our scouts ever fly beyond Heathrow 

Do you think Liege is in the UK?

[6superbarry6 14,268]

1 minute ago, BlueSuedeSambas said:

How do you know we aren’t?

Everybody is going mental over one post on FF and some early links to player in the press when there’s still a month of the season to go.

Given our history in the transfer market, Beale saying he’s got direct links to majority of the players and the utter muck we are being linked with is it any wonder people are worried. 

[rangersross 6,579]

1 minute ago, AGM_72 said:

This is ultimately why most people wanted Wilson out, and why people had reservations about Beale as manager. 

We spent good money last summer and got absolutely nothing in return. In their manager's first season their best permanent signings fit within the budget we spunked last year on Davies, Matondo and Yilmaz. 

We haven't spent our money well for nearly 3 years now. They spent it well in 21/22 and turned around a 25 point deficit. 

That's the really frustrating thing. Not only have we got a lethargic, underperforming squad, we've also lost millions in transfer fees because Wilson lacked the vision to act when he should have (after 55). At their peak you could conservatively say £13M for Morelos, £10M for Kent, £9M for Kamara, £5M for Barisic, etc. No wonder we're scrabbling for bosmans when we've got those kinds of holes in our wallet.

Spending the budget we do have in the English market just seems naïve to me. Everything's so inflated, we ended up paying ~£4M for Davies, who's been no better than Balogun. 

[6superbarry6 14,268]

1 minute ago, The Specky Non Liar - Sometimes said:

Do you think Liege is in the UK?

If Raskin hadn’t played against us we wouldn’t know he existed. 

[The Specky Forum Organiser 66,658]

2 minutes ago, 6superbarry6 said:

If Raskin hadn’t played against us we wouldn’t know he existed. 

You're embarrassing yourself.

[6superbarry6 14,268]

1 minute ago, rangersross said:

That's the really frustrating thing. Not only have we got a lethargic, underperforming squad, we've also lost millions in transfer fees because Wilson lacked the vision to act when he should have (after 55). At their peak you could conservatively say £13M for Morelos, £10M for Kent, £9M for Kamara, £5M for Barisic, etc. No wonder we're scrabbling for bosmans when we've got those kinds of holes in our wallet.

Spending the budget we do have in the English market just seems naïve to me. Everything's so inflated, we ended up paying ~£4M for Davies, who's been no better than Balogun. 

We have a lazy lethargic board that is the main issue, no new DOF being looked at yet and promoting from within when Robertson went sums them up, we had a chance to get men in who actually know how to run a club yet don’t even hold interviews and appoint a rookie CEO to go with our rookie manager. 

[OrangeRab 3,070]

33 minutes ago, The Specky Non Liar - Sometimes said:

How good are Hearts and Motherwell's signings from there?

Both only signed in January so obviously but early to tell (dont think the Motherwell boy speaks English.)

Hearts fans really liking Oda from what I’ve heard. But only just starting matches now. 

Either way. Bit pathetic if they can do that and we can’t. Given we should have vastly bigger budget and resources. Definitely a market we should be in. And not looking at the championship as our main market.

 

[Prso's headband 35,954]

13 minutes ago, BlueSuedeSambas said:

I wasn’t really talking about that though. I was specifically talking about people who are going on about us targeting and signing “high profile” bosmans.

If the wage ceiling is £30,000 there aren’t many high profile bosmans coming here. 

I think there are decent names out there we probably should’ve enquired about. 

It’s a market we can still utilise at minimal financial risk. Example being spending £4m on Davies and giving him £20 odd grand a week has probably cost us all in £5m this season. We can use our little available cash in critical positions and take punts in less critical areas using the bosman market. 

 

[BlueSuedeSambas 54,620]

This season we have signed players from Greece, Germany, Belgium and Turkey and ITK people are saying our main striking target for next season plays in Italy, but yeah, we only shop in England.

[The Specky Forum Organiser 66,658]

3 minutes ago, 6superbarry6 said:

We have a lazy lethargic board that is the main issue, no new DOF being looked at yet and promoting from within when Robertson went sums them up, we had a chance to get men in who actually know how to run a club yet don’t even hold interviews and appoint a rookie CEO to go with our rookie manager. 

How the fuck do you know we aren't looking at a new one? 

Fucking embarrassment man.

[NI 918]

10 minutes ago, rangersross said:

That's the really frustrating thing. Not only have we got a lethargic, underperforming squad, we've also lost millions in transfer fees because Wilson lacked the vision to act when he should have (after 55). At their peak you could conservatively say £13M for Morelos, £10M for Kent, £9M for Kamara, £5M for Barisic, etc. No wonder we're scrabbling for bosmans when we've got those kinds of holes in our wallet.

Spending the budget we do have in the English market just seems naïve to me. Everything's so inflated, we ended up paying ~£4M for Davies, who's been no better than Balogun. 

That's terrible but true.

[OrangeRab 3,070]

7 minutes ago, BlueSuedeSambas said:

This season we have signed players from Greece, Germany, Belgium and Turkey and ITK people are saying our main striking target for next season plays in Italy, but yeah, we only shop in England.

Over 50% of our signings over the past 3 years have been from England. On top of 5 signings from Belgium.

It’s not “we only shop in England and Belgium”

But we unquestionably have our largest focus on there. And larger than I think is optimal imo. (Unless we are utilising cross border loop holes for eg Bassey and Aribo).

And our main links so far have been 4 championship players. So that’s not suggesting we are looking to change the strategy which has not brought us the success we want

 

[graeme_4 35,378]

1 hour ago, BlueSuedeSambas said:

Guy called Levi Garcia. Plays for AEK Athens. Can right across the front three. 51 goal contributions in 107 games for them.

This is what I mean when folk say we can’t get players who are playing regularly at a decent level.

Doesn't always have to be ‘broken’ EPL / Championship players who’re looking to find their way again. 

[Prso's headband 35,954]

I think fans are right to question links to the English lower leagues. For every Aribo, Bassey and Goldson we’ve got Forester, Bacuna, Simpson, Edmundson, Barker, Dodoo, Ojo and Garner for example. A 3/10 hit rate isn’t good enough and it feels like that’s been our success rate in that market. 
 

We need an 80% success rate in the market this summer to make up for the failures of last summer, January and summer before that. We’ve started well with Raskin and Cantwell. 

[6superbarry6 14,268]

10 minutes ago, BlueSuedeSambas said:

This season we have signed players from Greece, Germany, Belgium and Turkey and ITK people are saying our main striking target for next season plays in Italy, but yeah, we only shop in England.

2 players that played against us and 1 that would have been offered on loan. 

[6superbarry6 14,268]

4 minutes ago, graeme_4 said:

This is what I mean when folk say we can’t get players who are playing regularly at a decent level.

Doesn't always have to be ‘broken’ EPL / Championship players who’re looking to find their way again. 

Which very rarely works, these players are broken for a reason be it a poor mentality or poor injury record filling a squad full of these types is a disaster waiting to happen. 

[chris182 6,369]

9 minutes ago, graeme_4 said:

This is what I mean when folk say we can’t get players who are playing regularly at a decent level.

Doesn't always have to be ‘broken’ EPL / Championship players who’re looking to find their way again. 

So depressing seeing them linked with yet more attacking players, who look to be delivering the goods, when we're looking at QPR players and the likes. Our scouting network needs completely ripped up.

[The Specky Forum Organiser 66,658]

7 minutes ago, graeme_4 said:

This is what I mean when folk say we can’t get players who are playing regularly at a decent level.

Doesn't always have to be ‘broken’ EPL / Championship players who’re looking to find their way again. 

Is the Greek league good? Have they got him? For how much?

[McEwan's Lager 30,895]

I think one of the factors around looking in England a lot is it's much easier to offload a player if things don't work out and they tend to hold decent value compared to a European player that comes to Scotland and flops.

Across the Championship and League 1 there are probably around 30 clubs that could get within the ball park of an ok fee and wages for most English players we want to get rid of.

The upside too is any random English player that comes in and does well for us, especially in Europe, we can punt to a Premier League side for an inflated fee.

[OrangeRab 3,070]

1 minute ago, The Specky Non Liar - Sometimes said:

Is the Greek league good? Have they got him? For how much?

The J1 league 👍

[6superbarry6 14,268]

2 minutes ago, McEwan's Lager said:

I think one of the factors around looking in England a lot is it's much easier to offload a player if things don't work out and they tend to hold decent value compared to a European player that comes to Scotland and flops.

Across the Championship and League 1 there are probably around 30 clubs that could get within the ball park of an ok fee and wages for most English players we want to get rid of.

The upside too is any random English player that comes in and does well for us, especially in Europe, we can punt to a Premier League side for an inflated fee.

Matondo is Welsh does that count 🙏

[graeme_4 35,378]

2 minutes ago, The Specky Non Liar - Sometimes said:

Is the Greek league good? Have they got him? For how much?

No idea, but over the last 24 months they’ve signed a range of players (in our price range) from comparably decent leagues, who’d been starting and contributing regularly for their club and now them.

We seem to be buying the myth that we can only sign players who need to get back on track. 

[TamCoopz 19,605]

58 minutes ago, OrangeRab said:

Lazy is a good word. Especially when we’ve seen the template of good signings in new markets. Hearts and Motherwell have both now made signings from the J1 league yet we seem to be stuck in our Wilson ways.

This is a pretty good article on the difficulties of signing players from Europe post brexit. (One reason we maybe focusing more on the English market).

Also on how cheap the Asian markets are relatively 

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/64416897.amp

Shopping in the j1 league seems quite lazy, just doing it because a few other Scottish teams are doing it

[Loyal72 12,351]

26 minutes ago, The Specky Non Liar - Sometimes said:

You're embarrassing yourself.

No he's not. That's genuinely one of the ways we sign players 😂 Barisic is another example of that.